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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. Oh! were it but my life,

I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly 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?

Claud. If it were damnable, he being so wise, Why would he for the momentary trick

Be perdurably fin'd ?-Oh Isabel!

Isab. What says my brother?
Claud.

Isab. And shamed life a hateful.

Death is a fearful thing.

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

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent 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,
That age, ache, penury', and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

Isab. Alas! alas!

Claud.

Sweet sister, let me live.

What sin you do to save a brother's life,

Nature dispenses with the deed so far,
That it becomes a virtue.

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PENURY,] The oldest copy has perjury: it was corrected in the second folio. In a previous line the folio, 1623, has thought for “thoughts.”

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

Is't not a kind of incest to take life

From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair,

For such a warped slip of wilderness1

Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance:
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.

Oh, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade. Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: "Tis best that thou diest quickly.

Claud.

[Going.

Oh 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 assay 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

1 — a warped slip of WILDERNESS] i. e. Of wildness—a wild slip, not proceeding from the grafted stock. Beaumont and Fletcher, Dekker, Milton, and others, use "wilderness" in the same sense.

[Exit CLAUDIO.

with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

Duke. Hold you there: farewell.

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, shall 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 will you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother?

Isab. I am now going to resolve him. I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But oh, 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 government.

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 farther. I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

the goodness that is CHEAP in beauty] We do not here introduce the alteration of the corr. fo. 1632, chief for “cheap,” because sense may be made out of the original words: the whole passage is erased in the corr. fo. 1632, but still chief, instead of "cheap," is written in the margin. If we adopted the emendation, the effect of it would be to make the poet say, that goodness, which consisted chiefly in external appearance, would be short-lived, but when it consisted in grace it would be eternal. We are, by no means, confident that this is not the true construction of a rather difficult passage.

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he made trial of you only.] i. e. He will avoid your accusation by alleging that "he made trial of you only."

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Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. 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.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have married: he 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 gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned 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 well-seeming Angelo.

Isab. Can this be so ? Did Angelo so leave her ?

Duke. Left her in her tears, and dried 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.

Isab. 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 yourself to this advantage,-first, that your stay with him may not be long, that the time may have all shadow and

• HER should this Angelo have married:] "Her" is she in the old copies, and we formerly preserved it, taking the, somewhat contorted, construction to be" She should have married this Angelo, who was affianced to her by oath ;" but the corr. fo. 1632 puts she in the accusative case, making Angelo the nominative to the verb, and making who or he (which last we prefer) understood. The preposition "by," ," omitted in the first folio, was added in the second.

5- COMBINATE husband,] i. e. Contracted or elected husband.

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silence in it, and the place answer to convenience. This being granted in course, and 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 already, 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 upon me, and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly.

Isab. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good [Exeunt.

father.

SCENE II.'

The Street before the Prison.

Enter DUKE, as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and Officers.

Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard'.

Duke. Oh, heavens! what stuff is here ?

• This being granted in course, AND now follows all:] So the folios. The modern editors omit the conjunction, which, though not absolutely necessary, ought not to be left out,-least of all without notice.

and the corrupt deputy SCALED.] i. e. Exposed, or stripped, by removing the scales which cover him. We agree with Mr. Singer that "scaled " here ought not to be taken in the sense of weighed; although in “Coriolanus," A. ii. sc. 3 (Vol. iv. p. 652), we have “scaling" unquestionably used for weighing.

⚫ Scene II.] In the original copies the place is not changed, but Elbow, the Clown, and officers join the Duke where he has been talking with Claudio and Isabella. This is evidently improper.

91

- BASTARD.] A kind of sweet wine made of raisins, then much used: from the Italian bastardo-often, as here, punned upon.

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