Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield Ang. Then must your brother die. Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way: Better it were, a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever. Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence That you have slander'd so? Isab. Ignomy in ransom,' and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy is Nothing akin to foul redemption. Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather prov'd the sliding of A merriment than a vice. your brother Isab. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we'd have, we speak not what we mean: I something do excuse the thing I hate, Else let my brother die, 8 If not a feodary, but only he, 7 Ignomy in ransom,] So ignominy was formerly written. 8 If not a feodary, but only he, &c.] The meaning should seem Owe, and succeed by weakness. 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. Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints.1 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, That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none; If you be one, (as you are well express'd By all external warrants,) show it now, By putting on the destin❜d livery. İsal. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me intreat you speak the former language. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. Isal. My brother did love Juliet; and That he shall die for it. you tell me, Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't,2 Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others. Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose. Isab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, to be this :-We are all frail, says Angelo. Yes, replies Isabella; if he has not one associate in his crime, if no other person own and follow the same criminal courses which you are now pursuing, let my brother suffer death. MALONE. 9 In profiting by them.] In taking advantage of them. 1 false prints.] i. e. take any impression. hath a licence in't,] an appearance of licentiousness. And most pernicious purpose!-Seeming, seem ing!3 I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't: Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the world Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life, My vouch against you, and my place i'the state, Will so your accusation overweigh, That shall stifle in your own report, you And smell of calumny. I have begun; And now I give my sensual race the rein: That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother Or else he must not only die the death, But thy unkindness shall his death draw out Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true. Bidding the law make court'sy to their will; Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood, That had he twenty heads to tender down 3 Seeming, seeming!] Hypocrisy, hypocrisy. prompture-] Suggestion, temptation, instigation. On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up, To such abhorr'd pollution. Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die: I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request, And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. [Exit. ACT II. 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 prepar'd to die. Duke. Be absolute for death; either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. life, Reason thus with 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, And yet run'st toward him still: Thou art not noble; Are nurs'd by baseness: Thou art by no means valiant; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork › That none but fools would keep:] i. e. care for. And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains For thy complexion shifts to strange effects," 8 Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and rich, 6 Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more.] I cannot without indignation find Skakspeare saying, that death is only sleep, lengthening out his exhortation by a sentence which in the Friar is impious, in the reasoner is foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar. JOHNSON. This was an oversight in Shakspeare; for in the second scene of the fourth Act, the Provost speaks of the desperate Barnardine, as one who regards death only as a drunken sleep. STEEVENS. I apprehend Shakspeare means to say no more, than that the passage from this life to another is as easy as sleep; a position in which there is surely neither folly nor impiety. MALONE. 7 8 9 strange effects,] read affects or affections. · palsied eld;] Eld is here put for old people. Skakspeare declares that man has neither youth nor age; for in youth, which is the happiest time, or which might be the happiest, he commonly wants means to obtain what he could enjoy; he is depen |