Isab.

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. 0, pardon me, my lord! it oft falls out,
To have what we would 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.

Else let my brother die,
If not a fedary, but only he,
Owe, and succeed thy weakness. 31
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. 32 Nay, call us ten times frail,
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints. 33
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. 34

Isab. I have no tongue but one: 35 gentle my lord,
Let me intreat you speak the former language.

31) Isabella, indem sie auf Angelo's Bekenntniss we are all frail Bezug nimmt, sagt:

Sonst, d. h. im entgegengesetzten Falle, mag mein Bruder sterben, wenn nicht ein Genosse, sondern er allein, die Schwäche, zu der du dich bekennst, als ein Erbtheil besitzt. — owe and succeed ist zu einem Begriffe durch die Copula and verknüpft. - Für thy weakness las Rowe by weakness, und Malone plausibler this weakness. - fedary, (fedarie in der Fol.) ist dasselbe was federary = Verbündeter, Genosse, woraus es abgekürzt erscheint. – Die meisten Hgg. setzen mit den spätern Folioausg.

feodary und fassen das Wort zum Theil als = Vasall, Lehnsmapn. 32) Der Himmel möge den Weibern beistehen, da die Männer, indem sie von ihnen Vor

theil ziehen, sinnlichen Genuss bei ihnen suchen, sich selbst oder die Weiber verderben, je nachdem their creation auf men oder auf women bezogen wird. Letztere

Deutung scheint die natürlichere. 33) Zwei Begriffe sind hier verschmolzen: wir glauben falschen Versicherungen zu leicht,

Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.

Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me, That he shall die for 't.

Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in 't, 36
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, 37
And most pernicious purpose! — Seeming, 38 seeming! –
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for 't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or with an outstretch'd throat I 'll tell the world
Aloud what man thou art."
Ang.

Who will believe thee, Isabel ?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you ; 39 and my place i’ the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race 40 the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious 41 blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will,
Or else he must not only die the death, 42
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I 'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true. 43

(Exit.

Isab. To whom should 44 I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths !
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof,
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will,
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws. 45 I 'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture 46 of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That, had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die :
More than our brother is our chastity.
I 'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. 47

[Exit.

A CT III.

SCENE I.

A Room in the Prison.
Enter DUKE, as a Friar, 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; 4 either death, or life,
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life: -
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep; 2 a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences,
That do 3 this habitation, where thou keep'st,

Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art death's fool; 4
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet run'st toward him still: thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st
Are nurs'd by baseness : 5 thou art by no means valiant;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm: 6 thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself; ?
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get,
And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, s
After the moon: if thou art rich, thou 'rt poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire, 9
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout, serpigo, 10 and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner: thou hast nor youth, nor age,
But, as it were, an after-divner's sleep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld: 11 and when thou art old and rich,

*) Der Tod hat Dich geradezu zum Narren, treibt sein Spiel mit Dir, indem Du ihm

zu entgehen suchst und ihm doch endlich in die Arme läufst. So in K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 5, Sc. 4) but thought 's the slave of life, and life time's fool, und in Romeo and Juliet (A. 3, So. 1) O, I am fortune's fool. – Vielleicht dachte Sh. auch an die Bilder des Todtentanzes, auf denen der Tod und der Narr neben

einander figuriren. 5) baseness = Niedrigkeit, niedere Herkunft, steht im Gegensatze zu noble = adlig,

vornehm. Der Mensch ist für Alles, was das Leben angenehm und bequem macht,

angewiesen auf Wesen, die tief unter ihm stehen. 6) Die Schlange verwundet, nach dem damaligen Volksglauben, mit der gespaltenen

Zunge. - Knight versteht unter worm den Wurm im Grabe. 7) Du hast kein eignes, bestimmtes, Dir selbst angehöriges Wesen, sondern hängst von

Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What 's yet in this,
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid more thousand deaths, yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.
Claud.

I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find I seek to die,
And, seeking death , find life: 12 let it come on.

Isab. '[Without.] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!
Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.
Duke. Dear Sir, ere long I 'll visit you again.
Claud. Most holy Sir, I thank you.

Enter ISABELLA.
Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio.
Prov. And very welcome. Look, signior; bere 's your sister.
Duke. Provost, a word with you.
Prov. As many as you please.
Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal’d. 13

[Exeunt Duke and Provost. Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort ?

Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good, most good , 14 indeed.
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger: 16
Therefore, your best appointment 16 make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.
Claud.

Is there no remedy?
Isab. None, but such remedy, as to save a head
To cleave a heart in twain.
Claud.

But is there any ?

nuss nicht mehr fähigen Alter ein Almosen, um ihr Dasein zu fristen. - blessed youth ist dem palsied eld entgegengesetzt. — Die Gaben, womit die Jugend gesegnet ist, werden nachher angeführt: warmes Blut, Trieb, körperliche Fähigkeit und Gabe

zu gefallen (heat, affection, limb, bequty). 12) Claudio zieht das Resultat der vorhergehenden Rede: indem man sich um sein Leben

bemüht, ist es eigentlich der Tod, den man erstrebt, und indem man den Tod

sucht, findet man in dem Tode das wahre Leben. 13) Die Fol. hat Bring them to hear me speak, where I may be conceald, und die zweite

Folioausg. Bring them to speak, where I may conceald || Yet hear then. Die drei