No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, Lucio. [Aside.] Ay, touch him: there's the vein. Isab. Alas! alas! Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; If He, which is the top of How would you be, But judge you as you are? 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. Isah. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him! 5 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. [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, 4" You will then be as tender-hearted and merciful as the first man was in his days of innocence." That is, when in season. "Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam,” is a maxim of our law. If the first that did the edict infringe Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake; 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, 8 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 Lucio. [Aside.] That's well said. Isab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer 9 Would use his heaven for thunder; Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven! Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled 10 oak, Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man! Dress'd in a little brief authority, 7 This alludes to the deceptions of the fortune-tellers, who pretended to see future events in a beryl, or crystal glass. 8 One of Judge Hale's Memorials is of the same tendency "When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember that there is a mercy likewise due to the country." 9 Pelting for paltry. 10 Gnarled, knotted. Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, Lucio. [To ISAB.] O, to him, to him, wench! he will relent: He's coming, I perceive't. Prov. [Aside.] Pray Heaven, she win him! Isab. We 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 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 skins the vice o' the top: 13 Go to your bosom; Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Ang. [Aside.] She speaks, and 'tis 11 That is, his brittle, fragile being. H. 12 The notion of angels weeping for the sins of n.en is rabbin. ical. By spleens Shakespeare meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, which always inclines it to a spiteful and unseasonable mirth. Had the angels that, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a passion unworthy of that prerogative. 13 Shakespeare has used this indelicate metaphor again in Hamlet: "It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." 14 Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.14 [To her.] Fare you well. Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. Ang. I will bethink me: row. - Come again to-mor 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 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 at heaven, and enter there, Ere sunrise; prayers from preserved souls, From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal. Ang. To-morrow. Well: come to me Lucio. [Aside to ISAB.] Go to; it is well: away. Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe! Ang. For I am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross.16 Isab. [Aside.] Amen; 15 At what hour to-morrow Shall I attend your lordship? 14 That is, such sense as breeds a response in his mind. lone thought that sense here meant sensual desire. Ma 15 Isabella prays that his honour may be safe, meaning only to give him his title: his mind is caught by the word honour, he feels that it is in danger, and therefore says amen to her benediction. 16 The petition of the Lord's Prayer, " Lead us not into temptation," is here considered as crossing or intercepting the way in which Angelo was going: he was exposing himself to temptation by the appointment for the morrow's meeting. Ang. Isab. Save your honour! Ang. At any time 'fore noon. [Exeunt LUCIO, ISABELLA, and Provost. Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower, Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary, 17 And pitch our evils there?' O, fie, fie, fie! When judges steal themselves. What! do I love her, And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on? To sin in loving virtue: Never could the strumpet, When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how! [Exit. 17 No language could more forcibly express the aggravated profligacy of Angelo's passion, which the purity of Isabella but served the more to inflame. The desecration of edifices devoted to religion, by converting them to the most abject purposes of nature, was an eastern method of expressing contempt. See 2 Kings x. 27. |