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

Lucio. You are too cold.

[To ISAB.

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,
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, would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, begone.

Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency,
And you were Isabel! should it be then thus?
No;
I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,

And what a prisoner.

Lucio. [Aside.] Ay, touch him: there's the vein.
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,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips
Like man new made.3

Ang. Be you content, fair maid;

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
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 prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens
We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven
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. Ay, well said.

[3] This is a fine thought, and finely expressed. The meaning is, that Mercy will add such a grace to your person, that you will appear as amiable as a man come fresh out of the hands of his Creator. WARBURTON.

I incline to a different interpretation: And you, Angelo, will breathe new life into Claudio, as the Creator animated Adam, by "breathing into his nostriis the breath of life." HOLT WHITE.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, If the first man, 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, (Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd, And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,) Are now to have no successive degrees, But, where they live, to end

Isab. Yet show some pity.

Ang. I show it most of all when I show justice; 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.

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. That's well said.

Isab. Could great men thunder

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,

Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,"

Than the soft myrtle ;0, but man, proud man!

Drest in a little brief authority;

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

His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.

Lucio. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent, He's coming, I perceiv't.

Prov. Pray heaven, she win him!

[4] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. WARBURTON.

The beril, which is a kind of crystal, hath a weak tincture of red in it. Among other tricks of astrologers, the discovery of past or future events was supposed to be the consequence of looking into it. REED.

[5] Gnarre is the old English word for a knot in wood.

STEEVENS

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 in the right, girl; more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio. Art advis'd 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,

That skins the vice o' th' 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
Against my brother's life.

Ang. 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.
Ang. How bribe me?

Isab. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you
Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,'
Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor,
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.
Lucio. Go to; it is well; away.

Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!

Ang. Amen! for Í

Am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.

Isab. At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship?

[Aside to ISAB.

[Aside

[6] We mortals, proud and foolish, cannot prevail on our passions to weigh or compare our brother, a being of like nature and like frailty, with ourself. We have different names and different judgments for the same faults committed by persons of different condition. JOHNSON.

[7] Fond means very frequently in our author, foolish. It signifies in this place valued or prized by folly. STEEVENS.

Ang At any time 'fore noon.

Isab. 'Save your honour! [Exe. LUCIO, ISAB. and PRO.
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,
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,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,

And pitch our evils there? O, fye, fye, fye!
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
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,

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
Subdues me quite ;-Ever, till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how. [Exit.

SCENE III.

A Room in a Prison. Enter Duke, habited like 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 bless'd order,

I come to visit the afflicted spirits

Here in the prison :o do me the common right

To let me see them; and to make me know

[8] I am not corrupted by her, but by my own heart, which excites foul desires under the same benign influences that exalt her purity, as the carrion grows putrid by those beams which increase the fragrance of the violet. JOHNSON.

[9] This is a scriptural expression, very suitable to the grave character which the Duke assumes. "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in pri son." Pet. iii. 19. WHALLEY

The nature of their crimes, that I may

To them accordingly.

minister

Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful,

Enter JULIET.

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,
Who falling in the flames of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report: She is with child;
And he that got it, sentenc'd: a young man
More fit to do another such offence,
Than die for this.

Duke. When must he die ?

Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.

I have provided for you; stay a while,
And you shall be conducted..

[To JULIET.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry ?
Juliet. I do; and bear the shame most patiently.

Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your con→ science,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,

Or hollowly put on.

Juliet. I'll gladly learn.

Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you?

Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed?

Juliet. Mutually.

Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father.

Duke. 'Tis meet so, daughter: But lest you do repent,
As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,—
Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven;
Showing, we'd not spare heaven, as we love it,
But as we stand in fear,-

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil;

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 !

Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious love,

That respites me a life, whose very comfort

Is still a dying horror!

Prov. Tis pity of him.

[Exit.

[Exeunt