Do you your office, or give up your place, And you shall well be spar'd. Prov. I crave your honour's pardon.What shall be done, Sir, with the groaning Juliet? She's very near her hour. To some more fitter place; and that with speed. Re-enter Servant. Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd Desires access to you. Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a sisterhood, See you the fornicatress be remov'd: Let her have needful, but not lavish, means; [Exit Servant There shall be order for it. Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO. Prov. Save your honour! [Offering to retire. Ang. Stay a little while.-[To ISAB.] You 're welcome: what's Isab. I am a woful suitor to your honour, [your will Ang. Well; what's your suit! Please but your honour hear me. Isab. There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire, should meet the blow of justice ; For which I would not plead, but that I must ; For which I must not plead, but that I am At war 'twixt will and will not. Ang. Well; the matter? Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother. Prov. [Aside.] Heaven give thee moving graces! Ang. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done. Mine were the very cipher of a function, To find the fault, whose fine stands in record, O just, but severe law! Isab. I had a brother, then.--Heaven keep your honour! [Retiring Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Give 't not o'er so: to him again, entreat him ; Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown: Isab. Must he needs die? Ang. Maiden, no remedy. Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do 't. Isab. But can you, if you would? Ang. Look; what I will not, that I cannot do. Isab. But might you do't and do the world no wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse As mine is to him? Ang. He's ser.tenc'd; 'tis too late. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] You are too cold. Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word, May call it back again. Well, believe this, No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, As mercy does. If he had been as you, and you as he, Ang. Pray you, be gone. Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel! should it then be thus ? No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; ; Ang. It should be thus with him: he must die to-morrow. Isab. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him! He's not prepar'd for death. Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven With less respect than we do minister To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you : There's many have committed it. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Ay, well said. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, If the first, that did th' edict infringe, Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake; Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet, Isab. Yet show some pity. Ang. I show it most of all when I show justice; For then I pity those I do not know, Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall; And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be satisfied: Your brother dies to-morrow: be content. Isab. So you must be the first that gives this sentence, And he that suffers. O! it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] That's well said. Isab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet; For every pelting, petty officer, Would use his heaven for thunder, Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven! Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man! Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he 's most assur'd, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens, Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] O, to him, to him, wench! He will relent: He's coming; I perceive 't. Prov. [Aside.] Pray heaven, she win him! Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them, But, in the less, foul profanation. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Thou 'rt in the right, girl: more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Art avis'd o' that? more on 't. That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom ; A natural guiltiness such as is his, Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Ang. [Aside.] She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. [To her.] Fare you well. Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. Ang. I will bethink me: come again to-morrow. Isab. Hark how I'll bribe you: good my lord, turn back. Ang. How! bribe me! Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with you. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] You had marr'd all else. Ang. Well; come to me to-morrow. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Go to; 'tis well; away! Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe! Ang. [Aside.] For I am that way going to temptation, Amen : What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha? Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower, Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough, And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie! Dost thou desire her foully for those things That make her good? O, let her brother live! When judges steal themselves. What! do I love her, And feast upon her eyes? What is 't I dream on? With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous Is that temptation, that doth goad us on To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet, When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how. SCENE III.—A Room in a Prison. Enter Duke, disguised as a Friar, and Provost. Duke. Hail to you, provost! so I think you are. Prov. I am the provost. What's your will, good friar? I come to visit the afflicted spirits Here in the prison. Do me the common right To let me see them, and to make me know the nature of their crimes, that I may minister To them accordingly. [Exit. |