SCENE V. A Nunnery. Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA. Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges? Isab. Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more; [Within. Who's that which calls? Fran. It is a man's voice: gentle Isabella, When you have vowed, you must not speak with men, Then, if you speak, you must not show your face; He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit FRANCISCA. Enter LUCIO. Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me, As bring me to the sight of Isabella, A novice of this place, and the fair sister To her unhappy brother Claudio? Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask; The rather, for I now must make you know I am that Isabella, and his sister. Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you: Not to be weary with you, he's in prison. Isab. Woe me! For what? Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks: He hath got his friend with child. Isab. Sir, make me not your story. It is true I would not, though 'tis my familiar sin By your renouncement, an immortal spirit; As with a saint. Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus: Your brother and his lover have embraced: As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time, İsab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin Juliet? Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection. Lucio. She it is. Isab. O let him marry her! Governs lord Angelo; a man whose blood Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother. Lucio. Has censured him Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath Isab. Alas! What poor ability's in me Our doubts are traitors, Lucio. And let him learn to know when maidens sue, Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel, As they themselves would owe them. Isab. I'll see what I can do. Lucio. But speedily. Isab. I will about it straight; Good sir, adieu. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. A Hall in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants. Ang. We must not make a scarcecrow of the law, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Escal. Ay, but yet Let us be keen, and rather cut a little, Than fall, and bruise to death: alas! this gentleman, Let but your honor know, (Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,) Had time cohered with place, or place with wishing, Could have attained the effect of your own purpose, Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. I not deny, The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try; what's open made to justice, That justice seizes. What know the laws, That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant, You may not so extenuate his offence, Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, Ang. Where is the provost ? Prov. Here, if it like your honor. Ang. See that Claudio Be executed by nine to-morrow morning: Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared; For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage. [Exit Provost. Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none; Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c. Elb. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a commonweal, that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law; bring them away. Ang. How now, sir! What's your name? And what's the matter? Elb. If it please your honor, I am the poor duke's constable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good honor two notorious benefactors.. Ang. Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors? Elb. If it please your honor, I know not well what they are but precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good Christians ought to have. Escal. This comes off well; here's a wise officer. Ang. Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Clo. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow. Ang. What are you, sir? Elb. He, sir? A tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hothouse, which, I think, is a very ill house too. Escal. How know you that? Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honor, Escal. How! thy wife? Elb. Ay, sir; whom, I thank Heaven, is an honest wo man,-- Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore? Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house. Escal. How dost thou know that, constable? Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there. Escal. By the woman's means? Elb. Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means: but as she spit in his face, so she defied him. Clo. Sir, if it please your honor, this is not so. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honorable man; prove it. Escal. Do you hear how he misplaces? [To ANGELO. Clo. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing (saving your honor's reverence) for stewed prunes: sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three pence; your honors have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes. Escal. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir. Clo. No indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right: but to the point. As I say, this mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in a dish, as I said, master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly; for, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you three pence again. Froth. No, indeed. Clo. Very well: you being then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones of the aforesaid prunes. Froth. Ay, so I did, indeed. Clo. Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remembered, that such a one, and such a one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you. Froth. All this is true. Clo. Why, very well then. |