ACT III. SCENE I.

A Room in the Prison.

Enter DUKE, as a Friar, CLAUDIO, and Provost.

Duke. So then, you hope of pardon from lord Angelo? Claud. The miserable have

No other medicine, but only hope.

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.

Duke. Be absolute for death; either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences,

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet run'st toward him still: thou art not noble;
For all th' accommodations that thou bear'st,

Are nurs❜d by baseness: thou art by no means valiant ;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm: thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st

Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains

That issue out of dust: happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get,
And what thou hast forget'st. Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon: if thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire3,

3 which do call thee SIRE,] The old folios of 1623, 1632, 1664, and 1685 have fire for "sire,” a misprint from taking the long s for an f. Lord Francis Egerton's folio of 1623 gives the true reading in old MS.

The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo 3, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner: thou hast nor youth, nor age, But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld: and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this,
Yet in this life

That bears the name of life?

Lie hid more thousand deaths, yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

Claud.

I humbly thank you.

To sue to live, I find, I seek to die,

And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.

Isab. [Without.] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.

Enter ISABELLA *.

Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.

Claud. Most holy sir, I thank you.

Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio.

Prov. And very welcome.

your sister.

Look, signior; here's

Duke. Provost, a word with you.

Prov. As many as you please.

Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may

be conceal'd".

[Exeunt DUKE and Provost.

3 Serpigo,] The first folio has sapego, the second sarpego: the "serpigo” is a kind of tetter, which has sometimes been misprinted fetter. See, for instances, Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, viii. 303, and ix. 98.

4 Enter Isabella.] According to the modern editors, Isabella enters before the Provost asks, "Who's there?" and tells her to come in."

66

* Bring Me to hear THEM speak, where I may be conceal'd,] The first folio has the line,—

"Bring them to hear me speak," &c.

which is obviously wrong: the second folio thus corrects the error :— "Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd,”

VOL. II.

E

Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort?

Isab.

Why, as all

Comforts are; most good, most good, indeed 6.

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

Intends you for his swift ambassador,

Where you shall be an everlasting leiger':

Therefore, your best appointment make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.

Claud.

Is there no remedy?

Isab. None, but such remedy, as to save a head To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud.

But is there any?

Isab. Yes, brother, you may live:

There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

Claud.

Perpetual durance?

Isab. Ay, just; perpetual durance: a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity you had,

To a determin'd scope.

Claud.

8

But in what nature?

Isab. In such a one as, you consenting to't,

Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,

And leave you naked.

Claud.

Let me know the point.

Isab. O! I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,

but the smallest change is the best, and the mere transposition of me and them is all that is required. The addition of the words, "Yet hear them," in the second folio, adopted by Malone, is thereby rendered unnecessary.

* Comforts are; most good, most good, indeed :] This line is not quite syllabically correct, but the emphatic repetition of “most good” makes up the time. Hitherto the commentators have omitted the second "most good," and regulated the metre thus :

Claud.

Now, sister, what's the comfort?

Isab. Why, as all comforts are ; most good, indeed.

This mode of printing the passage neither preserves the text nor the measure. The words, "Why, as all," complete the previous imperfect line, put into the mouth of Claudio.

7 an everlasting LEIGER:] A "leiger" was a permanently resident ambassador.

8 THOUGH all the world's-] The old copies read, "through all," &c.

Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect,
Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension,
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang, as great
As when a giant dies.

Claud.

Why give you me this shame?

Think you I can a resolution fetch

From flowery tenderness? If I must die,

I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms.

Isab. There spake my brother: there my father's

grave

Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:

Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
Whose settled visage and deliberate word
Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew'
As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil;

His filth within being cast, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

Claud.

The princely Angelo'?

Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'st body to invest and cover

In princely guards 2!

Dost thou think, Claudio,

9 and follies doth ENMEW,] The old reading is emmew: the meaning is, that Angelo makes follies mew up or hide themselves, as the falcon compels the fowl to conceal itself.

1 The PRINCELY Angelo ?] The first folio has "the prenzie Angelo," and the second substituted "princely " for prenzie. The word occurs again three lines lower, where Isabella talks of "prenzie guards." But for this repetition it might have been thought that Shakespeare meant to introduce the Italian word prence, as applied to Angelo, to designate his rank. Warburton would read priestly in both places, and Tieck suggests precise, which sounds ill as regards the metre, the accent falling on the wrong syllable. However, this would not constitute a sufficient objection, and the emendation deserves attention. We have followed the second folio, which in cases like this ought to have considerable weight. Warburton's priestly would answer the purpose at least as well, but it is not supported by any old authority.

2 In princely GUARDS !] "A guard in old language (observes Malone correctly)

If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou might'st be freed.

Claud.

O, heavens! it cannot be.

Isab. Yes, he would give't thee from this rank offence, So to offend him still. This night's the time

That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.

Claud.

Isab. O were it but my life,

Thou shalt not do't.

I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.

Claud.

Thanks, dear Isabel.

Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow.
Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him,

That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,
When he would force it? Sure, it is no sin;

Or of the deadly seven it is the least.

Isab. Which is the least?

Claud. If it were damnable, he being so wise, Why would he for the momentary trick

Be perdurably fin'd?-O Isabel!

Isab. What says my brother?
Claud.

Death is a fearful thing.

Isab. And shamed life a hateful.

Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those that lawless and incertain thoughts

meant a welt or border of a garment," "because (says Minsheu) it guards and keeps the garment from tearing." These guards were afterwards sometimes taken for ornaments, and the word is so used by Shakespeare in "the Merchant of Venice," A. II. sc. 2.