As there comes light from heaven, and words from

breath,

As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,

I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly

As words could make up vows: and, my good lord,
But Tuesday night last gone, in's garden-house,
He knew me as a wife. As this is true

Let me in safety raise me from my knees,
Or else for ever be confixed here,

A marble monument.

Ang.

I did but smile till now:

8

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice;
My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive,
These poor informal women are no more
But instruments of some more mightier member,
That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.

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

Let him be sent for.

F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, indeed,

Hath set the women on to this complaint.

These poor INFORMAL Women -] Informal signifies out of their senses. In "The Comedy of Errors,” A. v. sc. 1, as Steevens pointed out, “a formal man means a man in his senses. The same remark will apply to the same expression in "Antony and Cleopatra," A. ii. sc. 5, and in "Twelfth Night," A. ii. sc. 5. "Informal" is therefore here used as the opposite of “formal.”

9 And punish them to your height of pleasure.] So the folios. To read unto would fill up the measure; but we cannot be at all certain that Shakespeare did not mean to leave the line as it is found in the old copies.

Your provost knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.

Duke. Go, do it instantly.—

[Exit Provost.

And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
Do with your injuries as seems you best,

In any chastisement: I for a while

Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have well
Determined upon these slanderers.

Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[Exit DUKE.] Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the duke.

We shall find

Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him. this friar a notable fellow.

Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word.

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

handle her.

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

Escal. Say you?

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

Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA: the DUKE, in a
Friar's habit, and Provost.

Escal. I will go darkly to work with her.

Lucio. That's the way; for women are light at midnight.

Escal. Come on, mistress. [To ISABELLA.] Here's a gentlewoman denies all that you have said.

VOL. II.

H

Lucio. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here, with the provost.

Escal. In very good time :-speak not you to him, till we call upon you.

Lucio. Mum.

Escal. Come, sir. Did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? they have confess'd you did. Duke. "Tis false.

Escal. How! know you where you are?

Duke. Respect to your great place! and let the devil

Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne.—
Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak.
Escal. The duke's in us, and we will hear you
speak:

Look, you speak justly.

Duke.

Boldly, at least.-But, O, poor souls!

Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox?

Good night to your redress. Is the duke gone?

Then is your cause gone too.

The duke's unjust,

Thus to retort your manifest appeal,

And put your trial in the villain's mouth,
Which here you come to accuse.

Lucio. This is the rascal: this is he I spoke of.
Escal. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar!
Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women
To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth,
And in the witness of his proper ear,

To call him villain 10? And then to glance from him
To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?—
Take him hence; to the rack with him :-We'll touze

you

10 To call him villain?] This is printed by Malone, and Steevens, as a hemistich, but by restoring the regulation of the metre, as in the old copies, for the next five or six lines, it will be seen that they run at least as regularly as Shakespeare, probably, intended in a scene of this description. At all events, the modern editors effected no improvement by their change.

3

Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose
What! unjust?

Duke. Be not so hot; the duke dare

No more stretch this finger of mine, than he
Dare rack his own: his subject am I not,
Nor here provincial2. My business in this state
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,

Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble,
Till it o'er-run the stew: laws for all faults,
But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop3,

As much in mock as mark.

Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison.

Ang. What can you vouch against him, signior Lucio?

Is this the man that you did tell us of?

Lucio. "Tis he, my lord.-Come hither, goodman bald-pate do you know me?

Duke. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke.

Lucio. O! did you so? you said of the duke?

Duke. Most notedly, sir.

And do you remember what

And do

1 But we will know HIS purpose.] Malone substituted this for "his" without necessity.

2 Nor here PROVINCIAL.] "The different orders of monks (says Monck Mason) have a chief, who is called the General of the order; and they have also Superiors, subordinate to the General, in the several provinces through which the order may be dispersed. The friar therefore means to say, that the duke dares not touch a finger of his; for he could not punish him by his own authority, as he was not his subject, nor through that of the Superior, as he was not of that province."

3 Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,] "Formerly with us (observes Warburton), the better sort of people went to the barber's shop to be trimmed, who then practised the under parts of surgery: so that he had occasion for numerous instruments, which lay there ready for use; and the idle people, with whom his shop was generally crowded, would be perpetually handling and misusing them. To remedy which, I suppose, there was placed up against the wall a table of forfeitures, adapted to every offence of this kind; which, it is not likely, would long preserve its authority." This may be true, but it wants proof.

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

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

Lucio. O, thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose, for thy speeches?

Duke. I protest, I love the duke as I love myself. Ang. Hark how the villain would close now, after his treasonable abuses.

Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal:Away with him to prison.-Where is the provost ?— Away with him to prison. Lay bolts enough upon him, let him speak no more.-Away with those giglots too, and with the other confederate companion.

[The Provost lays hand on the DUKE.

Duke. Stay, sir; stay a while.

Ang. What! resists he? Help him, Lucio.

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

[Pulls off the Friar's hood, and discovers

the DUKE.

Duke. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made a duke.

First, provost, let me bail these gentle three.

Sneak not away, sir; [To LUCIO.] for the friar and you Must have a word anon.-Lay hold on him.

Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging.

Duke. What you have spoke, I pardon; sit you

down.

[TO ESCALUS.

[To ANGELO.

We'll borrow place of him :-Sir, by your leave.

Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,