A Street. | |
| |
Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen. | |
| Lucio. If the Duke with the other dukes come not to composition with the King of Hungary, why then, all the dukes fall upon the king. | |
| First Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of Hungary’s! | 4 |
| Second Gent. Amen. | |
| Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table. | |
| Second Gent. ‘Thou shalt not steal?’ | |
| Lucio. Ay, that he razed. | 8 |
| First Gent. Why, ’twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal. There’s not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace. | |
| Second Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. | |
| Lucio. I believe thee, for I think thou never wast where grace was said. | |
| Second Gent. No? a dozen times at least. | 12 |
| First Gent. What, in metre? | |
| Lucio. In any proportion or in any language. | |
| First Gent. I think, or in any religion. | |
| Lucio. Ay; why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace. | 16 |
| First Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us. | |
| Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: thou art the list. | |
| First Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of an English kersey as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now? | |
| Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee. | 20 |
| First Gent. I think I have done myself wrong, have I not? | |
| Second Gent. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free. | |
| Lucio. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to— | |
| Second Gent. To what, I pray? | 24 |
| Lucio. Judge. | |
| Second Gent. To three thousand dolours a year. | |
| First Gent. Ay, and more. | |
| Lucio. A French crown more. | 28 |
| First Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error: I am sound. | |
| Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee. | |
| |
Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE. | |
| First Gent. How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica? | 32 |
| Mrs. Ov. Well, well; there’s one yonder arrested and carried to prison was worth five thousand of you all. | |
| Second Gent. Who’s that, I pray thee? | |
| Mrs. Ov. Marry, sir, that’s Claudio, Signior Claudio. | |
| First Gent. Claudio to prison! ’tis not so. | 36 |
| Mrs. Ov. Nay, but I know ’tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head to be chopped off. | |
| Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this? | |
| Mrs. Ov. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam Julietta with child. | |
| Lucio. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping. | 40 |
| Second Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose. | |
| First Gent. But most of all, agreeing with the proclamation. | |
| Lucio. Away! let’s go learn the truth of it. [Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen. | |
| Mrs. Ov. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk. | 44 |
| |
Enter POMPEY. | |
| How now! what’s the news with you? | |
| Pom. Yonder man is carried to prison. | |
| Mrs. Ov. Well: what has he done? | 48 |
| Pom. A woman. | |
| Mrs. Ov. But what’s his offence? | |
| Pom. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. | |
| Mrs. Ov. What, is there a maid with child by him? | 52 |
| Pom. No; but there’s a woman with maid by him. You have not heard of the proclamation, have you? | |
| Mrs. Ov. What proclamation, man? | |
| Pom. All houses of resort in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down. | |
| Mrs. Ov. And what shall become of those in the city? | 56 |
| Pom. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. | |
| Mrs. Ov. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down? | |
| Pom. To the ground, mistress. | |
| Mrs. Ov. Why, here’s a change indeed in the commonwealth! What shall become of me? | 60 |
| Pom. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients: though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I’ll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you; you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered. | |
| Mrs. Ov. What’s to do here, Thomas tapster? Let’s withdraw. | |
| Pom. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there’s Madam Juliet. [Exeunt. | |
| |
Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers. | 64 |
| Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world? | |
| Bear me to prison, where I am committed. | |
| Prov. I do it not in evil disposition, | |
| But from Lord Angelo by special charge. | 68 |
| Claud. Thus can the demi-god Authority | |
| Make us pay down for our offence’ by weight. | |
| The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will; | |
| On whom it will not, so: yet still ’tis just. | 72 |
| |
Re-enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen. | |
| Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint? | |
| Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: | |
| As surfeit is the father of much fast, | 76 |
| So every scope by the immoderate use | |
| Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue— | |
| Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,— | |
| A thirsty evil, and when we drink we die. | 80 |
| Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors. And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment. What’s thy offence, Claudio? | |
| Claud. What but to speak of would offend again. | |
| Lucio. What, is ’t murder? | |
| Claud. No. | 84 |
| Lucio. Lechery? | |
| Claud. Call it so. | |
| Prov. Away, sir! you must go. | |
| Claud. One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you. [Takes him aside. | 88 |
| Lucio. A hundred, if they’ll do you any good. | |
| Is lechery so looked after? | |
| Claud. Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract | |
| I got possession of Julietta’s bed: | 92 |
| You know the lady; she is fast my wife, | |
| Save that we do the denunciation lack | |
| Of outward order: this we came not to, | |
| Only for propagation of a dower | 96 |
| Remaining in the coffer of her friends, | |
| From whom we thought it meet to hide our love | |
| Till time had made them for us. But it chances | |
| The stealth of our most mutual entertainment | 100 |
| With character too gross is writ on Juliet. | |
| Lucio. With child, perhaps? | |
| Claud. Unhappily, even so. | |
| And the new deputy now for the duke,— | 104 |
| Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness, | |
| Or whether that the body public be | |
| A horse whereon the governor doth ride, | |
| Who, newly in the seat, that it may know | 108 |
| He can command, lets it straight feel the spur; | |
| Whether the tyranny be in his place, | |
| Or in his eminence that fills it up, | |
| I stagger in:—but this new governor | 112 |
| Awakes me all the enrolled penalties | |
| Which have, like unscour’d armour, hung by the wall | |
| So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round, | |
| And none of them been worn; and, for a name, | 116 |
| Now puts the drowsy and neglected act | |
| Freshly on me: ’tis surely for a name. | |
| Lucio. I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke and appeal to him. | |
| Claud. I have done so, but he’s not to be found. | 120 |
| I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service. | |
| This day my sister should the cloister enter, | |
| And there receive her approbation: | |
| Acquaint her with the danger of my state; | 124 |
| Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends | |
| To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him: | |
| I have great hope in that; for in her youth | |
| There is a prone and speechless dialect, | 128 |
| Such as move men; beside, she hath prosperous art | |
| When she will play with reason and discourse, | |
| And well she can persuade. | |
| Lucio. I pray she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I’ll to her. | 132 |
| Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio. | |
| Lucio. Within two hours. | |
| Claud. Come, officer, away! [Exeunt. | |
