Measure For Measure

1 Enter at several doors Duke, Varrius, Lords; Angelo, Escalus, Lucio,
2 Provost, Officers and Citizens.
3 DUKE.
4 My very worthy cousin, fairly met.
5 Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.
6 ANGELO and ESCALUS.
7 Happy return be to your royal grace!
8 DUKE.
9 Many and hearty thankings to you both.
10 We have made inquiry of you, and we hear
11 Such goodness of your justice that our soul
12 Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
13 Forerunning more requital.
14 ANGELO.
15 You make my bonds still greater.
16 DUKE.
17 O, your desert speaks loud, and I should wrong it
18 To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
19 When it deserves with characters of brass
20 A forted residence ’gainst the tooth of time
21 And rasure of oblivion. Give me your hand
22 And let the subject see, to make them know
23 That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
24 Favours that keep within.—Come, Escalus,
25 You must walk by us on our other hand.
26 And good supporters are you.
27 Enter Friar Peter and Isabella.
28 FRIAR PETER.
29 Now is your time. Speak loud, and kneel before him.
30 ISABELLA.
31 Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard
32 Upon a wronged—I would fain have said, a maid.
33 O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
34 By throwing it on any other object
35 Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
36 And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!
37 DUKE.
38 Relate your wrongs. In what? By whom? Be brief.
39 Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice.
40 Reveal yourself to him.
41 ISABELLA.
42 O worthy Duke,
43 You bid me seek redemption of the devil.
44 Hear me yourself, for that which I must speak
45 Must either punish me, not being believed,
46 Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!
47 ANGELO.
48 My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm.
49 She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,
50 Cut off by course of justice.
51 ISABELLA.
52 By course of justice!
53 ANGELO.
54 And she will speak most bitterly and strange.
55 ISABELLA.
56 Most strange, but yet most truly will I speak.
57 That Angelo’s forsworn, is it not strange?
58 That Angelo’s a murderer, is’t not strange?
59 That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
60 An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,
61 Is it not strange and strange?
62 DUKE.
63 Nay, it is ten times strange.
64 ISABELLA.
65 It is not truer he is Angelo
66 Than this is all as true as it is strange.
67 Nay, it is ten times true, for truth is truth
68 To th’ end of reckoning.
69 DUKE.
70 Away with her. Poor soul,
71 She speaks this in th’ infirmity of sense.
72 ISABELLA.
73 O Prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ’st
74 There is another comfort than this world,
75 That thou neglect me not with that opinion
76 That I am touched with madness. Make not impossible
77 That which but seems unlike. ’Tis not impossible
78 But one, the wicked’st caitiff on the ground,
79 May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,
80 As Angelo; even so may Angelo,
81 In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,
82 Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal Prince,
83 If he be less, he’s nothing; but he’s more,
84 Had I more name for badness.
85 DUKE.
86 By mine honesty,
87 If she be mad, as I believe no other,
88 Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
89 Such a dependency of thing on thing,
90 As e’er I heard in madness.
91 ISABELLA.
92 O gracious Duke,
93 Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
94 For inequality; but let your reason serve
95 To make the truth appear where it seems hid,
96 And hide the false seems true.
97 DUKE.
98 Many that are not mad
99 Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?
100 ISABELLA.
101 I am the sister of one Claudio,
102 Condemned upon the act of fornication
103 To lose his head; condemned by Angelo.
104 I, in probation of a sisterhood,
105 Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio
106 As then the messenger.
107 LUCIO.
108 That’s I, an’t like your Grace.
109 I came to her from Claudio and desired her
110 To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo
111 For her poor brother’s pardon.
112 ISABELLA.
113 That’s he, indeed.
114 DUKE.
115 You were not bid to speak.
116 LUCIO.
117 No, my good lord,
118 Nor wished to hold my peace.
119 DUKE.
120 I wish you now, then;
121 Pray you take note of it; and when you have
122 A business for yourself, pray heaven you then
123 Be perfect.
124 LUCIO.
125 I warrant your honour.
126 DUKE.
127 The warrant’s for yourself. Take heed to it.
128 ISABELLA.
129 This gentleman told somewhat of my tale.
130 LUCIO.
131 Right.
132 DUKE.
133 It may be right, but you are i’ the wrong
134 To speak before your time.—Proceed.
135 ISABELLA.
136 I went
137 To this pernicious caitiff deputy.
138 DUKE.
139 That’s somewhat madly spoken.
140 ISABELLA.
141 Pardon it;
142 The phrase is to the matter.
143 DUKE.
144 Mended again. The matter; proceed.
145 ISABELLA.
146 In brief, to set the needless process by:
147 How I persuaded, how I prayed and kneeled,
148 How he refelled me, and how I replied—
149 For this was of much length—the vile conclusion
150 I now begin with grief and shame to utter.
151 He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
152 To his concupiscible intemperate lust,
153 Release my brother; and after much debatement,
154 My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,
155 And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes,
156 His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
157 For my poor brother’s head.
158 DUKE.
159 This is most likely!
160 ISABELLA.
161 O, that it were as like as it is true!
162 DUKE.
163 By heaven, fond wretch, thou know’st not what thou speak’st,
164 Or else thou art suborned against his honour
165 In hateful practice. First, his integrity
166 Stands without blemish; next, it imports no reason
167 That with such vehemency he should pursue
168 Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended,
169 He would have weighed thy brother by himself,
170 And not have cut him off. Someone hath set you on.
171 Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
172 Thou cam’st here to complain.
173 ISABELLA.
174 And is this all?
175 Then, O you blessed ministers above,
176 Keep me in patience, and with ripened time
177 Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
178 In countenance! Heaven shield your Grace from woe,
179 As I, thus wronged, hence unbelieved go.
180 DUKE.
181 I know you’d fain be gone. An officer!
182 To prison with her! Shall we thus permit
183 A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
184 On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.
185 Who knew of your intent and coming hither?
186 ISABELLA.
187 One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.
188 [_Exeunt Officer with Isabella._]
189 DUKE.
190 A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?
191 LUCIO.
192 My lord, I know him. ’Tis a meddling friar.
193 I do not like the man. Had he been lay, my lord,
194 For certain words he spake against your Grace
195 In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.
196 DUKE.
197 Words against me? This’s a good friar, belike.
198 And to set on this wretched woman here
199 Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.
200 LUCIO.
201 But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,
202 I saw them at the prison. A saucy friar,
203 A very scurvy fellow.
204 FRIAR PETER.
205 Blessed be your royal Grace!
206 I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
207 Your royal ear abused. First hath this woman
208 Most wrongfully accused your substitute,
209 Who is as free from touch or soil with her
210 As she from one ungot.
211 DUKE.
212 We did believe no less.
213 Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?
214 FRIAR PETER.
215 I know him for a man divine and holy,
216 Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,
217 As he’s reported by this gentleman;
218 And, on my trust, a man that never yet
219 Did, as he vouches, misreport your Grace.
220 LUCIO.
221 My lord, most villainously; believe it.
222 FRIAR PETER.
223 Well, he in time may come to clear himself;
224 But at this instant he is sick, my lord,
225 Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,
226 Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
227 Intended ’gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither
228 To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
229 Is true and false; and what he with his oath
230 And all probation will make up full clear
231 Whensoever he’s convented. First, for this woman,
232 To justify this worthy nobleman,
233 So vulgarly and personally accused,
234 Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
235 Till she herself confess it.
236 DUKE.
237 Good friar, let’s hear it.
238 Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?
239 O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!
240 Give us some seats.—Come, cousin Angelo,
241 In this I’ll be impartial. Be you judge
242 Of your own cause.
243 Enter Mariana, veiled.
244 Is this the witness, friar?
245 First let her show her face, and after speak.
246 MARIANA.
247 Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face
248 Until my husband bid me.
249 DUKE.
250 What, are you married?
251 MARIANA.
252 No, my lord.
253 DUKE.
254 Are you a maid?
255 MARIANA.
256 No, my lord.
257 DUKE.
258 A widow, then?
259 MARIANA.
260 Neither, my lord.
261 DUKE.
262 Why, you are nothing then, neither maid, widow, nor wife?
263 LUCIO.
264 My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow,
265 nor wife.
266 DUKE.
267 Silence that fellow. I would he had some cause to prattle for himself.
268 LUCIO.
269 Well, my lord.
270 MARIANA.
271 My lord, I do confess I ne’er was married,
272 And I confess besides, I am no maid.
273 I have known my husband; yet my husband
274 Knows not that ever he knew me.
275 LUCIO.
276 He was drunk, then, my lord; it can be no better.
277 DUKE.
278 For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too.
279 LUCIO.
280 Well, my lord.
281 DUKE.
282 This is no witness for Lord Angelo.
283 MARIANA.
284 Now I come to’t, my lord.
285 She that accuses him of fornication
286 In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,
287 And charges him, my lord, with such a time
288 When I’ll depose I had him in mine arms
289 With all th’ effect of love.
290 ANGELO.
291 Charges she more than me?
292 MARIANA.
293 Not that I know.
294 DUKE.
295 No? You say your husband.
296 MARIANA.
297 Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
298 Who thinks he knows that he ne’er knew my body,
299 But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel’s.
300 ANGELO.
301 This is a strange abuse. Let’s see thy face.
302 MARIANA.
303 My husband bids me; now I will unmask. [_Unveiling_.]
304 This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
305 Which once thou swor’st was worth the looking on.
306 This is the hand which, with a vowed contract,
307 Was fast belocked in thine. This is the body
308 That took away the match from Isabel
309 And did supply thee at thy garden-house
310 In her imagined person.
311 DUKE.
312 Know you this woman?
313 LUCIO.
314 Carnally, she says.
315 DUKE.
316 Sirrah, no more.
317 LUCIO.
318 Enough, my lord.
319 ANGELO.
320 My lord, I must confess I know this woman;
321 And five years since there was some speech of marriage
322 Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,
323 Partly for that her promised proportions
324 Came short of composition; but in chief
325 For that her reputation was disvalued
326 In levity. Since which time of five years
327 I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
328 Upon my faith and honour.
329 MARIANA.
330 Noble Prince,
331 As there comes light from heaven and words from breath,
332 As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue,
333 I am affianced this man’s wife as strongly
334 As words could make up vows. And, my good lord,
335 But Tuesday night last gone, in’s garden-house,
336 He knew me as a wife. As this is true,
337 Let me in safety raise me from my knees,
338 Or else for ever be confixed here,
339 A marble monument!
340 ANGELO.
341 I did but smile till now.
342 Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice.
343 My patience here is touched. I do perceive
344 These poor informal women are no more
345 But instruments of some more mightier member
346 That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
347 To find this practice out.
348 DUKE.
349 Ay, with my heart;
350 And punish them to your height of pleasure.
351 Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman,
352 Compact with her that’s gone, think’st thou thy oaths,
353 Though they would swear down each particular saint,
354 Were testimonies against his worth and credit,
355 That’s sealed in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,
356 Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains
357 To find out this abuse, whence ’tis derived.
358 There is another friar that set them on;
359 Let him be sent for.
360 FRIAR PETER.
361 Would he were here, my lord; for he indeed
362 Hath set the women on to this complaint.
363 Your Provost knows the place where he abides,
364 And he may fetch him.
365 DUKE.
366 Go, do it instantly.
367 [_Exit Provost._]
368 And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
369 Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
370 Do with your injuries as seems you best
371 In any chastisement. I for a while
372 Will leave you; but stir not you till you have
373 Well determined upon these slanderers.
374 ESCALUS.
375 My lord, we’ll do it throughly.
376 [_Exit Duke._]
377 Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar Lodowick to be a
378 dishonest person?
379 LUCIO.
380 _Cucullus non facit monachum_, honest in nothing but in his clothes,
381 and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the Duke.
382 ESCALUS.
383 We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them
384 against him. We shall find this friar a notable fellow.
385 LUCIO.
386 As any in Vienna, on my word.
387 ESCALUS.
388 Call that same Isabel here once again. I would speak with her.
389 [_Exit an Attendant._]
390 Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I’ll
391 handle her.
392 LUCIO.
393 Not better than he, by her own report.
394 ESCALUS.
395 Say you?
396 LUCIO.
397 Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would sooner
398 confess; perchance, publicly, she’ll be ashamed.
399 Enter at several doors Duke as a friar, Provost and Isabella with
400 Officers.
401 ESCALUS.
402 I will go darkly to work with her.
403 LUCIO.
404 That’s the way; for women are light at midnight.
405 ESCALUS.
406 [_To Isabella_.] Come on, mistress, here’s a gentlewoman denies all
407 that you have said.
408 LUCIO.
409 My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of, here with the Provost.
410 ESCALUS.
411 In very good time. Speak not you to him till we call upon you.
412 LUCIO.
413 Mum.
414 ESCALUS.
415 Come, sir, did you set these women on to slander Lord Angelo? They have
416 confessed you did.
417 DUKE.
418 ’Tis false.
419 ESCALUS.
420 How! Know you where you are?
421 DUKE.
422 Respect to your great place; and let the devil
423 Be sometime honoured for his burning throne.
424 Where is the Duke? ’Tis he should hear me speak.
425 ESCALUS.
426 The Duke’s in us; and we will hear you speak.
427 Look you speak justly.
428 DUKE.
429 Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls,
430 Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox,
431 Good night to your redress! Is the Duke gone?
432 Then is your cause gone too. The Duke’s unjust
433 Thus to retort your manifest appeal,
434 And put your trial in the villain’s mouth
435 Which here you come to accuse.
436 LUCIO.
437 This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.
438 ESCALUS.
439 Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar,
440 Is’t not enough thou hast suborned these women
441 To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth,
442 And in the witness of his proper ear,
443 To call him villain? And then to glance from him
444 To th’ Duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
445 Take him hence! To th’ rack with him! We’ll touse you
446 Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.
447 What! Unjust?
448 DUKE.
449 Be not so hot. The Duke
450 Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he
451 Dare rack his own. His subject am I not,
452 Nor here provincial. My business in this state
453 Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,
454 Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
455 Till it o’errun the stew. Laws for all faults,
456 But faults so countenanced that the strong statutes
457 Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop,
458 As much in mock as mark.
459 ESCALUS.
460 Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!
461 ANGELO.
462 What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
463 Is this the man that you did tell us of?
464 LUCIO.
465 ’Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman Baldpate.
466 Do you know me?
467 DUKE.
468 I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice. I met you at the
469 prison, in the absence of the Duke.
470 LUCIO.
471 O did you so? And do you remember what you said of the Duke?
472 DUKE.
473 Most notedly, sir.
474 LUCIO.
475 Do you so, sir? And was the Duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward,
476 as you then reported him to be?
477 DUKE.
478 You must, sir, change persons with me ere you make that my report. You
479 indeed spoke so of him, and much more, much worse.
480 LUCIO.
481 O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose for thy
482 speeches?
483 DUKE.
484 I protest I love the Duke as I love myself.
485 ANGELO.
486 Hark how the villain would close now, after his treasonable abuses!
487 ESCALUS.
488 Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with him to prison!
489 Where is the provost? Away with him to prison! Lay bolts enough upon
490 him. Let him speak no more. Away with those giglets too, and with the
491 other confederate companion!
492 [_The Provost lays hands on the Duke._]
493 DUKE.
494 Stay, sir, stay a while.
495 ANGELO.
496 What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.
497 LUCIO.
498 Come, sir, come, sir, come, sir. Foh, sir! Why, you bald-pated lying
499 rascal! You must be hooded, must you? Show your knave’s visage, with a
500 pox to you! Show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour! Will’t
501 not off?
502 [_Pulls off the friar’s hood and discovers the Duke._]
503 DUKE.
504 Thou art the first knave that e’er mad’st a duke.
505 First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three.
506 [_To Lucio_.] Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you
507 Must have a word anon.—Lay hold on him.
508 LUCIO.
509 This may prove worse than hanging.
510 DUKE.
511 [_To Escalus_.] What you have spoke I pardon. Sit you down.
512 We’ll borrow place of him. [_To Angelo_.] Sir, by your leave.
513 Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
514 That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,
515 Rely upon it till my tale be heard,
516 And hold no longer out.
517 ANGELO.
518 O my dread lord,
519 I should be guiltier than my guiltiness
520 To think I can be undiscernible,
521 When I perceive your Grace, like power divine,
522 Hath looked upon my passes. Then, good Prince,
523 No longer session hold upon my shame,
524 But let my trial be mine own confession.
525 Immediate sentence then, and sequent death
526 Is all the grace I beg.
527 DUKE.
528 Come hither, Mariana.
529 Say, wast thou e’er contracted to this woman?
530 ANGELO.
531 I was, my lord.
532 DUKE.
533 Go, take her hence and marry her instantly.
534 Do you the office, friar; which consummate,
535 Return him here again.—Go with him, Provost.
536 [_Exeunt Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter and Provost._]
537 ESCALUS.
538 My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour
539 Than at the strangeness of it.
540 DUKE.
541 Come hither, Isabel.
542 Your friar is now your prince. As I was then
543 Advertising and holy to your business,
544 Not changing heart with habit, I am still
545 Attorneyed at your service.
546 ISABELLA.
547 O, give me pardon,
548 That I, your vassal, have employed and pained
549 Your unknown sovereignty.
550 DUKE.
551 You are pardoned, Isabel.
552 And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
553 Your brother’s death, I know, sits at your heart,
554 And you may marvel why I obscured myself,
555 Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
556 Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power
557 Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,
558 It was the swift celerity of his death,
559 Which I did think with slower foot came on,
560 That brained my purpose. But peace be with him.
561 That life is better life, past fearing death,
562 Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort,
563 So happy is your brother.
564 ISABELLA.
565 I do, my lord.
566 Enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter and Provost.
567 DUKE.
568 For this new-married man approaching here,
569 Whose salt imagination yet hath wronged
570 Your well-defended honour, you must pardon
571 For Mariana’s sake. But as he adjudged your brother,
572 Being criminal in double violation
573 Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach
574 Thereon dependent, for your brother’s life,
575 The very mercy of the law cries out
576 Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
577 “An Angelo for Claudio, death for death.”
578 Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
579 Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.
580 Then, Angelo, thy fault’s thus manifested,
581 Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.
582 We do condemn thee to the very block
583 Where Claudio stooped to death, and with like haste.
584 Away with him.
585 MARIANA.
586 O my most gracious lord,
587 I hope you will not mock me with a husband.
588 DUKE.
589 It is your husband mocked you with a husband.
590 Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
591 I thought your marriage fit. Else imputation,
592 For that he knew you, might reproach your life,
593 And choke your good to come. For his possessions,
594 Although by confiscation they are ours,
595 We do instate and widow you with all
596 To buy you a better husband.
597 MARIANA.
598 O my dear lord,
599 I crave no other, nor no better man.
600 DUKE.
601 Never crave him; we are definitive.
602 MARIANA.
603 [_Kneeling_.] Gentle my liege—
604 DUKE.
605 You do but lose your labour.
606 Away with him to death. [_To Lucio_.] Now, sir, to you.
607 MARIANA.
608 O my good lord.—Sweet Isabel, take my part;
609 Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
610 I’ll lend you all my life to do you service.
611 DUKE.
612 Against all sense you do importune her.
613 Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,
614 Her brother’s ghost his paved bed would break,
615 And take her hence in horror.
616 MARIANA.
617 Isabel,
618 Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;
619 Hold up your hands, say nothing. I’ll speak all.
620 They say best men are moulded out of faults,
621 And, for the most, become much more the better
622 For being a little bad. So may my husband.
623 O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
624 DUKE.
625 He dies for Claudio’s death.
626 ISABELLA.
627 [_Kneeling_.] Most bounteous sir,
628 Look, if it please you, on this man condemned
629 As if my brother lived. I partly think
630 A due sincerity governed his deeds
631 Till he did look on me. Since it is so,
632 Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
633 In that he did the thing for which he died.
634 For Angelo,
635 His act did not o’ertake his bad intent,
636 And must be buried but as an intent
637 That perished by the way. Thoughts are no subjects;
638 Intents but merely thoughts.
639 MARIANA.
640 Merely, my lord.
641 DUKE.
642 Your suit’s unprofitable. Stand up, I say.
643 I have bethought me of another fault.
644 Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded
645 At an unusual hour?
646 PROVOST.
647 It was commanded so.
648 DUKE.
649 Had you a special warrant for the deed?
650 PROVOST.
651 No, my good lord, it was by private message.
652 DUKE.
653 For which I do discharge you of your office.
654 Give up your keys.
655 PROVOST.
656 Pardon me, noble lord.
657 I thought it was a fault, but knew it not;
658 Yet did repent me after more advice.
659 For testimony whereof, one in the prison
660 That should by private order else have died,
661 I have reserved alive.
662 DUKE.
663 What’s he?
664 PROVOST.
665 His name is Barnardine.
666 DUKE.
667 I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.
668 Go fetch him hither, let me look upon him.
669 [_Exit Provost._]
670 ESCALUS.
671 I am sorry one so learned and so wise
672 As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeared,
673 Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood
674 And lack of tempered judgement afterward.
675 ANGELO.
676 I am sorry that such sorrow I procure,
677 And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart
678 That I crave death more willingly than mercy;
679 ’Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.
680 Enter Provost with Barnardine, Claudio (muffled) and Juliet.
681 DUKE.
682 Which is that Barnardine?
683 PROVOST.
684 This, my lord.
685 DUKE.
686 There was a friar told me of this man.
687 Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul
688 That apprehends no further than this world,
689 And squar’st thy life according. Thou’rt condemned;
690 But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all,
691 And pray thee take this mercy to provide
692 For better times to come. Friar, advise him;
693 I leave him to your hand.—What muffled fellow’s that?
694 PROVOST.
695 This is another prisoner that I saved,
696 Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;
697 As like almost to Claudio as himself.
698 [_Unmuffles Claudio._]
699 DUKE.
700 [_To Isabella_.] If he be like your brother, for his sake
701 Is he pardoned; and for your lovely sake,
702 Give me your hand and say you will be mine.
703 He is my brother too. But fitter time for that.
704 By this Lord Angelo perceives he’s safe;
705 Methinks I see a quick’ning in his eye.
706 Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well.
707 Look that you love your wife, her worth worth yours.
708 I find an apt remission in myself.
709 And yet here’s one in place I cannot pardon.
710 [_To Lucio_.] You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward,
711 One all of luxury, an ass, a madman.
712 Wherein have I so deserved of you
713 That you extol me thus?
714 LUCIO.
715 Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick. If you will hang
716 me for it, you may, but I had rather it would please you I might be
717 whipped.
718 DUKE.
719 Whipped first, sir, and hanged after.
720 Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city,
721 If any woman wronged by this lewd fellow,
722 As I have heard him swear himself there’s one
723 Whom he begot with child—let her appear,
724 And he shall marry her. The nuptial finished,
725 Let him be whipped and hanged.
726 LUCIO.
727 I beseech your Highness, do not marry me to a whore. Your highness said
728 even now I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense me in
729 making me a cuckold.
730 DUKE.
731 Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.
732 Thy slanders I forgive, and therewithal
733 Remit thy other forfeits.—Take him to prison,
734 And see our pleasure herein executed.
735 LUCIO.
736 Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging.
737 DUKE.
738 Slandering a prince deserves it.
739 [_Exeunt Officers with Lucio._]
740 She, Claudio, that you wronged, look you restore.
741 Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo.
742 I have confessed her, and I know her virtue.
743 Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness;
744 There’s more behind that is more gratulate.
745 Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy;
746 We shall employ thee in a worthier place.
747 Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
748 The head of Ragozine for Claudio’s.
749 Th’ offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,
750 I have a motion much imports your good;
751 Whereto if you’ll a willing ear incline,
752 What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.
753 So, bring us to our palace, where we’ll show
754 What’s yet behind that’s meet you all should know.
755 [_Exeunt._]