ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords, and Attendants.
... Escalus.
My lord.
...is our commission,
He hands Escalus a paper.
...you of it?
If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honor,
It is Lord Angelo.
...to your purposes.
Lead forth and bring you back in happiness.
...Fare you well.
to Angelo
I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place.
A power I have, but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed.
...Touching that point.
I’ll wait upon your Honor.
They exit.
ACT 2
Scene 1
...Good sir, adieu.
Enter Angelo, Escalus, Servants, and a Justice.
...not their terror.
Ay, but yet
Let us be keen and rather cut a little
Than fall and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman
Whom I would save had a most noble father.
Let but your Honor know,
Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time cohered with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood
Could have attained th’ effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Erred in this point which now you censure him,
And pulled the law upon you.
... Enter Provost.
Be it as your wisdom will.
...of his pilgrimage.
Well, heaven forgive him and forgive us all.
Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.
Some run from brakes of ice and answer none,
And some condemnèd for a fault alone.
...ought to have.
to Angelo
This comes off well. Here’s a wise
officer.
...ill house too.
How know you that?
...and your Honor—
How? Thy wife?
...an honest woman—
Dost thou detest her therefore?
...a naughty house.
How dost thou know that, constable?
...all uncleanliness there.
By the woman’s means?
...man, prove it.
to Angelo
Do you hear how he misplaces?
...very good dishes—
Go to, go to. No matter for the dish, sir.
...very well then—
Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose:
what was done to Elbow’s wife that he hath cause to
complain of? Come me to what was done to her.
...to that yet.
No, sir, nor I mean it not.
...whip them all.
I think no less. Good morrow to your Lordship
Now, sir, come on. What was done to Elbow’s wife,
once more?
...Honor, ask me.
Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?
...mark his face?
Ay, sir, very well.
...mark it well.
Well, I do so.
...in his face?
Why, no.
...of your Honor.
He’s in the right, constable. What say you to
it?
...married with her.
Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity?
Is this true?
...batt’ry on thee.
If he took you a box o’ th’ ear, you might have
your action of slander too.
...this wicked caitiff?
Truly, officer, because he hath some offenses
in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst,
let him continue in his courses till thou know’st
what they are.
...art to continue.
to Froth
Where were you born, friend?
...in Vienna, sir.
Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
...please you, sir.
So. To Pompey.
What trade are you of, sir?
...poor widow’s tapster.
Your mistress’ name?
... Mistress Overdone.
Hath she had any more than one husband?
...by the last.
Nine?—Come hither to me, Master Froth.
Master Froth, I would not have you acquainted with
tapsters; they will draw you, Master Froth, and you
will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no
more of you.
...am drawn in.
Well, no more of it, Master Froth. Farewell.
Come you hither to me, Master Tapster. What’s your
name, Master Tapster?
... Pompey.
What else?
... Bum, sir.
Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing
about you, so that in the beastliest sense you are
Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd,
Pompey, howsoever you color it in being a tapster,
are you not? Come, tell me true. It shall be the
better for you.
...that would live.
How would you live, Pompey? By being a
bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? Is it
a lawful trade?
...allow it, sir.
But the law will not allow it, Pompey, nor it
shall not be allowed in Vienna.
...of the city?
No, Pompey.
...fear the bawds.
There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell
you. It is but heading and hanging.
...told you so.
Thank you, good Pompey. And in requital of
your prophecy, hark you: I advise you let me not
find you before me again upon any complaint
whatsoever; no, not for dwelling where you do. If I
do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent and prove
a shrewd Caesar to you. In plain dealing, Pompey, I
shall have you whipped. So, for this time, Pompey,
fare you well.
...of his trade.
Come hither to me, Master Elbow. Come
hither, Master Constable. How long have you been
in this place of constable?
...a half, sir.
I thought, by the readiness in the office, you
had continued in it some time. You say seven years
together?
...a half, sir.
Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do
you wrong to put you so oft upon ’t. Are there not
men in your ward sufficient to serve it?
...through with all.
Look you bring me in the names of some six
or seven, the most sufficient of your parish.
...Worship’s house, sir?
To my house. Fare you well.
To Justice.
What’s o’clock, think you?
... Eleven, sir.
I pray you home to dinner with me.
...humbly thank you.
It grieves me for the death of Claudio,
But there’s no remedy.
...Angelo is severe.
It is but needful.
Mercy is not itself that oft looks so.
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
But yet, poor Claudio. There is no remedy.
Come, sir.
They exit.
ACT 3
Scene 2
...who comes here?
Enter Escalus, Provost, Officers, and Mistress Overdone, a Bawd.
to Officers
Go, away with her to prison.
...good my lord.
Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit
in the same kind? This would make mercy
swear and play the tyrant.
...to abuse me.
That fellow is a fellow of much license. Let
him be called before us. Away with her to prison.—
Go to, no more words.
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.
...entertainment of death.
Good even, good father.
...goodness on you.
Of whence are you?
...from his Holiness.
What news abroad i’ th’ world?
...was the Duke?
One that, above all other strifes, contended
especially to know himself.
...he given to?
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.
...resolved to die.
You have paid the heavens your function and
the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have
labored 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.
...hath sentenced himself.
I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
...be with you.
Escalus and Provost exit.
ACT 4
Scene 4
...I shall stick.
Enter Angelo and Escalus.
Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched
other.
...our authorities there?
I guess not.
...in the street?
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.
...to meet him.
I shall, sir. Fare you well.
... Good night.
Escalus exits.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...Therefore hence, away.
Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Escalus, Lucio, Provost, Officers, and Citizens at several doors.
...to see you.
Happy return be to your royal Grace.
...whence ’tis derived.
The Duke rises. Escalus is seated.
...upon these slanderers.
My lord, we’ll do it throughly.
Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar
Lodowick to be a dishonest person?
...of the Duke.
We shall entreat you to abide here till he
come, and enforce them against him. We shall find
this friar a notable fellow.
...on my word.
Call that same Isabel here once again. I would
speak with her.
To Angelo.
Pray you, my lord, give me leave to
question. You shall see how I’ll handle her.
...her own report.
Say you?
...she’ll be ashamed.
I will go darkly to work with her.
...Isabella, with Officers.
to Isabella
Come on, mistress. Here’s a gentlewoman
denies all that you have said.
...with the Provost.
In very good time. Speak not you to him till
we call upon you.
... Mum.
to disguised Duke
Come, sir, did you set
these women on to slander Lord Angelo? They have
confessed you did.
... ’Tis false.
How? Know you where you are?
...hear me speak.
The Duke’s in us, and we will hear you speak.
Look you speak justly.
...I spoke of.
to disguised Duke
Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar,
Is ’t not enough thou hast suborned 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 th’ Duke himself, to tax him with injustice?—
Take him hence. To th’ rack with him. We’ll touse him
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.
What? “Unjust”?
...mock as mark.
Slander to th’ state!
Away with him to prison.
...his treasonable abuses!
Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away
with him to prison. Where is the Provost?
Provost comes forward.
Away with him to prison. Lay bolts
enough upon him. Let him speak no more. Away
with those giglets too, and with the other confederate
companion.
...reveals the Duke.
Angelo and Escalus stand.
...with him, provost.
My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonor
Than at the strangeness of it.
...look upon him.
to Angelo
I am sorry one so learnèd and so wise
As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeared,
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood
And lack of tempered judgment afterward.
...all should know.
They exit.