Claud. No.
Lucio. Letchery ?
Claud. Call it fo.
Prov. Away, Sir, you must go.
Claud. One Word, good Friend:
Lucio, a Word with you.
Lucio. A hundred;
If they'll do you any good: Is Letchery so look'd after?
Claud. Thus stands it with me; upon a true Contract
I got Poffeffion of Julietta's Bed,
You know the Lady, she is fast my Wife,
Save that we do the Denunciation lack
Of outward Order. This we came not to,
Only for Propagation of a Dowre
Remaining in the Coffer of her Friends,
From whom we thought it meet to hide our Love
'Till Time had made them for us, But it chances.
The Stealth of our most mutual Entertainment
With Character too gross, is writ in Juliet.
Lucio. With Child, perhaps?
Cland. Unhappily, even so,
And the new Deputy, now for the Duke,
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of Newness,
Or whether that the Body publick be
A Horse whereon the Governor doth ride,
Who newly in the Seat, that it may know
He can command, lets it strait feel the Spur;
Whether the Tyranny be in his Place,
Or in his Eminence that fills it up,
I stagger in: But this new Governor
Awakes me all the enrolled Penalties
Which have, like unscour'd Armour, hung by th' Wall
So long, that nineteen Zodiacks have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and for a Name,
Now puts the drowsie and neglected Act
Freshly on me; 'tis surely for a Name.
Lucio. I warrant it is; and thy Head stands so tickle on thy Shoulders, that a Milk-maid, if she be in Love, may figh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.
Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
I prethee, Lucio, do me this kind Service:
SCENE IV. A Nunnery.
Enter Isabella and Francifca.
Ifab. And have you Nuns no farther Privileges?
Nun. Are not these large enough?
Ifab. Yes truly; I speak not as defiring more,
But rather wishing a more strict Restraint
Upon the Sifterhood, the Votarists of Saint Clare.
Lucio. Hoa! Peace be in this Place.
Ifab. Who's that which calls?
Nun. It is a Man's Voice, gentle Isabella,
Turn you the Key, and know his Business of him;
You may, I may not, you are yet unsworn:
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with Men,
But in the Presence of the Prioress;
Then if you speak, you must not thew your Face,
Or if you shew your Face, you must not fpeak.
He calls again, I pray you answer him.
Ifab. Peace and Prosperity, who is't that calls?
Enter Lucio.
Lucio. Hail Virgin, if you be, as those Cheek-Rofes
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 Sifter
To her unhappy Brother Claudio?
Ifab. 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.
Ifab. Wo me, for what?
Lucio. For that, which if my self might be his Judge,
He should receive his Punishment in Thanks;
He hath got his Friend with Child.
Ifab. Sir, make me not your Story.
Lucio. 'Tis true; I would not, tho tis my familiar Sin,
With Maids to feem the Lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue, far from Heart; play with all Virgins so.
I hold you as a thing en-sky'd and fainted,
Be your Renouncement an Immortal Spirit,
And to be talk'd with in Sincerity,
Ifab. You do blafpheme the Good, in mocking me.
Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness, and Truth; 'tis thus;
Your Brother and his Lover having embrac'd,
As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
That from the Seedness the bare Fallow brings
To teeming Foyfon; even fo her plenteous Womb
Expresseth his full Tilth and Husbandry.
Ifab. Some one with Child by him? My Cozen Juliet?
Lucio Is she your Cozen?
Ijab. Adoptedly, as School-Maids change their Names,
By vain, tho' apt Affection.
Lucio. She it is.
Ifab. Let him marry her.
Lucio. This is the Point.
The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many Gentlemen, my felf 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;
But doth rebate, and blunt his natural Edge
With Profits of the Mind, Study and Faft.
He, to give Fear to Ufe and Liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous Law,
As Mice by Lyons, hath pickt out an Act,
Under whose heavy Sense your Brother's Life
Falls into Forfeit; he arrests him on it,
And follows close the Rigor of the Statute,
To make him an Example; all Hope is gone,
Unless you have the Grace by your fair Prayer
To soften Angelo; and that's my Pith of Business
'Twixt you, and your poor Brother.
Ifab. Doth he fo
Seek his Life?
Lucio. Has cenfur'd him already,
And, as I hear, the Provost hath a Warrant
For's Execution.
Isab. Alas! what poor
Ability's in me, to do him good?
Lucio. Afsay the Power you have.
Ifab. My Power? Alas! I doubt.
Lucio. Our Doubts are Traitors,
And makes 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 truly theirs,
As they themselves would owe them.
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.
Lucio. But speedily.
Ifab. I will about it strait;
No longer staying, but to give the Mother
Notice of my Affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my Brother: Soon at Night
I'll fend him certain word of my Success.
Lucio. I take my Leave of you.
Ifab. Good Sir, adieu.
ACT II. SCENE I.
SCENE the Palace.
Enter Angelo, Escalus, Justice and Attendants.
it up to fear the Birds of prey,
And let it keep one Shape, 'till Custom make it
Their Pearch, and not their Terror.
Escal. Ay, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
Than fall, and bruise to Death. Alas! this Gentleman,
Whom I would save, had a most noble Father;
Let but your Honour know,
Whom I believe to be most strait in Virtue,
That in the working of your own Affections,
Had Time coheer'd with Place, or Place with Wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your Blood,
Could have attain'd the Effect of your own Purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your Life
Err'd in this Point, which now you censure him,
And pull'd the Law upon you.
Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny
The Jury paffing on the Prisoner's Life,
May in the sworn Twelve have a Thief or two,
Guiltier than him they try; what's open made to Justice,
That Justice seizes. What knows the Laws
That Thieves do pass on Thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,
The Jewel that we find, we stoop and take't,
Because we fee it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his Offence,
For I have had such Faults; but rather tell me
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own Judgment pattern out my Death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Escal. Be it as your Wisdom will.
Ang. Where is the Provost ?
Prov. Here, if it like your Honour.
Ang. See that Claudio
Be executed by nine to Morrow Morning.
Bring him his Confeffor, let him be prepar'd,
For that's the utmost of his Pilgrimage.
Escal. Well: Heav'n forgive him; and forgive us all;
Some rise by Sin, and some by Virtue fall:
Some run through Brakes of Vice, and answer none,
And fome condemned for a Fault alone.
Enter Elbow, Froth, Clown and Officers. Elb. Come, bring them away; if these be good People in a Common-weal, that do nothing but use their Abuses in common Houses, I know no Law; bring them away.
Ang. How now, Sir, what's your Name? and what's the
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