Page 1201 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

ESCALUS

Why, thou unreverend and unhallow’d friar!
Is’t not enough thou hast suborn’d these women
To accuse this worthy man, but in foul mouth, [305]

And in the witness of his proper ear,
To call him villain? And then to glance from him
To th’Duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
Take him hence! To th’rack with him! − We’ll touse you
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. [310]

What! Unjust!

DUKE
Be not so hot: the Duke
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he
Dare rack his own. His subject am I not,

Nor here provincial. My business in this state
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna, [315]
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
Till it o’errun the stew: laws for all faults,

But faults so countenanc’d that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop,
As much in mock as mark.

ESCALUS
Slander to th’state! [320]

Away with him to prison!

ANGELO

What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
Is this the man that you did tell us of?

LUCIO
Tis he, my lord. − Come hither, goodman Baldpate, do you know me? [325]

DUKE
I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice; I met you at the prison, in
the absence of the Duke.