MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

The DUKE's Palace.

The DUKE, ESCALUS, FREDERICK, and LEOPOLD, discovered.

Duke. Escalus,

Esca. My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you :

The nature of our people,

Our city's institutions, and the terms

For common justice, you are as pregnant in
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember: There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp.-

[ESCALUS kneels, and takes his commission.

Call hither,
say, bid come before us, Angelo.-

I

[Exit LEOPOLD.

What figure of us, think you, he will bear?
For, you must know, we have, with special soul,

Elected him our absence to supply;

of it?

Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love;
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power:-What think you
Esca. If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is Lord Angelo.

Enter LEOPOLD, and ANGELO.

Duke. Look, where he comes.

Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.

Duke. Angelo,

There is a kind of character in thy life,
That, to the observer, doth thy history

Fully unfold:

In our remove, be thou at full ourself;
Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary:
Take thy commission.

Ang. Now, good my lord,

Let there be some more test made of my metal,
Before so noble and so great a figure

Be stamp'd upon it.

Duke. We have, with a leaven'd and prepared

choice,

Proceeded to you;

therefore take your honours. [ANGELO kneels, and receives his commission.

We shall write to you,

well:

As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us; and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commissions.

Ang. Yet, give me leave, my lord,

That we may bring you something on the way.

Duke. My haste may not admit it:

I'll privily away.

[Exeunt LEOPOLD, and FREDERICK.

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do

With any scruple: your scope is as mine own,
So to enforce, or qualify the laws,

As to your soul seems good.—

Once more, fare you well.

Ang. The Heavens give safety to your purposes. Esca. Lead forth, and bring you back in happi

ness!

-Fare you well.

Duke. I thank you :—

[Exit DUKE. Esca. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave

To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place:

A

power I have; but of what strength and nature I am not yet instructed.

Ang. "Tis so with me:-Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have

Touching that point.

Esca. I'll wait upon your honour.

[Exeunt ANGELO, and ESCALUS.

SCENE II.

The Garden of a Monastery.

Enter FRIAR PETER, and the DUKE.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought: Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bosom: why I desire thee
To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose
More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Peter. May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.

I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence,)
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travel'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd. Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Peter. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,

(The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds,)
Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep :
Now, as (fond fathers

Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's sight,

For terror, not to use,)-in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose:
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Peter. It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied up justice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd,
Than in Lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful:

Sith 'twas my fault, to give the people scope,
Twould be my tyranny, to strike and gall them
For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,
And not the punishment. Therefore, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home:
And, to behold'his sway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me
Like a true friar.-More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure, shall I render you;
Only this one:-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses,
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

[Exeunt the DUKE and FRIAR Peter.

SCENE III.

The Street.

Enter LEOPOLD, LUCIO, and FREDERICK.

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.

Fred. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of Hungary's!

Leo. Amen.

Lucio. Thou conclud'st, like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table.

Leo. Thou shalt not steal?

Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

Fred. 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, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

Leo. I never heard any soldier dislike it.