be forry fhould be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick

tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.

Lucio. Within two hours.

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE VII. A Monaftery.

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.

[Exeunt.

Duke. No; holy father, throw away that thought; Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a compleat bofom: why I defire thee To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace fpeak of it?

Duke. My holy Sir, none better knows than you, How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt affemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo

(A man of strict ure and firm abstinence)
My abfolute pow'r and place here in Vienna;
And he fuppofes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I've ftrew'd it in the common ear,
And fo it is receiv'd: now, pious Sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my Lord.

Duke We have ftrict ftatutes and most biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs for headftrong fteeds), Which for thefe nineteen years we have let fleep; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to flick it in their childrens fight,

For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And Liberty plucks Juftice by the nofe;
The baby beats the nurfe, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It refled in your Grace

T'unlofe this ty'd-up juftice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd,
Than in Lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful.

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them,
For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permiffive pass,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my fa-
I have on Angelo impos'd the office:

[ther, in th' ambush of my name ftrike home, And yet my nature never in the fight

Who may

To do in flander: and, to behold his fway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Vifit both prince and people; therefore, pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and inftruct me
How I may formally in perfon bear,

Like a true friar. More reafons for this action
At our more leifure fhall I render

you; Only, this one:Lord Angelo is precife ; "Stands at a guard with envy; fcarce confeffes "That his blood flows, or that his appetite "Is more to bread than stone: hence fhall we fee, If pow'r change purpose, what our feemers be. [Exe.

SCENE VIII. A nunnery.

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

Ifab. And have your nuns no further privileges?
Nun. Are not thefe large enough?

Ifab. Yes, truly; I fpeak not as defiring more;
But rather wifhing a more ftrict restraint
Upon the fifterhood, the votarifts of Saint Clare.
Lucio. [within] Hoa! peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that, which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice: gentle Ifabella,

Turn you the key, and know his bufinefs of him;
You may; I may not; you are yet unfworn.

When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,

But in the presence of the Prioress:

Then, if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face;
Or, if you fhew your face, you must not speak.

VOL.I.

LI

He

He calls again; I pray you answer him. [Exit Fran. Ifab. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, (if you be), as those cheek-rofes
Proclaim you are no lefs; can you so ftead me,
As bring me to the fight of Ifabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair fifter
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 Ifabella, and his fifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets Not to be weary with you, he's in prison. Ifab. Wo me! for what?

[you;

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge, He fhould receive his punishment in thanks; He hath got his friend with child.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your ftory.

Lucio. 'Tis true:-I would not (tho' 'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo.
I hold you as a thing en-fky'd, and fainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit,
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

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 embrace'd; As those that feed, grow full; as bloffoming time That from the feedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foyfon; fo her plenteous womb Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry. Ifab. Some one with child by him? Juliet ?

Lucio. Is fhe your cousin ?

-my coufin

Ifab. Adoptedly, as fchool-maids change their names, By vain, tho' apt, affection.

The lapwing flies fo low, and fo near the paffenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. Hence it is ufed as a proverbial expreffion to fignify a lover's falfehood.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. O, let him marry her!

Lucio. This is the point.

The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myfelf being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By thofe that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy, and fast.
He (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whofe heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit; he arrefts him on it,
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope's gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo; and that's my pith of business
'Twixt you and your poor brother.

Ifab. Doth he fo

Seek for his life?

Lucio. H'as cenfur'd him already;

And, as I hear, the Provost hath a warrant
For's execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor

Ability's in me, to do him good?
Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Ifab. My power? Alas! I doubt.
Lucio. Our doubts are traitors;

And make us lofe the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,
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.

L 12

Lucie.

Lucio. But, fpeedily.

Ifab. I will about it ftrait;

No longer staying. but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my brother? foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my success.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ifab. Good Sir, adieu.

[Exeunt.

Enter Angelo, Efcalus, a Juftice, and attendants.

Ang.

W

E must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one fhape, till custom make it Their pearch, and not their terror.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruise to death Alas! this gentleman, Whom I would fave, 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 coher'd with place, or place with wishing, Or that the refolute acting of your blood

Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose ;
Whether you had not fome time in your life

Err'd in this point, which now you cenfure him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. ' is one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, paffing on the prifoner's life,

May in the fworn twelve have a thief or two,

Guiltier than him they try; what's open made to justice,

That juftice feizes on.

that know the laws,

That thieves do pafs on thieves? 'tis very pregnant,

The jewel that we find, we ftoop and take't,

Because we fee it but what we do not fee,

:

We tread upon, and never think of it.

You