Ang. Go to; let that be mine.

Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you fhall well be fpar'd.

Prov. I crave your pardon.

What shall be done, Sir, with the groaning Juliet ?
She's very near her hour.

Ang. Difpofe of her

To fome more fitting place, and that with speed.
Serv. Here is the fifter of the inan condemn'd,
Defires access to you.

Ang. Hath he a fifter?

Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a fifterhood,

If not already.

See

Ang. Well, let her be admitted,
you, the fornicatress be remov'd;

[Exit Servant.

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;
There fhall be order for it.

SCENE

VII.

Enter Lucio and Ifabella.

Prov. 'Save your honour.

Ang. Stay yet a while *

[To Ifab.] Y'are wel

come; what's your will?

Ifab. I am a woful fuitor to your Honour, Please but your Honour hear me.

Ang. Well, what's your fuit?

Ifab. There is a vice that most I do abhor,
And most defire should meet the blow of juftice;
For which I would not plead, but that I must;
For which I must not plead, but that I am (5)
At war, 'twixt will, and will not.

Ang. Well; the matter?

* It is not clear why the Provoft is bidden to stay, nor when he goes out.

(5) For which I muft not plead, but that I am

Ai war, 'twixt will, and will not.] This is obfcure, perhaps it may be mended by reading,

For which I must now plead, but yet I am

At war, 'twixt will and will not.

Tet and yet are almost undistinguishable in a manuscript.

L'ab

Ifab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die : I do befeech you, let it be his fault,

And not my brother.

Prov. Heav'n 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 find the faults, whofe fine ftands in record,
And let go by the actor.

Ifab. Ŏ juft, but fevere law!

I had a brother then ;-heav'n keep your Honour ! Lucio. [To Ifab.] Give not o'er fo: to him again, in treat him,

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;
You are too cold; if you should need a pin,
You could not with more tame a tongue defire it.
To him I fay.

Ifab. Mut he needs die ?:

Ang. Maiden, no remedy.

Ifab. Yes; I do think, that you might pardon hin And neither heav'n nor man, grieve at the mercy, Ang. I will not do't...

Ifab. But can you if

you

would.

Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.
Ifab. But might you do't, and do the world no

If fo

wrong,

your heart were touch'd with that remorfe, As mine is to him?

Ang. He's fentenc'd; 'tis too late..

Lucio. You are too cold.

[To Ifabel.

Ifab. Too late? why, no ; I, that do fpeak 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,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,.
Become them with one half fo good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have flipt like him
But he, like you, would not have been fo ftern.
Ang. Pray you, be gone.

Ifab. I would to heav'n I had your potency,
And you were Ifabel; fhould it then be thus ?

B5

No

No; I would tell what'twere to be a judge,

And what a prifoner.

Lucio. [afide.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein.
Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but wafte your words.

lab. Alas! alas !

Why, all the fouls that were, were forfeit once; (6)
And he, that might the 'vantage beft have took,
Found out the remedy. How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, fhould
But judge you, as you are? oh, think on that:
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, (7)
Like man new made.

Ang. Be you content, fair maid.

It is the law, not I condemns your brother.
Were he my kinfman, brother, or my fon,

It fhould be thus with him- he dies to-morrow.
Ifab. To-morrow, Oh! that's fudden. Spare him,
spare him,

He's not prepar'd for death.

Even for our kitchens

We kill the fowl, of season; fhall we ferve heay'n

With lefs refpect than we do minifter

To our grofs felves? good, good my lord, bethink you: Who is it, that hath dy'd for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

Lucio. Ay, well faid.

[Afide.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath

flept:

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man, that did th' edi& infringe,
Had answer'd for his deed. Now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done

(6) all the fouls that WERE,] fhould read, ARE.

and, like a prophet, (8)

This is falfe divinity. We
WARBURTON.

(7) And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made.] This is a fine thought,, and finely expreffed: The meaning is, that mercy will add fuch grace to your perfons, that you will appear as amiable as man come frefp out of the bands of his WARBURTON.

creator.

like a propbet,

(8) Looks in a glass] This alludes to the fopperies of the Berril, much ufed at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by.

WARBURTON.
Looks

Looks in a glafs that fhews what future evils,
Or new, or by remiffness new conceiv'd,
And fo in progrefs to be hatch'd and born,
Are now to have no fucceffive degrees ;
But ere they live to end. (9)

Ifab. Yet thew fome pity. (1)

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I shew justice;
For then I pity those, I do not know;

Which a difmifs'd offence would after gaul;
And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be fatisfy'd;

Your brother dies to-morrow ; be content.
Ifab: So

you must be the first, that gives this fentence; And he, that fuffers. Oh, 'tis excellent

To have a giant's ftrength; but it is tyrannous,.
To use it like a giant.

Lucio. That's well faid.

Ifab. Could great men thunder

[Afide

As Yove himfelf does, Jove would ne'er be quiet;

For every pelting, petty, officer

Would ufe his heav'n for thunder;

Nothing but thunder.

-Merciful heav'n!

Thou rather with thy fharp, and fulph'rous, bolt

Split'ft the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,

Than the foft myrtle: O, but man! proud man,
Dreft in a little brief authority,

Mof ignorant of what he's most assur'd,

His glaffy effence, like an angry ape,

Plays fuch fantaftick tricks before high heav'n,

As make the angels weep; (2) who, with our fpleens,

(9) But ere they live to end] This is very fagaciously fubftituted by Sir Thomas Hanmer for, but here they live.

(1)

•fhew fome pity.

Ang. I fhew it most of all, when Ifhew justice; For then I pity thufe I do not know:] This was

one of Hale's me

morials. When I find myself fw yed to mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy likewife due to the Country.

(2) As makes the angels aveep ;] The notion of angels weeping for the fins of men is rabbinical.

inducunt Hebræorum magiftri,~

Ob peccatum fentes angels:
Grotius ad Lucam.

WARBURTON.
Would

Would all themselves laugh mortal. (3)

Lucio. [afide.] Oh, to him, to him, Wench; he will relent`;

He's coming: I perceive't.

Prov. [To Lucio.] Pray heav'n, fhe win him!

Ifab. We cannot weigh our brother with yourself: (4) Great men may jeft with Saints; 'tis wit in them But, in the lefs, foul profanation.

Lucio. [Afide.] Thou'rt right, girl; more o'that. Ifab. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the foldier is flat blafphemy.

Lucio. Afide.] Art advis'd o'that? more on't.
Ang. Why do you put these fayings upon me?
Ifab. Becaufe authority, tho' it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That fkins the vice o' th' top. Go to your bofom;
Knock there, and afk your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault; if it confefs
A natural guiltinefs, fuch as is his,

Let it not found a thought upon your tongue
Againft my brother's life.

Ang [Afide.] She speaks, and 'tis fuch sense,

(3)

who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald fays the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our spleens and perifbable organs, they would laugh themfelves out of immortality: Which amounts to this, that if they were mortal they would not be immortal Shakelpear meant no fuch nonfenfe. By fpleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always inclines it to a fpiteful, unfeafonable mirth. Had the Angels that, fays Shakespeare, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a paffion which does not deserve that prerogative. The ancients thought that immoderate laughter was caused by the bigness of the spleen.

WARBURTON.

(4) In former Editions: We cannot weigh our brother with ourfelf] Why not? Tho' this fhould be the Reading of all the Copies, 'tis as plain as Light, it is not the Author's meaning. Ifabella would fay, there is fo great a Disproportion in Quality betwixt Lord Angelo and her Brother, that their Actions can bear no Comparison, or Equality, together: but her Brother's Crimes would be aggravated, Angelo's Frailties extenuated, from the Difference of their Degrees and State of Life. WARBURTON.

That