READ STUDY GUIDE: Act II, Scene i |
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Act II, Scene i
| [Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a JUSTICE, PROVOST, Officers, and otherAttendants.] |
| ANGELO.: |
| We must not make a scarecrow of the law, |
| Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, |
| And let it keep one shape till custom make it |
| Their perch, and not their terror. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Ay, but yet |
| Let us be keen, and rather cut a little |
| Than fall and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman, |
| Whom I would save, had a most noble father. |
| Let but your honour know,— |
| Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,— |
| That, in the working of your own affections, |
| Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing, |
| Or that the resolute acting of your blood |
| Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose, |
| Whether you had not sometime in your life |
| Err'd in this point which now you censure him, |
| And pull'd the law upon you. |
| ANGELO.: |
| 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, |
| Another thing to fall. I not deny |
| The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, |
| May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two |
| Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice, |
| That justice seizes. What knows the laws |
| That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant, |
| The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, |
| Because we see it; but what we do not see |
| We tread upon, and never think of it. |
| You may not so extenuate his offence |
| For I have had such faults; but rather tell me, |
| When I, that censure him, do so offend, |
| Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, |
| And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Be it as your wisdom will. |
| ANGELO.: |
| Where is the provost? |
| PROVOST.: |
| Here, if it like your honour. |
| ANGELO.: |
| See that Claudio |
| Be executed by nine to-morrow morning: |
| Bring him his confessor; let him be prepard; |
| For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage. |
| [Exit PROVOST.] |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! |
| Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall: |
| Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none, |
| And some condemned for a fault alone. |
| [Enter ELBOW, FROTH, CLOWN, Officers, &c.] |
| ELBOW.: |
| Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal |
| that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know |
| no law; bring them away. |
| ANGELO.: |
| How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter? |
| ELBOW.: |
| If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's constable, and my |
| name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here |
| before your good honour two notorious benefactors. |
| ANGELO.: |
| Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they? are they not |
| malefactors? |
| ELBOW.: |
| If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but |
| precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all |
| profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| This comes off well; here's a wise officer. |
| ANGELO.: |
| Go to;—what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost |
| thou not speak, Elbow? |
| CLOWN.: |
| He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow. |
| ANGELO.: |
| What are you, sir? |
| ELBOW.: |
| He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad |
| woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the |
| suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is |
| a very ill house too. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| How know you that? |
| ELBOW.: |
| My wfe, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,— |
| ESCALUS.: |
| How! thy wife! |
| ELBOW.: |
| Ay, sir; who, I thank heaven, is an honest woman,— |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Dost thou detest her therefore? |
| ELBOW.: |
| I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this |
| house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for |
| it is a naughty house. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| How dost thou know that, constable? |
| ELBOW.: |
| Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally |
| given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all |
| uncleanliness there. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| By the woman's means? |
| ELBOW.: |
| Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she spit in his |
| face, so she defied him. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. |
| ELBOW.: |
| Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove |
| it. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| [To ANGELO.] Do you hear how he misplaces? |
| CLOWN.: |
| Sir, she came in great with child; and longing,—saving your |
| honour's reverence—for stew'd prunes; sir, we had but two in |
| the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, |
| in a fruit dish, a dish of some threepence; your honours have |
| seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good |
| dishes. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir. |
| CLOWN.: |
| No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right; but |
| to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, |
| with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for |
| prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said, Master Froth |
| here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I |
| say, paying for them very honestly;—for, as you know, Master |
| Froth, I could not give you threepence again,— |
| FROTH.: |
| No, indeed. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Very well; you being then, if you be remember'd, cracking the |
| stones of the foresaid prunes,— |
| FROTH.: |
| Ay, so I did indeed. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remember'd, that |
| such a one and such a one were past cure of the thing you wot of, |
| unless they kept very good diet, as I told you,— |
| FROTH.: |
| All this is true. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Why, very well then. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What was done to |
| Elbow's wife that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what |
| was done to her. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| No, sir, nor I mean it not. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave. And, I |
| beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir, a man of fourscore |
| pound a-year; whose father died at Hallowmas:—was't not at |
| Hallowmas, Master Froth? |
| FROTH.: |
| All-hallond eve. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Why, very well; I hope here be truths: He, sir, sitting, as I |
| say, in a lower chair, sir;—'twas in the 'Bunch of Grapes', |
| where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not?— |
| FROTH.: |
| I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Why, very well then;—I hope here be truths. |
| ANGELO.: |
| This will last out a night in Russia, |
| When nights are longest there: I'll take my leave, |
| And leave you to the hearing of the cause; |
| Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship. |
| [Exit ANGELO.] |
| Now, sir, come on; what was done to Elbow's wife, once more? |
| CLOWN.: |
| Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once. |
| ELBOW.: |
| I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife. |
| CLOWN.: |
| I beseech your honour, ask me. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Well, sir: what did this gentleman to her? |
| CLOWN.: |
| I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.—Good Master |
| Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose.—Doth your |
| honour mark his face? |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Ay, sir, very well. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Nay, I beseech you, mark it well. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Well, I do so. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Doth your honour see any harm in his face? |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Why, no. |
| CLOWN.: |
| I'll be supposed upon a book his face is the worst thing about |
| him. Good then; if his face be the worst thing about him, how |
| could Master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would |
| know that of your honour. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it? |
| ELBOW.: |
| First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this |
| is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected woman. |
| CLOWN.: |
| By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any |
| of us all. |
| ELBOW.: |
| Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet: the time is yet to |
| come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity?—is this true? |
| ELBOW.: |
| O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I |
| respected with her before I was married to her? If ever I was |
| respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think |
| me the poor duke's officer.—Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, |
| or I'll have mine action of battery on thee. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your action of |
| slander too. |
| ELBOW.: |
| Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't your worship's |
| pleasure I should do with this wicked caitiff? |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou |
| wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses |
| till thou knowest what they are. |
| ELBOW.: |
| Marry, I thank your worship for it.—Thou seest, thou wicked |
| varlet, now, what's come upon thee; thou art to continue now, thou |
| varlet; thou art to continue. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| [To FROTH.] Where were you born, friend? |
| FROTH.: |
| Here in Vienna, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Are you of fourscore pounds a-year? |
| FROTH.: |
| Yes, an't please you, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| So.—[To the CLOWN.]What trade are you of, sir? |
| CLOWN.: |
| A tapster; a poor widow's tapster. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Your mistress' name? |
| CLOWN.: |
| Mistress Overdone. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Hath she had any more than one husband? |
| CLOWN.: |
| Nine, sir; Overdone by the last. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Nine!—Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master Froth, I would not |
| have you acquainted with tapsters: they will draw you, Master |
| Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no |
| more of you. |
| FROTH.: |
| I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into any |
| room in a taphouse but I am drawn in. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell. |
| [Exit FROTH.] |
| —Come you hither to me, master tapster; what's your name, master |
| tapster? |
| CLOWN.: |
| Pompey. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| What else? |
| CLOWN.: |
| Bum, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| 'Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in |
| the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are |
| partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster. |
| Are you not? come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of |
| the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade? |
| CLOWN.: |
| If the law would allow it, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| But the law will not allow it, Pompey: nor it shall not be |
| allowed in Vienna. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the |
| city? |
| ESCALUS.: |
| No, Pompey. |
| CLOWN.: |
| Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then. If your |
| worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need |
| not to fear the bawds. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you. It is but |
| heading and hanging. |
| CLOWN.: |
| If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year |
| together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. |
| If this law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house |
| in it, after threepence a bay. If you live to see this come to |
| pass, say Pompey told you so. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy, hark |
| you,—I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any |
| complaint whatsoever, no, not for dwelling where you do; if I do, |
| Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar |
| to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt: so for |
| this time, Pompey, fare you well. |
| CLOWN.: |
| I thank your worship for your good counsel; but I shall follow it |
| as the flesh and fortune shall better determine. |
| Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade; |
| The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade. |
| [Exit.] |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master Constable. |
| How long have you been in this place of constable? |
| ELBOW.: |
| Seven year and a half, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had continued in |
| it some time. |
| You say seven years together? |
| ELBOW.: |
| And a half, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Alas, it hath been great pains to you!—They do you wrong to put |
| you so oft upon't. Are there not men in your ward sufficient to |
| serve it? |
| ELBOW.: |
| Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen, |
| they are glad to choose me for them; I do it for some piece of |
| money, and go through with all. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most |
| sufficient of your parish. |
| ELBOW.: |
| To your worship's house, sir? |
| ESCALUS.: |
| To my house. Fare you well. |
| [Exit ELBOW.] |
| What's o'clock, think you? |
| JUSTICE.: |
| Eleven, sir. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| I pray you home to dinner with me. |
| JUSTICE.: |
| I humbly thank you. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| It grieves me for the death of Claudio; |
| But there's no remedy. |
| JUSTICE.: |
| Lord Angelo is severe. |
| ESCALUS.: |
| It is but needful: |
| Mercy is not itself that oft looks so; |
| Pardon is still the nurse of second woe: |
| But yet,—Poor Claudio!—There's no remedy. |
| Come, sir. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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