Isab. Please you to do 't, I'll take it as a peril to my soul, It is no sin at all, but charity. Ang. Pleased you to do 't, at peril of your soul, Were equal poize of sin and charity. Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my suit, If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your answer. Ang. Admit no other way to save his life (As I subscribe not that, nor any other, But in the loss of question), that you, his sister, Finding yourself desired of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, Could fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-binding law; and that there were No earthly mean to save him, but that either You must lay down the treasures of your body To this supposed, or else let him suffer; What would you do? Isab. As much for my poor brother as myself: That is, Were I under the terms of death, Else let my brother die, If not a feodary, but only he, Ang. Nay, women are frail too. Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view them selves; Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Ang. I think it well: And from this testimony of your own sex (Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger Than faults may shake our frames), let me be bold; I do arrest your words: Be that you are, Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me intreat you speak the former language. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me That he shall die for it. Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Isab. I know your virtue hath a licence in 't, Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others. I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for 't: Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel? ther By yielding up thy body to my will; I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you, [Exit. Isab. To whom shall I complain? Did I tell this, Who would believe me? O perilous mouths, That bear in them one and the self-same tongue, Either of condemnation or approof! Bidding the law make courtesy to their will; Then Isabel live chaste, and brother die : And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. [Exit. 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, That do this habitation where thou keep'st noble ; For all the accommodations that thou bear'st Are nursed by baseness: thou art by no means valiant; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork For thy complexion shifts to strange affects, 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, But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, 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. In such a one as (you consenting to 't) Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave naked. you Claud. Let me know the point. Isab. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, 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: 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 fined?—O Isabel! Isab. What says my brother? Claud. Death is a fearful thing. Isab. And shaméd life a hateful. To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; To what we fear of death. Isab. Alas, alas! O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch! Heaven shield my mother played my father fair! Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade: Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister; but one word. Isab. What is your will? Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by 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 past between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an assay 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 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. [Exit CLAUDIO. 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 conveyed 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 perished 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. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonour in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not. Isab. 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 she avail? Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it. Isab. Shew me how, good father. Duke. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should 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 plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point: only refer yourself to this advantage, -first, that your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shadow and |