Enter ISABELLA. Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company! Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a wel come. Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. Claud. Most holy sir, thank you. Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister. Duke. Provost, a word with you. Prov. As many as you please. [Exeunt DUKE and Prov. Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd. Claud. Now, sister, what 's the comfort? Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good, most good indeed: Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift ambassador, Where you shall be an everlasting leiger: " Therefore your best appointment 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? Isab. Yes, brother, you may live; There is a devilish mercy in the judge, If you 'll implore it, that will free your life, Claud. Perpetual durance? Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity you had, To a determin'd scope. Claud. But in what nature? Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to 't) Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear. And leave you naked. Claud. Let me know the point. Isab. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, And six or seven winters more respect a A leiger ambassador means a resident ambassador. The sense of death is most in apprehension; Claud. Why give you me this shame ? Think you I can a resolution fetch From flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms. Isab. There spake my brother; there my father's grave Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die: Thou art too noble to conserve a life In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy, Whose settled visage and deliberate word Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew Claud. The precise Angelo? Thou might'st be freed? Claud. O, Heavens! it cannot be. Isab. Yes, he would give 't thee, from this rank offence, So to offend him still: This night's the time That I should do what I abhor to name, Or else thou diest to-morrow. Claud. Isab. O, were it but my life, Thou shalt not do 't. I'd throw it down for your deliverance As frankly as a pin. Claud. Thanks, dear Isabel. Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow That thus can make him bite the law by the nose, Or of the deadly seven it is the least. Isab. Which is the least? Claud. If it were damnable, he, being so wise, Why would he for the momentary trick Be perdurably fin'd?-O Isabel! Isab. What says my brother? Claud. Death is a fearful thing. Isab. And shamed life a hateful. Claud, Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted a spirit The weariest and most loathed worldly life, To what we fear of death. Isab. Alas! alas! Claud Sweet sister, let me live: What sin you do to save a brother's life, Isab. O, you beast! O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch! Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? Is 't not a kind of incest, to take life From thine own sister's shame? What should I think? Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair! For such a warped slip of wilderness b Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance; a Delighted. Does not the word (de-lighted) mean removed from the regions of light, which is a strictly classic use of the prepositive particle de, and very frequent in Shakspere ? b Wilderness-wildness. |