Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you (A man of stricture and firm abstinence), You will demand of me, why I do this? Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs for headstrong steeds), Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers, Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight, For terror, not to use; in time the rod Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our decrees, The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Fri. It rested in your grace To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd: And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd, Than in Lord Angelo. Duke. I do fear, too dreadful: Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope, Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permissive pass, And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father, I have on Angelo impos'd the office; 2 i. e. retired. • Bravery is showy dress. Keeps, i. è. resides. Stricture; strictness. Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home, To do it slander: And to behold his sway, Like a true friar. More reasons for this action, Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see, SCENE V. A Nunnery. Enter ISABELLA and. FRANCISCA. Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges? Fran. Are not these large enough? Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare. Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place! [ithin.] Isab. Then, if you speak, you must not show your face; Si e. on his defence. Enter Lucio. Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me, As bring me to the sight of Isabella, A novice of this place, and the fair sister Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask; Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you: Not to be weary with you, he's in prison. Isab. Woe me! For what? Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks: He hath got his friend with child. Isab. Sir, mock me not:-your story 1, Lucio. "Tis true, I would not, though 'tis my familiar sin With maids to seem the lapwing2, and to jest, As with a saint. Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Your brother and his lover4 have embrac'd: The old copy reads: Sir, make me not your story." The emendation is Mr. Malone's. 2 This bird is said to draw pursuers from her nest by crying in other places. This was formerly the subject of a proverb, The lapwing crics most, farthest from her nest,' i. e. tongue far from heart. So, in The Comedy of Errors: Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries away; My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.' 3 Fewness and truth, in few and true words. 4 i. e. his mistress. To teeming foison 5; even so her plenteous womb Expresseth his full tilth 6 and husbandry. Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin Juliet? Lucio. Is she your cousin? Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection. She it is. 1 Isab. O let him marry her! Lucio. This is the point. The duke is very strangely gone from hence; Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn By those that know the very nerves of state, His givings out were of an infinite distance From his true-meant design. Upon his place, And with full line of his authority, Governs Lord Angelo; a man, whose blood Is very snow-broth; one who never feels The wanton stings and motions of the sense; But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge With profits of the mind, study and fast. He (to give fear to use 9 and liberty, Which have, for long, run by the hideous law, As mice by lions), hath pick'd out an act, Under whose heavy sense your brother's life Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it; And follows close the rigour of the statute, To make him an example: all hope is gone, Unless you have the grace 10 by your fair prayer To soften Angelo: And that's my pith Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother. Teeming foison is abundant produce. 6 Tilth is tillage. So in Shakspeare's third Sonnet: For who is she so fair, whose unrear'd womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?' Full line, extent. 8 To rebate is to make dull: Aciem ferri hebetare.-Baret. i. e. to intimidate use, or practices long countenanced by custom. 10 i. e. power of gaining favour. Isab. Doth he so seek his life? Lucio. Has censur'd11 him Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me Lucio. Assay the power you have. Isab. My power! Alas! I doubt,- Our doubts are traitors, As they themselves would owe 12 them. But speedily. Lucio. Good sir, adieu. 11 To censure is to judge. This is the poet's general meaning for the word, but the editors have given him several others. Here they interpret it censured, sentenced. We have it again in the next scene: "When I that censure him do so offend, Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, 18 To one is to have, to possess. 1 i. e. the abbess, |