Folio Comparision: Act IV, Scene 1 Main Menu - HomePage - The Play - Folio Comparisons
MARIANA.  Good Friar, I know you do, and have found it.      DUKE.  Take then this your companion by the hand Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leisure, but make haste, The vaporous night approaches.      MARIANA.  Will't please you walk aside.     [Exit]      DUKE.  O place and greatness: millions of false eyes Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report Run with these false, and most contrarious quests Upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit Make thee the father of their idle dreams, And rack thee in their fancies. Welcome, how agreed?      ISABELLA.  She'll take the enterprise upon her, father, If you advise it.      DUKE.  It is not my consent, But my entreaty too.      ISABELLA.  Little have you to say When you depart from him, but, soft and low, Remember now my brother.      MARIANA.  Fear me not.      DUKE.  Nor gentle daughter, fear you not at all. He is your husband on a pre contract: To bring you thus together 'tis no sin, Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go, Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.   Exeunt
This is a problematic passage and a difficult staging challenge. The exit of Isabella and Mariana is a harsh transition that seems to serve little dramatic purpose. Why must they exit instead of merely stepping aside? As noted in the Interactive Shakespeare text, the soliloquy of the Duke seems out of place -- disconnected from what precedes it. In addition, the speech is so short and Isabella's line comes so fast upon her return, that the two women are barely offstage before they must return. How might this staging challenge be turned into an effective moment?
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