SCENE IV.

A Room in Angelo's House.

Enter ANGELO.

Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and

pray

3

To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name;

And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception: The state, whereon I studied,
Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,
Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride,
Could I, with boot,* change for an idle plume,
Which the air beats for vain. O place! O form!
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming? Blood, thou still art blood:
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
'Tis not the devil's crest."

Whilst my invention,] i. e. imagination.

6

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, aud 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.

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart;
Making both it unable for itself,

And dispossessing all the other parts

Of necessary fitness?

So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;
Come all to help him, and so stop the air
By which he should revive: and even so
The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Croud to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offence.

Enter ISABElla.

How now, fair maid?

Isab.

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,

* The general, -] i. e. generality.

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,
In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made,

As to put mettle in restrained means,

To make a false one.

Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.

Ang. Say you so? then I shall poze you quickly. Which had you rather, That the most just law Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him, Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness, As she that he hath stain'd?

Isab.

Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my soul.1 Ang. I talk not of your soul; Our compell'd sins Stand more for number than accompt.

Isab. How say you? Ang. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I say. Answer to this;I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life: Might there not be a charity in sin,

To save this brother's life?

Isab.

Please you to do't,

I'll take it as a peril to my soul,

It is no sin at all, but charity.

9

a man.

that hath from nature stolen, &c.] i. e. that hath killed

I had rather give my body than my soul.] She means, I think, I had rather die, than forfeit my eternal happiness by the prostitution of my person.

MALONE.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of Were equal poize of sin and charity.

your soul,2

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 nine,

And nothing of your, answer.

Ang.

Nay, but hear me:

Your sense pursues not mine: either you are igno

rant,

Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.

Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself: as these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty3 ten times louder Than beauty could displayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gross: Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain.* Isab. True.

5

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 desir'd of such a person,

2 Pleas'd you to do't, at peril, &c.] The reasoning is thus: Angelo asks, whether there might not be a charity in sin to save this brother? Isabella answers, that if Angelo will save him, she will stake her soul that it were charity, not sin. Angelo replies, that if Isabella would save him at the hazard of her soul, it would be not indeed no sin, but a sin to which the charity would be equivalent. JOHNSON.

3 Proclaim an enshield beauty-] i, e. shielded beauty.

4 Accountant to the law upon that pain.] Pain or penalty.

5 As I subscribe not that,] To subscribe means, to agree to. Milton uses the word in the same sense.

* But in the loss of question,] i. e. conversation.

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,
The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

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 your brother
A merriment than a vice,

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,
For his advantage that I dearly love.
Ang. We are all frail.

Isab.

Else let my brother die,

7 Ignomy in ransom,] So ignominy was formerly written.

If not a feodary, but only he, &c.] The meaning should seem