And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?
No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,
And what a prisoner.

Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words.

Alas! alas!

Isa. Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; And He that might the vantage best have took, Found out the remedy: How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are? O, think on that; then will breathe within your lips,

And

mercy Like man new made.

Ang.

Be you content, fair maid; It is the law, not I, condemns your brother: Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him;-he must die to-morrow. Isa. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, him;

spare

He's not prepar'd for death!

Good, good my lord, bethink you;

Who is it that hath died for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept;

Those many had not dared to do that evil,
If the first man, that did infringe the edict,
Had answer'd for his deed.

Isa.

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.

Isa. So you must be the first that gives this sen

tence;

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.

That's well said.

Isa. 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:- O, but man, proud man! Dress'd in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,

His glassy essence,

like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastick tricks before high Heaven,
As make the angels weep!

Lucio. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent; He's coming; I perceive't.

Isa. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation.

Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? Isa. 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 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
Against my brother's life.

Ang.

She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare

you well.

Isa. Gentle my lord, turn back.

[Going.

Ang. I will bethink me.-Come again to-morrow.

[Going.

6 Knotted.

Isa. Hark, how I'll bribe you.
Ang. How, bribe me?

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

Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

Isa. Not with fond shekels 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,
Ere sun-rise; prayers from preserved souls,
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

Ang.

To-morrow.

Well: come to me

Isa. Heaven keep your honour safe! [Retiring.

Ang.

Am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.

Isa.

Amen!-for I

At what hour to-morrow

At any time 'fore noon.

Shall I attend your lordship?

Ang.

Isa. Save

Ang.

your

honour!

[Exeunt Lucio and ISABELLA. From thee; even from thy virtue!

What's this? What's this? Is this her fault, or mine? Can it be,

That modesty may more betray our sense

Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary?

O, fie, fie, fie!

What dost thou? or what art thou, Angelo?

O, let her brother live:

Thieves for their robbery have authority,

When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her?

That I desire to hear her speak again,

And feast upon her eyes? This virtuous maid
Subdues me quite :- Ever, till now,

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

D3

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The Street.

Enter ELBOW, POMPEY, FROTH, and two
Tipstaves.

Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal, that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law : bring them away.

Enter ESCALUS and two Apparitors.

Esca. How now, sir? What's your name? and what's the matter?

Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's constable, and my name is Elbow: I do lean upon justice, sir; and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.

Esca. Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? Are they not malefactors?

Elb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good Christians ought to have.

Esca. This comes off well; here's a wise officer. What are you, sir?

Elb. He, sir? a tapster, sir; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs: and now she professes a hothouse, which, I think, is a very ill house too.

Esca. How know you that?

Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest', before heaven and your honour,

Esca. How, thy wife?

Elb. Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest

woman.

7 For protest.

Esca. Dost thou detest her therefore?

Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house is a naughty house. Esca. How dost thou know that, constable?

Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in adultery, and all uncleanliness there. Esca. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, sir, by mistress Overdone's means; but as she spit in his face, [Pointing at FROTH.] So she defied him.

Pom. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. Elb. Prove it before this varlet here, thou honourable man, prove it.

Pom. Sir, she came in, great with child, and longing, saving your honour's reverence, for stewed prunes; Sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three-pence; your honour has seen such dishes; they are not china-dishes, but very good dishes.

Esca. Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir. Pom. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right: but, to the point: As I say, this mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said - master Froth, here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly; for, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you three-pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

Pom. Very well:- you being then

Esca. Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose.. -What was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to Elbow's wife; once more.

:..Pom. Once, sir! there was nothing done, to her

once.