Isab.

How say you ?

Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I say.

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 sin,

To save this brother's life?

Isab.

Please you to do't,

I'll take it as a peril to my soul:

It is no sin at all, but charity.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, Were equal poise of sin and charity.

Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my suit, If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer

To have it added to the faults of mine,

And nothing of your answer.

Ang.

Nay, but hear me:

Your sense pursues not mine: either you are igno

rant,

Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.

Isab. 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 itself: as these black masks 11 Proclaim an enshield 12 beauty ten times louder Than beauty could displayed. -But mark me: To be received plain, I'll speak more gross: Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

11 The masks worn by female spectators of the play are here probably meant. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, we have a passage of similar import :

"These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair."

12 That is, enshielded, covered.

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

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, (As I subscribe not that, nor any other,)

But, in the loss of question, 13 that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desir'd of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-binding law; and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this suppos'd, or else to let him suffer;
What would you do?

Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: That is, were I under the terms of death,

The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed

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

Ang.

Then must your brother die.

Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way: Better it were, a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die forever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence That you have slander'd so ?

14

Isab. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy is

Nothing akin to foul redemption.

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant, And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother

A merriment than a vice.

13 That is, conversation that tends to nothing.
14 Ignomy, ignominy.

Isab. O pardon me, my lord! it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what

we mean :

I something do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.
Ang. We are all frail.

Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view them. selves;

Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Women! - Help, Heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them.16 Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are,

And credulous to false prints.17

Ang.

I think it well:

And from this testimony of your own sex,

(Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger Than faults may shake our frames,) let me be bold:

I do arrest your words: Be that you are,
That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none :
If you be one, (as you are well express'd

15 A very obscure passage. The original reads, thy weakness, which fairly defies explanation. The word this is adopted by Mr. Collier from an old manuscript note in a copy of the first folio belonging to Lord Francis Egerton. With this change, the pas. sage, though still obscure, makes good sense enough: "If we are not all frail, if my brother have no feodary, that is, no com panion, one holding by the same tenure of frailty, -if he alone be found to own and succeed to this weakness, then let him die."

H.

16 The meaning appears to be, that men debase their natures by taking advantage of women's weakness. She therefore calls on Heaven to assist them.

17 That is, impressions,

By all external warrants,) show it now,
By putting on the destin'd livery.

Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language. Ang. Plainly, conceive I love you.

Isab. My brother did love Juliet ; and you tell me That he shall die for it.

Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

Isab. I know your virtue hath a license in't, Which seems a little fouler than it is,

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour,

My words express my purpose.

Isab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd,

And most pernicious purpose!

ing!

-

Seeming, seem

I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't!

Sign me a present pardon for my brother,

Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the world

aloud

What man thou art.

Ang.

Who will believe thee, Isabel ?

My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i'the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,

That you shall stifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,19
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother

18 That is, your virtue assumes an air of licentiousness, which is not natural to you, on purpose to try me.

19 Prolixious blushes means what Milton has elegantly called "sweet reluctant amorous delay."

By yielding up thy body to my will;

Or else he must not only die the death,

But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most.
I'll prove a tyrant to him: As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.
[Exit.
Isab. To whom should I complain? Did I tell

this,

Who would believe me? O perilous mouths !
That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof;

Bidding the law make courtesy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood.
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
More than our brother is our chastity!

I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. [Exit