Читать книгу Measure for Measure (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - Страница 7

[Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers; LUCIO and two

Gentlemen.]

CLAUDIO.

Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

PROVOST.

I do it not in evil disposition,

But from Lord Angelo by special charge.

CLAUDIO.

Thus can the demigod Authority

Make us pay down for our offence by weight.—

The words of heaven;—on whom it will, it will;

On whom it will not, so; yet still ‘tis just.

LUCIO.

Why, how now, Claudio, whence comes this restraint?

CLAUDIO.

From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use

Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,—

Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,—

A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.

LUCIO. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors; and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment.—What’s thy offence, Claudio?

CLAUDIO.

What but to speak of would offend again.

LUCIO.

What, is’t murder?

CLAUDIO.

No.

LUCIO.

Lechery?

CLAUDIO.

Call it so.

PROVOST.

Away, sir; you must go.

CLAUDIO.

One word, good friend.—Lucio, a word with you.

[Takes him aside.]

LUCIO. A hundred, if they’ll do you any good. Is lechery so lookeed after?

CLAUDIO.

Thus stands it with me:—Upon a true contract

I got possession of Julietta’s bed:

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,

Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order;: this we came not to

Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love

Till time had made them for us. But it chances

The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,

With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.

LUCIO.

With child, perhaps?

CLAUDIO.

Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,—

Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,

Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,

Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur:

Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I stagger in.—But this new governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties

Which have, like unscour’d armour, hung by the wall

So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round

And none of them been worn; and, for a name,

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me; ‘tis surely for a name.

LUCIO. I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

CLAUDIO.

I have done so, but he’s not to be found.

I pr’ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service:

This day my sister should the cloister enter,

And there receive her approbation:

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;

Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends

To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him;

I have great hope in that: for in her youth

There is a prone and speechless dialect

Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art

When she will play with reason and discourse,

And well she can persuade.

LUCIO. I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I’ll to her.

CLAUDIO.

I thank you, good friend Lucio.

LUCIO.

Within two hours,—

CLAUDIO.

Come, officer, away.

[Exeunt.]