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.

ACT III.

SCENE I-A Room in the Prison.

Enter DUKE, 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 prepared 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 skiey 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 runn'st toward him still: Thou art not noble :
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,

Are nursed in 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 art 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 sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, 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

Determined.

+Affects, affections.

Leprous eruptions.

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,
That bears the name of life? Yet in this 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.

Enter ISABELLA.

Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company! Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome. 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. Look, signior, here's your sister. Duke. Provost, a word with you.

Prov. As many as you please.

Duke. Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd,

Yet hear them.

[Exeunt DUKE and PROVOST.

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

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

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

Intends you for a 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 determined scope.

Claud. 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

Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect

Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?

* Old age.

+ Preparation.

+ Resident.

Vastness of extent.

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,

1 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 + Dost thou think, Claudio,
If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou mightst be freed?

Claud. O heavens! it cannot be.

Isab. Yes, he would give it thee, for 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, Thou shalt not do't.
Isab. O, were it but my life,

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 perdurablys fined ?-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

* Shut up.

+ Freely.

+ Laced robes.

§ Lastingly.

In thrilling regions 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
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

Isab. Alas! alas!

Claud. Sweet sister, let me live: What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far, That it becomes a virtue.

Isab. O, you beast!

O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair!

For such a warped slip of wilderness

Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance:‡
Die; perish! might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I pray a thousand prayers for thy death,

No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.

Isab. O, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin 's not accidental, but a trade :§ Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: "Tis best that thou diest quickly.

Claud. O, hear me, Isabella.

Re-enter DUKE.

Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.
Isab. What is your will.

[Going.

Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by-andby have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require, is likewise your own benefit.

Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.

Duke [to CLAUDIO, aside]. Son, I have overheard what hath pass'd between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are

* Invisible.

→ Refusal.

+ Wildness.

§ An established habit.

fallible to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

Duke. Hold you there: Farewell.

Re-enter PROVOST.

Provost, a word with you.

Prov. What's your will, father?

[Exit CLAUDIO.

Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone: Leave me a while with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by my company.

Prov. In good time.

[Exit PROVOST.

Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodness, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair. The assault, that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How would you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother?

Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.

Duke. That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made trial of you only. -Therefore, fasten your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business.

Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscarried at sea?

Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her

name.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her-combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.

Continue in that resolution.

† Betrothed.