SCENE IV.A Room in ANGELO'S House.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. Ang. 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 redeliver our authorities there?

Escal. I guess not.

Ang. 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?

Escal. 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.

Ang. 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 suit1

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant,2

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,

1 Sort, here, is rank; a sense in which Shakespeare uses the word repeatedly. In the feudal times all vassals were bound to be always ready to attend and serve their superior lord, when summoned either to his courts or to his standard. This was called suit-service; and such appears to be the intention of suit in the text.

2 Unpregnant here is the opposite of pregnant as explained, page 132, note 4; unprepared or at a loss.

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no ;3
For my authority bears so credent bulk,4

That no particular scandal once can touch

But it confounds the breather.

He should have lived,

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 lived!

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 the 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 blench1 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.

Fri. P.

It shall be speeded well. [Exit.

8 Reason warns or challenges her not to do it, cries no to her whenever she is moved to do it. The phrase is somewhat strange; but the Poet elsewhere uses dare in a similar way, and a like use of no is not uncommon. So Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Chances, iii. 4: I wear a sword to satisfy the world no," that is, to satisfy the world 'tis not so. And in A Wife for a Month: "I'm sure he did not, for I charg'd him no;" that is, plainly, charged him not to do it.

4 My authority carries such a strength of credibility, or a force so great for inspiring belief or confidence. A very peculiar use of credent. — Particular, in the next line, means private.

1 To blench is to start or fly off.

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.

SCENE VI.- Street near the City-gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

Isab. To speak so indirectly? I am loth: I'd say the truth; but to accuse him so, That is your part: yet I'm advised to do it ; He says, to 'vailful purpose.

Mari.

Be ruled by him.
Isab. 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.

Mari. I would Friar Peter

Isab.

[Exeunt.

O, peace! the friar is come.

Enter Friar PETER.

Fri. P. 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 gravest3 citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon

The Duke is entering: therefore, hence, away!

[Exeunt.

2 To speak indirectly here means to speak falsely or untruly. Indirection bears the same sense in Hamlet, ii. 1: “And thus do we by indirections find directions out."

The force of the superlative in gravest here is meant to retroact on generous, which is used withal in its Latin sense, well-born: noblest and gravest. The Poet has many instances of like construction. So in The Merchant, iii. 2: "The best condition'd and unwearied spirit." Here the superlative in best is continued over unwearied in the sense of most.

4 To hent is to seize or take possession of.

ACT V.

SCENE I. A public Place near the City-gate.

MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and Friar PETER, behind. Enter, from one side, the DUKE in his own habit, VARRIUS, Lords; from the other, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, the Provost, Officers, and Citizens.

Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met :Our old and faithful friend, we're glad to see you.

Happy return be to your royal Grace!

Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both.
We've made inquiry of you; and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield forth to you public thanks,
Forerunning more requital.

Ang. You make my bonds1 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 razure 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.

1 Bonds in the sense of obligations. Shakespeare repeatedly uses it thus.

Friar PETER and ISABELLA come forward.

Fri. P. Now is your time: speak loud, and kneel before him.

Isab. Justice, O royal Duke! Vail 2 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.

Isab.

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 !
Ang. 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,

Isab.

By course of justice !

Ang. And she will speak most bitterly and strange. Isab. 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-violater ;

Is it not strange and strange?

Duke.

Nay, ten times strange.

Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo

Than this is all as true as it is strange :

2 Vail is cast down or let fall. A common use of the word in the Poet's time.