Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than

How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd2;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

you

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps 3.
I have delivered 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 for headstrong steeds), Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

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

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our 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 do fear, too dreadful: Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope, "Twould 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,

2 i. e. retired.

3 Bravery is showy dress. Keeps, i. e. resides.
Stricture; strictness.

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my

father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office;

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

To do it slander: And to behold his sway,

I will, as 'twere 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 5 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.

SCENE V. A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

[Exeunt.

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

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

[Within.]

Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place?
Isab.
Who's that which calls?
Fran. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella,
you the key, and know his business of him;
You may,
I may not; you are yet unsworn:
you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,

Turn

When

But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show

5 i. e. on his defence.

your face;

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [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, mock me not:-your story1.

Lucio. "Tis true, I would not,-though 'tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing2, 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;

1 The old copy reads:

'Sir, make me not your story.'

The emendation is Mr. Malone's.

2 This bird is said to draw pursuers from her nest by crying in other places. This was formerly the subject of a proverb, 'The lapwing cries most, farthest from her nest,' i. e. tongue far from heart. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries away;

My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.'

And to be talked with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth3,

'tis thus:

Your brother and his lover4 have embrac'd:

As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison 5; even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin
Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their

names,

By vain though apt affection.

Lucio.

She it is.

Isab. O let him marry her! Lucio. This is the point. The duke is very strangely gone from hence; Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn By those that know the very nerves of state, His givings out were of an infinite distance From his true-meant design. Upon his place, And with full line of his authority, Governs Lord Angelo; a man, whose blood Is very snow-broth; one who never feels The wanton stings and motions of the sense;

3 Fewness and truth, in few and true words.

4 i. e. his mistress.

5 Teeming foison is abundant produce.

6 Tilth is tillage. So in Shakspeare's third Sonnet:
For who is she so fair, whose unrear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?'

7 Full line, extent.

But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He (to give fear to use9 and liberty,

Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions), hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace 10 by your fair
To soften Angelo: And that's my pith
Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.

Isab. Doth he so seek his life?

Lucio.

prayer

Has censur'd 11 him Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath A warrant for his execution.

Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me To do him good?

Lucio.

Assay the power you have.
Isab. My power! Alas! I doubt,-
Lucio.

Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt: Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs

As they themselves would owe

12 them.

8 To rebate is to make dull: Aciem ferri hebetare.-Baret. 9 i. e. to intimidate use, or practices long countenanced by

custom.

10 i. e. power of gaining favour.

11 To censure is to judge. This is the poet's general meaning for the word, but the editors have given him several others. Here they interpret it censured, sentenced. We have it again in the next

scene:

"When I that censure him do so offend,

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death.' 12 To owe is to have, to possess.