Give up your body to fuch fweet uncleanness,
As fhe, that he hath ftain'd?

Ifab. Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my foul.

Ang. I talk not of your foul; our compell'd fins Stand more for number than accompt.

Ifab. How fay you?

Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can fpeak Against the thing I fay. Anfwer 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 fin,
To fave this brother's life?

Ifab. Please you to do't,
I'll take it as a peril to my foul,
It is no fin at all, but charity.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your foul, Were equal poize of fin and charity.

Ifab. That I do beg his life, if it be fin,
Heav'n, let me bear it! you, granting my fuit,
If that be fin, I'll make it my morn-pray'r
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer.

Ang. Nay, but hear me :

Your fenfe pursues not mine: either, you're ignorant; Or feem fo, craftily; and that's not good.

Ifab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wifdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as these black masks, Proclaim an en-fhield beauty ten times louder, Than beauty could difplay'd. But mark me, To be received plain, I'll speak more grofs;

Your brother is to die.

Ifab. So.

Ang. And his offence is fo, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain.

Ifab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to fave his life.
(As I fubfcribe not that, nor any other,
But in the lofs of question,) that you his fifter,
Finding yourself defir'd of fuch a person,
Whofe credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-holding law; and that there were
No earthly mean to fave him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this fuppos'd, or elfe to let him fuffer;
What would you do?

Ifab. As much for my poor brother, as myself :
That is, were I under the terms of death,
Th' impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And ftrip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing I've been fick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

Ang. Then muft your brother die.
Ifab. And 'twere the cheaper way;
Better it were, a brother dy'd at once;
Than that a fifter, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence, That you have flander'd fo?

Ifab. As ignominious ranfom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes; lawful mercy, fure,

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

Ang. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant, And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment, than a vice.

Ifab. Oh pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we

mean:

I fomething do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

Ang.

Ang. We are all frail.

Ifab. Elfe let my brother die.
If not a feodary, but only he,
Owe, and fucceed by weakness!
Ang. Nay, women are frail too.

[felves;

Ifab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themWhich are as eafy broke, as they make forms.

་

Women! help heav'n; men their creation mar,
In profiting by them: nay, call us ten times frail;
For we are foft as our complexions are,
2 And credulous to falfe prints.

Ang. I think it well;

And from this teftimony of your own fex,
(Since I'fuppofe we're made to be no stronger,
Than faults may Thake our frames) let me be bold;
I do arreft your words: be That you are,

That is, a woman; if you're more, you're none.
you be one, as you are well exprefs'd

If

By all external warrants, fhew it now,

By putting on the deftin❜d livery.

Ijab. I have no tongue but one; gentle, my lord, Let me intreat you, fpeak the formal language. Ang. Plainly conceive, 'I love you.

Ifab. My brother did love Juliet ;

And you tell me, that he fhall die for it.

1 Elfe let my brother die,

66

If not a feodary, but only be, &c.] This is fo obfcure, but the allufion fo fine, that it deferves to be explain'd. A feodary was one, that in the times of vaffalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and fervice: which tenures were call'd feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo, we are all frail ; yes, re"plies Ifabella; if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what "they are to this tenure of imbecillity, and who fucceed each other "by the fame tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feodary, who owes fuit and fervice to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined.

2 And credulous to falfe prints.] i. e. take any impreffion.

Speak the FORMER language.] We should read FORMAL, which he here uses for plain, direct.

VOL. I.

Ang

Ang. He fhall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Ifab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't, Which feems a little fouler than it is,

To pluck on others.

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose.

Ifab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And moft pernicious purpose! feeming, feeming!I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't: Sign me a prefent pardon for my brother,

Or, with an out-ftretch'd throat, I'll tell the world Aloud, what man thou art.

Ang. Who will believe thee, Ifabel?

My unfoil'd name, th' austereness of my life,
3 My vouch against you, and my place i'th' ftate,
Will so your accufation over-weigh,
fo

That you fhall 4 ftifle in your own report,
And fmell of calumny. I have begun ;
And now I give my fenfual race the rein.
Fit thy confent to my fharp appetite,
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,
"That banish what they fue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will:

Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness fhall his death draw out
To ling'ring fufferance. Anfwer me to-morrow;
Or by th' affection that now guides me most,

* I know your virtue bath a licence in't,] Alluding to the licences given by Ministers to their Spies, to go into all suspected companies and join in the language of Malecontents.

3 My vouch against you,] The calling his denial of her charge, his vouch, has fomething fine. Vouch is the teftimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he infinuates his authority was fo great, that his denial would have the fame credit that a vouch or teftimony has in ordinary cafes.

4 -fifle in your own report,

And smell of calumny.] Metaphor taken from a lamp or candle going out.

I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can; my falfe o'erweighs your true.
[Exit.
Ifab. To whom fhould I complain? did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O moft perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof;
Bidding the law make curtfie to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
To follow, as it draws. I'll to my brother.
Tho' he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him fuch a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up ;
Before his fifter fhould her body stoop
To fuch abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Isabel, live, chafte; and, brother, die;
More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request;

And fit his mind to death, for his foul's Reft.

ACT III.

[Exit.

SCENE I.

The PRISON.

Enter Duke, Claudio, and Provost.

then

DUKE.

So, you hope of pardon from lord Angelo?

Claud. The miferable have no other medicine, But only Hope I've hope to live, and am prepar'd

to die.

Duke. Be abfolute for death: or death, or life,

Shall