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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! Oh, injurious love,
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror!
Prov. 'Tis pity of him.

SCENE IV.
Angelo's house.
Enter Angelo.

and pray

So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;
Come all to help him, and so stop the air
By which he should revive: and even so
The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,

5 Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offence.

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15

20

Enter Isabella.

How now, fair maid?

Isab. I am come to know your pleasure.

Ang. That you might know it, would much
better please me,
[live.

Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot
Isab. Even so?-Heaven keep your honour!
[Going.
Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may be,
As long as you, or I: Yet he must die.
Isub. Under your sentence?

Ang. Yea.

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
[Exeunt. 25 A man already made, as to remit

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

[earth.

Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in
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,
35 Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness,
As she that he hath stain'd?

Ang. When I would pray and think, I think 30
[words;
To several subjects: heaven hath my empty
Whilst my intention 2, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven is in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew its 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. Oh place! oh 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 art but blood; 45
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
'Tis not the devil's crest".

Enter Sercant.

How now, who's there?

Isab. Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my soul. [sins
Ang. I talk not of your soul: Our compell'd
40 Stand more for number than for accompt.
Isab. How say you?

[speak
Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can
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,

Serv. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you. 50 It is no sin at all, but charity.

Ang. Teach her the way. [Solus.] Ohheavens! Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,

Making both it unable for itself,

And dispossessing all my other parts

Of necessary fitness?

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

4 Case

1 That is, repent not on this account. * Intention here signifies eagerness of desire. The old folio, however, reads invention, by which the poet might mean imagination. 3 Profit, advantage. is here put for outside, or external shew. "The meaning is, Let the most wicked thing have but a virtuous pretence, and it shall pass for innocent. Thus if we write good angel on the devil's horn, 'tis not taken any longer to be the devil's crest. "This phrase of the general, means the people or multitude subject to a king, &c. That is, saucy indulgence of the appetite. The sense of this passage is simply, that murder is as easy as fornication, and it is as improper to pardon the latter as the former.

7

6

To

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Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears
Accounted to the law upon that pain3.
Isab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life,
(As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question) 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 from 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 this supposed, or else let him suffer;
What would 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 dy'd at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,

Should die for ever.

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Ang. I think it well:

And from this testimony of your own sex, (Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger, 15 Than faults may shake our frames) let me be I do arrest your words: Be that you are, [bold,― That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none; If you be one (as you are well express'd By all external warrants)shew it now,

20 By putting on the destin'd livery.

Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me intreat you, speak the former language, Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.

Isab. My brother did love Juliet;

25 And

30

you tell me, that he shall die for it.

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

To pluck on others.

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour,

My words express my purpose.

Isab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And most pernicious purpose!—Seeming, seem

ing 10!

35I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or, with an out-stretch'd throat, I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art.

Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel?

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence 40 My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,

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Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a ty-45
And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

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

we mean:

I something do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

My vouch" against you, and my place i'the state,
Will so your accusation over-weigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun;
And now I give my sensual race the rein.
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes, [ther
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy bro-
By yielding up thy body to my will;

50 Or else he must not only die the death, But thy unkindness shall his death draw out To lingering sufferance: answer me to-morrow, Meaning, the faults of mine answer are the faults which I am to answer for. 2 That is, a beauty covered as with a shield. These masks probably mean, the masks of the audience. Pain here means

1

3

penalty, punishment. To subscribe, here signifies, to agree to. Dr. Warburton observes, this pas sage is so obscure, but the allusion so fine, that it deserves to be explained. A feodary was one who in the times of vassalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service :- which tenures were call'd feuda amongst the Goths. Now, says Angelo, "we are all frail." "Yes", replies Isabella; "if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who succeed each other by the same tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up." The. comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodary, who owes suit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined, Το owe, in this place, signities to own, to have possession. Perhaps we should read, take forms. That is, in imitating them. That is, take any impres sion. That is, Hypocrisy, hypocrisy. Fouch is the testimony one man bears for another.

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Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him: As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

[Exit.
Isab. Towhom should 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!

Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow, as it draws. I'll to my brother:

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Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, But only hope:

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.

120(For thy 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,
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, [nor age;
25 Dreaming on both: for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Duke. Be absolute for death; either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with 30
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing, [life:-
That none but fools would keep a breath thou
Servile to all the skiey influences
[art,
That do this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runnest toward him still: Thou art not

noble ;

Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this,
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life [fear,
Lye hid more thousand deaths1o: yet death we
That makes these odds all even. 1

Claud. I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find, I seek to die;
35 And, seeking death, find life: Let it come on.
Enter Isabella.

For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,
Are nurs'd by baseness: Thou art by no means 40
valiant;

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself; 45
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust: Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
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;

3

50

Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good
company!
[a welcome.
Prov. Who's there? Come in: the wish deserves
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
Duke. Provost, a word with you. [your sister.
Prov. As many as you please. [ceal'd,
Duke. Bring them to speak where I may be con-
Yet hear them. [Exeunt Duke and Provost.
Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort?
Isab. Why, as all comforts are, most good in
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, [deed:
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger":[speed,
Therefore your best appointment
12 make with
To-morrow you set on.

That is, temptation, instigation. 2 Meaning, be determined to die, without any hope of life. Keep in this place signifies to care for. In the old farces called Moralities, the fool of the piece, in order to shew the inevitable approaches of death, is made to employ all his stratagems to avoid him; which, as the matter is ordered, brings the fool at every turn into his very jaws. 5 Worm is here substituted for any creeping thing or serpent. For effects we should read affects; that is, affections. A kind of tetter. The drift of this period is to prove, that neither youth nor age can be said to be really enjoyed, which, in poetical language, is,-We have neither youth nor age. Eld is here used for old age, or persons worn out with years. Meaning a thousand deaths besides those which have been mentioned. Leiger is the same with resident. Appointment means preparation.

11

10

12

Claud

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?

5

Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, 10
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.

Claud. Let me know the point.

Isab. Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,
Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect
Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

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.

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

[where;

Be perdurably' fin'd? Oh Isabel!
Isab. What says my brother?
Claud. Death is a fearful thing.
Isab. And shamed life a hateful.
Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not
To lye in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted' spirit
15 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 pendant world; or to be worse than worst
20 Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ach, penury,
and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise

25 To what we fear of death.

[ther's grave 30

Isab. There spake my brother; there my fa-
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 emmew,
As faulcon doth the fowl',-is yet a devil:
His filth within being cast 2, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

Claud. The princely Angelo?

Isab. Oh, '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 might'st be freed?

Claud. Oh, heavens! it cannot be. [offence,
Isab. Yes, he would give it thee, for this rank
So to offend him still: This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name,
Or else thou dy'st to-morrow.

Claud. Thou shalt not do't.

Isab. Oh, were it but my life,

Isab. Alas! alas!

Claud. Sweet sister, let me live:
What sin you do to save a brother's life,
Nature dispenses with the deed so far,
That it becomes a virtue.

Isab. Oh, you beast!

Oh, faithless coward! Oh, dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?
Is 't not a kind of incest, to take life

[think? 35 From thine own sister's shame? What should I Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair! For such a warped slip of wilderness

Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance.
Die; perish! Might but my bending down
40 Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

45

50

I'd throw it down for your deliverance

As frankly as a pin.

Claud. Thanks, dear Isabel.

[morrow. 55

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

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.

Isab. Oh, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade':
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:
"Tis best that thou dy'st quickly.

Claud. Oh hear me, Isabella.

Re-enter Duke.

Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one

word.

Isab. What is your will?

Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require, is likewise your Jown benefit.

Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must

To emmew is a term in falconry. The meaning of the passage is, In whose presence youth are afraid to shew their follies. To cast a pond is to empty it of mud.

"That is, in the ornaments of

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royalty. * That is, when he is putting the law in force against me. Lastingly. the spirit accustomed here to ease and delights. This was properly urged as an aggravation to the sharpness of the torments spoken of. ? Wilderness is here used for wildness. ? An established habit.

fusal. 9

That is,

Defiance is rebe

be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend] you a while.

Duke. [To Claudio aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath past between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her: on- 5 ly he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial, which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know 10 this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death:-Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out 15 of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

[Exit Claudio. Re-enter Provost. Duke. Hold you there': Farewell. Provost, a word with you.

Prov. What's your will, father?

Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone: Leave me a while with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by my company. Prov. In good time2.

20

[Exit Prov. 25 Duke. The hand, that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodness, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair. The assault, that 30 Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo: How would you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother?

was affianc'd to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wreck'd at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned 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 combinate 3 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; swallow'd his vows whole, pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour: in few, bestow'd her on her own lamentation, which yet she wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.

Isub. What a merit were it in death, to take this poor maid from the world! What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live!-But how out of this can she avail?

Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heai: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it. Isab. Shew 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 Angelo; answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point; only refer yourself to this advantage,-first, that 35 your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shadow and silence in it, and the place answer to convenience: this being granted in course, now follows all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompence: and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled'. The maid will I frame and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it?

Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But oh, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he returns, and I can speak to him, I will open my 40 lips in vain, or discover his government.

45

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 ear 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 50 please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business.

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 you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscaried at sea? Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have marry'd ;]

55

Isab. The image of it gives me content already; and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

Duke. It lies much in your holding up: Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he in treat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there, at the inoated grange' resides this dejected Mariana: at that place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly.

Isub. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you 60well, good father.

[Exeunt severally.

4

1 Persevere in that resolution. 2 i. e. Very well. 3 Combinate means betrothed. To scale means, to reach him notwithstanding the elevation of his situation. A grange is a solitary farmhouse.

SCENE

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