,
who should live with a woman that was not his wife; and this law,
through the lenity of the duke, being utterly disregarded, the holy
institution of marriage became neglected, and complaints were every day
made to the duke by the parents of the young ladies in Vienna, that
their daughters had been seduced from their protection, and were living
as the companions of single men.

The good duke perceived with sorrow this growing evil among his
subjects, but he thought that a sudden change in himself from the
indulgence he had hitherto shown, to the strict severity requisite to
check this abuse, would make his people (who had hitherto loved him)
consider him as a tyrant; therefore he determined to absent himself a
while from his dukedom, and depute another to the full exercise of his
power, that the law against these dishonourable lovers might be put in
effect, without giving offence by an unusual severity in kits own
person.

Angelo, a man who bore the reputation of a saint in Vienna for his
strict and rigid life, was chosen by the duke as a fit person to
undertake this important change; and when the duke imparted his design
to lord Escalus, his chief counsellor, Escalus said: 'If any man in
Vienna be of worth to undergo such ample grace and honour, it is lord
Angelo.' And now the duke departed from Vienna under presence of making
a journey into Poland, leaving Angelo to act as the lord deputy in his
absence; but the duke's absence was only a feigned one, for he
privately returned to Vienna, habited like a friar, with the intent to
watch unseen the conduct of the saintly-seeming Angelo.

It happened just about the time that Angelo was invested with his new
dignity, that a gentleman, whose name was Claudio, had seduced a young
lady from her parents; and for this offence, by command of the new lord
deputy, Claudio was taken up and committed to prison, and by virtue of
the old law which had been so long neglected, Angelo sentenced Claudio
to be beheaded. Great interest was made for the pardon of young
Claudio, and the good old lord Escalus himself interceded for him.
'Alas,' said he, 'this gentleman whom I would save had an honourable
father, for whose sake I pray you pardon the young man's
transgression.' But Angelo replied: 'We must not make a scare-crow of
the law, setting it up to frighten birds of prey, till custom, finding
it harmless, makes it their perch, and not their terror. Sir, he must
die.'

Lucio, the fri