Mariana
Not that I know.
Duke Vincentio
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
My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
Unveiling
This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on;
This is the hand which, with a vow’d contract,
Was fast belock’d 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 Vincentio
Know you this woman?
Lucio
Carnally, she says.
Duke Vincentio
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
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 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
But instruments of some more mightier member
That sets them on: let me have way, my lord,
To find this practise out.
Duke Vincentio
Ay, with my heart
And punish them 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 seal’d 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.
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 Vincentio
Go do it instantly.
Exit Provost
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
Signior 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 villanous 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 an Attendant
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.
Re-enter Officers with Isabella; and Provost with the Duke Vincentio in his friar’s habit
Escalus
Come on, mistress: here’s a gentlewoman denies all that you have said.
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
Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander
Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did.
Duke Vincentio
’Tis false.
Escalus
How! know you where you are?
Duke Vincentio
Respect to your great place! and let the devil
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 Vincentio
Boldly, at least. 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 unhallow’d friar,
Is’t not enough thou hast suborn’d 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 the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
Take him hence; to the rack with him! We’ll touse you
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.
What ’unjust’!
Duke Vincentio
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’er-run 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 the state! 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 m
e?
Duke Vincentio
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 Vincentio
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 Vincentio
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 Vincentio
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 giglots too, and with the other confederate companion!
Duke Vincentio
[To Provost] Stay, sir; stay awhile.
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 you! show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour! Will’t not off?
Pulls off the friar’s hood, and discovers Duke Vincentio
Duke Vincentio
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. Lay hold on him.
Lucio
This may prove worse than hanging.
Duke Vincentio
[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,
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 look’d 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 Vincentio
Come hither, Mariana.
Say, wast thou e’er contracted to this woman?
Angelo
I was, my lord.
Duke Vincentio
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 Provost
Escalus
My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour
Than at the strangeness of it.
Duke Vincentio
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
Attorney’d at your service.
Isabella
O, give me pardon,
That I, your vassal, have employ’d and pain’d
Your unknown sovereignty!
Duke Vincentio
You are pardon’d, 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 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,
So happy is your brother.
Isabella
I do, my lord.
Re-enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost
Duke Vincentio
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 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 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 Vincentio
It is your husband mock’d 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 instate and widow you withal,
To buy you a better husband.
Mariana
O my dear lord,
I crave no other, nor no better man.
Duke Vincentio
Never crave him; we are definitive.
Mariana
Gentle my liege,—
Kneeling
Duke Vincentio
You do but lose your labour.
Away with him to death!
To Lucio
Now, sir, to you.
Mariana
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 Vincentio
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 Vincentio
He dies for Claudio’s death.
Isabella
Most bounteous sir,
Kneeling
Look, if it please you, on this man condemn’d,
As if my brother lived: I partly think
A due sincerity govern’d 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:
Fo
r Angelo,
His act did not o’ertake his bad intent,
And must be buried but as an intent
That perish’d by the way: thoughts are no subjects;
Intents but merely thoughts.
Mariana
Merely, my lord.
Duke Vincentio
Your suit’s unprofitable; stand up, I say.
I have bethought me of another fault.
Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded
At an unusual hour?
Provost
It was commanded so.
Duke Vincentio
Had you a special warrant for the deed?
Provost
No, my good lord; it was by private message.
Duke Vincentio
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 Vincentio
What’s he?
Provost
His name is Barnardine.
Duke Vincentio
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 appear’d,
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood.
And lack of temper’d judgment 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.
Re-enter Provost, with Barnardine, Claudio muffled, and Juliet
Duke Vincentio
Which is that Barnardine?
Provost
This, my lord.
Duke Vincentio
There was a friar told me of this man.
Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul.
That apprehends no further than this world,
And squarest thy life according. Thou’rt condemn’d:
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. 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.
Unmuffles Claudio
Duke Vincentio
[To Isabella] If he be like your brother, for his sake
Is he pardon’d; 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 quickening in his eye.
Complete Plays, The Page 290
