For I would commune with you of such things,
That want no ear but yours.

Prov.

I'll make all speed. [Exit.

Isab. [within.] Peace, ho, be here!

Duke. The tongue of Isabel :-She's come to know, If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:

But I will keep her ignorant of her good,
To make her heavenly comforts of despair,
When it is least expected.

Enter ISABELLA.

Isab. Ho, by your leave.

Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.

Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man. Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

Duke. He hath released him, Isabel, from the world; His head is off, and sent to Angelo.

Isab. Nay, but it is not so.

Duke.

It is no other:

Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience.
Isab. O, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes.
Duke. You shall not be admitted to his sight.
Isab. Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! Most damned Angelo!

Duke. This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot:
Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.

Mark what I say; which you shall find

By every syllable, a faithful verity:

The duke comes home to-morrow ;-nay, dry your eyes; One of our convent, and his confessor,

Gives me this instance: Already he hath carried

Notice to Escalus and Angelo;

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,

There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom

In that good path that I would wish it go;

6

And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,
Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,

And general honour.

Isab.

I am directed by you.

Duke. This letter then to friar Peter give: 'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return:

Say, by this token, I desire his company

At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause, and yours,
I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you
Before the duke; and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home, and home. For my poor self,
I am combined' by a sacred vow,

And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter:
Command these fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart; trust not my holy order,
If I pervert your course.-Who's here?

Lucio.

Enter LUCIO.

Good even!

Friar, where is the provost ?

Duke. Not within, sir.

Lucio. O, pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart, to see thine eyes so red: thou must be patient: I am fain to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set me to't : But they say the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners' had been at home, he had lived. [Exit ISABELLA.

6

Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden

JOHNSON.

your bosom -] Your wish; your heart's desire.

7 I am combined ] i. e. bound by agreement.

8 Wend you] To wend is to go.-An obsolete word.

9

duke of dark corners ] This duke who meets his mistresses in by-places.

to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them '.

Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do he's a better woodman' than thou takest him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.

Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.

Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true: if not true, none were enough.

Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child.

Duke. Did you such a thing?

Lucio. Yes, marry, did I: but was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.

Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest; Rest you well.

Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end: If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it; Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr, I shall stick.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Room in Angelo's House.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven, his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities there?

Escal. I guess not.

1 he lives not in them.] i. e. his character depends not on them.

2

woodman - A woodman was an attendant or servant to the officer called Forester, but is here used in a wanton sense.

Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the streets?

Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a despatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.

Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i'the morn, I'll call you at your house: Give notice to such men of sort and suit3,

As are to meet him.

Escal.

Ang. Good night.

I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit.

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid! And by an eminent body, that enforc'd

The law against it!-But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her? -no':

For my authority bears a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal once can touch,

But it confounds the breather'. He should have liv'd,
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might, in the times to come, have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life,

With ransome of such shame. 'Would yet he had lived!
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.

3

[Exit.

sort and suit,] Figure and rank, or perhaps, his vassals bound to hold suit and service to their over-lord.

4

Yet reason dares her?-no:] Yet does not reason challenge or incite her to accuse me?-no, (answers the speaker,) for my authority, &c. To dare, in this sense, is yet a school-phrase. MALONE.

That no particular scandal, &c.] Credent is creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable. Mr. Malone reads "bears off.”

SCENE V.

Fields without the Town.

Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar PETER.

Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me.

[Giving letters.

The provost knows our purpose, and our plot.
The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,
And hold you ever to our special drift;

Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,
As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice
To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
But send me Flavius first.

F. Peter.

It shall be speeded well.

[Exit Friar.

Enter VARRIUS.

Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good

haste:

Come, we will walk There's other of our friends

:

Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Street near the City Gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath;
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it;
He says, to veil full purpose.

6

you

do blench] To blench is to start off.