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That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence fhall we fee,

If power change purpose, what our feemers be. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. A Nunnery.

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

Ifab. And have you Nuns no farther privileges ?
Nun. Are not these large enough?

Ifab. Yes truly; I fpeak not as defiring more,
But rather wishing a more ftrict restraint

Upon the fifter votarifts of Saint Clare.

Lucio within.

Lucio. Hoa! peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice: gentle Ifabella,

Turn you the key, and know his business of him;

You may; I may not; you are yet

unfworn:

When you have vow'd, you must not fpeak with men
But in the prefence of the Priorefs;

Then if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face,
Or if you fhew your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you, answer him.

[Exit Franc. Ifab. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no lefs, can you fo ftead me,
As bring me to the fight of Ifabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ifab. Why her unhappy brother? let me afk
The rather, for I now muft make you know

I am that Isabella, and his fifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you; Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Ifab. Wo me, for what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge, He fhould receive his punishment in thanks;

He hath got his friend with child.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your ftory.

Lucio. I would not, thotis my familiar fin

With

With maids to feem the lapwing *, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so.
I hold you as a thing ensky'd and fainted,
By your renouncement an immortal fpirit,
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thu; Your brother and his lover having embrac'd,

As those that feed grow full, as bloffoming time
Doth from the feednefs the bare fallow bring
To teeming foyfon; so her plenteous womb
Expreffeth its full tilth and husbandry.

Ifab. Some one with child by him? my coufin Juliet ?
Lucio. Is the your coufin?

fab. Adoptedly, as fchool maids change their names, By vain, tho' apt, affection.

Lucia. She it is.

Ifab. Let him then marry her.
Lucio. This is the point.

The Duke is very ftrangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, my felf being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By thofe that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man whofe blood
Is very fnow-broth, one who never feels
The wanton flings and motions of the fenfe
;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He, to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law
As mice by lions; hath pickt out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit; he arrefts him on it,
And follows clofe the rigor of the statute,

The lapwings fly with feeming fright and anxiety far from their nefts to deceive thofe who feek their young.

To

To make him an example; all hope's gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo; and that's my pith

Of business betwixt you and your poor brother.
Ifab. Doth he fo feek his life?

Lucio. H'as cenfur'd him

Already, and, I hear, the Provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me
To do him good?

Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Ifab. My power alas! I doubt.

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lofe the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue
Men give like Gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as truly theirs,

As they themselves would owe them.
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.
Lucio. But fpeedily.

Ifab. I will about it ftrait;

No longer staying, but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my fuccefs.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.

Ifab. Good Sir, adieu.

ACT II. SCENE I.
The Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter Angelo, Efcalus, a Juftice, and Attendants.

Ang. Ws

muft not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one fhape, 'till cuftom make it

Their perch, and not their terror.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruife to death. Alas! this gentleman,

Whom I would fave, had a moft noble father;

Let

Let but your honour know, whom I believe
To be moft ftrait in virtue, whether in
The working of your own affections,

Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the refolute acting of your blood
Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not fometime in your life
Err'd in this point you cenfure now in him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny

The jury paffing on the prifoner's life
May in the fworn twelve have a thief or two,
Guiltier than him they try; what's open made

To juftice, that it feizes on.

What know

The laws that thieves do pafs on thieves? 'tis pregnant,

The jewel that we find, we ftoop and take't,
Because we fee it; but what we do not fee,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not fo extenuate his offence,
For 1 have had fuch faults; but rather tell me
When I, that cenfure him, do fo offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. He mult die.
Enter Provoft.

Efcal. Be't as your wisdom will.
Ang. Where is the Provoft?

Prov. Here, if it like your honour.

Ang. See that Claudio

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning.

Bring him his confeffor, let him be prepar'd,

For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit Provoft.

Efcal. Well, heav'n forgive him! and forgive us all!

Some rife by fin, and fome by virtue fall:

Some run through brakes of vice, and answer none;
And fome condemned for one fault alone..

SCENE II.

Enter Elbow, Froth, Clown, and Officers.

El. Come, bring them away; if these be good people

in a common-weal, 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 honour, I am the poor Duke's conftable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, Sir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.

Ang. Benefactors? well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors?

Elb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but precife villains they are, that I am sure of, and void of all profanation in the world, that good chriftians ought to have.

Efcal. This comes off well; here's a wife officer.

Ang. Go to: what quality are you of? Elbow is your name? Why doft thou not speak, Elbow?

Clown. He cannot, Sir; he's out at elbow.
Ang. What are you, Sir?

Elb. He, Sir? a tapfter, Sir; parcel-bawd; one that ferves a bad woman; whofe houfe, Sir, was, as they fay, pluckt down in the fuburbs; and now the profeffes a hothoufe; which, I think, is a very ill house too.

Efcal. How know you that?

Elb. My wife, Sir, whom I deteft before heav'n and your honour.

Efcal. How! thy wife?

Elb. Ay, Sir; whom I thank heav'n is an honest woman. Efcal. Doft thou deteft her therefore?

Elb. I fay, Sir, I will deteft myself alfo, as well as fhe, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

Efcal. How doft thou know that, constable?

Elb. Marry, Sir, by my wife; who, if fhe had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accufed in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanness there.

Efcal. By that woman's means?

Elb. Ay, Sir, by mistress Over-don's means; but as the

fpit in his face, fo the defy'd him.

Clown, Sir, if it please your honour, this is not fo.

Elb.

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