ESCALUS He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of
complaints, and to deliver us from devices
hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand
against us.
ANGELO Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes
i’ the morn; I’ll call you at your house: give
notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet
him.
ESCALUS I shall, sir. Fare you well.
ANGELO Good night.
Exit ESCALUS
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower’d maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
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 of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch
But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might in the times to come have ta’en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour’d life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!
A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.
Exit
Scene 5
Fields without the town.
Enter DUKE VINCENTIO in his own habit, and FRIAR PETER
DUKE VINCENTIO 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.
FRIAR PETER It shall be speeded well.
Exit
Enter VARRIUS
DUKE VINCENTIO 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 6
Street near the city gate.
Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA
ISABELLA To speak so indirectly I am loath:
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part: yet I am advised to do it;
He says, to veil full purpose.
MARIANA Be ruled by him.
ISABELLA Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure
He speak against me on the adverse side,
I should not think it strange; for ’tis a physic
That’s bitter to sweet end.
MARIANA I would Friar Peter–
ISABELLA O, peace! the friar is come.
Enter FRIAR PETER
FRIAR PETER Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,
Where you may have such vantage on the duke,
He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded;
The generous and gravest citizens
Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is entering: therefore, hence, away!
Exeunt
Act 5
Scene 1
The city gate.
MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their stand. Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens, at several doors
DUKE VINCENTIO My very worthy cousin, fairly met!
Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.
ANGELO, ESCALUS Happy return be to your royal grace!
DUKE VINCENTIO Many and hearty thankings to you both.
We have made inquiry of you; and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
Forerunning more requital.
ANGELO You make my bonds still greater.
DUKE VINCENTIO O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it,
To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
When it deserves, with characters of brass,
A forted residence ‘gainst the tooth of time
And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
And let the subject see, to make them know
That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,
You must walk by us on our other hand;
And good supporters are you.
FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA come forward
FRIAR PETER Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him.
ISABELLA Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard
Upon a wrong’d, I would fain have said, a maid!
O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other object
Till you have heard me in my true complaint
And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!
DUKE VINCENTIO Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief.
Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice:
Reveal yourself to him.
ISABELLA O worthy duke,
You bid me seek redemption of the devil:
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak
Must either punish me, not being believed,
Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!
ANGELO My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:
She hath been a suitor to me for her brother
Cut off by course of justice,–
ISABELLA By course of justice!
ANGELO And she will speak most bitterly and strange.
ISABELLA Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak:
That Angelo’s forsworn; is it not strange?
That Angelo’s a murderer; is ‘t not strange?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;
Is it not strange and strange?
DUKE VINCENTIO Nay, it is ten times strange.
ISABELLA It is not truer he is Angelo
Than this is all as true as it is strange:
Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.
DUKE VINCENTIO Away with her! Poor soul,
She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.
ISABELLA O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest
There is another comfort than this world,
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion
That I am touch’d with madness! Make not impossible
That which but seems unlike: ’tis not impossible
But one, the wicked’st caitiff on the ground,
May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute
As Angelo; even so may Angelo,
In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,
Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince:
If he be less, he’s nothing; but he’s more,
Had I more name for badness.
DUKE VINCENTIO By mine honesty,
If she be mad,–as I believe no other,–
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
Such a dependency of thing on thing,
As e’er I heard in madness.
ISABELLA O gracious duke,
Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason
For inequality; but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear where it seems hid,
And hide the false seems true.
DUKE VINCENTIO Many that are not mad
Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?
ISABELLA I am the sister of one Claudio,
Condemn’d upon the act of fornication
To lose his head; condemn’d by Angelo:
I, in probation of a sisterhood,
Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio
As then the messenger,–
LUCIO That’s I, an’t like your grace:
I came to her from Claudio, and desired her
To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo
For her poor brother’s pardon.
ISABELLA That’s he indeed.
DUKE VINCENTIO You were not bid to speak.
LUCIO No, my good lord;
Nor wish’d to hold my peace.
DUKE VINCENTIO I wish you now, then;
Pray you, take note of it: and when you have
A business for yourself, pray heaven you then
Be perfect.
LUCIO I warrant your honour.
DUKE VINCENTIO The warrants for yourself; take heed to’t.
ISABELLA This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,–
LUCIO Right.
DUKE VINCENTIO It may be right; but you are i’ the wrong
To speak before your time. Proceed.
ISABELLA I went
To this pernicious caitiff deputy,–
DUKE VINCENTIO That’s somewhat madly spoken.
ISABELLA Pardon it;
The phrase is to the matter.
DUKE VINCENTIO Mended again. The matter; proceed.
ISABELLA In brief, to set the needless process by,
How I persuaded, how I pray’d, and kneel’d,
How he refell’d me, and how I replied,–
For this was of much length,–the vile conclusion
I now begin with grief and shame to utter:
He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
To his concupiscible intemperate lust,
Release my brother; and, after much debatement,
My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,
And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes,
His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
For my poor brother’s head.
DUKE VINCENTIO This is most likely!
ISABELLA O, that it were as like as it is true!
DUKE VINCENTIO By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak’st,
Or else thou art suborn’d against his honour
In hateful practise. First, his integrity
Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason
That with such vehemency he should pursue
Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,
He would have weigh’d thy brother by himself
And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on:
Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
Thou camest here to complain.
ISABELLA And is this all?