But he, like you, would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, begone.

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

Lucio. Ay, touch him: there's the vein. [Aside. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words.

Isab. Alas! alas! 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; 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 son,

It should be thus with him;-He must die to-mor

row.

Isab. To-morrow? O, that's sudden ! Spare him,

spare him:

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven With less respect than we do minister

To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink

you:

Who is it that hath died for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

Lucio.

Ay, well said. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept :

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man that did the edict infringe;
Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,

(1) When in season.

Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils
(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.

Isab.

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.
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 it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Lucio.

That's well said.

Isab. 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 gnarled2 oak,
Than the soft myrtle :-O, but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority;

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

His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep: who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.

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

Pray heaven, she win him!

Prov. Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them;

But, in less, foul profanation.

Lucio. Thou art 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. Art advis'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 skims 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.

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. You had marr'd all else.

Isab. 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 in heaven, and enter there, Ere sun-rise; prayers from preserved2 souls, From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

Ang.

To-morrow.

Well; come to me

Lucio. Go to; it is well; away. [Aside to Isab. Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!

Ang.

(1) Attested, stamped.

Amen: for I

(2) Preserved from the corruption of the world. VOL. I.

૨

Am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.
Isab.

[Aside.

At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship?

Ang.

At any time 'fore noon.

Isab. Save your honour! [Exe. Luc. Isa. and Pro.
Ang.
From thee; even from thy virtue !—
What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?
The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!
Not she; nor doth she tempt: but it is I,

That lying by the violet, in the sun,
Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. 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,
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou? or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully, for those things
That make her good? 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? What is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art, and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite-Ever, till now,

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

[Exit.

SCENE III-A room in a prison. Enter Duke, habited like a Friar, and Provost.

Duke. Hail to you, provost; so, I think

(1) See 2 Kings, x. 27.

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
To let me see them; and to make me know
The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
To them accordingly.

Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful.

Enter Juliet.

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, Who falling in the flames of her own youth, Hath blister'd her report: She is with child; And he that got it, sentenc'd: a young man More fit to do another such offence,

Than die for this.

Duke.

When must he die?

Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.

I have provided for you; stay a while. [To Juliet.
And you shall be conducted.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
Juliet. I do; and bear the shame most patiently.
Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your
conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,

Or hollowly put on.

Juliet.

I'll gladly learn.

Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you? Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.

Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed?

Juliet.

Mutually.

Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father.
Duke. 'Tis meet so, daughter. But lest you do
repent,