Page 1193 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar,
A very scurvy fellow.

FRIAR PETER
Bless’d be your royal Grace!
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard [140]
Your royal ear abus’d. First hath this woman

Most wrongfully accus’d your substitute,
Who is as free from touch or soil with her
As she from one ungot.

DUKE
We did believe no less.

Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of? [145]

FRIAR PETER
I know him for a man divine and holy,
Nor scurvy, not a temporary meddler,
As he’s reported by this gentleman;
And, on my trust, a man that never yet

Did, as he vouches, misreport your Grace. [150]

LUCIO
My lord, most villainously; believe it.

FRIAR PETER
Well, he in time may come to clear himself;
But at this instant he is sick, my lord:

Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,
Being come to knowledge that there was complaint [155]
Intended ’gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither,
To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
Is true and false; and what he with his oath

And all probation will make up full clear
Whensoever he’s convented. First, for this woman, [160]
To justify this worthy nobleman

So vulgarly and personally accus’d,