MARIANA Noble Prince,
As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath,
As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
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I am affianc’d 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,
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Or else for ever be confixed 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 touch’d: I do perceive
These poor informal women are no more
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But instruments of some more mightier member
That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.
DUKE Ay, with my heart;
And punish them to your height of pleasure.
Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman,
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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 seal’d in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,
Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains
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To find out this abuse, whence ’tis deriv’d.
There is another friar that set them on;
Let him be sent for.
FRIAR PETER
Would he were here, my lord; for he indeed
Hath set the women on to this complaint.
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Your Provost knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.
DUKE Go, do it instantly.
Exit an attendant.
And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
Do with your injuries as seems you best
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In any chastisement. I for a while will leave you;
But stir not you till you have well determin’d
Upon these slanderers.
ESCALUS My lord, we’ll do it throughly.
Exit Duke.
Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar
Lodowick to be a dishonest person?
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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
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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 an attendant.
Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall
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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
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ashamed.
Enter at several doors Provost with DUKE, in
disguise and hooded, and ISABELLA under guard.
ESCALUS I will go darkly to work with her.
LUCIO That’s the way; for women are light at midnight.
ESCALUS Come on, mistress, here’s a gentlewoman
denies all that you have said.
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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.
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ESCALUS Come, sir: did you set these women on to
slander Lord Angelo? They have confess’d you did.
DUKE ’Tis false.
ESCALUS How! Know you where you are?
DUKE Respect to your great place; and let the devil
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Be sometime honour’d for 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. But O, poor souls,
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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
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Which here you come to accuse.
LUCIO This is the rascal: this is he I spoke of.
ESCALUS Why, thou unreverend and unhallow’d friar!
Is’t not enough thou hast suborn’d these women
To accuse this worthy man, but in foul mouth,
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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.
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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,
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Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
Till it o’errun the stew: laws for all faults,
But faults so countenanc’d that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop,
As much in mock as mark.
ESCALUS Slander to th’ state!
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Away with him to prison!
ANGELO
What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
Is this the man that you did tell us of?
LUCIO ’Tis he, my lord. – Come hither, goodman
Baldpate, do you know me?
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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!
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[The Provost lays hands on the Duke.]
DUKE Stay, sir, stay a while.
ANGELO What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.
LUCIO 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
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you! Show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an
hour! Will’t not off?
[Pulls off the friar’s hood and discovers the Duke.]
DUKE Thou art the first knave that e’er mad’st a duke.
First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three.
[to Lucio] Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you
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Must have a word anon. – Lay hold on him.
LUCIO [aside] This may prove worse than hanging.
DUKE [to Escalus] What you have spoke, I pardon: sit you down.
We’ll borrow place of him.
[to Angelo] Sir, by your leave.
Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
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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,
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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
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Is all the grace I beg.
DUKE Come hither, Mariana. –
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,
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Return him here again. Go with him, Provost.
Exeunt Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter and Provost.
ESCALUS My lord, I am more amaz’d 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,
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Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney’d at your service.
ISABELLA O, give me pardon,
That I, your vassal, have employ’d and pain’d
Your unknown sovereignty.
DUKE You are pardon’d, Isabel.
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
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Your brother’s death, I know, sits at your heart:
And you may marvel why I obscur’d 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,
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It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brain’d 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,
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So happy is your brother.
ISABELLA I do, my lord.
Enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost.
DUKE For this new-married man approaching here,
Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong’d
Your well defended honour, you must pardon
For Mariana’s sake: but as he adjudg’d your brother,
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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:
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‘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 would’st deny, denies thee vantage.
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We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stoop’d 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 mock’d you with a husband.
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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,
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We do instate and widow you with all,
To buy you a better husband.
MARIANA O my dear lord,
I crave no other, nor no better man.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 361
