Escal. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.

Duke. Peace be with you!—

[Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost.

He who the sword of Heaven will bear

Should be as holy as severe ;
Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go;25
More nor less to others paying
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
Twice treble shame on Angelo,
To weed my vice,26 and let his grow!
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
How may likeness work, in crimes,—
Making practice on the times, —
To draw with idle spiders' strings

Most ponderous and substantial things !27
Craft against vice I must apply:
With Angelo to-night shall lie
His old betrothed but despised;

So disguise shall, to th' disguised,

25" Grace to stand, and virtue to go," is the meaning. Perhaps it were better to read, as Coleridge suggested, "Grace to stand, virtue to go."

26 Referring, probably, to what the Duke has already said of himself, in i. 4: "Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope."

27 This whole soliloquy is rather un-Shakespearian, to say the least, and here it is somewhat obscure. But likeness probably means the same here as what the Poet elsewhere calls virtuous-seeming; that is, counterfeit semblance. So that the meaning comes something thus: "How may hypocrisy, by beguiling and hoodwinking the time, manage, in a course of criminal action, to draw to itself the greatest advantages by invisible threads." See Critical Notes.

28 Here disguise is put for a disguised person, and refers to Mariana, who is to cause herself to be falsely taken for Isabella; and the disguised is Angelo, who is practising wickedness under the guise of sanctity. Thus Mariana is, with her honest falsehood, to pay off Angelo's "false exacting," that is, the sacrifice which he treacherously extorts from Isabella. It is hardly needful to say that perspicuity is here sacrificed to a jingle of words. See Critical Notes.

1 To this stanza, which I am sure none but Shakespeare could have written, is commonly appended another, which I am equally sure Shakespeare did not write, and which appeared first in Fletcher's Bloody Brother. The two stanzas are there printed together as forming one song; though, as Mr. White justly remarks, "the stanza added in that play is palpably addressed to a woman, while this is clearly addressed to a man.' However, I here subjoin the other stanza, that the reader may compare them for himself:

"

Mari. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away; Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.

Enter the DUKE disguised as before.

I cry you mercy,2 sir; and well could wish
You had not found me here so musical:

Let me excuse me, and believe me so,

[Exit Boy.

My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe.3

Duke. 'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.

I pray you, tell me, hath anybody inquired for me here today? much upon this time have I promised here to meet.4

Mari. You have not been inquired after: I have sat here all day.

Duke. I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I shall crave your forbearance a little may be I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself. Mari. I am always bound to you.

Enter ISABELLA.

Duke. Very well met, and welcome. What is the news from this good deputy?

Hide, O, hide those hills of snow,
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears!
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.

2 "I cry you mercy" is the old phrase for "I ask your pardon."

[Exit.

8" The music was far from making me merry, but it assuaged my sorrow."

4 Meet is used rather strangely here, and perhaps there is some fault in the text. But we find a like instance in Cymbeline, i. 1: "When shall we see again?"

Isab. He hath a garden circummured 5 with brick,
Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd;

And to that vineyard is a planched gate,6
That makes his opening with this bigger key:

This other doth command a little door

Which from the vineyard to the garden leads;

There have I made my promise

Upon the heavy middle of the night

To call upon him.

Duke. But shall you on your knowledge find this way?

Isab. I've ta'en a due and wary note upon't :

With whispering and most guilty diligence,
In action all of precept,7 he did show me
The way twice o'er.

Duke.
Are there no other tokens
Between you 'greed concerning her observance?
Isab. No, none, but only a repair i' the dark;
And that I have possess'd him my most stay
Can be but brief; for I have made him know
I have a servant comes with me along,
That stays upon me; whose persuasion is
I come about my brother.

Duke.

'Tis well borne up.

I have not yet made known to Mariana

A word of this. — What, ho! within! come forth!

5 Circummured is, literally, walled around. The word does not occur again in Shakespeare.

6" A planched gate" is simply a gate made of planks. — In the next line, his refers to gate; the old substitute for its, which was not then an accepted word. See vol. i. page 90, note I.

7" Action all of precept" is, I take it, action altogether preceptive, or giving directions wholly by action. In like manner, the Poet repeatedly has "be of comfort" for be comforted. And all for altogether is used very often by Spenser, and several times by Shakespeare.

8 The use of to possess for to inform, or to assure, is quite frequent. See vol. iv. page 243, note 18. Also vol, v. page 171, note 25.

Re-enter MARIANA.

I pray you, be acquainted with this maid:
She comes to do you good.

Isab.

I do desire the like.

Duke. Do you persuade yourself that I respect you? Mari. Good friar, I know you do, and oft have found it. Duke. Take, then, this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear.

I shall attend your leisure: 9 but make haste;

The vaporous night approaches.

Mari. Will't please you walk aside?

[Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA.]

Duke. O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report

Run with their false and most contrarious quests
Upon thy doings! thousand 'scapes of wit 11

Make thee the father of their idle dreams,

And rack thee in their fancies! —

Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA.

10

Welcome! How agreed?

Isab. She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,

When you depart from him, but, soft and low,

Remember now my brother.

9" Wait for you to be at leisure." Attend is often thus equivalent to wait for. See vol. v. page 208, note 16.

10 Quests, here, is inquiries, questionings, or inquisitions.

11 'Scapes of wit are sportive sallies or flights. The Poet has, I think, no other instance of escape or 'scape so used; though we have, in King John, iii. 4, "No 'scape of Nature"; where 'scape means freak, or irregularity,