• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

To have free speech with you; and it concerns me

To look into the bottom of my place:

A pow'r I have, but of what strength and nature

I am not yet instructed.

ANGELO.

'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,

And we may soon our satisfaction have

Touching that point.

ESCALUS.

I'll wait upon your honour. Exeunt

SCENE II. A street

Enter Lucio and two other GENTLEMEN

LUCIO.

If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition

with the King of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the King.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of

Hungary's!

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

Amen.

LUCIO.

Thou conclud'st like the sanctimonious pirate that went to

sea with the Ten Commandments, but scrap'd one out of the table.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

'Thou shalt not steal'?

LUCIO.

Ay, that he raz'd.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain

and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal.

There's not a soldier of us all that, in the thanksgiving before

meat, do relish the petition well that prays for peace.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

I never heard any soldier dislike it.

LUCIO.

I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was said.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

No? A dozen times at least.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

What, in metre?

LUCIO.

In any proportion or in any language.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

I think, or in any religion.

LUCIO.

Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy;

as,

for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.

LUCIO.

I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet.

Thou art the list.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

And thou the velvet; thou art good velvet;

thou'rt

a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of

an English kersey as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French

velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

LUCIO.

I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of

thy speech. I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin

thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.

Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE

LUCIO.

Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I have

purchas'd as many diseases under her roof as come to-

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

To what, I pray?

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Judge.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

To three thousand dolours a year.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Ay, and more.

LUCIO.

A French crown more.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Thou art always figuring diseases in me, but thou

art full of error; I am sound.

LUCIO.

Nay, not, as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things

that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?

MRS.

OVERDONE. Well, well! there's one yonder arrested and carried

to prison was worth five thousand of you all.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Who's that, I pray thee?

MRS.

OVERDONE. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Claudio to prison? 'Tis not so.

MRS.

OVERDONE. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him

carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his

head to be chopp'd off.

LUCIO.

But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this?

MRS.

OVERDONE. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam

Julietta with child.

LUCIO.

Believe me, this may be; he promis'd to meet me two hours

since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

Besides, you know, it draws something near to the

speech we had to such a purpose.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

But most of all agreeing with the proclamation.

LUCIO.

Away; let's go learn the truth of it.

Exeunt Lucio and GENTLEMEN

MRS.

OVERDONE. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what

with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.