The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

Home > Fiction > The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works > Page 361
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 361

by William Shakespeare


  MARIANA Noble Prince,

  As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath,

  As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,

  225

  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,

  230

  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

  235

  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,

  240

  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

  245

  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.

  250

  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

  255

  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?

  260

  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

  265

  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

  270

  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

  275

  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.

  280

  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.

  285

  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

  290

  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,

  295

  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

  300

  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,

  305

  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.

  310

  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,

  315

  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!

  320

  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?

  325

  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.

  330

  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.

  335

  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!

  340

  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!

  345

  [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

  350

  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

  355

  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,

  360

  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,

  365

  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

  370

  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,

  375

  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,

  380

  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.

  385

  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,

  390

  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,

  395

  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,

  400

  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:

  405

  ‘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.

  410

  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.

  415

  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,

  420

  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.

 

‹ Prev