Chapter: SCENE IV. 

_A nunnery._

  _Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA._

_Isab._ And have you nuns no farther privileges?

_Fran._ Are not these large enough?

_Isab._ Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.                   5

_Lucio_ [_within_]. Ho! Peace be in this place!

_Isab._                                 Who's that which calls?

_Fran._ It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him;
You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men                    10
But in the presence of the prioress:
Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you, answer him.    [_Exit._

_Isab._ Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?                  15

  _Enter LUCIO._

_Lucio._ Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?                                     20

_Isab._ Why, 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella and his sister.

_Lucio._ Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:
Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.                           25

_Isab._ Woe me! for what?

_Lucio._ For that which, if myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

_Isab._ Sir, make me not your story.

_Lucio._                           It is true.                      30
I would not--though 'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart--play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;                           35
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,
As with a saint.

_Isab._ You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.

_Lucio._ Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:--
Your brother and his lover have embraced:                           40
As those that feed grow full,--as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison,--even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

_Isab._ Some one with child by him?--My cousin Juliet?              45

_Lucio._ Is she your cousin?

_Isab._ Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names
By vain, though apt, affection.

_Lucio._                      She it is.

_Isab._ O, let him marry her.

_Lucio._                    This is the point.
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;                         50
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,                         55
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge                          60
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He--to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions--hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life                         65
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example. All hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business                    70
'Twixt you and your poor brother.

_Isab._ Doth he so seek his life?

_Lucio._                        Has censured him
Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

_Isab._ Alas! what poor ability's in me                             75
To do him good?

_Lucio._      Assay the power you have.

_Isab._ My power? Alas, I doubt,--

_Lucio._                         Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,                        80
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owe them.

_Isab._ I'll see what I can do.

_Lucio._                      But speedily.

_Isab._ I will about it straight;                                   85
No longer staying but to give the Mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.

_Lucio._ I take my leave of you.

_Isab._                        Good sir, adieu.                     90

    [_Exeunt._


  NOTES: I, 4.

  SCENE IV.] SCENA QUINTA Ff. SCENE VIII. Pope.
  5: _sisterhood, the votarists_] _sister votarists_ Pope.
  27: _For that which_] _That for which_ Malone conj.
  30: _make me not your story_] _mock me not:--your story_ Malone.
    _make me not your scorn_ Collier MS. (after Davenant).
    _make ... sport_ Singer.
  _It is true_] Steevens. _'Tis true_ Ff. om. Pope.
    _Nay, tis true_ Capell.
  31: _I would not_] Malone puts a full stop here.
  40: _have_] _having_ Rowe.
  42: _That ... brings_] _Doth ... bring_ Hanmer.
  _seedness_] _seeding_ Collier MS.
  44: _his_] _its_ Hanmer.
  49: _O, let him_] F1. _Let him_ F2 F3 F4. _Let him then_ Pope.
  50: _is_] _who's_ Collier MS.
  52: _and_] _with_ Johnson conj.
  _do_] om. Pope.
  54: _givings-out_] Rowe. _giving-out_ Ff.
  60: _his_] _it's_ Capell.
  63: _for long_] _long time_ Pope.
  68: _hope is_] _hope's_ Pope.
  70: _pith of business 'Twixt_] _pith Of business betwixt_ Hanmer.
    See note (VI).
  _pith of_] om. Pope.
  72: _so seek_] _so, Seeke_ Ff. _so? seek_ Edd. conj.
  _Has_] _H'as_ Theobald.
  71-75: Ff end the lines thus:-- _so,--already--warrant--poor--good._
    Capell first gave the arrangement in the text.
  73: _as_] om. Hanmer.
  74: _A warrant for his_] _a warrant For's_ Ff.
  78: _make_] Pope. _makes_ Ff.
  82: _freely_] F1. _truely_ F2 F3 F4.
    Enter _Provost_ inserted by Capell.

 The Duke is at a monastery, asking Friar Thomas to hide him there. He tells the friar that he has good reasons for hiding, and that he has lied to Angelo about his destination. The Duke explains that for the past fourteen years the laws have been flagrantly disobeyed, with little reproach from the government. As the Duke explains it, when the law only serves to threaten, because the lawmakers do not carry out the punishments dictated, the government loses its authority and "the baby beats the nurse" . Since he gave the people liberties, he does not feel comfortable punishing them for them now, yet he worries about the state of affairs in Vienna. He asked Angelo to take over in order to act more strictly without reproach or hypocrisy. He wants to observe Angelo at work, and so he asks the Friar to provide him with a disguise which will make him look like a visiting Friar himself. Meanwhile, Isabella is being introduced to the ways of the nunnery which she has decided to join. A man approaches, and the sister asks Isabella to answer the door, since she is not sworn in yet and therefore still allowed to speak to men. Isabella obeys and finds Lucio at the door, asking for her by name. Isabella asks him to explain what has happened, and he tells her that Claudio has impregnated his "friend." Isabella does not believe it at first and tells Lucio not to mock her. Lucio says that he is indeed telling the truth, and Isabella asks if the woman is her friend Juliet. When Lucio says yes, Isabella asks why they cannot simply marry. Lucio explains that the Duke is gone, and that the very logical and unemotional Angelo is serving as leader in his place. He also says that Angelo wants to make Claudio an example by executing him. Isabella asks how she can help, and Lucio says she should test whatever influence she has and visit Angelo, using her feminine charms and submissiveness to convince him to have mercy on her brother. Isabella says she will leave right away.

