BAWD.
What’s to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let’s withdraw.
POMPEY.
Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the Provost to prison. And there’s Madam Juliet.
[Exeunt Bawd and Pompey.]
CLAUDIO.
Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?
Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
PROVOST.
I do it not in evil disposition,
But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
CLAUDIO.
Thus can the demi-god Authority
Make us pay down for our offence by weight.
The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still ’tis just.
Enter Lucio and two Gentlemen.
LUCIO.
Why, how now, Claudio? Whence comes this restraint?
CLAUDIO.
From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty.
As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.
LUCIO.
If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors; and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment. What’s thy offence, Claudio?