Page 1204 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Come hither, Mariana. −
Say: wast thou e’er contracted to this woman?

ANGELO
I was, my lord.

DUKE
Go, take her hence, and marry her instantly.
Do you the office, friar; which consummate, [375]

Return him here again. Go with him, Provost.
Exeunt [Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter and Provost].

ESCALUS
My lord, I am more amaz’d at his dishonour
Than at the strangeness of it.

DUKE
Come hither, Isabel.

Your friar is now your prince. As I was then,
Advertising and holy to your business, [380]
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney’d at your service.

ISABELLA
O, give me pardon,

That I, your vassal, have employ’d and pain’d
Your unknown sovereignty.

DUKE
You are pardon’d, Isabel.
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. [385]

Your brother’s death, I know, sits at your heart:
And you may marvel why I obscur’d myself,
Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power

Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, [390]
It was the swift celerity of his death,