Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Can lay on nature, is a paradife of hand
To what we fear of death.

Ifab. Alas! alas!

Claud. Sweet fifter, let me live;'

[ocr errors]

What fin you do to fave a brother's life,
Nature difpenfes with the deed fo far,
That it becomes a virtue.

Ifab. Oh you beast !

[ocr errors]

Oh faithlefs coward! oh dishoneft wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?

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

From thine own fifter's fhame? what fhould I think?
Heav'n grant, my mother play'd my father fair:
For fuch a warped flip of wilderness

Ne'er iffu'd from his blood. Take my defiance,.
Die, perish might my only bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it fhould proceed..
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death;
No word to fave thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, fabel.
Ifab. Oh, fy, fy, fy!

Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade;
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd;
Tis beft, that thou dy't quickly.

Claud. Oh hear me, Isabella.

To them, Enter Duke and Provost.

Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young fifter; but one word.
Ifab. What is your will?:

Duke. Might you difpenfe with your leifure, I would by and by have fome fpeech with you the fatisfaction I would require, is likewife your own benefit.

[ocr errors]

Ifab. I have no fuperfluous leifure; my stay muft be tolen out of other affairs: but I will attend you a while.. Duke. Son, I have over-heard what hath paft between you and your fifter. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an affay of her virtue, to practife his judgment with the difpofition of natures. She, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial, which he is moft glad

[ocr errors]

to receive: I am Confeffor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death. Do not fatisfy your refolution with hopes that are fallible; to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me afk my fifter pardon; I am fo out of love with life, that I will fue to be rid of it. [Exit Claude Duke. Hold you there; farewel. Provost, a word with you.

Prov. What's your will, father?

Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone; leave me a while with the maid: my mind promifes with my habit, no lofs fhall touch her by my company. Prov. In good time. [Exit Prov.

Duke. The hand, that hath made you fair, hath made you good; the goodnefs that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the foul of your complection, fhall keep the body of it ever fair. The affault, 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 will you do to content this fubftitute, and to fave your brother?

Ifab. I am now going to refolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my fon fhould be unlawfully born. But, oh, how much is the good Duke deceiv'd in Angelo? if ever he return, and I can fpeak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.

Duke. That fhall not be much amifs; yet as the matter now ftands, he will avoid your accufation; he made trial of you only. Therefore faften your ear on my advifings to the love I have in doing good, a remedy prefents itfelf. I do make myfelf believe, that you may most uprightly do a poor wronged Lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no ftain to your own gracious perfon; and much please the abfent Duke, if, peradventure, he fhall ever return to have hearing of this bufinefs.

Ifab. Let me hear you speak farther; I have fpirit

to

to do any thing, that appears not foul in the truth of my fpirit.

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful: have you not heard fpeak of Mariana, the fifter of Frederick, the great foldier who miscarried at fea ?

Ifab. I have heard of the Lady, and good words went with her name.

Duke. Her fhould this Angelo have marry'd ; was affianc'd to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the folemnity, her brother Frederick was wreckt at fea, having in that perifh'd veffel the dowry of his fifter. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman; there she loft a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever moft kind and natural; with him the portion and finew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate husband, this well-feeming Angelo.

Ifab. Can this be fo? did Angela fo leave her?

Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; fwallow'd his vows whole, pretending, in her, difcoveries of difhonour: in few, beftow'd her on her own lamentation, which the yet wears for his fake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents nɔt.

Ifab. What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from the world! what corruption in this life, that it will let this man live! but how out of this can fhe avail?

Duke. It is a rupture that you may eafily heal; and the cure of it not only faves your brother, but keeps you from difhonour in doing it.

Ifab. Shew me how, good father.

1

Duke. This fore-nam'd maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjuft unkindness, (that in all reafon fhould have quenched her love,} hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo, answer his requiring with a plaufible obedience; agree with his demands to the point; only refer yourself to this ad

vantage:

1

vantage: first, that your ftay with him may not be long; that the time may have all fhadow and filence in it; and the place anfwer to convenience. This being granted, in courfe now follows all we fhall ad.. vile this wronged maid to flead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompence; and here by this is your brother fayed, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and, the corrupt Deputy fealed. The maid will I frame, and make fit for his attempt: if you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.. What think you of it?

Ifab. The image of it gives me content already, and, I truft, it will grow to a most profperous perfection.

Duke. It lies much in your holding up; hafte you fpeedily to Angelo; if for this night be intreat you to his bed, give him promife of fatisfaction. I will prefently to St. Luke's; there at the moated grange refides this dejected Mariana; at that place call upon me, and difpatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly,

Ifab. I thank you for this comfort: fare you well, Exeunt feverally,

good father,

[ocr errors]

SCENE changes to the Street.

Re-enter Duke as a Friar ; Elbow, Clown, and Officers.

Elb.

N

you will needs buy and fell men and women like beafts, we fhall have all the world drink brown. and white baftard.

[ocr errors]

Duke. Oh, heav'ns what ftuff is here?

Clown. 'Twas never merry world fince of two ufuries the merrieft was put down, and the worfer allow'd by arder of law. A furr'd gown to keep him warm, and furr'd with fox and lamb-fkins too, to fignify, that craft, being richer than innocency, ftands for the facing.

Elb. Come your way, Sir: bless you, good father Friar.

Drakes

Duke. And you, good brother father; what offence hath this man made you, Sir?

Elb. Marry, Sir, he hath offended the law; and, Sir, we take him to be a thief too, Sir; for we have found upon him, Sir, a ftrange pick lock, which we have. fent to the Deputy.

2.1

Duke. Fy, firrah, a bawd, a wicked bawd!

The evil that thou caufeft to be done,

That is thy means to live. Doft thou but think,
What 'tis to cram a maw, or cloath a back
From fuch a filthy vice: fay to thyfelf,
From their abominable and beaftly touches
J drink, I eat, array myfelf, and live. (17)
Canft thou believe thy living is a life,

So ftinkingly depending! go mend, mend.

Clown. Indeed, it doth ftink in fome fort, Sir; but yet, Sir, I would prove

Duke. Nay, if the devil have giv'n thee proofs for fin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prifon, officer; Correction and inftruction must bath work,

Ere this rude beaft will profit.

Elb. He muft before the Deputy, Sir; he has given, him warning; the. Deputy cannot abide a whoremafter; if he be a whore-monger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand.

(17) I drink, I eat away myself, and live,] Thus hitherto in all the impreffions. This is one very excellent infance of the fagacity of our Editors, and it were to be wifh'd heartily, they would have oblig'd us with their phyfical folution, how a man can cat away himfelf and live. The ingenious Mr. Bishop, when we read this Play together, gave me that moft certain emendation, which have fubftituted in the room of the former foolish reading; by the help whereof, we have this easy fenfe; that the Clown fed himself, and put cloaths on his back by exercifing the vile trade of a Bawd.

In Othello, Iago. fpeaks much to the fame purpose of Caffio's... Arumpet.

A housewife, that, by felling her defires,

Buys herfelf bread, and cloath.

And Ben Johnson, much nearer to the words of the paffage here corrected, in his Epigram upon Lieut. Shift.

By that one fpell he lives, cats, drinks, arrays himself.

[ocr errors]

Duke..

« ZurückWeiter »