More fit to do another such offence,
Than die for this.

Duke. When must he die?
Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.
I have provided for you; stay a while,

[To JULIET.

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 love the woman that wrong'd him.

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

[act

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 spare heaven, as we love 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.

[it,

SCENE IV.-A Room in ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO.

Ang. When I would pray and think, I think [words;

and pray

To several subjects: heaven hath my empty
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,
Which the air beats for vain. O place! O form!
Could I, with boot, change for an idle plume,
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.

Ang. Yea.

Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,

Longer, or shorter, he may so be 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 [image
Their saucy 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 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 pose 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, As she that he hath stain'd!

Isub. Sir, believe this,

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

[sins

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,
Might there not be charity in sin,
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:
To save this brother's life?

Isab. Please you to do't,
I'll take it as a peril to my soul,
Were equal poise of sin and charity.
It is no sin at all, but charity.
Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul,

Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my
Isch. That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
suit,

If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of naine,
And nothing of your answer.

Ang. Nay, but hear me:

[ignorant,

Your sense pursues not mine: either you are
Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.
Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing
But graciously to know I am no better. Igood,
Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most
bright,

When it doth tax itself: as these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty teen times louder

Spare to offend heaven. + Profit.

Than beauty could displayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gross: Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain.* Isab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, (As I subscribet 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
And strip myself to death, as to a bed [rubies,
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 senThat you have slander'd so? [tence Isab. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy is Nothing akin to foul redemption.

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;

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'd have, we speak not what

we mean:

Ang. I think it well:

And from this testimony of your own sex,
(Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames,) let me be
bold;-

I do arrest your words; Be that you are,
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,) show it now,
By putting on the destin'd livery.

Isah. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,
Let me entreat you speak the former language.
Ang. Plainly cronceive, I love you.
Isub. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell
That he shall die for it.
[me,
Ang. He shall najot, Isabel, if you give me
love.

Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't, + Autogree to. Associa te. Own. ✶✶ Impressions.

• Penalty. Ignominy.

Conversation.

Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others.

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

Isub. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And most pernicious purpose!-Seeming, seeming!

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

Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My voucht against you, and my place i'the
Will so your accusation overweigh, [state,
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,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy
By yielding up thy body to my will; [brother
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance: 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 false 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!

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:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the
blood,

Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Isabel, live chaste, 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 soul's rest.

ACT III.

[Exit.

SCENE I-A Room in the Prison. Enter DUKE, CLAUDIO, and PROVOST. Duke. So, then you hope of pardon from lord Angelo?

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

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.
Duke. Be absolutes for death; either death,
or life,
[life,
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep: a breath thou
(Servile to all the skiey influences,)
That dost 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 run'st toward him still: Thou art not

noble ;

[art,

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

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep,

* Hypocrisy.

+ Reluctant.

+ Attestation. Determined,

And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;

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 are 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,

nor age;

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both: for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and
rich,

Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,

[fear,

[this, To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we That makes these odds all even. Claud. I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find, I seek to die: And, seeking death, find life: Let it come on. Enter ISABELla.

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. [Exeunt DUKE and PROVOST.
Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort?
Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good
in deed:

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

Claud. Is there no remedy?

[speed;

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

Claud. But is there any?

[head,

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 And leave you naked.

Claud. Let me know the point.

[bear,

+ Leprous eruptions. Preparation.

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
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.

Isab. There spake my brother;
father's grave

there my

Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die:
Thou art too noble to conserve a life
In base appliances. This outward-sainted de-
puty,-

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 might'st be freed.

Claud. O, heavens! it cannot be.

Isab. 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.
Isub. O, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.

Claud. Thanks, dear Isabel.

Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to

morrow.

Cland. 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 fin'd?-O 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 where;

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot:
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbedi 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 weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and iraprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.