The nature of their crimes, that I may minister Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful. Enter JULIET. Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, 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? Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience, 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? Juliet. Mutually. Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his. Duke. 'Tis meet so, daughter: But lest you do repent, 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. 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, That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror! Prov 'Tis pity of him. [Exit. [Exeunt SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO's House. Enter ANGELO. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and pray And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil Enter Servant. How now, who's there? Serv. One Isabel, a sister, Desires access to you. Ang. Teach her the way. O heavens ! Why does my blood thus muster to my heart; And dispossessing all the other parts Of necessary fitness? [Ex. Serv. So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; By which he should revive and even so : The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, [1] Here Shakespeare judiciously distinguishes the different operations of high place upon different minds. Fools are frighted, and wise men are allured. Those who cannot judge but by the eye, are easily awed by splendour; those who consider men as well as conditions, are easily persuaded to love the appearance of virtue dignified with power. JOHNSON. [2] So the Duke had before (act i. sc. 2.) expressed his dislike to popular ap plause. I cannot help thinking that Shakespeare, in these two passages, intended to flatter that unkingly weakness of James I. which made him so impatient of the crowds that flocked to see him, especially upon his first coming, that, as some of our historians say, he restrained them by proclamation. TYRWHIT. How now, fair maid? Enter ISABElla. 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. may 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, To make a false one. Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. Isab. Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my soul. 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 Isab. Please you to do't, I'll take it as a peril to my soul, Ang. Pleas'd 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. Nay, but hear me : Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant ; Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good. Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, Isab. So. Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies, That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield Ang. Then must your brother die. [3] 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. JOHNS. Better it were, a brother died at once, Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence 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 1 something do excuse the thing I hate, For his advantage that I dearly love. Isab. Else let my brother die, * Ang. Nay, women are frail too. Isab Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves 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 as soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints. 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 : Ignomy-So the word ignominy was formerly written. REED. This is so obscure, but the allusion so fine, that it deserves to be explained. A feodary was one that in the times of vassalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and service: which tenures were called feuda amongst the Goths. Now,' says Angelo, we are all frail;' Yes,' replies Isabella, if all mankind were not feodaries, who owe what they are to this tenure of imbecility, and who succeed each other by the same tenure, as well as my brother, I would give him up.' The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodary, who owes suit and service to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined. JOHNSON. [6] To owe is, in this place, to own, to hold, to have possession. JOHNSON [7] Her meaning is, that men debase their nature by taking advantage of such weak pitiful creatures."-Edin. Mag. Nov. 1806. STEEVENS. |