Thus to retort your manifest appeal,
And put your trial in the villain’s mouth
Which here you come to accuse.
LUCIO This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.
ESCALUS Why, thou unreverend and unhallow’d friar,
Is’t not enough thou hast suborn’d these women
To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth
And in the witness of his proper ear,
To call him villain? and then to glance from him
To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
Take him hence; to the rack with him! We’ll touse you
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.
What ‘unjust’!
DUKE VINCENTIO Be not so hot; the duke
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he
Dare rack his own: his subject am I not,
Nor here provincial. My business in this state
Made me a looker on here in Vienna,
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
Till it o’er-run the stew; laws for all faults,
But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop,
As much in mock as mark.
ESCALUS Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!
ANGELO What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
Is this the man that you did tell us of?
LUCIO ‘Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate:
do you know me?
DUKE VINCENTIO I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I
met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke.
LUCIO O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke?
DUKE VINCENTIO Most notedly, sir.
LUCIO Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a
fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?
DUKE VINCENTIO You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make
that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and
much more, much worse.
LUCIO O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the
nose for thy speeches?
DUKE VINCENTIO I protest I love the duke as I love myself.
ANGELO Hark, how the villain would close now, after his
treasonable abuses!
ESCALUS Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with
him to prison! Where is the provost? Away with him
to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him
speak no more. Away with those giglots too, and
with the other confederate companion!
DUKE VINCENTIO [To Provost]
Stay, sir; stay awhile.
ANGELO What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.
LUCIO Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you
bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must
you? Show your knave’s visage, with a pox to you!
show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour!
Will’t not off?
Pulls off the friar’s hood, and discovers DUKE VINCENTIO
DUKE VINCENTIO Thou art the first knave that e’er madest a duke.
First, provost, let me bail these gentle three.
To LUCIO
Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and you
Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.
LUCIO This may prove worse than hanging.
DUKE VINCENTIO [To ESCALUS]
What you have spoke I pardon: sit you down:
We’ll borrow place of him.
To ANGELO
Sir, by your leave.
Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,
Rely upon it till my tale be heard,
And hold no longer out.
ANGELO O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your grace, like power divine,
Hath look’d upon my passes. Then, good prince,
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession:
Immediate sentence then and sequent death
Is all the grace I beg.
DUKE VINCENTIO Come hither, Mariana.
Say, wast thou e’er contracted to this woman?
ANGELO I was, my lord.
DUKE VINCENTIO Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.
Do you the office, friar; which consummate,
Return him here again. Go with him, provost.
Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost
ESCALUS My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour
Than at the strangeness of it.
DUKE VINCENTIO Come hither, Isabel.
Your friar is now your prince: as I was then
Advertising and holy to your business,
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney’d at your service.
ISABELLA O, give me pardon,
That I, your vassal, have employ’d and pain’d
Your unknown sovereignty!
DUKE VINCENTIO You are pardon’d, Isabel:
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
Your brother’s death, I know, sits at your heart;
And you may marvel why I obscured myself,
Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power
Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brain’d my purpose. But, peace be with him!
That life is better life, past fearing death,
Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort,
So happy is your brother.
ISABELLA I do, my lord.
Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and Provost
DUKE VINCENTIO For this new-married man approaching here,
Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong’d
Your well defended honour, you must pardon
For Mariana’s sake: but as he adjudged your brother,–
Being criminal, in double violation
Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach
Thereon dependent, for your brother’s life,–
The very mercy of the law cries out
Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
‘An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!’
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.
Then, Angelo, thy fault’s thus manifested;
Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.
We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stoop’d to death, and with like haste.
Away with him!
MARIANA O my most gracious lord,
I hope you will not mock me with a husband.
DUKE VINCENTIO It is your husband mock’d you with a husband.
Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,
For that he knew you, might reproach your life
And choke your good to come; for his possessions,
Although by confiscation they are ours,
We do instate and widow you withal,
To buy you a better husband.
MARIANA O my dear lord,
I crave no other, nor no better man.
DUKE VINCENTIO Never crave him; we are definitive.
MARIANA Gentle my liege,–
Kneeling
DUKE VINCENTIO You do but lose your labour.
Away with him to death!
To LUCIO
Now, sir, to you.
MARIANA O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part;
Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
I’ll lend you all my life to do you service.
DUKE VINCENTIO Against all sense you do importune her:
Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,
Her brother’s ghost his paved bed would break,
And take her hence in horror.
MARIANA Isabel,
Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;
Hold up your hands, say nothing; I’ll speak all.
They say, best men are moulded out of faults;
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad: so may my husband.
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
DUKE VINCENTIO He dies for Claudio’s death.
ISABELLA Most bounteous sir,
Kneeling
Look, if it please you, on this man condemn’d,
As if my brother lived: I partly think
A due sincerity govern’d his deeds,
Till he did look on me: since it is so,
Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
In that he did the thing for which he died:
For Angelo,
His act did not o’ertake his bad intent,
And must be buried but as an intent
That perish’d by the way: thoughts are no subjects;
Intents but merely thoughts.
MARIANA Merely, my lord.
DUKE VINCENTIO Your suit’s unprofitable; stand up, I say.
I have bethought me of another fault.
Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded
At an unusual hour?
Provost It was commanded so.
DUKE VINCENTIO Had you a special warrant for the deed?
Provost No, my good lord; it was by private message.
DUKE VINCENTIO For which I do discharge you of your office:
Give up your keys.
Provost Pardon me, noble lord:
I thought it was a fault, but knew it not;
Yet did repent me, after more advice;
For testimony whereof, one in the prison,
That should by private order else have died,
I have reserved alive.
DUKE VINCENTIO What’s he?
Provost His name is Barnardine.
DUKE VINCENTIO I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.
Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him.
Exit Provost
ESCALUS I am sorry, one so learned and so wise
As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear’d,
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood.
And lack of temper’d judgment afterward.
ANGELO I am sorry that such sorrow I procure: