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I am combined by a sacred vow,

And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter.

Command these fretting waters from your eyes

With a light heart; trust not my holy order,

If I pervert your course. Who's here?

Enter LUCIO

LUCIO.

Good even. Friar, where's the Provost?

DUKE.

Not within, sir.

LUCIO.

O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes

so red. Thou must be patient. I am fain to dine and sup with

water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one

fruitful meal would set me to't. But they say the Duke will be

here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother. If the

old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had

lived. Exit ISABELLA

DUKE.

Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholding to your reports;

but the best is, he lives not in them.

LUCIO.

Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do; he's a

better woodman than thou tak'st him for.

DUKE.

Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.

LUCIO.

Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty

tales of the Duke.

DUKE.

You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be

true; if not true, none were enough.

LUCIO.

I was once before him for getting a wench with child.

DUKE.

Did you such a thing?

LUCIO.

Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would

else have married me to the rotten medlar.

DUKE.

Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.

LUCIO.

By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If bawdy

talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I

am a

kind of burr; I shall stick. Exeunt

SCENE IV. ANGELO'S house

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS

ESCALUS.

Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other.

ANGELO.

In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much

like to madness; pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why

meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there?

ESCALUS.

I guess not.

ANGELO.

And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his

ent'ring that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should

exhibit their petitions in the street?

ESCALUS.

He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of

complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which

shall then have no power to stand against us.

ANGELO.

Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd;

Betimes i' th' morn I'll call you at your house;

Give notice to such men of sort and suit

As are to meet him.

ESCALUS.

I shall, sir; fare you well.

ANGELO.

Good night. Exit ESCALUS

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant

And dull to all proceedings. A deflow'red maid!

And by an eminent body that enforc'd

The law against it! But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;

For my authority bears a so credent bulk

That no particular scandal once can touch

But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd,

Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,

Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,

By so receiving a dishonour'd life

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd!

Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,

Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not. Exit

SCENE V. Fields without the town

Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER

DUKE.

These letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters]

The Provost knows our purpose and our plot.

The matter being afoot, keep your instruction

And hold you ever to our special drift;

Though sometimes you do blench from this to that

As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house,

And tell him where I stay; give the like notice

To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;

But send me Flavius first.

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

Will greet us here anon. My gentle Varrius! Exeunt