Part 3

_Prov._ Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?

_Ang._ Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order? Why dost thou ask again?

_Prov._ Lest I might be too rash: Under your good correction, I have seen, 10 When, after execution, Judgement hath Repented o'er his doom.

_Ang._ Go to; let that be mine: Do you your office, or give up your place, And you shall well be spared.

_Prov._ I crave your honour's pardon. What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? 15 She's very near her hour.

_Ang._ Dispose of her To some more fitter place, and that with speed.

_Re-enter _Servant_._

_Serv._ Here is the sister of the man condemn'd Desires access to you.

_Ang._ Hath he a sister?

_Prov._ Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, 20 And to be shortly of a sisterhood, If not already.

_Ang._ Well, let her be admitted. [_Exit Servant._ See you the fornicatress be removed: Let her have needful, but not lavish, means; There shall be order for 't.

_Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO._

_Prov._ God save your honour! 25

_Ang._ Stay a little while. [_To Isab._] You're welcome: what's your will?

_Isab._ I am a woeful suitor to your honour, Please but your honour hear me.

_Ang._ Well; what's your suit?

_Isab._ There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire should meet the blow of justice; 30 For which I would not plead, but that I must; For which I must not plead, but that I am At war 'twixt will and will not.

_Ang._ Well; the matter?

_Isab._ I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, 35 And not my brother.

_Prov._ [_Aside_] Heaven give thee moving graces!

_Ang._ Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done: Mine were the very cipher of a function, To fine the faults whose fine stands in record, 40 And let go by the actor.

_Isab._ O just but severe law! I had a brother, then.--Heaven keep your honour!

_Lucio._ [_Aside to Isab._] Give't not o'er so: to him again, entreat him; Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown: You are too cold; if you should need a pin, 45 You could not with more tame a tongue desire it: To him, I say!

_Isab._ Must he needs die?

_Ang._ Maiden, no remedy.

_Isab._ Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. 50

_Ang._ I will not do't.

_Isab._ But can you, if you would?

_Ang._ Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

_Isab._ But might you do't, and do the world no wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse As mine is to him.

_Ang._ He's sentenced; 'tis too late. 55

_Lucio._ [_Aside to Isab._] You are too cold.

_Isab._ Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word, May call it back again. Well, believe this, No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, 60 The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy does. If he had been as you, and you as he, You would have slipt like him; but he, like you, 65 Would not have been so stern.

_Ang._ Pray you, be gone.

_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._ [_Aside to Isab._] Ay, touch him; there's the vein. 70

_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, 75 If He, which is the top of judgement, 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 condemn your brother: 80 Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him: he must die to-morrow.

_Isab._ To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him! He's not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven 85 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 to Isab._] Ay, well said.

_Ang._ The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: 90 Those many had not dared to do that evil, If the first that did the edict infringe Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake, Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet, Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils, 95 Either now, or by remissness new-conceived, And so in progress to be hatch'd and born, Are now to have no successive degrees, But, ere they live, to end.

_Isab._ Yet show some pity.

_Ang._ I show it most of all when I show justice; 100 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. 105

_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._ [_Aside to Isab._] That's well said.

_Isab._ Could great men thunder 110 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 115 Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, 120 Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens, Would all themselves laugh mortal.

_Lucio._ [_Aside to Isab._] O, to him, to him, wench! he will relent; He's coming; I perceive't.

_Prov._ [_Aside_] Pray heaven she win him! 125

_Isab._ We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them. But in the less foul profanation.

_Lucio._ Thou'rt i' the right, girl; more o' that.

_Isab._ That in the captain's but a choleric word, 130 Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

_Lucio._ [_Aside to Isab._] Art avised 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, 135 That skins 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 140 Against my brother's life.

_Ang._ [_Aside_] 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. 145

_Ang._ How? bribe me?

_Isab._ Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.

_Lucio._ [_Aside to Isab._] Yon had marr'd all else.

_Isab._ Not with fond shekels of the tested gold, Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor 150 As fancy values them; but with true prayers That shall be up at heaven and enter there Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls, From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

_Ang._ Well; come to me to-morrow. 155

_Lucio._ [_Aside to Isab._] Go to; 'tis well; away!

_Isab._ Heaven keep your honour safe!

_Ang._ [_Aside_] Amen: For I am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross.

_Isab._ At what hour to-morrow Shall I attend your lordship?

_Ang._ At any time 'fore noon. 160

_Isab._ 'Save your honour!

[_Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and Provost._

_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 165 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, 170 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: 175 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, 180 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 185 Subdues me quite. Ever till now, When men were fond, I smiled, and wonder'd how. [_Exit._

NOTES: II, 2.

## SCENE II.] SCENE VI. Pope.

[Transcriber's Note: Pope's Scene VII is not identified. Scene VIII begins at line 161.]

1: _he will_] _he'll_ Pope. 4: _but as offended_] _offended but as_ Grant White. 5: _sects_] _sorts_ S. Walker conj. _of this_] _o' th'_ Hanmer. 9: _dost thou_] om. Hanmer. 12: _Go to_] om. Hanmer. 14: _honour's_] om. Pope. 17: _fitter_] _fitting_ Pope. 22: _Well_] om. Pope. 25: _for't_] _for it_ Pope. _God save_] _'Save_ Ff. 26: _a little_] _yet a_ Pope. 28: _Please_] _'Please_ Ff. _Well_] om. Pope. 30: _And most_] _And more_ Rowe. 32: _must not plead, but that_] _must plead, albeit_ Hanmer. _must now plead, but yet_ Johnson conj. 40: _To fine_] _to find_ Theobald. _faults_] _fault_ Dyce. 46: _more tame a_] _a more tame_ Rowe. 53: _might you_] _you might_ S. Walker conj. 55: _him._] _him?_ Ff. 56: _You are_] _Yo art_ F2. _Thou art_ Collier MS. 58: _back_] F2 F3 F4. om. F1. _Well,_] _and_ Hanmer. _Well, believe_] _Well believe_ Knight. 59: _'longs_] Theobald, _longs_ Ff. _belongs_ Pope. 73: _that were_] _that are_ Warburton. 76: _top_] _God_ Collier MS. 80: _condemn_] _condemns_ Rowe. 82: _must die_] _dies_ Pope. 83: Printed as two lines in Ff, the first ending _sudden_. 85: _shall we serve_] _serve we_ Pope. 92: _the first_] Ff. _the first man_ Pope. _he, the first_ Capell (Tyrwhitt conj.). _the first one_ Collier MS. _but the first_ Grant White. _the first he_ Spedding conj. _the first that_] _he who first_ Davenant's version. _did the edict_] _the edict did_ Keightley conj. 95: _that shows what_] _which shews that_ Hanmer. 96: _Either now_] _Or new_ Pope. _Either new_ Dyce. 99: _ere_] Hanmer. _here_ Ff. _where_ Malone. 104: _Be_] _Then be_ Pope. 107: _it is_] _'tis_ Pope. 108: _it is_] om. Hanmer. 111: _ne'er_] _never_ F1. 113: _Would_] _Incessantly would_ Hanmer. 114: _Heaven_] _sweet Heaven_ Hanmer. 116: _Split'st_] _splits_ F1. 117: _but_] F1. _O but_ F2 F3 F4. _proud_] _weak, proud_ Malone conj. 120: _glassy_] _grassy_ Lloyd conj. 126: _We_] _You_ Collier MS. _cannot_] _can but_ Anon. conj. _ourself_] _yourself_ Theobald (Warburton). 127: _saints_] _sins_ Anon. conj. 129: _i' the right_] _i' th right_ F1 F2. _i' right_ F3 F4. _right_ Pope. _in the right_ Steevens. 132: _avised_] _avis'd_ F1 F2. _advis'd_ F3 F4. _thou advis'd_ Hanmer. _more on't_] _more on't, yet more_ Hanmer. 140: _your_] _you_ F2. 142: _breeds_] _bleeds_ Pope. 149: _shekels_] Pope. _sickles_ Ff. _cycles_ Collier conj. _circles_ Collier MS. See note (VII). 150: _rates are_] Johnson. _rate are_ Ff. _rate is_ Hanmer. 157: _Amen_] _Amen! I say_ Hanmer. See note (VIII). 159: _Where_] _Which your_ Johnson conj. 160: _your lordship_] _you lordship_ F2. _you_ Hanmer. 161: _'Save_] _God save_ Edd. conj. 161: SCENE VIII. Pope. 163: _Ha!_] om. Pope. 166: _by_] _with_ Capell. 172: _evils_] _offals_ Collier MS. 183: _never_] _ne'er_ Pope. 186: _Ever till now_] F1. _Even till now_ F2 F3 F4. _Even till this very now_ Pope. _Ever till this very now_ Theobald. _Even from youth till now_ Collier MS.

## SCENE III. _A room in a prison._

_Enter, severally, DUKE disguised as a friar, and PROVOST._

_Duke._ Hail to you, provost!--so I think you are.

_Prov._ I am the provost. What's your will, good friar?

_Duke._ Bound by my charity and my blest order, I come to visit the afflicted spirits Here in the prison. Do me the common right 5 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, 10 Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth, Hath blister'd her report: she is with child; And he that got it, sentenced; a young man More fit to do another such offence Than die for this. 15

_Duke._ When must he die?

_Prov._ As I do think, to-morrow. I have provided for you: stay awhile, [_To Juliet._ And you shall be conducted.

_Duke._ Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

_Jul._ I do; and bear the shame most patiently. 20

_Duke._ I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience, And try your penitence, if it be sound, Or hollowly put on.

_Jul._ I'll gladly learn.

_Duke._ Love you the man that wrong'd you?

_Jul._ Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. 25

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

_Jul._ Mutually.

_Duke._ Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.

_Jul._ I do confess it, and repent it, father.

_Duke._ 'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent, 30 As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven, Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it, But as we stand in fear,--

_Jul._ I do repent me, as it is an evil, 35 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!_ [_Exit._

_Jul._ Must die to-morrow! O injurious love, 40 That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror!

_Prov._ 'Tis pity of him. [_Exeunt._

NOTES: II, 3.

## SCENE III.] SCENE IX. Pope. Act III. SCENE I. Johnson conj.

7: _crimes that I may_] _several crimes that I May_ Seymour conj. 9: Enter JULIET] Transferred by Dyce to line 15. 11: _flaws_] F3 F4. _flawes_ F1 F2. _flames_ Warburton (after Davenant). 26: _offenceful_] _offence full_ F1. 30: _lest you do repent_] F4. _least you do repent_ F1 F2 F3. _repent you not_ Pope. 33: _we would not spare_] Ff. _we'd not seek_ Pope. _we'd not spare_ Malone. _we would not serve_ Collier MS. _we'd not appease_ Singer conj. 36: _There rest_] _Tis well; there rest_ Hammer. 39: _Grace_] _So grace_ Pope. _May grace_ Steevens conj. _All grace_ Seymour conj. _Grace go with you_ is assigned to Juliet by Dyce (Ritson conj.). 40: _love_] _law_ Hanmer.

## SCENE IV. _A room in ANGELO'S house._

_Enter ANGELO._

_Ang._ When I would pray and think, I think and pray To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words; Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth, As if I did but only chew his name; 5 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, 10 Could I with boot change for an idle plume, Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form, How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood: 15 Let's write good angel on the devil's horn; 'Tis not the devil's crest.

_Enter a _Servant_._

How now! who's there?

_Serv._ One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

_Ang._ Teach her the way. O heavens! Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, 20 Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness? So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons: Come all to help him, and so stop the air 25 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? 30

_Isab._ I am come to know your pleasure.

_Ang._ That you might know it, would much better please me Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.

_Isab._ Even so.--Heaven keep your honour!

_Ang._ Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be, 35 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 40 That his soul sicken not.

_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 saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image 45 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. 50

_Ang._ Say you so? then I shall pose 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 she that he hath stain'd?

_Isab._ Sir, believe this, 55 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._ Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I say. Answer to this:-- 60 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, 65 It is no sin at all, but charity.

_Ang._ Pleased 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, 70 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 ignorant, Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good. 75

_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 Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder 80 Than beauty could, display'd. 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, 85 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,--that you, his sister, 90 Finding yourself desired of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, Could fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-building law; and that there were No earthly mean to save him, but that either 95 You must lay down the treasures of your body To this supposed, 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, 100 The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies, And strip myself to death, as to a bed That longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield My body up to shame.

_Ang._ Then must your brother die.

_Isab._ And 'twere the cheaper way: 105 Better it were a brother died 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? 110

_Isab._ Ignomy in ransom and free pardon Are of two houses: lawful mercy Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

_Ang._ You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather proved the sliding of your brother 115 A merriment than a vice.

_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. 120

_Ang._ We are all frail.

_Isab._ Else let my brother die, If not a feodary, but only he Owe and succeed thy weakness.

_Ang._ Nay, women are frail too.

_Isab._ Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves; 125 Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Women!--Help Heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints.

_Ang._ I think it well: 130 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; 135 If you be one,--as you are well express'd By all external warrants,--show it now, By putting on the destined livery.

_Isab._ I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language. 140

_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, 145 Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others.

_Ang._ Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose.

_Isab._ Ha! little honour to be much believed, And most pernicious purpose!--Seeming, seeming!-- 150 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.