Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare (best book clubs txt) 📗

After him, fellows; bring him to the block.

[Exeunt ABHORSON and CLOWN.]

[Enter PROVOST.]

PROVOST.
Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?

DUKE.
A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death;
And to transport him in the mind he is
Were damnable.

PROVOST.
Here in the prison, father,
There died this morning of a cruel fever
One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,
A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head
Just of his colour. What if we do omit
This reprobate till he were well inclined;
And satisfy the deputy with the visage
Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?

DUKE.
O, 'tis an accident that Heaven provides!
Despatch it presently; the hour draws on
Prefix'd by Angelo: see this be done,
And sent according to command; whiles I
Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.

PROVOST.
This shall be done, good father, presently.
But Barnardine must die this afternoon:
And how shall we continue Claudio,
To save me from the danger that might come
If he were known alive?

DUKE.
Let this be done; -
Put them in secret holds; both Barnardine and Claudio.
Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting
To the under generation, you shall find
Your safety manifested.

PROVOST.
I am your free dependant.

DUKE.
Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.

[Exit PROVOST.]

Now will I write letters to Angelo, -
The provost, he shall bear them, - whose contents
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 well-balanced form.
We shall proceed with Angelo.

[Re-enter PROVOST.]

PROVOST.
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.

PROVOST.
I'll make all speed.

[Exit.]

ISABELLA.
[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.]

ISABELLA.
Ho, by your leave!

DUKE.
Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.

ISABELLA.
The better, given me by so holy a man.
Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

DUKE.
He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:
His head is off and sent to Angelo.

ISABELLA.
Nay, but it is not so.

DUKE.
It is no other:
Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience.

ISABELLA.
O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!

DUKE.
You shall not be admitted to his sight.

ISABELLA.
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 wisdom
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.

ISABELLA.
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
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?

[Enter LUCIO.]

LUCIO.
Good even. Friar, where is the provost?

DUKE.
Not within, sir.

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, Isabel, I loved 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 beholding to your reports; but
the best is, he lives not in them.

LUCIO.
Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better
woodman 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 I 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.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO'S house.

[Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.]

ESCALUS.
Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.

ANGELO.
In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions 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?

ESCALUS.
I guess not.

ANGELO.
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 street?

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

ANGELO.
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
As are to meet him.

ESCALUS.
I shall, sir: fare you well.

[Exit.]

ANGELO.
Good night. -
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant,
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
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 so credent 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
With ransom 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.]


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.]
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.

PETER.
It shall be speeded well.

[Exit FRIAR.]

[Enter VARRIUS.]

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

[Exeunt.]


SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate.

[Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.]

ISABELLA.
To speak so indirectly I am loath;
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part: yet I am advis'd to do it;
He says, to 'vailfull purpose.

MARIANA.
Be ruled by him.

ISABELLA.
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.

MARIANA.
I would Friar Peter. -

ISABELLA.
O, peace! the friar is come.

[Enter FRIAR PETER.]

PETER.
Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,
Where you may have such vantage on the duke
He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded;
The generous and gravest citizens
Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is entering; therefore, hence, away.

[Exeunt.]


ACT V.

SCENE I. A public place near the city gate.

[MARIANA (veiled), ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Enter at
opposite doors DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO,
PROVOST, Officers, and Citizens.]

DUKE.
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.
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.

DUKE.
O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it
To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
When it deserves, with characters of brass,
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time
And rasure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
And let the subject see, to make them know
That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within. - Come, Escalus;
You must walk by us on our other hand:
And good supporters are you.

[Enter PETER and ISABELLA come forward.]

PETER.
Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him.

ISABELLA.
Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard
Upon a wrong'd, I'd 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.
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 believ'd,
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