Page images
PDF
EPUB

I have provided for you; stay a while,
And you shall be conducted.

[To Juliet.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the fin you carry? Juliet. I do; and bear the fhame most patiently. Duke. I'll teach you how you fhall arraign your confcience, 'And try your penitence if it be found,

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 fin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet. I do confess it and repent it, father.

Duke. 'Tis meet fo, daughter; but repent you not
'As that the fin hath brought you to this fhame?
Which forrow's always tow'rds our felves, not heav'n,
Showing we'd not seek heaven, as we love it,
But as we ftand in fear.

Juliet. I do repent me as it is an evil,
And take the fhame with joy.

Duke. "Tis well, there reft.`

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,

And I am going with inftruction to him;

So grace go with you; benedicite!

Juliet. Muft die to-morrow! oh injurious 7 law,

That refpites me a life, whofe very comfort

Is ftill a dying horror!

Prov. 'Tis pity of him.

[blocks in formation]

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE X.

The PALACE.

Enter Angelo.

Ang. WHEN I would pray and think, I think and

pray

To fev'ral fubjects: heav'n hath my empty words,
Whilft my intention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Ifabel: heav'n's in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew its name,

And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception: the state whereon I ftudied
Is, like a good thing being often read,
Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,
Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride,
Could I with boot change for an idle plume
Which the air beats for vain. Oh place! oh form!
How often doft thou with thy cafe, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wifer fouls
To thy false seeming! blood, thou art but blood:
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn;

8/Is't not the devil's creft? How now? who's there? Enter Servant.

Serv. One Ifabel a fifter asks access to you.

[blood

Ang. Teach her the way. Oh heav'ns! why does my
Thus mufter to my heart, making both that
Unable for it felf, and difpoffeffing

9 'My other parts of neceffary fitnefs?
So play the foolish throngs with one that fwoons;
Come all to help him, and fo ftop the air
By which he should revive: and even fo
The gen'ral fubjects to a well-wifht King
Quit their own part, and in obfequious fondness

Crowd

[blocks in formation]

Crowd to his prefence, where their untaught love
Muft needs appear offence. How now, fair maid?

[blocks in formation]

Ifab. I am come to know your pleasure.

[me,

Ang. That you might know it, would much better please Than to ''declare what 'tis. He cannot live. 2 Ifab. Ev'n fo?— 3 'heav'n keep you!\ Ang. Yet may he live a while;

And it may be as long as you or I;

Yet he must die.

Ifab. Under your sentence?

Ang. Yea.

[Going.

Ifab. When, I befeech you? that in his reprieve, Longer or fhorter, he may be fo fitted,

That his foul ficken not.

Ang. Ha? fie, thefe filthy vices! 'twere as good
To pardon him, that hath from nature ftol'n
A man already made, as to remit

4

Their fawcy lewdness that do coin heav'n's image
In ftamps that are forbid: 'tis all as 'just,`

Falfely to take away a life true made,

As to put mettle in restrained means,

To make a falfe one.

Ifab. 'Tis fet down fo in heav'n, but not in earth.

Ang. And fay you fo? then I fhall poze you quickly.

Which had you rather, that the most just law

Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
As fhe, that he hath ftain'd?

Ifab. Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my foul.

Ang. I talk not of your foul; our compell'd fins

Stand more for number than accompt.

■ demand

4 fweetness

[ocr errors]

2 Your brother cannot 3 heav'n keep your honour!

5 eafie,

Ifab. How fay you?

Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak
Against the thing I fay. Answer to this:
I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:
Might there not be a charity in fin,
To fave this brother's life?

Ifab. Please you to do't,
I'll take it as a peril to my foul,
It is no fin at all, but charity.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your foul,
6/Were't equal poize of fin and charity?
Ifab. That I do beg his life, if it be fin,
Heav'n let me bear it! you granting my fuit,
If that be fin, I'll make't my 7 'morning-pray'r
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer.

Ang. Nay, but hear me:

Your fenfe pursues not mine; either you're ignorant,
Or feem fo craftily; and that's not good.

Ifab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,

But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright,
When it doth tax it felf: as these black mafques
Proclaim an en-fhield beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could difplay'd.

[ocr errors]

'But mark me well:` To be received plain I'll fpeak more grofs; Your brother is to die.

Ifab. So.

Ang. And his offence is fo, as it appears
Accountant to the law upon that pain.
Ifab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to fave his life,
(As I fubfcribe not that, nor any other,)
But (in the lofs of queftion) that you his fifter,
Finding your felf defir'd of fuch a person,

Whofe credit with the judge, or own great place,

6 Were

7 morn-prayer

8 But mark me,

Could

Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-holding law; and that there, were
No earthly mean to fave him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this fuppofed, or 'elfe let him fuffer;
What would you do?

Ijab. As much for my poor brother as my felf;
That is, were I under the terms of death,
Th' impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip my self to death as to a bed

That longing I've been fick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

Ang. Then muft your brother die.
Ifab. And 'twere the cheaper way;
Better it were a brother dy'd at once,
Than that a fifter, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence That you have flander'd fo?

Ifab. An ignominious ranfom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes; lawful mercy fure

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

Ang. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant, And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment than a vice.

Ifab. Oh, pardon me,

My lord, it very oft falls out, to have

What we would have, we speak not what we mean:

I fomething do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

Ang. We are all frail.

Ifab. Elfe let my brother die,

If not a feodary but only he
Owe and fucceed by weakness.

Ang. Nay, women are frail too.

Ifab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themselves;

Which are as eafy broke as they make forms.

elfe to let

1 it oft

Women!

« PreviousContinue »