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104

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. 109
Isab. Could great men thunder

is Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer

112 Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.

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Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? Isab. Because authority, though it err like others,

Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know 137

That's like my brother's fault: if it confess
A natural guiltiness such as is his,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue 140
Against my brother's life.
Ang.

She speaks, and 'tis Such sense that my sense breeds with it. Fare you well.

Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me. Come again to

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144 Good my

Isab. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.

Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] You had marr'd all

else.

148

Isab. Not with fond sicles of the tested gold, Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor As fancy values them; but with true prayers That shall be up at heaven and enter there 152 Ere sun-rise: prayers from preserved souls, From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

Ang.

Well; come to me to-morrow. Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Go to; 'tis well: away! Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe! Ang.

[Aside.] Amen:

For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.

Isab.
At what hour to-morrow
Shall I attend your lordship?

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Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live!
Thieves for their robbery have authority 176
When judges steal themselves. What! do I love
her,

180

That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes? What is 't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
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,
With all her double vigour, art and nature, 184
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Ever till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd and wonder'd how.

[Exit.

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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-morroy And I am going with instruction to him. God's grace go with you! Benedicite! Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O injurious lo That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror! Prov. 'Tis pity of him. [Exeu

[Ex

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

Ang. When I would pray and think, I th and pray

To several subjects: heaven hath my em words,

Whilst my invention, hearing not my tong
Anchors on Isabel: heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name,
And in my heart the strong and swelling e
Of my conception. The state, whereon I stuc
Is like a good thing, being often read,

Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity

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Ag. Yea.

37

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Ang. Pleas'd you to do 't, at peril of your soul,
Were equal poise 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 72
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.

76

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 80
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me;
To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:

When, I beseech you? that in his re- Your brother is to die.
Isab. So.

prieve,

er or shorter, he may be so fitted

his soul sicken not.

Food

40

Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as

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,Arlon him that hath from nature stolen 44 As I subscribe not that, nor any other, already made, as to remit

saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's

Mage

ps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy to take away a life true made,

at metal in restrained means

are a false one.

84

88

92

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
48 Of the all-building law; and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either 96
You must lay down the treasures of your body

Tis set down so in heaven, but not in To this suppos'd, or else to let him suffer;

arth.

What would you do?

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Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sen- What man thou art. tence

Ang.

Who will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,156 Isab. Ignomy in ransom and free pardon 112 My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,

That you have slander'd so?

Are of two houses: lawful mercy
Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

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

And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother 116
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.
Ang. We are all frail.
Isab.

160

Will so your accusation overweigh,
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
brother
164

By yielding up thy body to my will,

120 Or else he must not only die the death,

Else let my brother die,

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

172

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 curt'sy to their will; 176
Hooking both right and wrong to th' 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, 180
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,

184

And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. 188 [Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. A Room in the Prison.

Enter DUKE, as a friar, CLAUDIO, and PROVOST
Duke. So then you hope of pardon from Lord
Angelo?

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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 16
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,

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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

And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not To cleave a heart in twain.
thyself;

For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains 20
That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;

For what

Claud.

But is there any?
Isab. Yes, brother, you may live:
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

60

If you'll implore it, that will free your life, 64 And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not But fetter you till death.

certain;

For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, 24
After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,'
And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,'
Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner.

youth nor age;

Thou hast nor

32

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,

37

To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
e hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

Claud.

I humbly thank you. Lo sue to live, I find I seek to die, And, seeking death, find life: let it come on. Isab. Within.] What ho! Peace here; grace and good company! 44 Prev. Who's there? come in: the wish de

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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

84

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,

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