Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense, With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd! Alack! when once our grace we have forgot, 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. Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; 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 4 [Exeunt. 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: Mari. Be rul'd by him. I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic, 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 [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. ACT V. SCENE I. A public Place near the City Gate. MARIANA, (veitd,) ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. Ang. You make my bonds still greater. Duke. O! your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, When it deserves with characters of brass Friar PETER and ISABELLA come forward. F. Peter. Now is your time. Speak loud, and kneel before him. 7 Give ME your hand,] "Give we your hand," first folio. 8 Friar Peter and Isabella come forward.] The old copies say, "Enter Peter and Isabella ;" but they have been standing behind with Mariana, whose time for coming forward has not yet arrived. Isab. Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard' Till you have heard me in my true complaint, And given me justice, justice, justice, justice! Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice: Reveal yourself to him. Isab. O, worthy duke! You bid me seek redemption of the devil. Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O, hear me, here! Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm : She hath been a suitor to me for her brother, Cut off by course of justice. Isab. By course of justice! Ang. And she will speak most bitterly, and strange. An hypocrite, a virgin-violator, Duke. Nay, it is ten times strange Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo, Than this is all as true as it is strange: Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth. To th' end of reckoning. Duke. Away with her.-Poor soul! She speaks this in th' infirmity of sense. 9 VAIL your regard] To cail is to lower. 10 Nay, IT IS ten times strange.] So the folios. Malone and Steevens omit “it is" without warrant, and without notice. Isab. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st There is another comfort than this world, That thou neglect me not, with that opinion That I am touch'd with madness: make not impossible As Angelo; even so may Angelo, In all his dressings, characts', titles, forms, Duke. By mine honesty, If she be mad, as I believe no other, Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, As e'er I heard in madness. O, gracious duke! Isab. Duke. Many that are not mad, Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio Lucio. That's I, an't like your grace. I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her 1 characts,] i. e. Characters, or inscriptions. 2 And hide the false seems true.] Theobald and Monck Mason would read "Not hide the false seems true," but no change is required. |