i

"Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not

heaven;

" Shewing, we would not spare heaven, as we love it, "But as we stand in fear."

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil;

And take the shame with joy.

Duke. There rest.

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

And I am going with instruction to him:

Grace go with you! benedicite.

550

[Exit.

"Juliet. Must die to-morrow! Oh, injurious love,

"That respites me a life, whose very comfort

" Is still a dying horror!

"Prov. 'Tis pity of him.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt."

ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO.

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

pray

560

To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my intention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven is 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 studied,
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

Could I, with boot, change for an idle plume Which the air beats for vain. Oh place! oh form! How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,

Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls 570 To thy false seeming ? "Blood, thou art but blood: "Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,

"'Tis not the devil's crest."

Enter Servant.

How now, who's there?

Serv. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you. Ang. Teach her the way. [Solus.] Oh heavens!

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, "Making both it unable for itself,

" And dispossessing all my other parts

" Of necessary fitness?

580

" So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;

" Come all to help him, and so stop the air

" By which he should revive: and even so

The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, " Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness "Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love " Must needs appear offence."

Enter ISABELLA.

How now, fair maid?

Isab. I am come to know your pleasure,
Ang. That you might know it, would much better

please me,

Eiij

590

Than Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot

live.

Isab. Even so?-Heaven keep your honour!

[Going.

Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may be,

As long as you, or I: Yet he must die.

Isab. Under your sentence ?

Ang. Yea.

Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,

Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted,

That his soul sicken not.

599

Ang. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen

A man already made, as to remit

Their sawcy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image In stamps that are forbid: "'tis all as easy "Falsely to take away a life true made, "As to put metal in restrained means, "To make a false one."

Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. Ang. Say you so? then I shall poze you quickly. Which had you rather, That the most just law 610 Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him, Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness, As she that he hath stain'd?

Isab. Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my soul.
Ang. I talk not of your soul; Our compell'd sins

Stand more for number than for accompt.
Isab. How say you?

Ang.

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 poize 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 :

630

Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant; 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 641 " Proclaim an enshield 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.

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

3

Isab. Isab. True.

650

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life,
(As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question) 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 supposed, or else 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 have 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 dy'd at once,

Than that a sister, by redeeming him,

Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence

That you have slander'd so?

Isab. Ignominy in ransom, and free pardon,

Are of two houses: lawful mercy

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

670

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;

And