Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough. Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child.

Duke. Did you such a thing?

Lucio. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.

Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.

Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, Friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Room in ANGELO'S House.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd [the] other.

Ang. 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 re-deliver our authorities there?

Escal. I guess not.

Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his ent'ring, that if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

Escal. 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.

Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd. 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.

[Exit.

Escal. I shall, sir: fare you well.

Ang. Good night.

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid,

And by an eminent body, that enforc'd

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 on;
For my authority bears up a credent bulk
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd,
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd!
Alack! when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.
[Exit.

SCENE V.

Fields without the Town.

Enter 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 Flavius' house, And tell him where I stay: give the like notice

To Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;

But send me Flavius first.
Friar Peter.

It shall be speeded well. [Exit Friar.

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.

SCENE VI.

Street near the City Gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath:
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part; yet I'm advis'd to do it,
He says, to veil full purpose.

Mari.

Be rul'd by him.

Isab. 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.

Mari. I would, Friar Peter -
Isab.

O, peace! the Friar is come.

Enter Friar PETER.

F. 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.

ACT V.

SCENE I. - A public Place near the City Gate.

Enter, severally, DUKE, VARRIUS, and Attendant Lords, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens. During their interview, enter MARIANA, (veiled,) ISABELLA, and Friar PETER, at a distance.

DUKE.

MY very worthy cousin, fairly met:

Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.

Ang. and Escal. Happy return be to your Royal Grace!

Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made inquiry of you; and we hear Such goodness of your justice, that our soul Cannot but yield forth to you public thanks, Forerunning more requital.

Ang.

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,

F2

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.

Friar Peter and ISABELLA come forward.

F. Peter. Now is your time.

kneel before him.

Speak loud, and

Isab. Justice, O Royal Duke! Vail your regard Upon a wrong'd, 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.

Isab.

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 believ'd,

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

Isab.
By course of justice!
Ang. And she will speak most bitterly, and strange.
Isab. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak.

That Angelo's forsworn; - is it not strange ?
That Angelo's a murtherer; - is't not strange?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;
Is it not strange, and strange ?