43

Escal.

law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it after three pence a bay. If you live to see this come to pass, say, Pompey told you so. Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy, hark you: I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever; no, not for dwelling where you do: if I do, Pompey. I shall beat you to your tent, 44 and prove a shrewd Caesar to you. In plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt. So, for this time, Pompey, fare you well.

Clo. I thank your worship for your good counsel, but I shall follow it, as the flesh and fortune shall better determine.

Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade;
The valiant heart 's not whipt out of his trade.
Escal.

[Exit.

Come hither to me, master Elbow; come hither, master constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?

Elb. Seven year and a half, Sir.

Escal. I thought, by the 45 readiness in the office, you had continued in it some time. You say, seven years together? Elb. And a half, Sir.

Escal. Alas! it hath been great pains to you. They do you wrong to put you so oft upon 't. Are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it? Elb. Faith, Sir, few of any wit in such matters. As they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them: I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all. 46

Escal. Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish.

Elb. To your worship's house, Sir?

Escal. To my house. Fare you well.

What 's o'clock, think you?

[Exit ELBOW.

+3)

a bay of building erklärt Coles' lateinisches Lexikon mit mensura viginti quatuor pedum, also 24 Fuss Breite von der Fronte eines Hauses. Pope änderte willkührlich a day.

4) wie der römische Julius Cäsar den Pompejus besiegte und zu seinen Zelten zurück in die Flucht schlug.

45) Manche Hgg. ändern mit Pope by your readiness, obgleich der Sinn der alten Lesart klar genug ist.

46) Elbow versieht das Constableramt für ein Stück Geld durch die Bank für alle andern

seines Stadtviertels.

Another Room in the Same.

Enter Provost, and a Servant.

Serv. He's hearing of a cause: he will come straight.

I'll tell him of you.

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:

Ang.

Enter ANGELO.

Now, what's the matter, provost ?

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

What shall be done, Sir, with the groaning 3 Juliet?
She 's very near her hour.

47) Der Sinn dieser zwei Verse wird in Romeo and Juliet (A. 3, Sc, 1) so in einen Vers zusammengefasst: Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

1) Für sects wollte Sidney Walker sorts lesen. sect für sex gebrauchen auch Sh.'s Zeitgenossen; so in Marston's Insatiate Countess: smooth_promise || Deceives our sect of fame and chastity, und in Marlowe's Jew of Malta: a nunnery where none but their own sect may enter in.

2) under your good correction, eine Höflichkeitsphrase, mit der man eine Meinung äussert, die der Andere berichtigen oder rügen mag.

3) to groan, von dem Gestöhn der Kreissenden, worauf auch hier das folgende near her hour = die Stunde der Entbindung, geht.

Re-enter Servant.

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

Desires access to you.

Ang.

Hath he a sister?

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

Prov. Save your honour!

[Offering to retire.

Ang. Stay a little while. * [To ISAB.] You 're welcome: what's your will?
Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,

Please but your honour hear me.

Ang.
Well; what 's your suit?
Isab. There is a vice, that most I do abhor,
And most desire should meet the blow of justice,
For which I would not plead, but that I must; 5
For which I must not plead, but that I am

At war 'twixt will, and will not.

Ang.

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, 8 whose fine stands in record,

*) Mit diesen Worten heisst Angelo den Schliesser noch verweilen, der mit dem vorhergehenden Save your honour = Gott behüte Euer Gnaden, sich schon von ihm verabschieden wollte.

5) must bezeichnet hier den innern Drang geschwisterlicher Liebe, welcher die Isabella zwingt, für Claudio's Vergehen das Wort zu führen. Das folgende must not im nächsten Verse geht auf das Sittengebot, das ihr verbietet, dieses Vergehen zu vertheidigen. Diesen Widerstreit ihrer Gefühle bezeichnet sie dann mit at war 'twixt will and will not.

6) scil. let his fault be condemned: vertilgt sein Vergehen in ihm, aber nicht ihn selber. 7) moving graces = Gaben geistiger, und leiblicher Anmuth, die den Angelo rühren Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 5, Anm. 15.

können.

8) Für faults der Fol. setzen manche Hgg. ohne Grund fault, und Andere für to fine ebenso unnöthig to find. to fine eine Strafe aussprechen oder verhängen: An

And let go by the actor.

Isab.

O just, but severe law!

Heaven keep your honour!

[Retiring,

I had a brother then. 9
Lucio. [To ISAB.] Give 't not o'er so: to him again, intreat 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. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy.
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.

10

He's sentenc'd: 't is too late.

Lucio. [To ISAB.] You are too cold.

Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back 11 again: Well believe this, 12
No ceremony 13 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 slipp'd like him; but he, like you,
Would not have been so stern.

gelo's Amt würde ganz überflüssig sein, wenn er eine Strafe für Vergehungen verkünden wollte, deren Bestrafung schon das Gesetz vorherbestimmt hat, und wenn er dann das unterliesse, worin erst seine richterliche Thätigkeit besteht, d. h. die Vollziehung der Strafe an dem Schuldigen.

9) Der Nachdruck liegt auf had als Präteritum: ich hatte also einen Bruder, und habe ihn nicht mehr, da er so gut wie todt ist.

10) remorse = Erbarmen, Gefühlsregung: wenn Euer Herz von solchem Mitleid gerührt wäre, wie das meinige es für Claudio empfindet.

11) back, das in der Fol. zufällig ausgelassen ist, ergänzt die zweite Folioausg. von 1632. 12) Der Nachdruck liegt auf this: davon seid fest überzeugt, dass u. s. w.. 13) ceremony = jedes Attribut, das die Hochgestellten herkömmlich auszeichnet.

Von

solchen Attributen werden dann vier angeführt, die den König, den Statthalter, den Feldmarschall und den Richter als solche bezeichnen. Von diesen geht das zweite the deputed sword für the deputy's sword das dem Statthalter übertragene Schwert der Gerechtigkeit, speciell auf Angelo.

Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?

No; I would tell what 't were to be a judge,

And what a prisoner.

Lucio. [Aside.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein. 14
Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,

And you but waste your words.

Ang.

Be you content, 18 fair maid;
It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him: he must die to-morrow.

Isab. To-morrow? O, that 's sudden! Spare him, spare him! He 's not prepar'd for death. Even for our kitchens

We kill the fowl of season: 19 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.

Lucio.

[Aside.] Ay, well said. 20

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

14) So in As you like it (A. 2, Sc. 7) you touched my vein at first.

15) der die günstigste Veranlassung hatte, die Seelen als dem Gesetz zu verfallen zu behandeln. Wie bei vantage ein Verbum wie: bestrafen zu ergänzen ist, so bei remedy ein Verbum wie: erlösen, von der Strafe entbinden.

16) top of judgment

=

die höchste Gerechtigkeit, der oberste Richter. judgment ist im persönlichen Sinne zu fassen, wie oben judgment hath repented o'er his doom. 17) die Barmherzigkeit wird dann in Euch aufleben, in Eurem Munde, der sie ausspricht, den ersten Lebenshauch athmen, wie ein Mensch, der sein Dasein beginnt.

18) be you content = findet Euch darin, ergebt Euch darin, dass u. s. w., ist mit dem folgenden Verse zu verbinden, nicht durch ein Semikolon oder Punktum davon zu trennen. condemns verbesserte Rowe das condemn der Fol.

19 the fowl of season = dem Vogel, dessen Zeit gerade ist, der sich gerade dann für die Küche eignet.

20) Lucio denkt an sich selbst, wenn er Isabellens letzte Worte besonders treffend

findet.