ISABELLA

O worthy Duke,

You bid me seek redemption of the devil.

Hear me yourself, for that which I must speak

Must either punish me, not being believed,

Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, hear!

ANGELO

My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm.

She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,

Cut off by course of justice.

ISABELLA ⌈standing⌉

By course of justice!

ANGELO

And she will speak most bitterly and strange.

ISABELLA

Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak.

That Angelo’s forsworn, is it not strange?

That Angelo’s a murderer, is’t not strange?

That Angelo is an adulterous thief,

An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,

Is it not strange, and strange?

DUKE

Nay, it is ten times strange!

ISABELLA

It is not truer he is Angelo

Than this is all as true as it is strange.

Nay, it is ten times true, for truth is truth

To th‘end of reck’ning.

DUKE

Away with her. Poor soul,

She speaks this in th’infirmity of sense.

ISABELLA

O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ‘st

There is another comfort than this world,

That thou neglect me not with that opinion

That I am touched with madness. Make not

impossible

That which but seems unlike. ’Tis not impossible

But one, the wicked’st caitiff on the ground,

May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,

As Angelo; even so may Angelo,

In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,

Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal prince,

If he be less, he’s nothing; but he’s more,

Had I more name for badness.

DUKE

By mine honesty,

If she be mad, as I believe no other,

Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,

Such a dependency of thing on thing

As e’er I heard in madness.

ISABELLA

O gracious Duke,

Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason

For inequality; but let your reason serve

To make the truth appear where it seems hid,

And hide the false seems true.

DUKE

Many that are not mad

Have sure more lack of reason. What would you say?

ISABELLA

I am the sister of one Claudio,

Condemned upon the act of fornication

To lose his head, condemned by Angelo.

I, in probation of a sisterhood,

Was sent to by my brother, one Lucio

As then the messenger.

LUCIO

That’s I, an’t like your grace.

I came to her from Claudio, and desired her

To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo

For her poor brother’s pardon.

ISABELLA

That’s he indeed.

DUKE (to Lucio)

You were not bid to speak.

LUCIO

No, my good lord,

Nor wished to hold my peace.

DUKE

I wish you now, then. Pray you take note of it;

And when you have a business for yourself,

Pray heaven you then be perfect.

LUCIO I warrant your honour.

DUKE

The warrant’s for yourself; take heed to’t.

ISABELLA

This gentleman told somewhat of my tale—

LUCIO Right.

DUKE

It may be right, but you are i’the wrong

To speak before your time. (To Isabella) Proceed.

ISABELLA

I went

To this pernicious caitiff deputy—

DUKE

That’s somewhat madly spoken.

ISABELLA Pardon it;

The phrase is to the matter.

DUKE

Mended again.

The matter; proceed.

ISABELLA

In brief, to set the needless process by,

How I persuaded, how I prayed and kneeled,

How he refelled me, and how I replied—

For this was of much length—the vile conclusion

I now begin with grief and shame to utter.

He would not, but by gift of my chaste body

To his concupiscible intemperate lust,

Release my brother; and after much debatement,

My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,

And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes,

His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant

For my poor brother’s head.

DUKE

This is most likely!

ISABELLA

O, that it were as like as it is true!

DUKE

By heaven, fond wretch, thou know‘st not what thou

speak’st,

Or else thou art suborned against his honour

In hateful practice. First, his integrity

Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason

That with such vehemency he should pursue

Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended,

He would have weighed thy brother by himself,

And not have cut him off. Someone hath set you on.

Confess the truth, and say by whose advice

Thou cam’st here to complain.

ISABELLA

And is this all?

Then, O you blessed ministers above,

Keep me in patience, and with ripened time

Unfold the evil which is here wrapped up

In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe,

As I, thus wronged, hence unbelievèd go.

DUKE

I know you’d fain be gone. An officer!

To prison with her.

An officer guards Isabella

Shall we thus permit

A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall

On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.

Who knew of your intent and coming hither?

ISABELLA

One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.

⌈Exit, guarded⌉

DUKE

A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?

LUCIO

My lord, I know him. ’Tis a meddling friar;

I do not like the man. Had he been lay, my lord,