Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,To nothing temporal.

Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils
(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.

Isab. So you must be the first, that gives this What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?

Prov. As I do think, to-morrow. The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, I have provided for you; stay awhile. (To Juliet. Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness And you shall be conducted.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
Juliet. I do; and bear the shame most patiently.
Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your
conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,

Or hollowly put on.

Juliet.

I'll gladly learn.
Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you ?
Juliet. Yes, as I lov'd the woman that wrong'd

him.

Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed?

Juliet.

Mutually.
Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father.
Duke, 'Tis meet so, daughter: But lest you do

repent,

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, -
Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not

heaven;

Showing, we'd not spare1 heaven, as we love it,
But as we stand in fear,-

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil;

And take the shame with joy.

Duke.

There rest.

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him.-
Grace go with you! Benedicite!

[Exit.

Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious love,
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror!
Prov.

'Tis pity of him.

Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,
Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted,
That his soul sicken not.

Ang. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit

Their saucy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image,
In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made,
As to put mettle in restrained means,
To make a false one.

Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.
Ang. Say you so? then I shall poze you quickly.
Which had you rather, That the most just law
Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness,

[Exeunt. As she that he hath stain'd? Isab.

Sir, believe this,

SCENE IV. A room in Angelo's house. Enter I had rather give my body than my soul.
Angelo.

Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and
pray
To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name;

And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception: The state, whereon I studied,
Is like a good thing, being often read,

Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,
Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride,
Could I, with boot, change for an idle plume,
Which the air beats for vain. O place! O form!
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming? Blood, thou still art blood:
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
Tis not the devil's crest,.

How now, who's there?
Serv.

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart;

Ang. I talk not of your soul: Our compell'd sins
Stand more for number than accompt.
Isab.
How say you?
Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak
Against the thing I say. Answer to this ;-
I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:
Might there not be a charity in sin,

To save this brother's life?

Isab.

Please you to do't.

I'll take it as a peril to my soul,

It is no sin at all, but charity.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul,

Were equal poize of sin and charity.

Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my suit,
If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your, answer.

Ang.
Nay, but hear me:
Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,
Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.

Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,

But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright,
When it doth tax itself: as these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could displayed. But mark me;
To be receiv'd plain, I'll speak more gross:
Your brother is to die.

Enter Servant.

One Isabel, a sister,

O heavens!

Making both it unable for itself,

And dispossessing all the other parts

Isab. So.

Of necessary fitness?

So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; Accountant to the law upon that pain.

Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears

(As I subscribe1 not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question, 2) that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desir'd of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother rom the manacles

Of the all-binding law; and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To the apposed, or else let him suffer;

What weld you do?

Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself:

That is, Were I under the terms of death,

The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield

My body up to shame.

Ang.

Then must your brother die.

Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way: Better it were, a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence That you have slander'd so?

Isab. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon,

Are of two houses: lawful mercy is

Nothing akin to foul redemption.

103

Sign me a
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look fort:
present pardon for my brother,
Al). d, what man thou art.
Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the world
Ang.

Who will believe thee, Isabel?

My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,

That you shall stifle in your own report,
And now I give my sensual race the rein
And smell of calumny. I have begun;
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;

Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother

By yielding up thy body to my will;

Or else he must not only die the death,

1

But thy unkindness shall his death draw outco
To lingering suflerance: answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him: As for you,

Say what you can, my faise o'erweighs your true.

[Exit.

Isab. To whom shall I complain? Did I tell this,

Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a ty- Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;

rant,

And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

Isab. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,

Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,

To have what we'd have, we speak not what we That had he twenty heads to tender down

mean:

I something do excuse the thing I hate,
For his advantage that I dearly love.

Ang. We are all frail.
Isab.

On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

Else let my brother die, More than our brother is our chastity.

Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:

If not a feodary, but only he,
Owe, and succeed by weakness.
Ang.

Nay, women are frail too.

Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;

Which are as easy broke as they make forms.

Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar

I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. (Exil.

ACT III.

In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; SCENE I-A room in the prison. Enter Duke

And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get; The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And what thou hast, forget'st; Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon: If thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,

The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner: Thou hast nor youth,

Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves
a welcome.

Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.
Claud. Most holy sir, I thank you.

Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio.
Prov. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's
your sister.

Duke. Provost, a word with you.
Prov.

As many as you please.
Duke. Bring them to speak, where I may be
conceal'd,
Yet hear them.
Claud.

[Exeunt Duke and Provost.

Now, sister, what's the comfort? Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good indeed;

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:4
Therefore your best appointment make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.

Claud.

Is there no remedy?

Isab. None, but such remedy, as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud.

But is there any?

Isab. Yes, brother, you may live;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

Claud.

Perpetual durance?

Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,
Though all the world's vastidity you had,
To a determin'd scope.

Claud.

But in what nature ?

Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to't)
Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
And leave you naked.
Let me know the point.
Isab. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake
Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect

Claud.

Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?

Affects, affections. (2) Leprous eruptions. Old age. (4) Resident. (5) Preparation. (6) Vastness of extent. (7) Shut up.

Claud.

Why give you me this shame ?

Think you I can a resolution fetch
From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.

Isab. There spake my brother; there my father's

grave

Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die:
Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
Whose settled visage and deliberate word
Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew,"
As falcon doth the fowl, -is yet a devil;
His filth within being cast, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

Claud.

The princely Angelo?

Isub. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned'st body to invest and cover
In princely guards! Dost thou think, Claudio,
If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou mightest be freed?

Claud.

O, heavens! it cannot be.

Isah. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank

offence,
So to offend him still: This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.

Claud.

Thou shalt not do't.

Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow.
Claud. Yes.- Has he affections in him,

That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,
When he would force it? Sure it is no sin;
Or of the deadly seven it is the least.

Isab. Which is the least?

Claud. If it were damnable, he, being so wise,

Why, would he for the momentary trick,
Be perdurably fined?-O, Isabel!

Isab. What says my brother!
Claud.

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded cold; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!

The wearied and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.

Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair!
For such a warped slip of wilderness1
Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance:
Die; perish! might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.
Isab.

O, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade:
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:
'Tis best thou diest quickly.
Claud.

Duke. That shall not be much amiss: yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made trial of you only. Therefore, fasten your

lear on my advisings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business.

[Going.

O hear me, Isabella.

Re-enter Duke.

Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have not you heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscarried at sea? Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good woras went with her name.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have married; was Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at

word.

Isab. What is your will ? Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his would by and by have some speech with you: the sister. But mark, how heavily this besel to the poor satisfaction I would require, is likewise your own gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned

benefit.

Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while.

Duke. [To Claudio, aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her;

brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinates husband, this well-seeming Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, only he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practise pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour: in few, his judgment with the disposition of natures: she, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she having the truth of honour in her, hath made him yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her that gracious denial which he is most glad to re- tears, is washed with them, but relents not. ceive; I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to Isab. What a merit were it in death, to take this be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: do not poor maid from the world! What corruption in this satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible: life, that it will let this man live!-But how out of

to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: farewell. [Ex. Claud. Re-enter Provost.

Provost, a word with you.

Prov. What's your will, father?
Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone :

pany.

this can she avail ?

Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it. Isab. Show me how, good father.

Duke. This fore-named maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Anleave me a while with the maid; my mind promises gelo, answer his requiring with a plausible obediwith my habit, no loss shall touch her by my com-ence; agree with his demands to the point: only refer yourself to this advantage, first, that your Prov. In good time. [Erit Provost. stay with him may not be long; that the time may Duke. The hand that hath make you fair, hath have all shadow and silence in it; and the place made you good: the goodness, that is cheap in answer to convenience: this being granted in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, course, now follows all. We shall advise this being the soul of your complexion, should keep the wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in body of it ever fair. The assault, that Angelo hath your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my under- hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense; standing; and, but that frailty hath examples for and here, by this, is your brother saved, your hohis falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How would nour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and you do to content this substitute, and to save your the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame,

brother?

and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to

Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit rather my brother die by the law, than my son defends the deceit from reproof. What think you should be unlawfully born. But O, how much is of it?

the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he re- Isab. The image of it gives me content already; turn, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perin vain, or discover his government.

fection.

Duke. It lies much in your holding up: haste

(5) Betrothed. (6) Gave her up to her sorrows. (7) Have recourse to.. (8) Over-reached.

0