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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.
[were needful.
Prov. I would do more than that, if more
Enter JULIET.

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,
Who falling in the flames of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report: She is with child;
And he that got it, sentenc'd: a young man
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.

And

170 JULIET. you shall be conducted. [carry? Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you Juliet. I do; and bear the shame most patiently. [your conscience, Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign 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. [ful act

Duke. So then, it seems, your most offencemutually committed?

Was

Juliet.

Mutually.

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,

At that the sin hath brought you to this shame,-
Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not
heaven;
[love it,
Showing, we'd not spare heaven, as we
But as we stand in fear,-
Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil;
And take the shame with joy.
There rest.
Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him.

Duke.

Grace

go with you! Benedicite! [Exit, Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious That respites me a life, whose very comfort[rove,

Is still a

Prov.

dying

horror!

'Tis pity of him. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO.

Which the air beats for vain. O place! O 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 still art blood,
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
'Tis not the devil's crest.
Enter Servant.
How now, who's there?
Serv.

Ang. When I would pray and think, think and pray [words; 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 my conception: The state, whereon I Is like a good thing, being o often read, [studied, 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,

Of

• Spare to offend heaven.

Desires access to you. Ang.

O heavens!

One Isabel, a sister,

Teach her the way. [Exit Serv.

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart;
Making both it unable for itself,

And dispossessing all the other parts
Of necesary fitness?

[swoons;
So play the foolish throngs with one that
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,
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fond-
[love
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught
Must needs appear offence.
Enter ISABELLA.

ness

How now, fair maid?

Isab I am come to know your pleasure. Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me,

Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.

Isab. Even so?Heaven keep your honour! [Retiring. "Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may As long as you, or I: Yet he must die. [be, Isab. Under your sentence? Ang. Yea. [reprieve, Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted, That his soul sicken not. [as good

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Ang. Ha! Fye, these filthy vices! It were 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.

[in earth. Isab. "Tis set down so in heaven, but not Ang. Say you so? then I shall pose you

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Isab.

Might there not be a charity in sin,,
To save this brother's life?
Isab.

[soul,

Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my soul, It is no sin at all, but charity. Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your 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 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. Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing But graciously to know I am no better. [good, Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright,

When it doth tax itself: as these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder Than beauty could displayed,-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gross: Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

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Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that paint. 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?

[myself: Isab. As much for my poor brother, as 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 That you have slander'd so? [sentence Isab. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy is Nothing akin to foul redemption. [a tyrant; Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother A merriment than a vice.

Isab. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls , out, [we mean : To have what we'd have, we speak not what I something do excuse the thing I hate, For his advantage that I dearly love. Ang. We are all frail.

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Else let my brother die,

If not a feodary T, but only he,
Owe **, and succeed by weakness.
Ang.
Nay, women are frail too.
Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view
themselves;

mar

Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
Women!-Help heaven! men their creation
[frail;
In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints ft.
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;-

[lord,

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,..
Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my
Let me entreat you speak the former language.
Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.
Isub. My brother did love Juliet: and you
That he shall die for it.
[tell me,

[in't,

Prod

Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence 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, seeming tt!

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's
Ang, Who will believe thee, Isabel
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life
My vouch 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
[Exit.

true.

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;

Agree to. Conversation.
Hypocrisy. Attestation.

་ ་་་

Il_Ignominy. Reluctant.

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SCENE I. A Room in the Prison.
Enter DUKE, CLAUDIO, and Provost,
Duke. So, then you hope of pardon from
lord Angelo?
[cine,
Claud. The miserable have no other medi-
But only hope:

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.
Duke. Be absolute for death; either death,
or life,
(with life,
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing [art,
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;

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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
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;

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'stto get;
And what thou hast, forget'st: Thou art not
certain;

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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 eldy; and when thou art old,and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor
beauty,
[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
[fear,
Claud.
I humbly thank you.

• Determined. + Affects, affections.
¶ Preparation.

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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! [serves a welcome.

Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish de-
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.

here's your sister.

Look, signior,

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
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, [in deed:
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger I:
Therefore your best appointment I make with
To-morrow you set on.
[speed;
Claud.
Is there no remedy?
Isab. None, but such remedy, as to save a
To cleave a heart in twain.
> (head,
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?
1sab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a re-
straint,
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.
[bear,
Claud.
Let me know the point.
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,

* Leprous eruptions Old age. li Resident.
Vastness of extent..

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L

I think?

Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father
For such a warped slip of wilderness¶ [fair!
Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my de-
fiance*:

And hug it in mine arms. [father's grave | From thine own sister's shame? What should
Isab. There spake my brother; there my
Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die:
Thou art too noble to conserve a life [puty,
In base appliances. This outward-sainted de-
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 ?
Isab. Q, '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,
Thon might'st be freed?

Claud
O, heavens! it cannot be..
Isab, Yes, he would give it thee, from this
rank offence,

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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.
Isab. O, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance ›
As frankly t as a pin,

Claud.
Thanks, dear Isabel.
Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to

morrow.

Claud. 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?
[wise,
Claud. If it were damnable, he, being so
Why, would he for the momentary trick
Be perdurably find?-O Isabel!
Isab. What says my brother?
Claud.

Death is a fearful thing.
Isab. And shamed life a hateful. [where;
Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not
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-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,oa
And blown with restless violence round about-
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and uncertain thonglifs
Imagine howling!-'tis too horribled
The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ach, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise.
To what we fear of death..

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Isab. Alas! alas!
Claud
Sweet sister, let me live:
What sin yon do to save a brother's life, A
Nature dispenses with the deed so far, fa
That it becomes a virtue.

Isab

40, you, beast!

O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice ?

1

Die; perish might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.
Isab
O, fye, fye, fye!
Thy sin's not accidental, but a tradett:
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:
'Tis best that thou diest quickly. [Going.
Claud.
O 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 own benefit.

Isab. Is have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while.

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Duke. [To CLAUDIO, aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath past between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only 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 dénial which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know 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 of dove with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

Duke. Holdt you there: Farewell.
[Exit CLAUDIO.
Re-enter Provost.

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 time. [Exit Provost.

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 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. a at

Is't not a kind of incest, to take lifes Ity Ilov Isu. I am now going to resolve him I had

oot Laced rohes Freely, Lastinglys

* Shut up.

Invisible....Wildness.

**Refusal. . tt An established habit.

pt Continue in that resolution.

rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born, But O, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his go

vernment.

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 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 miscarried at sea?

Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

yourself to this advantage,-first, that 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 recompense: 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. The image of it gives me content al ready; 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 entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana: At that place call up on me; and despatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly.

Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you well, good father. [Exeunt severally. SCENE II. The Street before the Prison. Enter DUKE, as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and Officers.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and re-but that you will needs buy and sell men and nowned 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 husband, this wellseeming Angelo.

Isab. Can this be so? DidAngelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his Vows whole, pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour: in few, bestowed † her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.

Isab, 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 heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it.

Isub. Show 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

women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard T.

Duke. O, heavens! what stuff is here? Clo. 'Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allow'd by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.

Elb. Come your way,sir-Bless you, good father friar.

Duke. And you, good brother father: What offence hath this man made you, sir?

Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick lock**, which we have sent to the deputy.

Duke, Fye, sirrah ; a bawd, a wicked bawd!
The evil that thou causest to be done,
That is thy means to live: Do thou but think
What 'tis to cram a maw, or clothe a back,
From such a filthy vice: say to thyself,-
From their abominable and beastly touches
I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.
Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
So stinkingly depending? Go, mend, go, mend.
Clo. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir;
but yet, sir, I would prove [proofs for sin,

Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee
Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison,officer;
Have recourse to... Over-reached."
** For a Spanish padlock.

• Betrothed. + Gave her up to her sorrows,
A solitary farm-house. A sweet wine.

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