Tho' all the world's vaftidity you had,

To a determin'd scope.

Claud. But in what nature?

Ifab. In fuch a one, as you, confenting to't, Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked.

Claud. Let me know the point.

Ifab. Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,
Left thou a fev'rous life should'st entertain,
And fix or feven winters more respect

Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?
The fenfe of death is most in apprehenfion;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corp'ral fufferance finds a pang as great,
As when a giant dies.

Claud. Why give you me this fhame?
Think you, I can a refolution fetch
From flow'ry tenderness? if I muft die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms.

Ifab. There fpake my brother; there my father's grave Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die;

Thou art too noble to conferve a life

In bafe appliances. This outward-fainted Deputy,
Whofe fettled vifage and delib'rate word

Nips youth i' th' head; and follies doth emmew,
As faulcon doth the fowl; is yet a devil:
His filth within being caft: he would.

A pond as deep as hell.

Claud. The princely Angelo ?

appear

Ifab. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned'ft body to invest and cover

In Princely guards. Doft thou think, Claudio,,
If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou might'ft be freed?

Claud. Oh, heavens! it cannot be.

Ifab. Yes, he would give't thee; from this rank offence:

So to offend him ftill. This night's the time

That I fhould do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou dy'st to-morrow.

Claud,

Claud. Thou shalt not do't.

Ifab. Oh, were it but my life,

I'd throw it down for your

As frankly as a pin.

deliverance

Claud. Thanks, dearest Isabel.

Ifab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow.
Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him,

That thus can make him bite the law by th' nofe,
When he would force it? fure, it is no fin;
Or of the deadly feven it is the least.

Ifab. Which is the leaft?

Claud. If it were damnable, he being so wise,
Why would he for the momentary trick
Be perdurably fin'd? oh Isabel!

Ifab. What fays my brother?

Claud. Death's a fearful thing.

Ifab. And fhamed life a hateful.

Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where : To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;

This fenfible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide
In thrilling regions of thick ribb'd ice,
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with reftlefs violence round about
The pendant world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling; 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life, (16)
That age, ach, penury, imprisonment

(16) The wearief, and most loatbed worldly life.] This natural fear of Claudio, from the antipathy we have to death, feems very little varied from that infamous with of Mecenas recorded in the 101 Epiftle of Seneca.

Debilem facito manu,
Debilem pede, coxa;
Tuber adftrue gibberum,
Lubrices quate dentes:
Vita, dum fupereft, bene eft.

Hanc mibi, vel acuta

Si fedeam cruce, fuftine.

Mr. Warburton.

Can

Can lay on nature, is a paradife
To what we fear of death.

Ifab. Alas! alas!

Claud. Sweet fifter, let me live;

What fin you do to fave a brother's life,
Nature difpenfes with the deed fo far,

That it becomes a virtue.

Ifab. Oh you beast!

Oh faithlefs coward! oh dishoneft wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man, out of

my vice?

Is't not a kind of inceft, to take life

From thine own fifter's fhame? what fhould I think?
Heav'n grant, my mother play'd my father fair?
For fuch a warped flip of wilderness

Ne'er iffu'd from his blood. Take my defiance,
Die, perish! might my only bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed.
I'll
pray a thousand
prayers for thy death;
No word to fave thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Ifabel.
Ifab. Oh, fy, fy, fy!

Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade;
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd;
"Tis beft, that thou dy'ft quickly.

Claud. Oh hear me, Ifabella.

To them, Enter Duke and Provoft.

Duke. Vouchfafe a word, young fifter? but one word,
Ifab. What is your will?

Duke. Might you difpenfe with your leifure, I would by and by have fome fpeech with you: the fatisfaction I would require, is likewife your own benefit.

Ifab. I have no fuperfluous leifure; my ftay must be ftolen out of other affairs: but I will attend you a while. Duke. Son, I have over-heard what hath past between you and your fifter. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an effay of her virtue, to practife his judgment with the difpofition of natures. She, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial, which he is moft glad

to

to receive: I am Confeffor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death. Do not fatisfy your refotution with hopes that are fallible; to-morrow you muft die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my fifter pardon; I am fo out of love with life, that I will fue to be rid of it. [Exit Claud. Duke. Hold you there; farewel. 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 lofs fhall touch her by my_company. Prov. In good time. [Exit. Prov.

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 foul of your complection, fhall keep the body of it ever fair. The affault, that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I fhould wonder at Angelo: how will you do to content this fubftitute, and to fave your brother?

Ifab. I am now going to refolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my fon fhould be unlawfully born. But, oh, how much is the good Duke deceiv'd in Angelo? if ever he return, and I can fpeak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.

Duke. That fhall not be much amifs; yet as the matter now ftands, he will avoid your accufation; he made trial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on my advifings to the love I have in doing good, a remedy prefents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may moft uprightly do a poor wronged Lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no ftain to your own gracious perfon; and much please the abfent Duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this bufinefs.

ab. Let me hear you fpeak father; I have fpirit

to:

to do any thing, that appears not foul in the truth of my fpirit.

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful: have you not heard fpeak of Mariana, the fifter of Frederick, the great foldier who mifcarried at fea?

Ifab. I have heard of the Lady, and good words went with her name.

Duke. Her fhould this Angelo have marry'd; was affianc'd to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the folemnity, her brother Frederick was wreckt at fea, having in that perifh'd veffel the dowry of his fifter. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman; there fhe loft a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever moft kind and natural; with him the portion and finew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate husband, this well feeming Angelo.

Ifab. Can this be fo? did Angelo so leave her?

Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; fwallowed his vows whole, pretending, in her, difcoveries of dishonour: in few, beftow'd her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his fake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.

Ifab. 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 fhe avail?

Duke. It is a rupture that you may eafily heal; and the cure of it not only faves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it.

Ifab. Shew me how, good father.

Duke. This fore-nam'd maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjuft unkindness, (that in all reafon fhould have quenched her love,) hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo, anfwer his requiring with a plaufible obedience; agree with his demands to the point; only refer yourself to this ad

vantage: