A Room in the Prison.
 Enter DUKE as Friar Lodowick, CLAUDIO and PROVOST.

Duke	So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?

Claudio	The miserable have no other medicine
	But only hope;
	I have hope to live, and am prepared to die.

Duke	Be absolute for death; either death or life
	Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:
	If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
	That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,
	Servile to all the skyey influences
	That dost this habitation where thou keep'st
	Hourly afflict. Merely thou art Death's fool;
	For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
	And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;
	For all the accommodations that thou bear'st
	Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant;
	For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
	Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
	And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st
	Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
	For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
	That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;
	For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get,
	And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;
	For thy complexion shifts to strange effects
	After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
	For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
	Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
	And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
	For thine own bowels which do call thee sire,
	The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
	Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,
	For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,
	But as it were an after-dinner's sleep
	Dreaming on both; for all thy blessd youth
	Becomes as agd, and doth beg the alms
	Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
	Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty
	To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
	That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
	Lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear
	That makes these odds all even.

Claudio										I humbly thank you.
	To sue to live, I find I seek to die,
	And seeking death, find life. Let it come on.

Isabella	[Within.] What ho! Peace here, grace and good company!

Provost	Who's there? Come in; the wish deserves a welcome.

Duke	Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.

Claudio	Most holy sir, I thank you.

                             Enter ISABELLA.

Isabella	My business is a word or two with Claudio.

Provost	And very welcome. Look, signor, here's your sister.

Duke	Provost, a word with you.

Provost	As many as you please.

Duke	Bring me to hear them speak where I may be concealed.
										 [DUKE and PROVOST withdraw.

Claudio	Now, sister, what's the comfort?

Isabella	Why, as all comforts are: most good, most good indeed.
	Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
	Intends you for his swift ambassador,
	Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:
	Therefore your best appointment make with speed;
	Tomorrow you set on.

Claudio							Is there no remedy?

Isabella	None but such remedy as, to save a head,
	To cleave a heart in twain.

Claudio									But is there any?

Isabella	Yes, brother, you may live.
	There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
	If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
	But fetter you till death.

Claudio								Perpetual durance?

Isabella	Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,
	Though all the world's vastidity you had,
	To a determined scope.

Claudio							But in what nature?

Isabella	In such a one as, you consenting to't,
	Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
	And leave you naked.

Claudio								Let me know the point.

Isabella	O, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake
	Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
	Aud six or seven winters more respect
	Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?
	The sense of death is most in apprehension,
	And the poor beetle that we tread upon
	In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
	As when a giant dies.

Claudio							Why give you me this shame?
	Think you I can a resolution fetch
	From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
	I will encounter darkness as a bride,
	And hug it in mine arms.

Isabella	There spake my brother; there my father's grave
	Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die.
	Thou art too noble to conserve a life
	In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
	Whose settled visage and deliberate word
	Nips youth i'th' head, and follies doth enew
	As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil;
	His filth within being cast, he would appear
	A pond as deep as hell.

Claudio							The precise Angelo!

Isabella	O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell
	The damnd'st body to invest and cover
	In precise guards! Dost thou think, Claudio,
	If I would yield him my virginity
	Thou mightst be freed?

Claudio								O heavens, it cannot be!

Isabella	Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,
	So to offend him still. This night's the time
	That I should do what I abhor to name,
	Or else thou diest tomorrow.

Claudio									Thou shalt not do't.

Isabella	O, were it but my life,
	I'd throw it down for your deliverance
	As frankly as a pin.

Claudio							Thanks, dear Isabel.

Isabella	Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.

Claudio	Yes. Has he affections in him
	That thus can make him bite the law by the nose
	When he would force it? Sure, it is no sin;
	Or of the deadly seven it is the least.

Isabella	Which is the least?

Claudio	If it were damnable, he, being so wise,
	Why would he for the momentary trick
	Be perdurably fined? O Isabel!

Isabella	What says my brother?

Claudio							Death is a fearful thing.

Isabella	And shamd life a hateful.

Claudio	Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
	To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
	This sensible warm motion to become
	A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
	To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
	In thrilling region of thick-ribbd ice;
	To be imprisoned in the viewless winds,
	And blown with restless violence round about
	The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
	Of those that lawless and incertain thought
	Imagine howling - 'tis too horrible!
	The weariest and most loathd worldly life
	That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
	Can lay on nature is a paradise
	To what we fear of death.

Isabella	Alas, alas!

Claudio	Sweet sister, let me live.
	What sin you do to save a brother's life,
	Nature dispenses with the deed so far
	That it becomes a virtue.

Isabella									O, you beast!
	O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
	Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
	Is't not a kind of incest to take life
	From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
	Heaven shield my mother played my father fair,
	For such a warpd slip of wilderness
	Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance,
	Die, perish! Might but my bending down
	Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed.
	I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
	No word to save thee.

Claudio	Nay, hear me, Isabel.

Isabella							O fie, fie, fie!
	Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade;
	Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd.
	'Tis best that thou diest quickly.

Claudio										O hear me, Isabella.

Duke	[Advancing.] Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.

Isabella	What is your will?

Duke	Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by 
	have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require 
	is likewise your own benefit.

Isabella	I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out 
	of other affairs; but I will attend you a while.

Duke	[Aside to CLAUDIO.] Son, I have overheard what hath passed 
	between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose 
	to corrupt her, only he hath made an assay of her virtue to 
	practise his judgement with the disposition of natures. 
	She, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that 
	gracious denial which he is most glad to receive. I am 
	confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore 
	prepare yourself to death. Do not satisfy your resolution 
	with hopes that are fallible: tomorrow you must die. Go to 
	your knees and make ready.

Claudio	Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life 
	that I will sue to be rid of it.

Duke	Hold you there. Farewell.
													[Exit CLAUDIO.
	Provost, a word with you.

Provost	[Advancing.] What's your will, father?

Duke	That, now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while 
	with the maid; my mind promises with my habit no loss shall 
	touch her by my company.

Provost	In good time.
													[Exit.

Duke	The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good. The 
	goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in 
	goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, 
	shall keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that 
	Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath conveyed to my 
	understanding; and but that frailty hath examples for his 
	falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How will you do to 
	content this substitute, and to save your brother?

Isabella	I am now going to resolve him. I had rather my brother die 
	by the law than my son should be unlawfully born. But O, 
	how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he 
	return and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, 
	or discover his government.

Duke	That shall not be much amiss. Yet, as the matter now 
	stands, he will avoid your accusation: he made trial of you 
	only. Therefore fasten your ear on my advisings; to the 
	love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do 
	make myself believe that you may most uprighteously do a 
	poor wronged lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother 
	from the angry law, do no stain to your own gracious 
	person, and much please the absent duke, if peradventure he 
	shall ever return to have hearing of this business.

Isabella	Let me hear you speak further. I have spirit to do anything 
	that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

Duke	Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not 
	heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great 
	soldier who miscarried at sea?

Isabella	I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her 
	name.

Duke	She should this Angelo have married, was affianced to her 
	oath, and the nuptial appointed; between which time of the 
	contract and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick 
	was wracked at sea, having in that perished vessel the 
	dowry of his sister. But mark how heavily this befell to 
	the poor gentlewoman. There she lost a noble and renowned 
	brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; 
	with him, the portion and sinew of her fortune, her 
	marriage dowry; with both, her combinate husband, this 
	well-seeming Angelo.

Isabella	Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?

Duke	Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his 
	comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her 
	discoveries of dishonour; in few, bestowed her on her own 
	lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a 
	marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.

Isabella	What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from 
	the world! What corruption in this life that it will let 
	this man live! But how out of this can she avail?

Duke	It is a rupture that you may easily heal, and the cure of 
	it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from 
	dishonour in doing it.

Isabella	Show me how, good father.

Duke	This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her 
	first affection. His unjust unkindness, that in all reason 
	should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in 
	the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to 
	Angelo, answer his requiring with a plausible obedience, 
	agree with his demands to the point; only refer yourself to 
	this advantage: first, that your stay with him may not be 
	long; that the place may have all shadow and silence in it; 
	and the time answer to convenience. This being granted in 
	course, and now follows all. We shall advise this wronged 
	maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place. If the 
	encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him 
	to her recompense; and here, by this is your brother saved, 
	your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the 
	corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame and make fit 
	for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you 
	may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from 
	reproof. What think you of it?

Isabella	The image of it gives me content already, and I trust it 
	will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

Duke	It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to 
	Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give 
	him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to Saint 
	Luke's; there at the moated grange resides this dejected 
	Mariana. At that place call upon me; and dispatch with 
	Angelo, that it may be quickly.

Isabella	I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.
													[Exit.

                         [ + + + + + + Scene 2. ]

                    Enter ELBOW, POMPEY and OFFICERS.

Elbow	Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs 
	buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all 
	the world drink brown and white bastard.

Duke	O heavens, what stuff is here!

Pompey	'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest 
	was put down, and the worser allowed by order of law - a 
	furred gown to keep him warm; and furred with fox on 
	lambskins too, to signify that craft, being richer than 
	innocency, stands for the facing.

Elbow	Come your way, sir. - Bless you, good father friar.

Duke	And you, good brother father. What offence hath this man 
	made you, sir?

Elbow	Marry, sir, he hath offended the law, and, sir, we take him 
	to be a thief too, sir, for we have found upon him, sir, a 
	strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy.

Duke	Fie, sirrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd!
	The evil that thou causest to be done,
	That is thy means to live. Do thou but think
	What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back
	From such a filthy vice. Say to thyself,
	From their abominable and beastly touches
	I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.
	Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
	So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.

Pompey	Indeed it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I 
	would prove-

Duke	Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,
	Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer.
	Correction and instruction must both work
	Ere this rude beast will profit.

Elbow	He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning. 
	The deputy cannot abide a whoremaster. If he be a 
	whoremonger and comes before him, he were as good go a mile 
	on his errand.

Duke	That we were all, as some would seem to be,
	From our faults, as faults from seeming, free!

Elbow	His neck will come to your waist - a cord, sir.

                               Enter LUCIO.

Pompey	I spy comfort, I cry bail! Here's a gentleman, and a friend 
	of mine.

Lucio	How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of Caesar? Art 
	thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's 
	images newly made woman to be had now, for putting the hand 
	in the pocket and extracting clutched? What reply, ha? What 
	sayst thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not 
	drowned i'th' last rain, ha? What sayst thou, trot? Is the 
	world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few 
	words? Or how? The trick of it?

Duke	Still thus and thus, still worse.

Lucio	How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still, 
	ha?

Pompey	Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is 
	herself in the tub.

Lucio	Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it, it must be so. Ever 
	your fresh whore and your powdered bawd; an unshunned 
	consequence, it must be so. Art going to prison, Pompey?

Pompey	Yes, faith, sir.

Lucio	Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell. Go. Say I sent thee 
	thither. For debt, Pompey, or how?

Pompey	For being a bawd, for being a bawd.

Lucio	Well then, imprison him. If imprisonment be the due of a 
	bawd, why, 'tis his right. Bawd is he doubtless, and of 
	antiquity, too - bawd born. Farewell, good Pompey. Commend 
	me to the prison, Pompey. You will turn good husband now, 
	Pompey; you will keep the house.

Pompey	I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail?

Lucio	No, indeed will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will 
	pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage; if you take it not 
	patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu, trusty 
	Pompey. - Bless you, friar.

Duke	And you.

Lucio	Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?

Elbow	Come your ways, sir; come.

Pompey	You will not bail me then, sir?

Lucio	Then, Pompey, nor now. - What news abroad, friar? What 
	news?

Elbow	Come your ways, sir; come.

Lucio	Go to kennel, Pompey; go.
							  [Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY, and OFFICERS.
	What news, friar, of the duke?

Duke	I know none. Can you tell me of any?

Lucio	Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other some, he 
	is in Rome. But where is he, think you?

Duke	I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.

Lucio	It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from the 
	state and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord 
	Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression 
	to't.

Duke	He does well in't.

Lucio	A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him. 
	Something too crabbed that way, friar.

Duke	It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.

Lucio	Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred, it is 
	well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, 
	friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say this 
	Angelo was not made by man and woman after this downright 
	way of creation: is it true, think you?

Duke	How should he be made, then?

Lucio	Some report, a sea-maid spawned him; some, that he was 
	begot between two stockfishes. But it is certain that when 
	he makes water his urine is congealed ice; that I know to 
	be true. And he is a motion ungenerative; that's 
	infallible.

Duke	You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.

Lucio	Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the 
	rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! 
	Would the duke that is absent have done this? Ere he would 
	have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he 
	would have paid for the nursing a thousand. He had some 
	feeling of the sport; he knew the service; and that 
	instructed him to mercy.

Duke	I have never heard the absent duke much detected for women; 
	he was not inclined that way.

Lucio	O sir, you are deceived.

Duke	'Tis not possible.

Lucio	Who, not the duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use 
	was to put a ducat in her clack-dish; the duke had 
	crotchets in him. He would be drunk too, that let me inform 
	you.

Duke	You do him wrong, surely.

Lucio	Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the duke; and 
	I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing.

Duke	What, I prithee, might be the cause?

Lucio	No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be locked within the teeth 
	and the lips. But this I can let you understand: the 
	greater file of the subject held the duke to be wise.

Duke	Wise? Why, no question but he was.

Lucio	A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.

Duke	Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking. The very 
	stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed, must 
	upon a warranted need give him a better proclamation. Let 
	him be but testimonied in his own bringings-forth, and he 
	shall appear to the envious a scholar, a statesman, and a 
	soldier. Therefore you speak unskilfully, or, if your 
	knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice.

Lucio	Sir, I know him and I love him.

Duke	Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer 
	love.

Lucio	Come, sir, I know what I know.

Duke	I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you 
	speak. But if ever the duke return - as our prayers are he 
	may - let me desire you to make your answer before him. If 
	it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain 
	it. I am bound to call upon you, and I pray you, your name.

Lucio	Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the duke.

Duke	He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you.

Lucio	I fear you not.

Duke	O, you hope the duke will return no more, or you imagine me 
	too unhurtful an opposite. But indeed, I can do you little 
	harm. You'll forswear this again?

Lucio	I'll be hanged first. Thou art deceived in me, friar. But 
	no more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die tomorrow or 
	no?

Duke	Why should he die, sir?

Lucio	Why? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would the duke 
	we talk of were returned again. This ungenitured agent will 
	unpeople the province with continency. Sparrows must not 
	build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The 
	duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered. He would 
	never bring them to light. Would he were returned! Marry, 
	this Claudio is condemned for untrussing. Farewell, good 
	friar; I prithee pray for me. The duke, I say to thee 
	again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's now past it; yet, 
	and I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar though she 
	smelt brown bread and garlic. Say that I said so. Farewell.
													[Exit.

Duke	No might nor greatness in mortality
	Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny
	The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong
	Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
	But who comes here?

       Enter ESCALUS, PROVOST, and OFFICERS with MISTRESS OVERDONE.

Escalus	Go, away with her to prison.

Overdone	Good my lord, be good to me. Your honour is accounted a 
	merciful man, good my lord.

Escalus	Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the same 
	kind! This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant.

Provost	A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please your 
	honour.

Overdone	My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me. 
	Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the duke's 
	time; he promised her marriage. His child is a year and a 
	quarter old come Philip and Jacob. I have kept it myself; 
	and see how he goes about to abuse me.

Escalus	That fellow is a fellow of much license. Let him be called 
	before us. Away with her to prison. Go to; no more words.
						  [Exeunt OFFICERS with MISTRESS OVERDONE.

	Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered; Claudio 
	must die tomorrow. Let him be furnished with divines, and 
	have all charitable preparation. If my brother wrought by 
	my pity it should not be so with him.

Provost	So please you, this friar hath been with him and advised 
	him for the entertainment of death.

Escalus	Good even, good father.

Duke	Bliss and goodness on you!

Escalus	Of whence are you?

Duke	Not of this country, though my chance is now
	To use it for my time. I am a brother
	Of gracious order, late come from the See
	In special business from his Holiness.

Escalus	What news abroad i'th' world?

Duke	None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness that 
	the dissolution of it must cure it. Novelty is only in 
	request, and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of 
	course as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking. 
	There is scarce truth enough alive to make societies 
	secure, but security enough to make fellowships accurst. 
	Much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This 
	news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, 
	sir, of what disposition was the duke?

Escalus	One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to 
	know himself.

Duke	What pleasure was he given to?

Escalus	Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at 
	anything which professed to make him rejoice: a gentleman 
	of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a 
	prayer they may prove prosperous, and let me desire to know 
	how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand that 
	you have lent him visitation.

Duke	He professes to have received no sinister measure from his 
	judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the 
	determination of justice. Yet had he framed to himself, by 
	the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving promises of 
	life, which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, 
	and now is he resolved to die.

Escalus	You have paid the heavens your function and the prisoner 
	the very debt of your calling. I have laboured for the poor 
	gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty, but my 
	brother-justice have I found so severe that he hath forced 
	me to tell him he is indeed Justice.

Duke	If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it 
	shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he 
	hath sentenced himself.

Escalus	I am going to visit the prisoner; fare you well.

Duke	Peace be with you.
										[Exeunt ESCALUS and PROVOST.

	He who the sword of heaven will bear
	Should be as holy as severe;
	Pattern in himself to know,
	Grace to stand, and virtue go;
	More nor less to others paying
	Than by self-offences weighing.
	Shame to him whose cruel striking
	Kills for faults of his own liking!
	Twice treble shame on Angelo,
	To weed my vice, and let his grow!
	O, what may man within him hide,
	Though angel on the outward side!
	How may likeness made in crimes,
	Making practice on the times
	To draw with idle spiders' strings
	Most pond'rous and substantial things!
	Craft against vice I must apply.
	With Angelo tonight shall lie
	His old betrothd, but despisd,
	So disguise shall, by th' disguisd,
	Pay with falsehood false exacting,
	And perform an old contracting.
													[Exit.
