Measure for Measure

Chapter 24

_Duke._ Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholding to 155 your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.

_Lucio._ Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do: he"s a better woodman than thou takest him for.

_Duke._ Well, you"ll answer this one day. Fare ye well.

_Lucio._ Nay, tarry; I"ll go along with thee: I can tell 160 thee pretty tales of the Duke.

_Duke._ You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough.

_Lucio._ I was once before him for getting a wench with child. 165

_Duke._ Did you such a thing?

_Lucio._ Yes, marry, did I: but I was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.

_Duke._ Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well. 170

_Lucio._ By my troth, I"ll go with thee to the lane"s end: if bawdy talk offend you, we"ll have very little of it.

Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick. [_Exeunt._

NOTES: IV, 3.

SCENE III.] SCENE VIII. Pope.

5: _paper_] _pepper_ Rowe.

11: _Dizy_] F2 F3 F4. _Dizie_ F1. _Dizzy_ Pope. _Dicey_ Steevens conj.

14: _Forthlight_] Ff. _Forthright_ Warburton.

15: _Shooty_] F2 F3 F4. _Shootie_ F1. _Shooter_ Warburton.

_Shoo-tye_ Capell.

17: _are_] _cry_ Anon. conj. See note (XIX).

_now_] _now in_ Pope.

25: _friends_] F1 F2. _friend_ F3 F4.

32: _his_] _the_ Pope.

49: _I_] om. F4.

[Transcriber"s Note: The text does not specify which occurrence of "I" is meant.

The speech begins "Not I: I have..."]

57: _hear_] _heave_ F2.

59: SCENE IX. Pope.

60: _gravel heart_] _grovelling beast_ Collier MS.

61: Given by Hanmer to _Prov._ 69: _his_] F1. om. F2 F3 F4.

_do_] om. Pope.

76: _whiles_] _while_ Pope.

83: _both Barnardine and Claudio_] _Claudio and Barnardine_ Hanmer.

See note (XX).

85: _the under_] Hanmer. _yond_ Ff. _yonder_ Pope.

86: _manifested_] _manifest_ Hanmer.

88: _Quick_] _Quick, then,_ Capell.

96: _well-_] Rowe. _weale-_ F1 F2 F3. _weal_ F4.

102: SCENE X. Pope.

103: _She"s come_] _She comes_ Pope.

106: _comforts_] _comfort_ Hanmer.

107: _Ho,_] om. Pope.

113, 114, 115: Ff make two lines ending at _other ... patience._ Text as proposed by Spedding.

114, 115: _show ... patience_] _In your close patience, daughter, shew your wisdom_ Capell.

114: _your wisdom_] _wisdom_ Pope.

115: _close_] _closest_ Pope.

119: _Injurious_] _perjurious_ Collier MS.

120: _nor hurts_] _not hurts_ F4. _hurts not_ Rowe.

122: _say_] _say to you_ Collier MS.

_find_] _surely find_ Pope.

124: _nay_] om. Pope.

125: _covent_] Ff. _convent_ Rowe.

126: _instance_] _news_ Pope.

129: _If you can, pace_] Rowe. _If you can pace_ Ff. _Pace_ Pope.

S. Walker thinks a line is lost after 131.

129, 130: _If you can pace ... wish it, go,_ Edd. conj.

137: _to-night_] om. Pope.

141: _combined_] _confined_ Johnson conj. (withdrawn).

145: _Who"s_] _whose_ F1.

146: SCENE XI. Pope.

154: [Exit ISABELLA] Theobald. om. Ff.

155: _beholding_] Ff. _beholden_ Rowe.

163: _not true_] _not_ Rowe.

172: _it_] om. F2.

SCENE IV. _A room in ANGELO"S house._

_Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS._

_Escal._ Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.

_Ang._ In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there? 5

_Escal._ I guess not.

_Ang._ And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their pet.i.tions in the street?

_Escal._ He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch 10 of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.

_Ang._ Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes i" the morn; I"ll call you at your house: give notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet him. 15

_Escal._ I shall, sir. Fare you well.

_Ang._ Good night. [_Exit Escalus._

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