Act IScene III
A monastery
Enter Duke and Friar Thomas.
Duke
No, holy father, throw away that thought;Believe not that the dribbling dart of loveCan pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire theeTo give me secret harbour hath a purposeMore grave and wrinkled than the aims and endsOf burning youth.
Friar Thomas
May your Grace speak of it?
Duke
My holy sir, none better knows than youHow I have ever loved the life removed,And held in idle price to haunt assembliesWhere youth, and cost, a witless bravery keeps.I have delivered to Lord Angelo,A man of stricture and firm abstinence,My absolute power and place here in Vienna,And he supposes me travelled to Poland;For so I have strewed it in the common ear,And so it is received. Now, pious sir,You will demand of me why I do this?
Friar Thomas
Gladly, my lord.
Duke
We have strict statutes and most biting laws,The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,Which for this fourteen years we have let slip,Even like an o’ergrown lion in a caveThat goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,Having bound up the threat’ning twigs of birch,Only to stick it in their children’s sightFor terror, not to use, in time the rodBecomes more mocked than feared: so our decrees,Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,And liberty plucks justice by the nose,The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwartGoes all decorum.
Friar Thomas
It rested in your GraceTo unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased;And it in you more dreadful would have seemedThan in Lord Angelo.
Duke
I do fear, too dreadful.Sith ’twas my fault to give the people scope,’Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall themFor what I bid them do; for we bid this be doneWhen evil deeds have their permissive passAnd not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,I have on Angelo imposed the office;Who may in th’ ambush of my name strike home,And yet my nature never in the fightTo do in slander. And to behold his sway,I will, as ’twere a brother of your order,Visit both prince and people. Therefore, I prithee,Supply me with the habit, and instruct meHow I may formally in person bearLike a true friar. Moe reasons for this actionAt our more leisure shall I render you;Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confessesThat his blood flows or that his appetiteIs more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see,If power change purpose, what our seemers be.
Exeunt.