forry Mould 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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE, A MONASTERY.

Duhe. N

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.
0; holy father, throw away that thought;

1

Can pierce a compleat bosom; why I defire thee
To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose
More grave, and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace speak 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 Assemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo
(A man of stricture and firm abftinence);
My absolute Pow'r and Place here in Vienna ;
And he fupposes me travellid to Poland;
For fo I've strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: now, pious Sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict Statutes and most biting Laws, (The needful bits and curbs for head-itrong Steeds, (4). Which for these nineteen years we have let fleep: (5)

Even (4) The needful Bits and Curbs for beadstrong Weeds :] There is no matter of Analogy or Consonance, in the Metaphors here: and tho' the Copies agree, I do not think, the Author would have talk'd of Bits and Curbs for Weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare Persons of unbridled Licentionseness to head-trong Steeds: and, in this View, bridling the Paffion has been a Phrase adopted by our best Poets.

(5) Which .for ibeje fourteen years we have let lip:) For fourteen I have made 'no Scruple' to replace nineteen. The Rea

fon

Even like an o'er-grown 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 stick it in their Children's fight,
For terror, not to ufe ; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: so our Decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And Liberty plucks Justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athyart
Goes all decorum,

Fri. It reited in your Grace
T' unloose this ty'd up justice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feemid,
Than in lord Angelo,

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful.
Sith 'twas my fault to give the people fcope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and galt them,
For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,
And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos’d the office:
Who

may in th’ambulh of my name frike home,

fon will be obvious to the Reader, who should look back to the 3d Note upon this Play. I have, I hope, upon as good Authority, alter'd the odd Pbrase of letting the Laws Hip: for, supposing the Expression might be justified, yet how does it fort with the Comparison, that follows, of a Lion in his Cave that went not out to prey ? But letting the Laws fleep, as I have restored to the Text, adds

a particular Propriety to the Thing represented, and accords exactly too with the Simile. It is the Metaphor too, that our Author seems fond of using upon this Occafion, in several other Passages of this Play. The Law bath not been dead, tho' it bath Nept;

'Tis now awake.

And so again,

but this new Governor Awakes me all tb' enrolled Penalties;

and for a Name Now puts the drowsy and negle&ted Act Fresbly on me

And

Isaber A Ņun. Are not thefe large lenough?
308 M e A-SU'R E for MEASURE
And yet, my nature never in the fight
So do in flander: And to behold his fway,
I will, as 'twere a Brother of your Order,
Visit both prince and people ; therefore, pr’ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me:
How I may formally in perfon bear,
Like a true Frias. More reasons for this action
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one ;-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,
If pow'r change purpose, what our feemers be. [Exeunt.

SCENE, A Nunnery.

Enter Isabella and Francisca.
ND have you Nuns no further privileges

You may ;

Ijab. Yes, truly; I speak not.as defiring more;
Bat rather withing a more strict rettraint
Upon the fifter-hood, the vatarilts of Saint Clare.

Lucio. [within.] Hoa! Peace be in this place!
Isab. Who's that, which calls ?

Nun. It is a man's voice: gentle. Ifabella,
Turn you the key, and know his bufiness of him ;

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 speak, you must not fhew your face; Or, if you fhew your face, you must not fpeak. He calls again ; I pray you, answer him.

[Exit Fran. Isab. Peace and prosperity ! who is't that calls ?

Enter Lucio. Lucio. Hail, virgin, (if ġou be) as -those cheek rooses Proclaim you are no less ;-can you so stead me, As bring me to the fight of Jabella, A novice of this place, and the fair fifter. To her unhappy brother Claudio ?

Isab. Why her unhappy brother ? let me ask
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella, and his sifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you ; Not to be weary with you, he's in prifon.

Isab. Woe me! for what?

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

Isab. Sir, make me not your story.

Lucio. 'Tis true. I would not (tho''tis my familiar fin With maids to feemr the lapwing, and to jest, Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo. I hold you as a thing en-sky'd, and sainted; By your renouncement, an immortal Spirit'; And to be talk'd with in fincerity, As with a Saint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me.

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and trath, 'tis thus; Your brother and his lover having embrac'd, As those that feed grow full, as bloffoming time That from the feednefs the bare fallow brings To teeming foyson ; fo her plenteous womb Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Ijab. Some one with child by him?-my cousin Juliet? Lucio, Is she

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

Lucio. Slie it is.
Ijab. O, let him marry her!

Lucio. This is the point.
The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we 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

your coufin?

The wanton stings and motions of the sense ;
But doth rebate and blont his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and faft.
He, (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions;) hath pickt out an act,
Under whose heavy fense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit; he arrests 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 soften Angelo ; and that's my pith of business
'Twixt

you
and

your poor brother,
Ijab. Doth he fo
Seek for his life?

Lucio. H'as censur'd him already;
And, as I hear, the Provost hath a warrant
For's execution.

Ijab. Alas! what poor
Ability's in me, to do him good?

Lucio. Aflay the power you have.
Ijab. My power.. alas ! I doubt.

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors;
And made us lose the good, we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to lcrd 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 see what I can do. ;
Lucio. But, speedily.

Isab. I will about it strait;
No longer ftaying, but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. Thumbly thank, you;
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my fuccess.

Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ijab. Good Sir, adieu.

[Exeunt.

ACT