Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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2.1 Enter Angelo, Escalus, and servants; a Justice

ANGELO

We must not make a scarecrow of the law,

Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one shape till custom make it

Their perch, and not their terror.

ESCALUS

Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little

Than fall and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman

Whom I would save had a most noble father.

Let but your honour know—

Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue—

That in the working of your own affections,

Had time cohered with place, or place with wishing,

Or that the resolute acting of your blood

Could have attained th’effect of your own purpose—

Whether you had not sometime in your life

Erred in this point which now you censure him,

And pulled the law upon you.

ANGELO

’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,

Another thing to fall. I not deny

The jury passing on the prisoner’s life

May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two

Guiltier than him they try. What knows the law

That thieves do pass on thieves? What’s open made to

justice,

That justice seizes. ’Tis very pregnant:

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take’t

Because we see it, but what we do not see

We tread upon and never think of it.

You may not so extenuate his offence

For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,

When I that censure him do so offend,

Let mine own judgement pattern out my death,

And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.

ESCALUS

Be it as your wisdom will.

ANGELO

Where is the Provost?

Enter Provost

PROVOST

Here, if it like your honour.

ANGELO

See that Claudio

Be execute by nine tomorrow morning.

Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared,

For that’s the utmost of his pilgrimage.

Exit Provost

ESCALUS

Well, heaven forgive him, and forgive us all!

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none;

And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter Elbow, Froth, Pompey, and officers

ELBOW Come, bring them away. If these be good people in a commonweal, that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law. Bring them away.

ANGELO

How now, sir? What’s your name? And what’s the

matter?

ELBOW If it please your honour, I am the poor Duke’s constable, and my name is Elbow. I do lean upon justice, sir; and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.

ANGELO Benefactors? Welll What benefactors are they? Are they not malefactors?

ELBOW If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but precise villains they are, that I am sure of, and void of all profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have.

ESCALUS (to Angelo) This comes off well; here’s a wise officer!

ANGELO Go to, what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow?

POMPEY He cannot, sir; he’s out at elbow.

ANGELO What are you, sir?

ELBOW He, sir? A tapster, sir, parcel bawd; one that serves a bad woman whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which I think is a very ill house too.

ESCALUS How know you that?

ELBOW My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour—

ESCALUS How, thy wife?

ELBOW Ay, sir, whom I thank heaven is an honest woman—

ESCALUS Dost thou detest her therefor?

ELBOW I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd’s house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

ESCALUS How dost thou know that, constable?

ELBOW Marry, sir, by my wife, who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.

ESCALUS By the woman’s means?

ELBOW Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone’s means. But as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

POMPEY (to Escalus) Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.

ELBOW Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove it.

ESCALUS (to Angelo) Do you hear how he misplaces?

POMPEY Sir, she came in great with child, and longing-saving your honour’s reverence—for stewed prunes. Sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit dish—a dish of some threepence; your honours have seen such dishes; they are not china dishes, but very good dishes.

ESCALUS Go to, go to, no matter for the dish, sir.

POMPEY No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right. But to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said, Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly; for, as you know, Master Froth, I could not give you threepence again.

FROTH No, indeed.

POMPEY Very well. You being, then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes—

FROTH Ay, so I did indeed.

POMPEY Why, very well.—I telling you then, if you be remembered, that such a one and such a one were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you—

FROTH All this is true. no

POMPEY Why, very well then—

ESCALUS Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose. What was done to Elbow’s wife that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to her.

POMPEY Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.

ESCALUS No, sir, nor I mean it not.

POMPEY Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour’s leave. And I beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir, a man of fourscore pound a year, whose father died at Hallowmas—was’t not at Hallowmas, Master Froth?

FROTH All Hallow Eve.

POMPEY Why, very well. I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir—’twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you have a delight to sit, have you not?

FROTH I have so, because it is an open room, and good for winter.

POMPEY Why, very well then. I hope here be truths.

ANGELO

This will last out a night in Russia,

When nights are longest there. (To Escalus) I’ll take

my leave,

And leave you to the hearing of the cause,

Hoping you’ll find good cause to whip them all.

ESCALUS

I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.

Exit Angelo

Now, sir, come on, what was done to Elbow’s wife,

once more?

POMPEY Once, sir? There was nothing done to her once.

ELBOW I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.

POMPEY I beseech your honour, ask me.

ESCALUS Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?

POMPEY I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman’s face. Good Master Froth, look upon his honour. ’Tis for a good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?

ESCALUS Ay, sir, very well.

POMPEY Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.

ESCALUS Well, I do so.

POMPEY Doth your honour see any harm in his face?

ESCALUS Why, no.

POMPEY I’ll be supposed upon a book his face is the worst thing about him. Good, then—if his face be the worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the constable’s wife any harm? I would know that of your honour.

ESCALUS He’s in the right, constable; what say you to it?

ELBOW First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected woman.

POMPEY (to Escalus) By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any of us all.

ELBOW Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet. The time is yet to come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child.

POMPEY Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.

ESCALUS Which is the wiser here, justice or iniquity? (To Elbow) Is this true?

ELBOW (to Pompey) O thou caitiff, O thou varlet, O thou wicked Hanniball I respected with her before I was married to her? (To Escalus) If ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me the poor Duke’s officer. (To Pompey) Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or I’ll have mine action of battery on thee.

ESCALUS If he took you a box o’th’ ear you might have your action of slander too.

ELBOW Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is’t your worship’s pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?

ESCALUS Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou knowest what they are.

ELBOW Marry, I thank your worship for it.—Thou seest, thou wicked varlet now, what’s come upon thee. Thou art to continue now, thou varlet, thou art to continue.

ESCALUS (to Froth) Where were you born, friend?

FROTH Here in Vienna, sir.

ESCALUS Are you of fourscore pounds a year?

FROTH Yes, an’t please you, sir.

ESCALUS So. (To Pompey) What trade are you of, sir?

POMPEY A tapster, a poor widow’s tapster.

ESCALUS Your mistress’s name?

POMPEY Mistress Overdone.

ESCALUS Hath she had any more than one husband?

POMPEY Nine, sir—Overdone by the last.

ESCALUS Nine?—Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master Froth, I would not have you acquainted with tapsters. They will draw you, Master Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.

FROTH I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into any room in a tap-house but I am drawn in.

ESCALUS Well, no more of it, Master Froth. Farewell.

Exit Froth

Come you hither to me, Master Tapster. What’s your

name, Master Tapster?

POMPEY Pompey.

ESCALUS What else?

POMPEY Bum, sir.

ESCALUS Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you not? Come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you.

POMPEY Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.

ESCALUS How would you live, Pompey? By being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? Is it a lawful trade?

POMPEY If the law would allow it, sir.

ESCALUS But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna.

POMPEY Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the youth of the city?

ESCALUS No, Pompey.

POMPEY Truly, sir, in my poor opinion they will to’t then. If your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.

ESCALUS There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you. It is but heading and hanging.

POMPEY If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year together, you’ll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If this law hold in Vienna ten year, I’ll rent the fairest house in it after threepence a bay. If you live to see this come to pass, say Pompey told you so.

ESCALUS Thank you, good Pompey; and in requital of your prophecy, hark you. I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever; no, not for dwelling where you do. If I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipped. So for this time, Pompey, fare you well.

POMPEY I thank your worship for your good counsel; ⌈aside⌉ but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine. Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade. The valiant heart’s not whipped out of his trade. Exit

ESCALUS Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master Constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?

ELBOW Seven year and a half, sir.

ESCALUS I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had continued in it some time. You say seven years together?

ELBOW And a half, sir.

ESCALUS Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you wrong to put you so oft upon’t. Are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it?

ELBOW Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters. As they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them. I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all.

ESCALUS Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish.

ELBOW To your worship’s house, sir?

ESCALUS To my house. Fare you well.

Exit Elbow with officers

What’s o’clock, think you?

JUSTICE Eleven, sir.

ESCALUS I pray you home to dinner with me.

JUSTICE I humbly thank you.

ESCALUS

It grieves me for the death of Claudio,

But there’s no remedy.

JUSTICE Lord Angelo is severe.

ESCALUS It is but needful.

Mercy is not itself that oft looks so.

Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.

But yet, poor Claudio! There is no remedy.

Come, sir.

Exeunt

2.2 Enter the Provost and a Servant

SERVANT

He’s hearing of a cause; he will come straight.

I’ll tell him of you.

PROVOST

Pray you do.

Exit Servant

I’ll know

His pleasure; maybe he will relent. Alas,

He hath but as offended in a dream.

All sects, all ages, smack of this vice; and he

To die for’t!

Enter Angelo

ANGELO Now, what’s the matter, Provost?

PROVOST

Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?

ANGELO

Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order?

Why dost thou ask again?

PROVOST

Lest I might be too rash.

Under your good correction, I have seen

When after execution judgement hath

Repented o’er his doom.

ANGELO

Go to; let that be mine.

Do you your office, or give up your place,

And you shall well be spared.

PROVOST

I crave your honour’s pardon.

What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?

She’s very near her hour.

ANGELO Dispose of her

To some more fitter place, and that with speed.

Enter Servant

SERVANT

Here is the sister of the man condemned Desires access to you.

ANGELO

Hath he a sister?

PROVOST

Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,

And to be shortly of a sisterhood,

If not already.

ANGELO

Well, let her be admitted.

Exit Servant

See you the fornicatress be removed.

Let her have needful but not lavish means.

There shall be order for’t.

Enter Lucio and Isabella

PROVOST God save your honour.

ANGELO

Stay a little while. (To Isabella) You’re welcome.

What’s your will?

ISABELLA

I am a woeful suitor to your honour.

Please but your honour hear me.

ANGELO Well, what’s your suit?

ISABELLA

There is a vice that most I do abhor,

And most desire should meet the blow of justice,

For which I would not plead, but that I must;

For which I must not plead, but that I am

At war ’twixt will and will not.

ANGELO

Well, the matter?

ISABELLA

I have a brother is condemned to die.

I do beseech you, let it be his fault,

And not my brother.

PROVOST (aside)

Heaven give thee moving graces!

ANGELO

Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?

Why, every fault’s condemned ere it be done.

Mine were the very cipher of a function,

To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,

And let go by the actor.

ISABELLA

O just but severe law!

I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella)

Give’t not o’er so. To him again; entreat him.

Kneel down before him; hang upon his gown.

You are too cold. If you should need a pin,

You could not with more tame a tongue desire it.

To him, I say!

ISABELLA (to Angelo) Must he needs die?

ANGELO Maiden, no remedy.

ISABELLA

Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,

And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.

ANGELO

I will not do’t.

ISABELLA

But can you if you would?

ANGELO

Look what I will not, that I cannot do.

ISABELLA

But might you do’t, and do the world no wrong,

If so your heart were touched with that remorse

As mine is to him?

ANGELO He’s sentenced; ’tis too late.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) You are too cold.

ISABELLA

Too late? Why, no; I that do speak a word

May call it again. Well, believe this,

No ceremony that to great ones ’longs,

Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,

The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,

Become them with one half so good a grace

As mercy does.

If he had been as you and you as he,

You would have slipped like him, but he, like you,

Would not have been so stern.

ANGELO

Pray you be gone.

ISABELLA

I would to heaven I had your potency,

And you were Isabel! Should it then be thus?

No; I would tell what ’twere to be a judge,

And what a prisoner.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) Ay, touch him; there’s the vein.

ANGELO

Your brother is a forfeit of the law,

And you but waste your words.

ISABELLA

Alas, alas!

Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once,

And He that might the vantage best have took

Found out the remedy. How would you be

If He which is the top of judgement should

But judge you as you are? O, think on that,

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.

ANGELO

Be you content, fair maid.

It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.

Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow.

ISABELLA

Tomorrow? O, that’s sudden! Spare him, spare him!

He’s not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens

We kill the fowl of season. Shall we serve heaven

With less respect than we do minister

To our gross selves? Good good my lord, bethink you:

Who is it that hath died for this offence?

There’s many have committed it.

LUCIO (aside)

Ay, well said.

ANGELO

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.

Those many had not dared to do that evil

If the first that did th‘edict infringe

Had answered for his deed. Now ’tis awake,

Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet,

Looks in a glass that shows what future evils,

Either raw, or by remissness new conceived

And so in progress to be hatched and born,

Are now to have no successive degrees,

But ere they live, to end.

ISABELLA

Yet show some pity.

ANGELO

I show it most of all when I show justice,

For then I pity those I do not know

Which a dismissed offence would after gall,

And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,

Lives not to act another. Be satisfied.

Your brother dies tomorrow. Be content.

ISABELLA

So you must be the first that gives this sentence,

And he that suffers. O, it is excellent

To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous

To use it like a giant.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) That’s well said.

ISABELLA Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet,

For every pelting petty officer

Would use his heaven for thunder, nothing but

thunder.

Merciful heaven,

Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt

Split’st the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak

Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,

Dressed in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,

His glassy essence, like an angry ape

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven

As makes the angels weep, who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella)

O, to him, to him, wench! He will relent.

He’s coming; I perceive’t.

PROVOST (aside)

Pray heaven she win him!

ISABELLA

We cannot weigh our brother with ourself.

Great men may jest with saints; ’tis wit in them,

But in the less, foul profanation.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) Thou’rt i’th’ right, girl. More o’

that.

ISABELLA

That in the captain’s but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) Art advised o’ that? More on’t.

ANGELO

Why do you put these sayings upon me?

ISABELLA

Because authority, though it err like others,

Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself

That skins the vice o’th’ top. Go to your bosom;

Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know

That’s like my brother’s fault. If it confess

A natural guiltiness, such as is his,

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue

Against my brother’s life.

ANGELO (aside)

She speaks, and ’tis such sense

That my sense breeds with it. (To Isabella) Fare you

well.

ISABELLA Gentle my lord, turn back.

ANGELO

I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow.

ISABELLA

Hark how I’ll bribe you; good my lord, turn back.

ANGELO How, bribe me?

ISABELLA

Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) You had marred all else.

ISABELLA

Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,

Or stones, whose rate are either rich or poor

As fancy values them; but with true prayers,

That shall be up at heaven and enter there

Ere sunrise, prayers from preserved souls,

From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate

To nothing temporal.

ANGELO Well, come to me tomorrow

LUCIO (aside to Isabella) Go to; ’tis well; away.

ISABELLA Heaven keep your honour safe.

ANGELO (aside) Amen;

For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayer is crossed.

ISABELLA

At what hour tomorrow

Shall I attend your lordship?

ANGELO

At any time fore noon.

ISABELLA

God save your honour.

ANGELO (aside)

From thee; even from thy virtue. Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and Provost

What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault or mine?

The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha?

Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is I

That, lying by the violet in the sun,

Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,

Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be

That modesty may more betray our sense

Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground enough,

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,

And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!

What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?

Dost thou desire her foully for those things

That make her good? O, let her brother live!

Thieves for their robbery have authority,

When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,

That I desire to hear her speak again,

And feast upon her eyes? What is’t I dream on?

O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,

With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous

Is that temptation that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet,

With all her double vigour—art and nature—

Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid

Subdues me quite. Ever till now

When men were fond, I smiled, and wondered how.

Exit