ACT V, SCENE I. The city gate.
[MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their stand.
Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO,
Provost, Officers, and Citizens, at several doors]
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- 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 VINCENTIO:
- 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:
- You make my bonds still greater.
FRIAR PETER:
- Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him.
ISABELLA:
- Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard
- Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid!
- O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
- By throwing it on any other object
- Till you have heard me in my true complaint
- And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief.
- Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice:
- Reveal yourself to him.
ISABELLA:
- O worthy duke,
- You bid me seek redemption of the devil:
- Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak
- Must either punish me, not being believed,
- Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!
ANGELO:
- My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:
- She hath been a suitor to me for her brother
- Cut off by course of justice,--
ISABELLA:
- By course of justice!
ANGELO:
- And she will speak most bitterly and strange.
ISABELLA:
- Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak:
- That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange?
- That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange?
- That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
- An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;
- Is it not strange and strange?
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Nay, it is ten times strange.
ISABELLA:
- It is not truer he is Angelo
- Than this is all as true as it is strange:
- Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
- To the end of reckoning.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Away with her! Poor soul,
- She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.
ISABELLA:
- O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest
- There is another comfort than this world,
- That thou neglect me not, with that opinion
- That I am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible
- That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible
- But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,
- May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute
- As Angelo; even so may Angelo,
- In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,
- Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince:
- If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more,
- Had I more name for badness.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- By mine honesty,
- If she be mad,--as I believe no other,--
- Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
- Such a dependency of thing on thing,
- As e'er I heard in madness.
ISABELLA:
- O gracious duke,
- Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason
- For inequality; but let your reason serve
- To make the truth appear where it seems hid,
- And hide the false seems true.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Many that are not mad
- Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?
ISABELLA:
- I am the sister of one Claudio,
- Condemn'd upon the act of fornication
- To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo:
- I, in probation of a sisterhood,
- Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio
- As then the messenger,--
LUCIO:
- That's I, an't like your grace:
- I came to her from Claudio, and desired her
- To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo
- For her poor brother's pardon.
ISABELLA:
- That's he indeed.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- You were not bid to speak.
LUCIO:
- No, my good lord;
- Nor wish'd to hold my peace.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- I wish you now, then;
- Pray you, take note of it: and when you have
- A business for yourself, pray heaven you then
- Be perfect.
LUCIO:
- I warrant your honour.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- The warrants for yourself; take heed to't.
ISABELLA:
- This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,--
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- It may be right; but you are i' the wrong
- To speak before your time. Proceed.
ISABELLA:
- I went
- To this pernicious caitiff deputy,--
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- That's somewhat madly spoken.
ISABELLA:
- Pardon it;
- The phrase is to the matter.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Mended again. The matter; proceed.
ISABELLA:
- In brief, to set the needless process by,
- How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,
- How he refell'd me, and how I replied,--
- For this was of much length,--the vile conclusion
- I now begin with grief and shame to utter:
- He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
- To his concupiscible intemperate lust,
- Release my brother; and, after much debatement,
- My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,
- And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes,
- His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
- For my poor brother's head.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- This is most likely!
ISABELLA:
- O, that it were as like as it is true!
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak'st,
- Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour
- In hateful practise. First, his integrity
- Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason
- That with such vehemency he should pursue
- Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,
- He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself
- And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on:
- Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
- Thou camest here to complain.
ISABELLA:
- And is this all?
- Then, O you blessed ministers above,
- Keep me in patience, and with ripen'd time
- Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
- In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe,
- As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- I know you'ld fain be gone. An officer!
- To prison with her! Shall we thus permit
- A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
- On him so near us? This needs must be a practise.
- Who knew of Your intent and coming hither?
ISABELLA:
- One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?
LUCIO:
- My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar;
- I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord
- For certain words he spake against your grace
- In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Words against me? this is a good friar, belike!
- And to set on this wretched woman here
- Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.
LUCIO:
- But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,
- I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar,
- A very scurvy fellow.
FRIAR PETER:
- Blessed be your royal grace!
- I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
- Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman
- Most wrongfully accused your substitute,
- Who is as free from touch or soil with her
- As she from one ungot.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- We did believe no less.
- Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?
FRIAR PETER:
- I know him for a man divine and holy;
- Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,
- As he's reported by this gentleman;
- And, on my trust, a man that never yet
- Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.
LUCIO:
- My lord, most villanously; believe it.
FRIAR PETER:
- Well, he in time may come to clear himself;
- But at this instant he is sick my lord,
- Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,
- Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
- Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither,
- To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
- Is true and false; and what he with his oath
- And all probation will make up full clear,
- Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman.
- To justify this worthy nobleman,
- So vulgarly and personally accused,
- Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
- Till she herself confess it.
MARIANA:
- Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face
- Until my husband bid me.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- What, are you married?
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Are you a maid?
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- A widow, then?
MARIANA:
- Neither, my lord.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?
LUCIO:
- My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are
- neither maid, widow, nor wife.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause
- To prattle for himself.
MARIANA:
- My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married;
- And I confess besides I am no maid:
- I have known my husband; yet my husband
- Knows not that ever he knew me.
LUCIO:
- He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too!
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- This is no witness for Lord Angelo.
MARIANA:
- Now I come to't my lord
- She that accuses him of fornication,
- In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,
- And charges him my lord, with such a time
- When I'll depose I had him in mine arms
- With all the effect of love.
ANGELO:
- Charges she more than me?
MARIANA:
- Not that I know.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- No? you say your husband.
MARIANA:
- Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
- Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,
- But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.
ANGELO:
- This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.
MARIANA:
- My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
-
[Unveiling]
- This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
- Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on;
- This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract,
- Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body
- That took away the match from Isabel,
- And did supply thee at thy garden-house
- In her imagined person.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Know you this woman?
LUCIO:
- Carnally, she says.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Sirrah, no more!
ANGELO:
- My lord, I must confess I know this woman:
- And five years since there was some speech of marriage
- Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,
- Partly for that her promised proportions
- Came short of composition, but in chief
- For that her reputation was disvalued
- In levity: since which time of five years
- I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
- Upon my faith and honour.
MARIANA:
- Noble prince,
- As there comes light from heaven and words from breath,
- As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue,
- I am affianced this man's wife as strongly
- As words could make up vows: and, my good lord,
- But Tuesday night last gone in's garden-house
- He knew me as a wife. As this is true,
- Let me in safety raise me from my knees
- Or else for ever be confixed here,
- A marble monument!
ANGELO:
- I did but smile till now:
- Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice
- My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive
- These poor informal women are no more
- But instruments of some more mightier member
- That sets them on: let me have way, my lord,
- To find this practise out.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Ay, with my heart
- And punish them to your height of pleasure.
- Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman,
- Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths,
- Though they would swear down each particular saint,
- Were testimonies against his worth and credit
- That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,
- Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains
- To find out this abuse, whence 'tis derived.
- There is another friar that set them on;
- Let him be sent for.
FRIAR PETER:
- Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed
- Hath set the women on to this complaint:
- Your provost knows the place where he abides
- And he may fetch him.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Go do it instantly.
-
[Exit Provost]
- And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
- Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
- Do with your injuries as seems you best,
- In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you;
- But stir not you till you have well determined
- Upon these slanderers.
ESCALUS:
- My lord, we'll do it throughly.
-
[Exit DUKE]
- Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that
- Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?
LUCIO:
- 'Cucullus non facit monachum:' honest in nothing
- but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most
- villanous speeches of the duke.
ESCALUS:
- We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and
- enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a
- notable fellow.
LUCIO:
- As any in Vienna, on my word.
ESCALUS:
- Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her.
-
[Exit an Attendant]
- Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you
- shall see how I'll handle her.
LUCIO:
- Not better than he, by her own report.
LUCIO:
- Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately,
- she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly,
- she'll be ashamed.
ESCALUS:
- I will go darkly to work with her.
ESCALUS:
- Come on, mistress: here's a gentlewoman denies all
- that you have said.
LUCIO:
- My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with
- the provost.
ESCALUS:
- In very good time: speak not you to him till we
- call upon you.
ESCALUS:
- Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander
- Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- 'Tis false.
ESCALUS:
- How! know you where you are?
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Respect to your great place! and let the devil
- Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne!
- Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak.
ESCALUS:
- The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak:
- Look you speak justly.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls,
- Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox?
- Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone?
- Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust,
- 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.
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?
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.
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.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Which is that Barnardine?
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- There was a friar told me of this man.
- Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul.
- That apprehends no further than this world,
- And squarest thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd:
- But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all;
- And pray thee take this mercy to provide
- For better times to come. Friar, advise him;
- I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's that?
Provost:
- This is another prisoner that I saved.
- Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;
- As like almost to Claudio as himself.
-
[Unmuffles CLAUDIO]
DUKE VINCENTIO:
-
[To ISABELLA]
- If he be like your brother, for his sake
- Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake,
- Give me your hand and say you will be mine.
- He is my brother too: but fitter time for that.
- By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe;
- Methinks I see a quickening in his eye.
- Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well:
- Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours.
- I find an apt remission in myself;
- And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon.
-
[To LUCIO]
- You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward,
- One all of luxury, an ass, a madman;
- Wherein have I so deserved of you,
- That you extol me thus?
LUCIO:
- 'Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the
- trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I
- had rather it would please you I might be whipt.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Whipt first, sir, and hanged after.
- Proclaim it, provost, round about the city.
- Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow,
- As I have heard him swear himself there's one
- Whom he begot with child, let her appear,
- And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd,
- Let him be whipt and hang'd.
LUCIO:
- I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore.
- Your highness said even now, I made you a duke:
- good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold.
DUKE VINCENTIO:
- Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.
- Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal
- Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison;
- And see our pleasure herein executed.
LUCIO:
- Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death,
- whipping, and hanging.