Prov.

Pray you, do. [Exit Servant.]

I'll know

His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas,
He hath but as offended in a dream!

All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he
To die for 't!

Enter Angelo.

Ang. Now, what's the matter, provost ?

Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?
Ang. Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?
Why dost thou ask again?

Prov.

Ang.

Prov.

Ang.

Lest I might be too rash:

ΙΟ

Under your good correction, I have seen,
When, after execution, Judgement hath
Repented o'er his doom.

Go to; let that be mine:

I crave your honour's pardon.

Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you shall well be spared.

What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet ?
She's very near her hour.

Dispose of her

To some more fitter place, and that with speed.

Re-enter Servant.

Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd

Ang.

Desires access to you.

Hath he a sister?

Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,
And to be shortly of a sisterhood.

If not already.

Ang.

20

Well, let her be admitted. [Exit Servant.

Prov.

See you the fornicatress be removed :

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;
There shall be order for 't.

Enter Isabella and Lucio.

God save your honour!

Ang. Stay a little while. [To Isab.] You're welcome:

what's your will?

Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,

Ang.

Please but your honour hear me.

Well; what's your suit?

Isab. There is a vice that most I do abhor,

Ang.

And most desire should meet the blow of justice;
For which I would not plead, but that I must;
For which I must not plead, but that I am

At war 'twixt will and will not.

Well; the matter?
Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die:
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.

Prov.
[Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces!
Ang. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done :
Mine were the very cipher of a function,
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.

Isab.

31

40

O just but severe law! I had a brother, then.-Heaven keep your honour! Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Give't not o'er so: to him again,

entreat him ;

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:

You are too cold; if you should need a pin,

You could not with more tame a tongue desire it:
To him, I say!

Isab. Must he needs die?

Ang.

Maiden, no remedy.

Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,

And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. 50 Ang. I will not do't.

Isab.

But can you, if you would?

Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

Isab. But might you do 't, and do the world no wrong,
If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse
As mine is to him?

Ang.

He's sentenced; 'tis too late.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] You are too cold.

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, be gone.
Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency,

And you were Isabel! should it then be thus ?

No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,
And what a prisoner.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein.

Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,

And you but waste your words.

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71

Isab.

Ang.

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 judgement, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.

Be you content, fair maid;

It is the law, not I condemn your brother:
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

80

It should be thus with him: he must die to-morrow. Isab. To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!

Lucio.

He's not prepared 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.

[Aside to Isab.] Ay, well said.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dared to do that evil,

If the first 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-conceived,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, ere they live, to end.

91

Isab.

Yet show some pity.

100

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. [Aside to Isab.]

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: but man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,

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.

I 20

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] O, to him, tohim, wench! he will relent; He's coming; I perceive 't.

Prov.
[Aside] Pray heaven she win him!
Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:

Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,
But in the less foul profanation.