But yet, poor Claudio !

there's no remedy. Come, Sir.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

VI.
Changes to Angleo's House.

Enter Provost, and a Servant.
Serv. E's hearing of a cause ; he will come straight:
I'll tell him of

you.
Prov. Pray you do; l'll know
His pleafure; 't may be, he'll relent. Alas!
He hath but as offended in a dream :
All seets, all ages smack of this vice; and he
To die for it!

Enter Angelo.
Ang. Now, .what's the matter, Provost ?
Prov. Is it your will, Claudio shall die to morrow?

Ang. Did not I tell thee, yea ? hadst thou not order? Why dost thou ask again ?

Prov. Lest I might be too rash.
Under your good correction, I have seen,
When, after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.

Ang. Go to; let that be mine.
Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you fhall well be spar'd.

Prov. I crave your pardon,
What shall be done, Sir, with the groaning Juliet?
She's very near her hour.

Ang. Dispose of her
To some more fitting place, and that with speed.

Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd,
Desires access to you.

Ang. Hath he a fifter?

Prov. Ay, my good lord ; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a fifter-hood, If not already.

Ang

U 3

Ang. Well; let her be admitted. [Exit Servant. See you, the fornicarrels be remov'd; Let her have needful, but not lavish, means; There shall be order for it.

S CE N E E VII.

Enter Lucio and Isabella.
Priv. 'Save your honour.
Ang. Stay yet a while. *

[To Isab.] Y’are welcome; what's your will? Ifaó. I am a woful suitor to your Honour, Please but your Honour hear nie.

Ang. Well; what's your fuit?

Isab. There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire Mould meet the blow of justice ; For which I would not plead, but that I must; For which I must not pled, but that I am s At war, 'twixt will, and will not.

Ang. Well; the matter?

1 cb. I have a brother is condemn'd to die : I do befeech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother.

Priv. Heav'n give thee moving graces !

Aig. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? Why, every fault's condenin'd, ere it be done ; Mine were the very cipher of a function, To find the fauls, whose fine hands in the record, And let go by the actor.

Isab. O just, but levere liw! I had a brother then; heav'n keep your Honour !

It is not c'ear why the Pro- haps it may be mended by rcadvolt is bidden in tay, nor when ing, ho goes out.

For which I must now plead, but s For u bich I must not plead,

yet I am but that I am

At war, 'twixt will and will At war twixt will, and ceill let and that are almol undistinmat.] This is obfcure, per- guitable in a manufcript.

not

Lucio. (To Isab.) give not o'er fo: to him again,

intreat him,
Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;
You are too cold ; if you should need a pin,
You could not with more tame a tongue desire it.
To him I say.

Ijab. Must he needs die?
Ang. Maiden, No remedy.
Isab. Yes; I do think, that you might pardon

him ;

And neither heav'n, nor man, grieve at the

mercy, Ang. I will not do’t. Ifab. 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 sentenc'd ; 'tis too late.
Lucio. You are too cold.

To Isabel.
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,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have nipt like him ;
But he, like you, would not have been so stern.

Ang. Pray you, be gone.

Isab. I would to heav'n I had your potency, And you were Isabel; should it then be thus? No; I would tell what 'were to be a judge, . And what a prisoner.

Lucio. (afide.) Ay, touch him; there's the vein.

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

Why,

U 4

6

Why, all the fouls 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 ? oh, think on that :
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,?
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 lon,
It should be thus with him hę dies to-morrow.
Ifüb. To-morrow, Oh! that's sudden. Spare him,

fpare him.
He's not prepar’d for death. Even for our kitchins
We kill the fowl, of season ; fhall we serve heav'n
With less respect than we do minister
To our gross seives ? good, good my lord, ' bethink

you:
Who is it, that hath dy'd for this offence ?
There's many have committed it.
Lucic. Ay, well said.

[ Afde. Ang. The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath

Nept:
Tho'e many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man, that did th' edict infringe,
Had answer'd for his deed. Now, ?uis awake;
Takes note of what is done ; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass that shews, what future evils,
Or new, or by remisiness new conceiv'd,

8

6

8

all the fouls that WERE.] that you will

appear as amiable as This is talle divinity. We should man come fresh out of the hands of Tead. ARE. WIRPURTUN. his creator.

WARBURTON. 7 And mercy then will breathe

Like a prophet, witbir your lips,

Looks in a glass.) This al. Like mnan new mode ] This is a lures to the fopperies of the Berfine thought, and hnely expresi- rii, much used at that time by ed: The meaniog is, that mercy cheats and fortune-iellers to prewill add fich grace to your perfons ditt by. WARBURTON.

And

And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,
Are now to'have no succeffive degrees ;
But ere they live to end. 9

Isab. Yet Thew some pity.

Ang. I thew it most of all, when I flie w justice';
For then I pity those, I do not know';
Which a dismiss’d offence would after gaul;
And do him right, that, "answering one foul wrong,
Lives 'not to act another. "Be satisfy'd;
Your brother dies tomorrow; 'be content.
Isab. So you must be the first, that gives this fen-

tence';
And he, that suffers. Oh, 'tis excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it'is tyrannous,
To use it like a giant.
Lucio. That's well said.

[Afde.
Isab. Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet ;
For every pelting, petty, officer
Would use his heav'n for thunder ;
Nothing but thunder.--Merciful heav'n!
Thou rather with thy sharp, and fulph’rous, bolt
Şplic'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Thạn the soft myrtle : O, buť man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most affur'd,
His glasly effence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastick tricks before high heav'n,
As makes the angels weep ; ` who, with our spleens,

1

9 But ere they live to end.] myself fwayed to mercy, let me This is very fagaciously tubiti- remember, that there is a mercy tuced by Sir Thomas Hanmer for, likewise due to the Country. 'but here they live.

· As makes the angels weep ;) Shew fome pity.

The notion of angels weeping Ang. I fhew it most of all, when for the fins of men is rabbinical. I shew juftice;

Ob peccatum flentes angelos For then I pity those I do not inducunt Hebræorum magiftri,

know :). This was one of Grotius ad Lucam. Hale's memorials. When I find

WARBURTON.

Would