Quick, despatch,

[Exit Provost.

Prov. I am your free dependant.
Duke.

And send the head to Angelo.

-whose contents

Now will I write letters to Angelo,—
The Provost, he shall bear them,-
Shall witness to him, I am near at home;
And that, by great injunctions, I am bound
To enter publicly: him I'll desire

To meet me at the consecrated fount,

A league below the city; and from thence,
By cold gradation and weal-balanced form,
We shall proceed with Angelo.

Re-enter Provost.

Prov. Here is the head; I'll carry it myself. Duke. Convenient is it: Make a swift return; For I would commune with you of such things, That want no ear but yours.

Prov.

I'll make all speed. [Exit.

Isab. [within.] Peace, ho, be here!

Duke. The tongue of Isabel :-She's come to know,

If yet her brother's pardon be come hither :

But I will keep her ignorant of her good,

To make her heavenly comforts of despair,
When it is least expected.

Enter ISABELLA.

Isab. Ho, by your leave.

Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daugh

Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man.

Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

[ter.

Duke. He hath released him, Isabel, from the world;

His head is off, and sent to Angelo.

Isab. Nay, but it is not so.

Duke.

It is no other:

Show your wisdom daughter, in your close patience.
Isab. O, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes.
Duke. You shall not be admitted to his sight.
Isab. Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! Most damned Angelo!

Duke. This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot:
Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.
Mark what I say; which you shall find
By every syllable, a faithful verity:

The Duke comes home to-morrow;-nay, dry your eyes;
One of our convent, and his confessor,

Gives me this instance: Already he hath carried
Notice to Escalus and Angelo;

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,

There to give up their power. If you can, pace your
In that good path that I would wish it go;

And you
shall have your bosom on this wretch,
Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,
And general honour.

Isab.

I am directed by you.

Duke. This letter then to friar Peter give: 'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return:

Say, by this token, I desire his company

[wisdom

At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause, and yours,
I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you
Before the duke; and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,

I am combined' by a sacred vow,

And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter :
Command these fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart; trust not my holy order,
If I pervert your course.-Who's here?

Lucio.

Enter LUCIO.

Friar, where is the provost?

Duke. Not within, sir.

Good even!

Lucio. O, pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart, to see thine eyes so red; thou must be patient: I am fain to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set me to't: But they say the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth,

f

your bosom-] Your wish; your heart's desire.-JOHNSON.
combined-] i. e. Constrained.

Isabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived.

[Exit ISABELLA.

Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.g

Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better woodmanh than thou takest him for.

Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; 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 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.

SCENE IV.

A Room in Angelo's House.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

[Exeunt.

His ac

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. tions show much like to madness: pray heaven, his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities there?

Escal. I guess not.

Ang. 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 streets?

h

g he lives not in them.] i. e. His character depends not on them. woodman-] A woodman was an attendant or servant to the officer called Forester, but is here used in a wanton sense, and was probably, in our Author's time generally so received.- REED.

Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a despatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices. hereafter which shall then have no power to stand against us.

Ang. 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,i

As are to meet him.

Escal.

I shall, sir: fare you well. Ang. Good night.

[Exit.

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant,
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body, that enforc❜d

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 credentTM 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,

k

With ransome 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.

i

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.

sort and suit,] In the feudal times all vassals were bound to hold suit and service to their over-lord; that is, to be ready at all times to attend and serve him, either when summoned to his courts, or to his standard in war.— "Such men of sort and suit as are to meet him," I presume means the duke's vassals or tenants in Capite.-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786.-STEEVENS. k unpregnant,] i. e. Unready.

1

dares her no,] This is the reading of the folio. I have printed it in its original form, for the alteration in the pointing adopted by Steevens, does not assist the sense. The passage is corrupt-perhaps we should read, yet reason warns her not.

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.

F. Peter.

It shall be speeded well.

[Exit Friar.

Enter VARRIUS.

Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good Come, we will walk : There's other of our friends [haste: Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.

SCENE VI.

Street near the City Gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath; I would but to accuse him so, the truth; say That is your part: yet I'm advis❜d to do it;

He says, to veil full purpose."

Mari.

Be rul'd by him.

[Exeunt.

Isab. 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.

n

Mari. I would, friar Peter

Isab.

O, peace; the friar is come.

Enter Friar PETER.

F. Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,

blench-] Start off.

to veil full purpose.] If we retain these words-they must mean to hide the whole extent of our design.-JOHNSON.-Which supposes Isabella to be acquainted with the whole of the duke's scheme, of which she was designedly kept in ignorance. The old copy is to vaile full purpose-and I believe Mr. Theobald's emendation in reading t'availful purpose to be correct.