Isab. Save your honour! Ang. At any time 'fore noon. [Exeunt LuciO, ISABELLA, and Provost. 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? Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower, Can it be, That modesty may more betray our sense Ha! Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough, And pitch our evils there? O, fy, fy, fy! When judges steal themselves. What? do I love her, 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 To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet, 7 I am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross.] This appointment of his for the morrow's meeting, being a premeditated exposure of himself to temptation, which it was the general object of prayer to thwart. 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: do me the common right To let me see them; and to make me know The nature of their crimes, that I may minister To them accordingly. 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, Than die for this. Duke. When must he die? Prov. As I do think, to-morrow. I have provided for you; stay a while, [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? 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 re8 pent, As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven; Showing, we'd not spare heaven 9, 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. 1 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, 2 That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror! [Exit. Prov. 'Tis pity of him. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and pray To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words; But lest you do repent,] i. e. « Take care lest you repent [not so much of your fault, as it is an evil,] as that the sin hath brought you to this shame. 9 Showing we'd not spare heaven,] i. e. spare to offend heaven. 1 There rest.] Keep yourself in this temper. 2 · O, injurious love,] probably should be law. Whilst my invention 3, hearing not my tongue, And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil Why does my blood thus muster to my heart; And dispossessing all the other parts Of necessary fitness? 3 Whilst my invention,] i. e. imagination. 4 with boot,] Boot is profit, advantage, gain. 5 Which the air beats for vain.] or vanity. 6 case,] For outside garb. 7 Let's write good angel on the devil's horn, 'Tis not the devil's crest.] This whole passage, as it stands, appears to me to mean: O place! O form! though you wrench awe from fools, and tie even wiser souls to your false seeming, yet you make no alteration in the minds or constitutions of those who possess, or assume you. Though we should write good angel on the devil's horn, it will not change his nature, so as to give him a right to wear that crest." M MASON. So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; How now, Isab. Enter ISABELLA. fair maid? I am come to know your pleasure. Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me, Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live. Isab. Even so?- Heaven keep your honour! [Retiring. Ang. Yet may he live a while; and it may be, As long as you, or I: yet he must die. Isab. Under your sentence? Ang. Yea. Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted, That his soul sicken not. Ang. Ha! Fye, these filthy vices! It were as good To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen A man already made, as to remit Their sawcy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, Falsely to take away a life true made, As to put mettle in restrained means, Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. The general,-] i. e. generality. 9 that hath from nature stolen, &c.] i. e. that hath killed a man. |