Читать книгу Measure for Measure - Уильям Шекспир, William Szekspir, the Simon Studio - Страница 5

  ISABELLA. And have you nuns no farther privileges?

  FRANCISCA. Are not these large enough?

  ISABELLA. Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more,

    But rather wishing a more strict restraint

    Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.

  LUCIO. [ Within] Ho! Peace be in this place!

  ISABELLA. Who's that which calls?

  FRANCISCA. 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

    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 FRANCISCA

  ISABELLA. Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?

  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?

  ISABELLA. 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.

  ISABELLA. 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.

  ISABELLA. Sir, make me not your story.

  LUCIO. It is true.

    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 enskied and sainted,

    By your renouncement an immortal spirit,

    And to be talk'd with in sincerity,

    As with a saint.

  ISABELLA. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.

  LUCIO. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:

    Your brother and his lover have embrac'd.

    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.

  ISABELLA. Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet?

  LUCIO. Is she your cousin?

  ISABELLA. Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names

    By vain though apt affection.

  LUCIO. She it is.

  ISABELLA. O, let him marry her!

  LUCIO. This is the point.

    The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;

    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,

    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

    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

    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

    'Twixt you and your poor brother.

  ISABELLA. Doth he so seek his life?

  LUCIO. Has censur'd him

    Already, and, as I hear, the Provost hath

    A warrant for his execution.

  ISABELLA. Alas! what poor ability's in me

    To do him good?

  LUCIO. Assay the pow'r you have.

  ISABELLA. 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,

    Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,

    All their petitions are as freely theirs

    As they themselves would owe them.

  ISABELLA. I'll see what I can do.

  LUCIO. But speedily.

  ISABELLA. I will about it straight;

    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.

  ISABELLA. Good sir, adieu. Exeunt