Clo. 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. Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The same.

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers; Lucio, and two Gentlemen.

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.

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."

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,

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.

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?

The words of heaven, &c.] Alluding to Rom. ix. 15.--"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy."-HENLEY.

ravin-] Devour voraciously.

Claud. What, but to speak of would offend again.

Lucio. What is it? murder?

Claud. No.

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.

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;

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
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,

With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,—
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

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
Awakes me all the enroll'd 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,

-propagation—].e. Payment-from the Italian pagare. Their marriage was secret, that they might have time to conciliate the favour of Julietta's friends and not risk the payment of her dower.

glimpse of newness-] i. e. Sudden flash of new command.

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 milk-maid, 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.

I pr'ythee, 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;
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,

Such as moves 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.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,-

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE IV.

A monastery.

Enter DUKE and Friar THOMAS.

[Exeunt.

Duke. No; holy father; throw away that thought; Believe not that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bosom: why I desire thee

To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose

tickle]-for ticklish.

her approbation]i. e. Enter on her probation or noviciate.
prone] i. e. Ready.-

tick-tack]-is a game at tables.-"Jouer au tric-trac" is used in France in the sense in which Lucio here employs the phrase tick-tack.-MALONE. dribbling] Falling weekly like a drop of water.-To dribble is to drop.

and wrinkled than the aims and ends

More grave
Of burning youth.

Fri.

May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held an idle price to haunt assemblies,
Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery" keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence,)
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious sir

You will demand of me, why I do this?

Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,
(The needful bites and curbs for headstrong steeds,)
Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep;
Even like an o'er-grown 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,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks juctice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

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',
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

b

bravery keeps.] i. e. Foppery resides.

liberty-] Licentiousness.

eThe baby beats her nurse,] This allusion is borrowed from an old print, entitled the world turned upside down, in which the baby is represented as so employed.--STEEVENS.

Sith-] i. e. Since.

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;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,
And yet my nature never in the fight,

To do it slander: And to behold his sway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with a habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one:-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard' with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see,

If power change purpose, what our seemers be. [Exeunt.

SCENE V.

A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no farther 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 sister-hood, the votarists of saint Clare.
Lucio. Ho! peace be in this place!
Isab.

[Within.

Who's that which calls?
Fran. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella,

Turn you the key, and know his business of him;
You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn':

When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the presence of the prioress:

e fight,]-is the old reading-sight was introduced by Mr. Pope.-the duke is speaking metaphorically in military terms; and the old reading which I have restored is evidently the true one.

1 Stands at a guard-] Stands on his defence.-M. MASON.