Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

Act 5 - Scene 1

The city gate.

Escalus : The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak: [p]Look you speak
justly.

Vincentio : Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls, [p]Come you to seek the lamb
here of the fox? [p]Good night to your redress! Is the duke
gone? [p]Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust, [p]Thus to
retort your manifest appeal, [p]And put your trial in the villain's
mouth [p]Which here you come to accuse.

Lucio : This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.

Escalus : Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar, [p]Is't not enough thou
hast suborn'd these women [p]To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul
mouth [p]And in the witness of his proper ear, [p]To call him villain?
and then to glance from him [p]To the duke himself, to tax him with
injustice? [p]Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse
you [p]Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. [p]What
'unjust'!

Vincentio : Be not so hot; the duke [p]Dare no more stretch this finger of mine
than he [p]Dare rack his own: his subject am I not, [p]Nor here
provincial. My business in this state [p]Made me a looker on here in
Vienna, [p]Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble [p]Till it
o'er-run the stew; laws for all faults, [p]But faults so countenanced,
that the strong statutes [p]Stand like the forfeits in a barber's
shop, [p]As much in mock as mark.

Escalus : Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!

Angelo : What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio? [p]Is this the man that
you did tell us of?

Lucio : 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate: [p]do you know me?

Vincentio : I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I [p]met you at the
prison, in the absence of the duke.

Lucio : O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke?

Vincentio : Most notedly, sir.

Lucio : Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a [p]fool, and a
coward, as you then reported him to be?

Vincentio : You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make [p]that my report:
you, indeed, spoke so of him; and [p]much more, much worse.

Lucio : O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the [p]nose for thy
speeches?

Vincentio : I protest I love the duke as I love myself.

Angelo : Hark, how the villain would close now, after his [p]treasonable
abuses!

Escalus : Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with [p]him to prison!
Where is the provost? Away with him [p]to prison! lay bolts enough
upon him: let him [p]speak no more. Away with those giglots too,
and [p]with the other confederate companion!

Vincentio : [To Provost] Stay, sir; stay awhile.

Angelo : What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.

Lucio : Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you [p]bald-pated,
lying rascal, you must be hooded, must [p]you? Show your knave's
visage, with a pox to you! [p]show your sheep-biting face, and be
hanged an hour! [p]Will't not off?

Vincentio : Thou art the first knave that e'er madest a duke. [p]First, provost,
let me bail these gentle three. [p][To LUCIO] [p]Sneak not away, sir;
for the friar and you [p]Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.

Lucio : This may prove worse than hanging.

Vincentio : [To ESCALUS] What you have spoke I pardon: sit you down: [p]We'll
borrow place of him. [p][To ANGELO] [p]Sir, by your leave. [p]Hast
thou or word, or wit, or impudence, [p]That yet can do thee office? If
thou hast, [p]Rely upon it till my tale be heard, [p]And hold no
longer out.

Angelo : O my dread lord, [p]I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, [p]To
think I can be undiscernible, [p]When I perceive your grace, like
power divine,. Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince, [p]No
longer session hold upon my shame, [p]But let my trial be mine own
confession: [p]Immediate sentence then and sequent death [p]Is all the
grace I beg.

Vincentio : Come hither, Mariana. [p]Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this
woman?

Angelo : I was, my lord.

Vincentio : Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. [p]Do you the office,
friar; which consummate, [p]Return him here again. Go with him,
provost.

Escalus : My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour [p]Than at the strangeness
of it.

Vincentio : Come hither, Isabel. [p]Your friar is now your prince: as I was
then [p]Advertising and holy to your business, [p]Not changing heart
with habit, I am still [p]Attorney'd at your service.

Isabella : O, give me pardon, [p]That I, your vassal, have employ'd and
pain'd [p]Your unknown sovereignty!

Vincentio : You are pardon'd, Isabel: [p]And now, dear maid, be you as free to
us. [p]Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; [p]And you
may marvel why I obscured myself, [p]Labouring to save his life, and
would not rather [p]Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power [p]Than
let him so be lost. O most kind maid, [p]It was the swift celerity of
his death, [p]Which I did think with slower foot came on, [p]That
brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with him! [p]That life is better
life, past fearing death, [p]Than that which lives to fear: make it
your comfort, [p]So happy is your brother.

Isabella : I do, my lord.

Vincentio : For this new-married man approaching here, [p]Whose salt imagination
yet hath wrong'd [p]Your well defended honour, you must pardon [p]For
Mariana's sake: but as he adjudged your brother,-- [p]Being criminal,
in double violation [p]Of sacred chastity and of
promise-breach [p]Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,-- [p]The
very mercy of the law cries out [p]Most audible, even from his proper
tongue, [p]'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!' [p]Haste still
pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; [p]Like doth quit like, and
MEASURE still FOR MEASURE. [p]Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus
manifested; [p]Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee
vantage. [p]We do condemn thee to the very block [p]Where Claudio
stoop'd to death, and with like haste. [p]Away with him!

Mariana : O my most gracious lord, [p]I hope you will not mock me with a
husband.

Vincentio : It is your husband mock'd you with a husband. [p]Consenting to the
safeguard of your honour, [p]I thought your marriage fit; else
imputation, [p]For that he knew you, might reproach your life [p]And
choke your good to come; for his possessions, [p]Although by
confiscation they are ours, [p]We do instate and widow you
withal, [p]To buy you a better husband.

Mariana : O my dear lord, [p]I crave no other, nor no better man.

Vincentio : Never crave him; we are definitive.

Vincentio : My very worthy cousin, fairly met! [p]Our old and faithful friend, we
are glad to see you.

Angelo : [with Escalus] Happy return be to your royal grace!

Vincentio : Many and hearty thankings to you both. [p]We have made inquiry of you;
and we hear [p]Such goodness of your justice, that our soul [p]Cannot
but yield you forth to public thanks, [p]Forerunning more requital.

Angelo : You make my bonds still greater.

Vincentio : O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, [p]To lock it in
the wards of covert bosom, [p]When it deserves, with characters of
brass, [p]A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time [p]And razure
of oblivion. Give me your hand, [p]And let the subject see, to make
them know [p]That outward courtesies would fain proclaim [p]Favours
that keep within. Come, Escalus, [p]You must walk by us on our other
hand; [p]And good supporters are you.

Friar Peter : Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him.

Isabella : Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard [p]Upon a wrong'd, I would
fain have said, a maid! [p]O worthy prince, dishonour not your
eye [p]By throwing it on any other object [p]Till you have heard me in
my true complaint [p]And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!

Vincentio : Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief. [p]Here is Lord Angelo
shall give you justice: [p]Reveal yourself to him.

Isabella : O worthy duke, [p]You bid me seek redemption of the devil: [p]Hear me
yourself; for that which I must speak [p]Must either punish me, not
being believed, [p]Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me,
here!

Angelo : My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: [p]She hath been a suitor
to me for her brother [p]Cut off by course of justice,--

Isabella : By course of justice!

Angelo : And she will speak most bitterly and strange.

Isabella : Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: [p]That Angelo's
forsworn; is it not strange? [p]That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not
strange? [p]That Angelo is an adulterous thief, [p]An hypocrite, a
virgin-violator; [p]Is it not strange and strange?

Vincentio : Nay, it is ten times strange.

Isabella : It is not truer he is Angelo [p]Than this is all as true as it is
strange: [p]Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth [p]To the
end of reckoning.

Vincentio : Away with her! Poor soul, [p]She speaks this in the infirmity of
sense.

Isabella : O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest [p]There is another
comfort than this world, [p]That thou neglect me not, with that
opinion [p]That I am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible [p]That
which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible [p]But one, the wicked'st
caitiff on the ground, [p]May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as
absolute [p]As Angelo; even so may Angelo, [p]In all his dressings,
characts, titles, forms, [p]Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal
prince: [p]If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more, [p]Had I more
name for badness.

Vincentio : By mine honesty, [p]If she be mad,--as I believe no other,-- [p]Her
madness hath the oddest frame of sense, [p]Such a dependency of thing
on thing, [p]As e'er I heard in madness.

Isabella : O gracious duke, [p]Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason [p]For
inequality; but let your reason serve [p]To make the truth appear
where it seems hid, [p]And hide the false seems true.

Vincentio : Many that are not mad [p]Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would
you say?

Isabella : I am the sister of one Claudio, [p]Condemn'd upon the act of
fornication [p]To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo: [p]I, in
probation of a sisterhood, [p]Was sent to by my brother; one
Lucio [p]As then the messenger,--

Lucio : That's I, an't like your grace: [p]I came to her from Claudio, and
desired her [p]To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo [p]For her
poor brother's pardon.

Isabella : That's he indeed.

Vincentio : You were not bid to speak.

Lucio : No, my good lord; [p]Nor wish'd to hold my peace.

Vincentio : I wish you now, then; [p]Pray you, take note of it: and when you
have [p]A business for yourself, pray heaven you then [p]Be perfect.

Lucio : I warrant your honour.

Vincentio : The warrants for yourself; take heed to't.

Isabella : This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,--

Lucio : Right.

Vincentio : It may be right; but you are i' the wrong [p]To speak before your
time. Proceed.

Isabella : I went [p]To this pernicious caitiff deputy,--

Vincentio : That's somewhat madly spoken.

Isabella : Pardon it; [p]The phrase is to the matter.

Vincentio : Mended again. The matter; proceed.

Isabella : In brief, to set the needless process by, [p]How I persuaded, how I
pray'd, and kneel'd, [p]How he refell'd me, and how I
replied,-- [p]For this was of much length,--the vile conclusion [p]I
now begin with grief and shame to utter: [p]He would not, but by gift
of my chaste body [p]To his concupiscible intemperate lust, [p]Release
my brother; and, after much debatement, [p]My sisterly remorse
confutes mine honour, [p]And I did yield to him: but the next morn
betimes, [p]His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant [p]For my poor
brother's head.

Vincentio : This is most likely!

Isabella : O, that it were as like as it is true!

Vincentio : By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak'st, [p]Or
else thou art suborn'd against his honour [p]In hateful practise.
First, his integrity [p]Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no
reason [p]That with such vehemency he should pursue [p]Faults proper
to himself: if he had so offended, [p]He would have weigh'd thy
brother by himself [p]And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you
on: [p]Confess the truth, and say by whose advice [p]Thou camest here
to complain.

Isabella : And is this all? [p]Then, O you blessed ministers above, [p]Keep me in
patience, and with ripen'd time [p]Unfold the evil which is here wrapt
up [p]In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe, [p]As I, thus
wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!

Vincentio : I know you'ld fain be gone. An officer! [p]To prison with her! Shall
we thus permit [p]A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall [p]On him
so near us? This needs must be a practise. [p]Who knew of Your intent
and coming hither?

Isabella : One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.

Vincentio : A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?

Lucio : My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar; [p]I do not like the man:
had he been lay, my lord [p]For certain words he spake against your
grace [p]In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.

Vincentio : Words against me? this is a good friar, belike! [p]And to set on this
wretched woman here [p]Against our substitute! Let this friar be
found.

Lucio : But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, [p]I saw them at the
prison: a saucy friar, [p]A very scurvy fellow.

Friar Peter : Blessed be your royal grace! [p]I have stood by, my lord, and I have
heard [p]Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman [p]Most
wrongfully accused your substitute, [p]Who is as free from touch or
soil with her [p]As she from one ungot.

Vincentio : We did believe no less. [p]Know you that Friar Lodowick that she
speaks of?

Friar Peter : I know him for a man divine and holy; [p]Not scurvy, nor a temporary
meddler, [p]As he's reported by this gentleman; [p]And, on my trust, a
man that never yet [p]Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.

Lucio : My lord, most villanously; believe it.

Friar Peter : Well, he in time may come to clear himself; [p]But at this instant he
is sick my lord, [p]Of a strange fever. Upon his mere
request, [p]Being come to knowledge that there was
complaint [p]Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither, [p]To speak,
as from his mouth, what he doth know [p]Is true and false; and what he
with his oath [p]And all probation will make up full
clear, [p]Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman. [p]To
justify this worthy nobleman, [p]So vulgarly and personally
accused, [p]Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, [p]Till she
herself confess it.

Vincentio : Good friar, let's hear it. [p][ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and
MARIANA comes forward] [p]Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? [p]O
heaven, the vanity of wretched fools! [p]Give us some seats. Come,
cousin Angelo; [p]In this I'll be impartial; be you judge [p]Of your
own cause. Is this the witness, friar? [p]First, let her show her
face, and after speak.

Mariana : Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face [p]Until my husband bid me.

Vincentio : What, are you married?

Mariana : No, my lord.

Vincentio : Are you a maid?

Mariana : No, my lord.

Vincentio : A widow, then?

Mariana : Neither, my lord.

Vincentio : Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?

Lucio : My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are [p]neither maid,
widow, nor wife.

Vincentio : Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause [p]To prattle for
himself.

Lucio : Well, my lord.

Mariana : My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married; [p]And I confess besides I
am no maid: [p]I have known my husband; yet my husband [p]Knows not
that ever he knew me.

Lucio : He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better.

Vincentio : For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too!

Lucio : Well, my lord.

Vincentio : This is no witness for Lord Angelo.

Mariana : Now I come to't my lord [p]She that accuses him of fornication, [p]In
self-same manner doth accuse my husband, [p]And charges him my lord,
with such a time [p]When I'll depose I had him in mine arms [p]With
all the effect of love.

Angelo : Charges she more than me?

Mariana : Not that I know.

Vincentio : No? you say your husband.

Mariana : Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, [p]Who thinks he knows that he
ne'er knew my body, [p]But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.

Angelo : This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.

Mariana : My husband bids me; now I will unmask. [p][Unveiling] [p]This is that
face, thou cruel Angelo, [p]Which once thou sworest was worth the
looking on; [p]This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract, [p]Was
fast belock'd in thine; this is the body [p]That took away the match
from Isabel, [p]And did supply thee at thy garden-house [p]In her
imagined person.

Vincentio : Know you this woman?

Lucio : Carnally, she says.

Vincentio : Sirrah, no more!

Lucio : Enough, my lord.

Angelo : My lord, I must confess I know this woman: [p]And five years since
there was some speech of marriage [p]Betwixt myself and her; which was
broke off, [p]Partly for that her promised proportions [p]Came short
of composition, but in chief [p]For that her reputation was
disvalued [p]In levity: since which time of five years [p]I never
spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, [p]Upon my faith and
honour.

Mariana : Noble prince, [p]As there comes light from heaven and words from
breath, [p]As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, [p]I am
affianced this man's wife as strongly [p]As words could make up vows:
and, my good lord, [p]But Tuesday night last gone in's
garden-house [p]He knew me as a wife. As this is true, [p]Let me in
safety raise me from my knees [p]Or else for ever be confixed
here, [p]A marble monument!

Angelo : I did but smile till now: [p]Now, good my lord, give me the scope of
justice [p]My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive [p]These poor
informal women are no more [p]But instruments of some more mightier
member [p]That sets them on: let me have way, my lord, [p]To find this
practise out.

Vincentio : Ay, with my heart [p]And punish them to your height of
pleasure. [p]Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, [p]Compact
with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths, [p]Though they would
swear down each particular saint, [p]Were testimonies against his
worth and credit [p]That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord
Escalus, [p]Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains [p]To find
out this abuse, whence 'tis derived. [p]There is another friar that
set them on; [p]Let him be sent for.

Friar Peter : Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed [p]Hath set the women on to
this complaint: [p]Your provost knows the place where he abides [p]And
he may fetch him.

Vincentio : Go do it instantly. [p][Exit Provost] [p]And you, my noble and
well-warranted cousin, [p]Whom it concerns to hear this matter
forth, [p]Do with your injuries as seems you best, [p]In any
chastisement: I for a while will leave you; [p]But stir not you till
you have well determined [p]Upon these slanderers.

Escalus : My lord, we'll do it throughly. [p][Exit DUKE] [p]Signior Lucio, did
not you say you knew that [p]Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

Lucio : 'Cucullus non facit monachum:' honest in nothing [p]but in his
clothes; and one that hath spoke most [p]villanous speeches of the
duke.

Escalus : We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and [p]enforce them
against him: we shall find this friar a [p]notable fellow.

Lucio : As any in Vienna, on my word.

Escalus : Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with
her. [p][Exit an Attendant] [p]Pray you, my lord, give me leave to
question; you [p]shall see how I'll handle her.

Lucio : Not better than he, by her own report.

Escalus : Say you?

Lucio : Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, [p]she would sooner
confess: perchance, publicly, [p]she'll be ashamed.

Escalus : I will go darkly to work with her.

Lucio : That's the way; for women are light at midnight. [p][Re-enter Officers
with ISABELLA; and Provost with] [p]the DUKE VINCENTIO in his friar's
habit]

Escalus : Come on, mistress: here's a gentlewoman denies all [p]that you have
said.

Lucio : My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with [p]the provost.

Escalus : In very good time: speak not you to him till we [p]call upon you.

Lucio : Mum.

Escalus : Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander [p]Lord Angelo? they
have confessed you did.

Vincentio : 'Tis false.

Escalus : How! know you where you are?

Vincentio : Respect to your great place! and let the devil [p]Be sometime honour'd
for his burning throne! [p]Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me
speak.

Mariana : Gentle my liege,--

Vincentio : You do but lose your labour. [p]Away with him to death! [p][To
LUCIO] [p]Now, sir, to you.

Mariana : O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; [p]Lend me your knees, and
all my life to come [p]I'll lend you all my life to do you service.

Vincentio : Against all sense you do importune her: [p]Should she kneel down in
mercy of this fact, [p]Her brother's ghost his paved bed would
break, [p]And take her hence in horror.

Mariana : Isabel, [p]Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; [p]Hold up your
hands, say nothing; I'll speak all. [p]They say, best men are moulded
out of faults; [p]And, for the most, become much more the
better [p]For being a little bad: so may my husband. [p]O Isabel, will
you not lend a knee?

Vincentio : He dies for Claudio's death.

Isabella : Most bounteous sir, [p][Kneeling] [p]Look, if it please you, on this
man condemn'd, [p]As if my brother lived: I partly think [p]A due
sincerity govern'd his deeds, [p]Till he did look on me: since it is
so, [p]Let him not die. My brother had but justice, [p]In that he did
the thing for which he died: [p]For Angelo, [p]His act did not
o'ertake his bad intent, [p]And must be buried but as an
intent [p]That perish'd by the way: thoughts are no
subjects; [p]Intents but merely thoughts.

Mariana : Merely, my lord.

Vincentio : Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say. [p]I have bethought me of
another fault. [p]Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded [p]At an
unusual hour?

Provost : It was commanded so.

Vincentio : Had you a special warrant for the deed?

Provost : No, my good lord; it was by private message.

Vincentio : For which I do discharge you of your office: [p]Give up your keys.

Provost : Pardon me, noble lord: [p]I thought it was a fault, but knew it
not; [p]Yet did repent me, after more advice; [p]For testimony
whereof, one in the prison, [p]That should by private order else have
died, [p]I have reserved alive.

Vincentio : What's he?

Provost : His name is Barnardine.

Vincentio : I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. [p]Go fetch him hither; let me
look upon him.

Escalus : I am sorry, one so learned and so wise [p]As you, Lord Angelo, have
still appear'd, [p]Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of
blood. [p]And lack of temper'd judgment afterward.

Angelo : I am sorry that such sorrow I procure: [p]And so deep sticks it in my
penitent heart [p]That I crave death more willingly than
mercy; [p]'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. [p][Re-enter
Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled,] [p]and JULIET]

Vincentio : Which is that Barnardine?

Provost : This, my lord.

Vincentio : There was a friar told me of this man. [p]Sirrah, thou art said to
have a stubborn soul. [p]That apprehends no further than this
world, [p]And squarest thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd: [p]But,
for those earthly faults, I quit them all; [p]And pray thee take this
mercy to provide [p]For better times to come. Friar, advise him; [p]I
leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's that?

Provost : This is another prisoner that I saved. [p]Who should have died when
Claudio lost his head; [p]As like almost to Claudio as himself.

Vincentio : [To ISABELLA] If he be like your brother, for his sake [p]Is he
pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake, [p]Give me your hand and say you
will be mine. [p]He is my brother too: but fitter time for that. [p]By
this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe; [p]Methinks I see a quickening
in his eye. [p]Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well: [p]Look that
you love your wife; her worth worth yours. [p]I find an apt remission
in myself; [p]And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon. [p][To
LUCIO] [p]You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward, [p]One all
of luxury, an ass, a madman; [p]Wherein have I so deserved of
you, [p]That you extol me thus?

Lucio : 'Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the [p]trick. If you will
hang me for it, you may; but I [p]had rather it would please you I
might be whipt.

Vincentio : Whipt first, sir, and hanged after. [p]Proclaim it, provost, round
about the city. [p]Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow, [p]As I
have heard him swear himself there's one [p]Whom he begot with child,
let her appear, [p]And he shall marry her: the nuptial
finish'd, [p]Let him be whipt and hang'd.

Lucio : I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore. [p]Your highness
said even now, I made you a duke: [p]good my lord, do not recompense
me in making me a cuckold.

Vincentio : Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. [p]Thy slanders I forgive; and
therewithal [p]Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; [p]And
see our pleasure herein executed.

Lucio : Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, [p]whipping, and
hanging.

Vincentio : Slandering a prince deserves it. [p][Exit Officers with LUCIO] [p]She,
Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. [p]Joy to you, Mariana!
Love her, Angelo: [p]I have confess'd her and I know her
virtue. [p]Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much
goodness: [p]There's more behind that is more gratulate. [p]Thanks,
provost, for thy care and secrecy: [p]We shill employ thee in a
worthier place. [p]Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home [p]The
head of Ragozine for Claudio's: [p]The offence pardons itself. Dear
Isabel, [p]I have a motion much imports your good; [p]Whereto if
you'll a willing ear incline, [p]What's mine is yours and what is
yours is mine. [p]So, bring us to our palace; where we'll
show [p]What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.

Previous: Act 4 - Scene 6

Next: Act 5 - Scene 1

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