MEASURE FOR MEASURE. William Shakespeare
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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 I 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.]
ESCALUS.
Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.
ANGELO. 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 redeliver our authorities there?
ESCALUS.
I guess not.
ANGELO. 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 street?
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 proclaim’d:
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.
[Exit.]
ANGELO.
Good night.—
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 a so 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 ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv’d!
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.
[Exit.]
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.
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.]
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 advis’d to do it;
He says, to ‘vailfull 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.]
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 V.
SCENE I. A public place near the city gate.
[MARIANA (veiled), ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Enter at opposite doors DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, PROVOST, Officers, and Citizens.]
DUKE.
My very worthy cousin, fairly met;—
Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.
ANGELO and ESCALUS.
Happy return be to your royal grace!
DUKE.
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.