In countenance !-Heaven shield your grace from woe,
As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!

Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone:-An officer;
To prison with her :-Shall we thus permit
A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall

On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.
-Who knew of your intent, and coming hither?
Isab. One that I would were here, friar Lodowick.
Duke. A ghostly father, belike: Who knows that
Lodowick ?

Lucio. My lord, I know him; 'tis a medling friar;
I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord,
For certain words he spake against your grace
In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly.
Duke. Words against me? This a good friar belike!
And to set on this wretched woman here

Against our substitute !-Let this friar be found. Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar,

A very scurvy fellow.

F. Peter.

Blessed be your royal grace!

I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
Your royal ear abus'd: First, hath this woman
Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute;

Who is as free from touch or soil with her,

As she from one ungot.

Duke.

We did believe no less.

Know you that friar Lodowick, that she speaks of?
F. Peter. I know him for a man divine and holy;
Not scurvy, nor a temporary medler,

As he's reported by this gentleman;

And, on my trust, a man that never yet

Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.

Lucio. My lord, most villainously; believe it.

F. Peter. Well, he in time may come to clear him

self;

8 In countenance !] i. e. false appearance, hypocrisy.

But at this instant he is sick, my lord,

Of a strange fever: Upon his mere request, (Being come to knowledge that there was complaint Intended 'gainst lord Angelo,) came I hither,

To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know

Is true, and false; and what he with his oath,
And all probation, will make up full clear,
Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman;
(To justify this worthy nobleman,

So vulgarly and personally accus'd,)

Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
Till she herself confess it.

Duke.

Good friar, let's hear it.
[ISABELLA is carried off, guarded; and
MARIANA comes forward.

Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo ?-
O heaven! the vanity of wretched fools!
Give us some seats.-Come, cousin Angelo,
In this I'll be impartial'; be you judge
Of your own cause.-Is this the witness, friar?
First, let her show her face; and, after, speak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face,
Until my husband bid me.

Are nothing then :-Neither maid, widow, nor wife? Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

9

his mere request,] i. e. his absolute request.

1 Whensoever he's convented.] i. e. cited, summoned.

2 So vulgarly-] i. e. publickly.

3 In this I'll be impartial;] Impartial was sometimes used in the sense of partial.

Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had some cause

To prattle for himself.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Mari. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married; And, I confess, besides, I am no maid:

I have known my husband; yet my husband knows not, That ever he knew me.

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better.

Duke. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou wert so

too.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Duke. This is no witness for lord Angelo.
Mari. Now I come to't, my lord:

She, that accuses him of fornication,

In self-same manner doth accuse my husband;
And charges him, my lord, with such a time,
When I'll depose I had him in mine arms,
With all the effect of love.

Ang.

Mari. Not that I know.

Duke.

Charges she more than me?

No? you say, your husband.

Mari. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knew my body, But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's.

Ang. This is a strange abuse:-Let's see thy face.
Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
[Unveiling.

This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which, once thou swor'st, was worth the looking on.
This is the hand, which, with a vow'd contract,
Was fast belock'd in thine: this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,

And did supply thee at thy garden-house,
In her imagin'd person.

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this woman; And, five years since, there was some speech of mar

riage

Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition; but, in chief,
For that her reputation was disvalued
In levity since which time, of five years,

I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
Upon my faith and honour.

Mari.

Noble prince,

As there comes light from heaven, and words from

breath,

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

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 his garden-house,
He knew me as a wife: As this is true

Let me in safety raise me from my knees;

Or else for ever be confixed here,

A marble monument !

Ang.

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,

poor

5

These informal women are no more
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 all my heart;

And punish them unto your height of pleasure.-
Thou foolish friar; and thou pernicious woman,
Compact with her that's gone! think'st thou, thy oaths,

her promised proportions

Came short of composition;] Her fortune, which was promised proportionate to mine, fell short of the composition, that is, contract or bargain. JOHNSON.

These poor informal women - -] i. e. out of their senses.

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
To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd.-
There is another friar that set them on;

Let him be sent for.

F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, in

deed,

Hath set the women on to this complaint:

Your provost knows the place where he abides,

And he may fetch him.

Duke. Go, do it instantly.

[Exit Provost.

And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
Do with your injuries as seems you best,

In any chastisement: I for a while

Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have well
Determined upon these slanderers.

Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[Exit Duke.] Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the duke.

Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a notable fellow.

Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word.

Escal. Call that same Isabel here once again; [to an Attendant.] I would speak with her: Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I'll handle her.

Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report.
Escal. Say you?

Lucio. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would sooner confess; perchance, publickly she'll be ashamed.