Dramatis Personae
VINCENTIO the Duke.
ANGELO Deputy.
ESCALUS an ancient Lord.
CLAUDIO a young gentleman.
LUCIO a fantastic.
Two other gentlemen.
Provost.
PETER, THOMAS } two friars.
A Justice.
VARRIUS
ELBOW a simple constable.
FROTH a foolish gentleman.
POMPEY servant to Mistress Overdone.
ABHORSON an executioner.
BARNARDINE a dissolute prisoner.
ISABELLA sister to Claudio.
MARIANA betrothed to Angelo.
JULIET beloved of Claudio.
FRANCISCA a nun.
MISTRESS OVERDONE a bawd.
Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendant.
Scene: Vienna.
Act 1
Scene 1
An apartment in the DUKE’S palace.
Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, ESCALUS, Lords and Attendants
DUKE VINCENTIO Escalus.
ESCALUS My lord.
DUKE VINCENTIO Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: then no more remains,
But that to your sufficiency . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . as your Worth is able,
And let them work. The nature of our people,
Our city’s institutions, and the terms
For common justice, you’re as pregnant in
As art and practise hath enriched any
That we remember. There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,
I say, bid come before us Angelo.
Exit an Attendant
What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply,
Lent him our terror, dress’d him with our love,
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: what think you of it?
ESCALUS If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is Lord Angelo.
DUKE VINCENTIO Look where he comes.
Enter ANGELO
ANGELO Always obedient to your grace’s will,
I come to know your pleasure.
DUKE VINCENTIO Angelo,
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy history
Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch’d
But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advertise;
Hold therefore, Angelo:–
In our remove be thou at full ourself;
Mortality and mercy in Vienna
Live in thy tongue and heart: old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary.
Take thy commission.
ANGELO Now, good my lord,
Let there be some more test made of my metal,
Before so noble and so great a figure
Be stamp’d upon it.
DUKE VINCENTIO No more evasion:
We have with a leaven’d and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
Our haste from hence is of so quick condition
That it prefers itself and leaves unquestion’d
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us, and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you well;
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commissions.
ANGELO Yet give leave, my lord,
That we may bring you something on the way.
DUKE VINCENTIO My haste may not admit it;
Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any scruple; your scope is as mine own
So to enforce or qualify the laws
As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand:
I’ll privily away. I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Through it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause and Aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.
ANGELO The heavens give safety to your purposes!
ESCALUS Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!
DUKE I thank you. Fare you well.
Exit
ESCALUS I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place:
A power I have, but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed.
ANGELO ‘Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,
And we may soon our satisfaction have
Touching that point.
ESCALUS I’ll wait upon your honour.
Exeunt
Scene 2
A Street.
Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen
LUCIO If the duke with the other dukes come not to
composition with the King of Hungary, why then all
the dukes fall upon the king.
First Gentleman Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of
Hungary’s!
Second Gentleman Amen.
LUCIO Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that
went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped
one out of the table.
Second Gentleman ‘Thou shalt not steal’?
LUCIO Ay, that he razed.
First Gentleman Why, ’twas a commandment to command the captain and
all the rest from their functions: they put forth
to steal. There’s not a soldier of us all, that, in
the thanksgiving before meat, do relish the petition
well that prays for peace.
Second Gentleman I never heard any soldier dislike it.
LUCIO I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where
grace was said.
Second Gentleman No? a dozen times at least.
First Gentleman What, in metre?
LUCIO In any proportion or in any language.
First Gentleman I think, or in any religion.
LUCIO Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all
controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a
wicked villain, despite of all grace.
First Gentleman Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.
LUCIO I grant; as there may between the lists and the
velvet. Thou art the list.
First Gentleman And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou’rt
a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief
be a list of an English kersey as be piled, as thou
art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak
feelingly now?
LUCIO I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful
feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own
confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I
live, forget to drink after thee.
First Gentleman I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?
Second Gentleman Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.
LUCIO Behold, behold. where Madam Mitigation comes! I
have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to–
Second Gentleman To what, I pray?
LUCIO Judge.
Second Gentleman To three thousand dolours a year.
First Gentleman Ay, and more.
LUCIO A French crown more.
First Gentleman Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou
art full of error; I am sound.
LUCIO Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as
things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow;
impiety has made a feast of thee.
Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE
First Gentleman How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?
MISTRESS OVERDONE Well, well; there’s one yonder arrested and carried
to prison was worth five thousand of you all.
Second Gentleman Who’s that, I pray thee?
MISTRESS OVERDONE Marry, sir, that’s Claudio, Signior Claudio.
First Gentleman Claudio to prison? ’tis not so.
MISTRESS OVERDONE Nay, but I know ’tis so: I saw him arrested, saw
him carried away; and, which is more, within these
three days his head to be chopped off.
LUCIO But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so.
Art thou sure of this?
MISTRESS OVERDONE I am too sure of it: and it is for getting Madam
Julietta with child.
LUCIO Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two
hours since, and he was ever precise in
promise-keeping.
Second Gentleman Besides, you know, it draws something near to the
speech we had to such a purpose.
First Gentleman But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.
LUCIO Away! let’s go learn the truth of it.
Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen
MISTRESS OVERDONE Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what
with the gallows and what with poverty, I am
custom-shrunk.
Enter POMPEY
How now! what’s the news with you?
POMPEY Yonder man is carried to prison.
MISTRESS OVERDONE Well; what has he done?
POMPEY A woman.
MISTRESS OVERDONE But what’s his offence?
POMPEY Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.
MISTRESS OVERDONE What, is there a maid with child by him?
POMPEY No, but there’s a woman with maid by him. You have
not heard of the proclamation, have you?
MISTRESS OVERDONE What proclamation, man?
POMPEY All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.