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

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4.4 Enter Angelo and Escalus

ESCALUS Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.

ANGELO In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness. Pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted. And why meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there?

ESCALUS I guess not.

ANGELO And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

ESCALUS He shows his reason for that—to have a dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.

ANGELO

Well, I beseech you let it be proclaimed.

Betimes i’th’ morn I’ll call you at your house.

Give notice to such men of sort and suit

As are to meet him.

ESCALUS I shall, sir. Fare you well.

ANGELO Good night.

Exit Escalus

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant

And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid,

And by an eminent body that enforced

The law against it! But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no,

For my authority bears off a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal once can touch

But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,

Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,

Might in the times to come have ta’en revenge

By so receiving a dishonoured life

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived.

Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,

Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not. Exit

4.5 Enter the Duke, in his own habit, and Friar Peter

DUKE

These letters at fit time deliver me.

The Provost knows our purpose and our plot.

The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,

And hold you ever to our special drift,

Though sometimes you do blench from this to that

As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavio’s house,

And tell him where I stay. Give the like notice

To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate.

But send me Flavius first.

FRIAR It shall be speeded well.

Exit

Enter Varrius

DUKE

I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste.

Come, we will walk. There’s other of our friends

Will greet us here anon. My gentle Varrius!

Exeunt

4.6 Enter Isabella and Mariana

ISABELLA

To speak so indirectly I am loath—

I would say the truth, but to accuse him so,

That is your part—yet I am advised to do it,

He says, to veil full purpose.

MARIANA

Be ruled by him.

ISABELLA

Besides, he tells me that if peradventure

He speak against me on the adverse side,

I should not think it strange, for ’tis a physic

That’s bitter to sweet end.

Enter Friar Peter

MARIANA I would Friar Peter—

ISABELLA O, peace; the friar is come.

FRIAR PETER

Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,

Where you may have such vantage on the Duke

He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets

sounded.

The generous and gravest citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon

The Duke is ent’ring; therefore hence, away. Exeunt

5.1 Enter ⌈at one door⌉ the Duke, Varrius, and lords, ⌈at another door⌉ Angelo, Escalus, Lucio, citizens, ⌈and officers⌉

DUKE (to Angelo)

My very worthy cousin, fairly met.

(To Escalus) Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to

see you.

ANGELO and ESCALUS

Happy return be to your royal grace.

DUKE

Many and hearty thankings to you both.

We have made enquiry of you, and we hear

Such goodness of your justice that our soul

Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,

Forerunning more requital.

ANGELO

You make my bonds still greater.

DUKE

O, your desert speaks loud, and I should wrong it

To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,

When it deserves with characters of brass

A forted residence ’gainst the tooth of time

And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,

And let the subject see, to make them know

That outward courtesies would fain proclaim

Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,

You must walk by us on our other hand,

And good supporters are you.

⌈ They walk forward. ⌉

Enter Friar Peter and Isabella

FRIAR PETER

Now is your time. Speak loud, and kneel before him.

ISABELLA (kneeling)

Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard

Upon a wronged—I would fain have said, a maid.

O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye

By throwing it on any other object,

Till you have heard me in my true complaint,

And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!

DUKE

Relate your wrongs. In what? By whom? Be brief.

Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice.

Reveal yourself to him.

ISABELLA

O worthy Duke,

You bid me seek redemption of the devil.

Hear me yourself, for that which I must speak

Must either punish me, not being believed,

Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, hear!

ANGELO

My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm.

She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,

Cut off by course of justice.

ISABELLA ⌈standing⌉

By course of justice!

ANGELO

And she will speak most bitterly and strange.

ISABELLA

Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak.

That Angelo’s forsworn, is it not strange?

That Angelo’s a murderer, is’t not strange?

That Angelo is an adulterous thief,

An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,

Is it not strange, and strange?

DUKE

Nay, it is ten times strange!

ISABELLA

It is not truer he is Angelo

Than this is all as true as it is strange.

Nay, it is ten times true, for truth is truth

To th‘end of reck’ning.

DUKE

Away with her. Poor soul,

She speaks this in th’infirmity of sense.

ISABELLA

O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ‘st

There is another comfort than this world,

That thou neglect me not with that opinion

That I am touched with madness. Make not

impossible

That which but seems unlike. ’Tis not impossible

But one, the wicked’st caitiff on the ground,

May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,

As Angelo; even so may Angelo,

In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,

Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal prince,

If he be less, he’s nothing; but he’s more,

Had I more name for badness.

DUKE

By mine honesty,

If she be mad, as I believe no other,

Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,

Such a dependency of thing on thing

As e’er I heard in madness.

ISABELLA

O gracious Duke,

Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason

For inequality; but let your reason serve

To make the truth appear where it seems hid,

And hide the false seems true.

DUKE

Many that are not mad

Have sure more lack of reason. What would you say?

ISABELLA

I am the sister of one Claudio,

Condemned upon the act of fornication

To lose his head, condemned by Angelo.

I, in probation of a sisterhood,

Was sent to by my brother, one Lucio

As then the messenger.

LUCIO

That’s I, an’t like your grace.

I came to her from Claudio, and desired her

To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo

For her poor brother’s pardon.

ISABELLA

That’s he indeed.

DUKE (to Lucio)

You were not bid to speak.

LUCIO

No, my good lord,

Nor wished to hold my peace.

DUKE

I wish you now, then. Pray you take note of it;

And when you have a business for yourself,

Pray heaven you then be perfect.

LUCIO I warrant your honour.

DUKE

The warrant’s for yourself; take heed to’t.

ISABELLA

This gentleman told somewhat of my tale—

LUCIO Right.

DUKE

It may be right, but you are i’the wrong

To speak before your time. (To Isabella) Proceed.

ISABELLA

I went

To this pernicious caitiff deputy—

DUKE

That’s somewhat madly spoken.

ISABELLA Pardon it;

The phrase is to the matter.

DUKE

Mended again.

The matter; proceed.

ISABELLA

In brief, to set the needless process by,

How I persuaded, how I prayed and kneeled,

How he refelled me, and how I replied—

For this was of much length—the vile conclusion

I now begin with grief and shame to utter.

He would not, but by gift of my chaste body

To his concupiscible intemperate lust,

Release my brother; and after much debatement,

My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,

And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes,

His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant

For my poor brother’s head.

DUKE

This is most likely!

ISABELLA

O, that it were as like as it is true!

DUKE

By heaven, fond wretch, thou know‘st not what thou

speak’st,

Or else thou art suborned against his honour

In hateful practice. First, his integrity

Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason

That with such vehemency he should pursue

Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended,

He would have weighed thy brother by himself,

And not have cut him off. Someone hath set you on.

Confess the truth, and say by whose advice

Thou cam’st here to complain.

ISABELLA

And is this all?

Then, O you blessed ministers above,

Keep me in patience, and with ripened time

Unfold the evil which is here wrapped up

In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe,

As I, thus wronged, hence unbelievèd go.

DUKE

I know you’d fain be gone. An officer!

To prison with her.

An officer guards Isabella

Shall we thus permit

A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall

On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.

Who knew of your intent and coming hither?

ISABELLA

One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.

⌈Exit, guarded⌉

DUKE

A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?

LUCIO

My lord, I know him. ’Tis a meddling friar;

I do not like the man. Had he been lay, my lord,

For certain words he spake against your grace

In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.

DUKE

Words against me? This’ a good friar, belike!

And to set on this wretched woman here

Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.

⌈Exit one or more⌉

LUCIO

But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,

I saw them at the prison. A saucy friar,

A very scurvy fellow.

FRIAR PETER

Blessed be your royal grace!

I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard

Your royal ear abused. First hath this woman

Most wrongfully accused your substitute,

Who is as free from touch or soil with her

As she from one ungot.

DUKE

We did believe no less.

Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?

FRIAR PETER

I know him for a man divine and holy,

Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,

As he’s reported by this gentleman;

And, on my trust, a man that never yet

Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.

LUCIO My lord, most villainously; believe it.

FRIAR PETER

Well, he in time may come to clear himself;

But at this instant he is sick, my lord,

Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,

Being come to knowledge that there was complaint

Intended ’gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither

To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know

Is true and false, and what he with his oath

And all probation will make up full clear

Whensoever he’s convented. First, for this woman:

To justify this worthy nobleman,

So vulgarly and personally accused,

Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,

Till she herself confess it.

DUKE

Good friar, let’s hear it.

⌈Exit Friar Peter⌉

Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?

O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!

Give us some seats.

⌈Seats are brought in⌉

Come, cousin Angelo,

In this I’ll be impartial; be you judge

Of your own cause.

The Duke and Angelo sit.

Enter ⌈Friar Peter, and⌉ Mariana, veiled

Is this the witness, friar?

First let her show her face, and after speak.

MARIANA

Pardon, my lord, I will not show my face

Until my husband bid me.

DUKE What, are you married?

MARIANA No, my lord.

DUKE Are you a maid?

MARIANA No, my lord.

DUKE A widow then?

MARIANA Neither, my lord.

DUKE Why, you are nothing then; neither maid, widow, nor wife!

LUCIO My lord, she may be a punk, for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

DUKE Silence that fellow. I would he had some cause to prattle for himself.

LUCIO Well, my lord.

MARIANA

My lord, I do confess I ne’er was married,

And I confess besides, I am no maid.

I have known my husband, yet my husband

Knows not that ever he knew me.

LUCIO He was drunk then, my lord, it can be no better.

DUKE For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too.

LUCIO Well, my lord.

DUKE

This is no witness for Lord Angelo.

MARIANA Now I come to’t, my lord.

She that accuses him of fornication

In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,

And charges him, my lord, with such a time

When I’ll depose I had him in mine arms

With all th’effect of love.

ANGELO

Charges she more than me?

MARIANA

Not that I know.

DUKE

No? You say your husband.

MARIANA

Why just, my lord, and that is Angelo,

Who thinks he knows that he ne’er knew my body,

But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel’s.

ANGELO

This is a strange abuse. Let’s see thy face.

MARIANA (unveiling)

My husband bids me; now I will unmask.

This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,

Which once thou swor’st was worth the looking on.

This is the hand which, with a vowed contract,

Was fast belocked in thine. This is the body

That took away the match from Isabel,

And did supply thee at thy garden-house

In her imagined person.

DUKE (to Angelo) Know you this woman?

LUCIO Carnally, she says.

DUKE Sirrah, no more!

LUCIO Enough, my lord.

ANGELO

My lord, I must confess I know this woman;

And five years since there was some speech of

marriage

Betwixt myself and her, which was broke off,

Partly for that her promised proportions

Came short of composition, but in chief

For that her reputation was disvalued

In levity; since which time of five years

I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,

Upon my faith and honour.

MARIANA ⌈kneeling before the Duke⌉ Noble prince,

As there comes light from heaven, and words from

breath,

As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,

I am affianced this man’s wife, as strongly

As words could make up vows. And, my good lord,

But Tuesday night last gone, in’s garden-house,

He knew me as a wife. As this is true,

Let me in safety raise me from my knees,

Or else forever be confixèd here,

A marble monument.

ANGELO

I did but smile till now.

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice.

My patience here is touched. I do perceive

These poor informal women are no more

But instruments of some more mightier member

That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,

To find this practice out.

DUKE (standing)

Ay, with my heart,

And punish them even to your height of pleasure.—

Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman

Compact with her that’s gone, think‘st thou thy oaths,

Though they would swear down each particular saint,

Were testimonies against his worth and credit

That’s sealed in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,

Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains

To find out this abuse, whence ’tis derived.

There is another friar that set them on.

Let him be sent for.

Escalus sits

FRIAR PETER

Would he were here, my lord, for he indeed

Hath set the women on to this complaint.

Your Provost knows the place where he abides,

And he may fetch him.

DUKE (to one or more)

Go, do it instantly.

Exit one or more

(To Angelo) And you, my noble and well-warranted

cousin,

Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,

Do with your injuries as seems you best

In any chastisement. I for a while will leave you,

But stir not you till you have well determined

Upon these slanderers.

ESCALUS

My lord, we’ll do it throughly.

Exit Duke

Signor Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar

Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

LUCIO Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the Duke.

ESCALUS We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him. We shall find this friar a notable fellow.

LUCIO As any in Vienna, on my word.

ESCALUS Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her. Exit one or more (To Angelo) Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question. You shall see how I’ll handle her.

LUCIO Not better than he, by her own report.

ESCALUS Say you?

LUCIO Marry, sir, I think if you handled her privately, she would sooner confess; perchance publicly she’ll be ashamed.

ESCALUS I will go darkly to work with her.

LUCIO That’s the way, for women are light at midnight. Enter Isabella, guarded

ESCALUS (to Isabella) Come on, mistress, here’s a gentlewoman denies all that you have said.

Enter the Duke, disguised as a friar, hooded, and the Provost

LUCIO My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of, here with the Provost.

ESCALUS In very good time. Speak not you to him till we call upon you.

LUCIO Mum.

ESCALUS (to the Duke) Come, sir, did you set these women on to slander Lord Angelo? They have confessed you did.

DUKE ’Tis false.

ESCALUS How! Know you where you are?

DUKE

Respect to your great place, and let the devil

Be sometime honoured fore his burning throne.

Where is the Duke? ’Tis he should hear me speak.

ESCALUS

The Duke’s in us, and we will hear you speak.

Look you speak justly.

DUKE

Boldly at least.

(To Isabella and Mariana) But O, poor souls,

Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox,

Good night to your redress! Is the Duke gone?

Then is your cause gone too. The Duke’s unjust

Thus to retort your manifest appeal,

And put your trial in the villain’s mouth

Which here you come to accuse.

LUCIO

This is the rascal, this is he I spoke of.

ESCALUS

Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar,

Is’t not enough thou hast suborned these women

To accuse this worthy man but, in foul mouth,

And in the witness of his proper ear,

To call him villain, and then to glance from him

To th’ Duke himself, to tax him with injustice?

Take him hence; to th’ rack with him. We’ll touse you

Joint by joint—but we will know his purpose.

What, ‘unjust’?

DUKE

Be not so hot. The Duke

Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he

Dare rack his own. His subject am I not,

Nor here provincial. My business in this state

Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,

Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble

Till it o’errun the stew; laws for all faults,

But faults so countenanced that the strong statutes

Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop,

As much in mock as mark.

ESCALUS Slander to th’ state!

Away with him to prison.

ANGELO

What can you vouch against him, Signor Lucio?

Is this the man that you did tell us of?

LUCIO ’Tis he, my lord.—Come hither, goodman Bald-pate. Do you know me?

DUKE I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice. I met you at the prison, in the absence of the Duke.

LUCIO O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the Duke?

DUKE Most notedly, sir.

LUCIO Do you so, sir? And was the Duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?

DUKE You must, sir, change persons with me ere you make that my report. You indeed spoke so of him, and much more, much worse.

LUCIO O, thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose for thy speeches?

DUKE I protest I love the Duke as I love myself.

ANGELO Hark how the villain would close now, after his treasonable abuses.

ESCALUS Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with him to prison. Where is the Provost? Away with him to prison. Lay bolts enough upon him. Let him speak no more. Away with those giglets too, and with the other confederate companion.

⌈Mariana is raised to her feet, and is guarded⌉

The Provost makes to seize the Duke

DUKE Stay, sir, stay a while.

ANGELO What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.

LUCIO (to the Duke) Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir! Foh, sir! Why, you bald-pated lying rascal, you must be hooded, must you? Show your knave’s visage, with a pox to you! Show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour! Will’t not off?

He pulls off the friar’s hood, and discovers the Duke.

⌈Angelo and Escalus rise⌉

DUKE

Thou art the first knave that e’er madest a duke.

First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three.

(To Lucio) Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you

Must have a word anon. (To one or more) Lay hold on

him.

LUCIO This may prove worse than hanging.

DUKE (to Escalus)

What you have spoke, I pardon. Sit you down.

We’ll borrow place of him.

⌈ Escalus sits ⌉

(To Angelo) Sir, by your leave.

⌈ He takes Angelo’s seat ⌉

Hast thou or word or wit or impudence

That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,

Rely upon it till my tale be heard,

And hold no longer out.

ANGELO O my dread lord,

I should be guiltier than my guiltiness

To think I can be undiscernible,

When I perceive your grace, like power divine,

Hath looked upon my passes. Then, good prince,

No longer session hold upon my shame,

But let my trial be mine own confession.

Immediate sentence then, and sequent death,

Is all the grace I beg.

DUKE

Come hither, Mariana.

(To Angelo) Say, wast thou e’er contracted to this

woman?

ANGELO I was, my lord.

DUKE

Go, take her hence and marry her instantly.

Do you the office, friar; which consummate,

Return him here again. Go with him, Provost.

Exeunt Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and the

Provost

ESCALUS

My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour

Than at the strangeness of it.

DUKE

Come hither, Isabel.

Your friar is now your prince. As I was then

Advertising and holy to your business,

Not changing heart with habit I am still

Attorneyed at your service.

ISABELLA

O, give me pardon,

That I, your vassal, have employed and pained

Your unknown sovereignty.

DUKE

You are pardoned, Isabel.

And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.

Your brother’s death I know sits at your heart,

And you may marvel why I obscured myself,

Labouring to save his life, and would not rather

Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power

Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,

It was the swift celerity of his death,

Which I did think with slower foot came on,

That brained my purpose. But peace be with him!

That life is better life, past fearing death,

Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort,

So happy is your brother.

ISABELLA

I do, my lord.

Enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and the Provost

DUKE

For this new-married man approaching here,

Whose salt imagination yet hath wronged

Your well-defended honour, you must pardon

For Mariana’s sake; but as he adjudged your

brother—

Being criminal in double violation

Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach,

Thereon dependent, for your brother’s life—

The very mercy of the law cries out

Most audible, even from his proper tongue,

‘An Angelo for Claudio, death for death’.

Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;

Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.

Then, Angelo, thy fault’s thus manifested,

Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee

vantage.

We do condemn thee to the very block

Where Claudio stooped to death, and with like haste.

Away with him.

MARIANA

O my most gracious lord,

I hope you will not mock me with a husband!

DUKE

It is your husband mocked you with a husband.

Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,

I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,

For that he knew you, might reproach your life,

And choke your good to come. For his possessions,

Although by confiscation they are ours,

We do enstate and widow you with all,

To buy you a better husband.

MARIANA

O my dear lord,

I crave no other, nor no better man.

DUKE

Never crave him; we are definitive.

MARIANA

Gentle my liege—

DUKE

You do but lose your labour.—

Away with him to death. (To Lucio) Now, sir, to you.

MARIANA (kneeling)

O my good lord!—Sweet Isabel, take my part;

Lend me your knees, and all my life to come

I’ll lend you all my life to do you service.

DUKE

Against all sense you do importune her.

Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,

Her brother’s ghost his paved bed would break,

And take her hence in horror.

MARIANA

Isabel,

Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me.

Hold up your hands; say nothing; I’ll speak all.

They say best men are moulded out of faults,

And, for the most, become much more the better

For being a little bad. So may my husband.

O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?

DUKE

He dies for Claudio’s death.

ISABELLA (kneeling) Most bounteous sir,

Look, if it please you, on this man condemned

As if my brother lived. I partly think

A due sincerity governed his deeds,

Till he did look on me. Since it is so,

Let him not die. My brother had but justice,

In that he did the thing for which he died.

For Angelo,

His act did not o’ertake his bad intent,

And must be buried but as an intent

That perished by the way. Thoughts are no subjects,

Intents but merely thoughts.

MARIANA

Merely, my lord.

DUKE

Your suit’s unprofitable. Stand up, I say.

⌈Mariana and Isabella stand⌉

I have bethought me of another fault.

Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded

At an unusual hour?

PROVOST It was commanded so.

DUKE

Had you a special warrant for the deed?

PROVOST

No, my good lord, it was by private message.

DUKE

For which I do discharge you of your office.

Give up your keys.

PROVOST

Pardon me, noble lord.

I thought it was a fault, but knew it not,

Yet did repent me after more advice;

For testimony whereof one in the prison

That should by private order else have died

I have reserved alive.

DUKE What’s he?

PROVOST His name is Barnardine.

DUKE

I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.

Go fetch him hither. Let me look upon him.

Exit Provost

ESCALUS

I am sorry one so learned and so wise

As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeared,

Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood

And lack of tempered judgement afterward.

ANGELO

I am sorry that such sorrow I procure,

And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart

That I crave death more willingly than mercy.

’Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.

Enter Barnardine and the Provost; Claudio, muffled, and Juliet

DUKE

Which is that Barnardine?

PROVOST

This, my lord.

DUKE

There was a friar told me of this man.

(To Barnardine) Sirrah, thou art said to have a

stubborn soul

That apprehends no further than this world,

And squar‘st thy life according. Thou’rt condemned;

But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all,

And pray thee take this mercy to provide

For better times to come.—Friar, advise him.

I leave him to your hand. (To Provost) What muffled

fellow’s that?

PROVOST

This is another prisoner that I saved,

Who should have died when Claudio lost his head,

As like almost to Claudio as himself.

He unmuffles Claudio

DUKE (to Isabella)

If he be like your brother, for his sake

Is he pardoned; and for your lovely sake

Give me your hand, and say you will be mine.

He is my brother too. But fitter time for that.

By this Lord Angelo perceives he’s safe.

Methinks I see a quick’ning in his eye.

Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well.

Look that you love your wife, her worth worth yours.

I find an apt remission in myself;

And yet here’s one in place I cannot pardon.

(To Lucio) You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a

coward,

One all of luxury, an ass, a madman,

Wherein have I so deserved of you

That you extol me thus?

LUCIO Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would please you I might be whipped.

DUKE Whipped first, sir, and hanged after.

Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city,

If any woman wronged by this lewd fellow,

As I have heard him swear himself there’s one

Whom he begot with child, let her appear,

And he shall marry her. The nuptial finished,

Let him be whipped and hanged.

LUCIO I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore. Your highness said even now I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold.

DUKE

Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.

Thy slanders I forgive, and therewithal

Remit thy other forfeits.—Take him to prison,

And see our pleasure herein executed.

LUCIO Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging.

DUKE Slandering a prince deserves it.

⌈Exit Lucio guarded⌉

She, Claudio, that you wronged, look you restore.

Joy to you, Mariana. Love her, Angelo.

I have confessed her, and I know her virtue.

Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness.

There’s more behind that is more gratulate.

Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy.

We shall employ thee in a worthier place.

Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home

The head of Ragusine for Claudio’s.

Th’offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,

I have a motion much imports your good,

Whereto, if you’ll a willing ear incline,

What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.

(To all) So bring us to our palace, where we’ll show

What’s yet behind that’s meet you all should know.

Exeunt

ADDITIONAL PASSAGES

The text of Measure for Measure given in this edition is probably that of an adapted version made for Shakespeare’s company after his death. Adaptation seems to have affected two passages, printed below as we believe Shakespeare to have written them.

A. 1.2.0.1-116

A.2-9 (‘... by him’) are lines which the adapter (whom we believe to be Thomas Middleton) evidently intended to be replaced by 1.2.56-79 of the play as we print it. The adapter must have contributed all of 1.2.0.1-83, which in the earliest and subsequent printed texts precede the discussion between the Clown (Pompey) and the Bawd (Mistress Overdone) about Claudio’s arrest. Lucio’s entry alone at 1. 40.1 below, some eleven lines after his re-entry with the two Gentlemen and the Provost’s party in the adapted text, probably represents Shakespeare’s original intention. In his version, Juliet, present but silent in the adapted text both in 1.2 and 5.1, probably did not appear in either scene; accordingly, the words ‘and there’s Madam Juliet’ (1.2.107) must also be the reviser’s work, and do not appear below.

Enter Pompey and Mistress Overdone, ⌈meeting⌉

MISTRESS OVERDONE How now, what’s the news with you?

POMPEY Yonder man is carried to prison.

MISTRESS OVERDONE Well! What has he done?

POMPEY A woman.

MISTRESS OVERDONE But what’s his offence?

POMPEY Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.

MISTRESS OVERDONE What, is there a maid with child by him?

POMPEY No, but there’s a woman with maid by him: you have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

MISTRESS OVERDONE What proclamation, man?

POMPEY All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

MISTRESS OVERDONE And what shall become of those in the city?

POMPEY They shall stand for seed. They had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.

MISTRESS OVERDONE But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

POMPEY To the ground, mistress.

MISTRESS OVERDONE Why, here’s a change indeed in the commonwealth. What shall become of me?

POMPEY 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.