[Offering to go. Enter Lucio and ISABELLA. Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour, Well; what's your suit? Well; the matter? Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother. Prov. [Aside.] Heaven give thee moving graces! To fine the faults, whose fine stands in record, Isab. Lucio. [To ISAB.] Give't not o'er so: to him again, intreat him; Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown; You could not with more tame a tongue desire it. Isab. Must he needs die? Maiden, no remedy. Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do't. Isab. wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse As mine is to him? Lucio. [To ISAB.] Thou art too cold. 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, Ang. Lucio. [Aside.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein. Isab. 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. Isab. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him! He's not prepar'd for death. Even for our kitchens To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you : Lucio. [Aside.] Ay, well said. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, 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 tyrannous Lucio. [Aside.] That's well said. Isab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt F Dost thou desire her foully for those things Prov. He [Aside.] Pray heaven, she win him! Isab. You cannot weigh our brother with yourself: Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them, But in the less foul profanation. Lucio. [To ISAB.] Thou'rt in the right, girl: more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lucio. [Aside.] Art avis'd o' that? more on't. 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 ; Ang. Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. Ang. I will bethink me.-Come again to-morrow. Isab. Hark, how I'll bribe you. Good my lord, turn back. Ang. How! bribe me? Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with you. Lucio. [Aside.] You had marr'd all else. Isab. Not with fond circles 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. Well; come to me to-morrow. Lucio. [To ISAB.] Go to; 'tis well away! Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe! Ang. [Going. [Aside.] Amen: For I am that way going to temptation, Isab. At any time 'fore noon. Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough, That make her good? O, let her brother live! And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on? With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous SCENE III.-A Room in a Prison. Enter DUKE, as a Friar, and Provost. [Exit. Duke. Hail to you, provost; so I think you are. Prov. I am the provost. What's your will, good friar? Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd order, I come to visit the afflicted spirits Here in the prison: do me the common right Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful. Enter JULIET. Duke. When must he die? As I do think, to-morrow.[TO JULIET.] I have provided for you: stay a while, And you shall be conducted. Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry? And try your penitence, if it be sound, Juliet. I'll gladly learn. Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his. As that the sin hath brought you to this shame; Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil, And take the shame with joy. Duke. There rest. SCENE IV.-A Room in ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words, 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, Enter Servant. How now! who's there? Serv. Desires access to you. O heavens! One Isabel, a sister, Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my soul : Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, And nothing of your answer. Ang. Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as these black masks Teach her the way. [Exit Serv. Proclaim an inshell'd beauty ten times louder Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness? So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; By which he should revive: and even so Enter ISABELLA. Than beauty could displayed.-But mark me : Isab. So. Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: That longing I've been sick for, ere I'd yield Ang. Your brother die. Then must Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way. Ang. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good Better it were, a brother died at once, I something do excuse the thing I hate, For his advantage that I dearly love. Isab. Else let my brother die, If not a feodary, but only he, Owe, and succeed this weakness. Ang. Nay, women are frail too. Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves, Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail, For we are soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints. Ang. I think it well; That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none; Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me, That he shall die for it. Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't, 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, Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world Ang. That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother Or else he must not only die the death, To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow, Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true. [Exit. Isab. To whom should 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 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, 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 : I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request, And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. [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? Claud. The miserable have No other medicine, but only hope. I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Duke. Be absolute for death; either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life :If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep a breath thou art, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee: friend hast thou none; Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, For ending thee no sooner: thou hast nor youth, norage, Of palsied eld: and when thou art old and rich, Claud. I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find, I seek to die, Prov. Who's there? come in the wish deserves a welcome. 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 To what we fear of death. Isab. Alas! alas! Sweet sister, let me live. What sin you do to save a brother's life, O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch! Is't not a kind of incest to take life From thine own sister's shame? What should I think? Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance: Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. O, fie, fie, fie! Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade. [Going. 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. I have no superfluous leisure: my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while. Duke. [To CLAUDIO.] 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 denial 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 love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: farewell. [Exit CLAUDIO. |