Clo. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you; you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service: you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet.

SCENE III.-The Same.

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, and Officers.1

[Exeunt.

Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to th' world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,

But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, authority,
Make us pay down for our offence by weight.—
The words of heaven;2-on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so: yet still 't is just.

Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen.3

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scape by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin' down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors. And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio?

Claud. What but to speak of would offend again.
Lucio. What is it? murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

1 Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers; LUCIO and two Gentlemen in f. e. 2 An allusion to St. Paul's Ep. to Romans ix: 15. 3 Not in f. e. 4 Greedily devour

Prov. Away, sir! you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend.—Lucio, a word with

you.

[Takes him aside. Lucio. A hundred, if they'll do you any good.-Is lechery so look'd after?

Claud. Thus stands it with me:-Upon a true contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed:

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the pronunciation1 lack
Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for procuration of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends,

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment
With character too gross is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,-
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,
Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;
Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I stagger in;-but this new governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall
So long, that nineteen zodiacks have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me :-'t is surely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant it is; and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service.
This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation:
Acquaint her with the danger of my state;

1 denunciation in f. e. 2 propagation in f. e.

Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself essay him:
I have great hope in that; for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men: beside, she hath prosperous art,
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And she can well persuade.

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of ticktack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours.

Claud.

Come, officer; away! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV-A Monastery.

Enter Duke, and Friar THOMAS.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought: Believe not that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee
To give me secret harbour hath a purpose

More grave and wrinkled, than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri.

May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you

How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence)

My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd. Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?

Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs to head-strong steeds3) Which for this fourteen years we have let sleep'; Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: now, as fond fathers,

1 Tric-trac. 2 weeds: in f. e. 3 Old Eds. and Knight: slip. Theobald suggested the change also

Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch
Only to stick it in their children's sight,

For terror, not to use, in time the rod' si

More mock'd than feared; so our most just decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart

Goes all decorum.

Fri.

It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd;
And it in you more dreadful would have seem`d,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke.

I fear, too dreadful:

Sith 't was my fault to give the people scope,
'T would be my tyranny to strike and gall them
For what I bid them do: for we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,

And not due punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office,

Who may, in th' ambush of my name, strike home,
And yet my nature never in the sight,”

To draw on slander. And to behold his sway,

I will, as 't were a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me
Like a true friar. More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one:-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood, flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be. [Exeunt.
SCENE V.-A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no farther privileges?
Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more,
But rather wishing a more strict restraint

1 f. e. :

In time, the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd; so our decrees, Becomes was

added by Pope.

2 fight in f. e. 3 do in: in f. e.

Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of saint Clare.
Lucio. [Within.] Ho! Peace be in this place!
Isab.
Who's that which calls?

Fran. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him:
You may,
I may not; you are yet unsworn.
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.

He calls again: I pray you, answer him.

[LUCIO calls.'

[Exit FRANCISCA. Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls? Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses Proclaim you are no less, can you so stead me, As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask, The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Isabella, and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets

you.

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Isab. Woe me! for what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks. He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir, make me not your scorn.2

Lucio. 'Tis true. I would not, though 't is my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,

Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so:

I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and sainted

By your renouncement, an immortal spirit
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis .

thus:

Your brother and his lover have embrac'd:

1 Not in f. e. 2 story: in f. e.