"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?

Lucio.

Enter 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.

* Sir, the Duke is marvellous little BEHOLDING to your reports ;] The active instead of the passive participle was in general use at the time, and there is no reason for altering it. It is what Shakespeare wrote.

- he's a better WOODMAN than thou takest him for.] "Woodman” (from a passage cited by Reed from The Chances, A. 1. sc. 9) was applied to men who hunted after women as the woodman hunts after deer; the origin of the saying being probably the double meaning of deer, and dear :—

"Well, well, son John,

I see you are a woodman, and can choose
Your deer, though it be i' the dark.”

Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee. tell thee pretty tales of the duke.

I can

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.

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd

other.

10

Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner 1o.
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?

Escal. I guess not.

10 In most uneven and distracted manner.] This is a complete line, and although not so printed, it seems clear that the author meant this brief interview between two such principal personages to be rythmical. Some of the lines are rugged and irregular; but it is to be observed of such as—

"They should exhibit their petitions,"

that the last word is to be read as four syllables, for the same reason that on a preceding page, 81, "generation" is to be read as five syllables. After the exit of Escalus the old copies give the soliloquy of Angelo as verse, though the lines are far from regular.

Ang. And why should we

Proclaim it in an hour before his ent'ring,
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 despatch 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 suit,

As are to meet him.

Escal.

Ang. Good night.—

I shall, sir fare you well.

[Exit.

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant 2,
And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid,
And by an eminent body, that enforc'd

The law against it!-But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me!

no 3:

Yet reason dares her?

For my authority bears of a credent bulk

That no particular scandal once can touch,

But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd,

1 Which shall then have no power to stand against us.] Excepting this line,

it seems impossible to make the speech run in any measured verse.

- makes me UNPREGNANT,] Steevens remarks that in the first scene the Duke says that Escalus is pregnant, i. e. ready in the forms of law. Unpregnant, therefore, in the instance before us, is unready, unprepared.

'Yet reason dares her? no :] Warburton tells us that the old folios read,

"Yet reason dares her No;"

printing "no" with a capital letter; and it has been taken for granted that it is so, without reference to the originals, where in fact it stands merely,—

"Yet reason dares her no,"

The true reading seems to be as it stands in our text: Angelo asks himself, "Yet reason dares her?" or "Does reason dare her?" and he replies, "no: for my authority," &c. Some of the commentators would have note, or not, instead of "no," but all the change really required is to put a mark of interrogation after "her." This was done by Malone.

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.

SCENE V.

Fields without the Town.

[Exit.

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 5,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice
To Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
But send me Flavius first.

F. 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.

4

- you do BLENCH,] To blench, says Steevens, is to start off, to fly off.

5 Go, call at FLAVIUS' house,] Misprinted "Flavia's house" in the old copies : two lines lower Valentius has been called Valentinus by the modern editors.

SCENE VI.

Street near the City Gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

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

Mari.

Be rul'd 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.

O, peace! the friar is come.

Enter Friar PETER.

F. 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.

sounded:

Twice have the trumpets

The generous and gravest citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is ent'ring: therefore hence, away.

[Exeunt.

Have HENT the gates,] i. e. Have taken possession of the gates. The word "hent" is derived from the Saxon hentan, to catch or lay hold of. Shakespeare has it again in "The Winter's Tale,"-" And merrily hent the stile-a." Hint has the same etymology, as Horne Tooke has justly observed. "Hent" was in use down to the time of Spenser and Shakespeare, but not much afterwards, excepting by writers who had been their contemporaries.