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be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service:
This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation9:

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him;
I have great hope in that: for in her youth
There is a prone 10 and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men; besides, she hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack 11. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,-

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE IV. A Monastery.

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 cómplete bosom1: why I desire 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?

9 i. e. enter on her noviciate or probation.

10 Prone, is prompt or ready.

11 Jouer au tric trac is used in French in a wanton sense. 1 ́A cómplete bosom' is a bosom completely armed.

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd2;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,
Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps 3.
I have delivered to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture and firm abstinence),
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell❜d to Poland;
For so I have 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 headstrong steeds), Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; 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 stick it in their children's sight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: só our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri.

It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd: And it in you more dreadful would have seem'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 permissive pass,

2 i. e. retired.

3 Bravery is showy dress. Keeps, i. e. resides.
4 Stricture; strictness.

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my

father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home, And yet my nature never in the sight,

To do it slander: And to behold his sway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of

your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one:-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard 5 with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see,
If
power change purpose, what our seemers be.

SCENE V. A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

[Exeunt.

Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges? Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint

[Within.]

Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place?
Isab.
Who's that which calls?
Fran. 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 show your

5 i. e. cn his defence.

face;

Or, if you show your face, you

must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him.

[Exit FRANCISCA.

Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls?

Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses 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 sister
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 sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Isab. Woe me! For what?

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

Isab. Sir, mock me not:-your story1.

Lucio. 'Tis true, I would not,-though 'tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing2, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart,-play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;

1 The old copy reads:

'Sir, make me not your story.'

The emendation is Mr. Malone's.

2 This bird is said to draw pursuers from her nest by crying in other places. This was formerly the subject of a proverb, The lapwing cries most, farthest from her nest,' i. e. tongue far from heart. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

'Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries away;

My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.'

And to be talked with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth3,

'tis thus:

Your brother and his lover have embrac'd:

As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison 5; even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin
Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their

names,

By vain though apt affection.

Lucio.

Isab. O let him marry her!

She it is.

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 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 very snow-broth; one who never feels The wanton stings and motions of the sense;

Is

3 Fewness and truth, in few and true words.

4 i. e. his mistress.

5 Teeming foison is abundant produce.

6 Tilth is tillage. So in Shakspeare's third Sonnet:
'For who is she so fair, whose unrear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?'

7 Full line, extent.

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