wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of battery on thee. Escal. If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your action of slander too. Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it: What is't your worship's pleasure I should do with this wicked caitiff? Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him, that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses, till thou know'st what they are. Elb. Marry, I thank your worship for it Thou seest, thou wicked varlet now, what's come upon thee; thou art to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue. Escal. Where were you born, friend? [To Froth. Escal. Are you of fourscore pounds a year? Escal. So. What trade are you of, sir? [To the Clown. Clo. A tapster; a poor widow's tapster. Escal. Hath she had any more than one husband? Froth. I thank your worship: For mine own part, I never come into any room in a taphouse, but I am drawn in. Escal. Well; no more of it master Froth: farewell. [Exit Froth.]-Come you hither to me, master tapster; what's your name, master tapster? Clo. Pompey. Escal. What else? Escal. "Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster. Are you not? come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you. Clo. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow, that would live. Escal. How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade? Clo. If the law would allow it, sir. Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna. Clo. Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the youth in the city? Escal. No, Pompey. : hither, master Constable. How long have you been in this place of constable? Elb. Seven year and a half, sir. Escal. I thought, by your 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. 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. [Exit Elbow.] What's o'clock, think you? .Just. Eleven, sir. Escal. I pray you home to dinner with me. Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio; Just. Lord Angelo is severe. It is but needful: SCENE II.-Another Room in the same. Prov. Pray you do. [Exit Servant.] I'll know Go to; let that be mine: Do you your office, or give up your place, Prov. I crave your honour's pardon.What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet ? She's very near her hour. Clo. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then If your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds. Escal. There are pretty orders beginning, I can To some more fitter place; and that with speed. tell you: It is but heading and hanging. Clo. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If this 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. Escal. 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, and prove a shrewd Cæsar 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; [Exit. Ang. Dispose of her Re-enter Servant. [Exit Servant. See you, the fornicatress be remov'd; Enter Lucio and Isabella. Ang. For which I would not plead, but that I must; Prov. 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 find the faults, whose fine stands in record, And let go by the actor. Isab. O just, but severe law! I had a brother then.-Heaven keep your honour! [Retiring. Lucio. [To Isab.] Giv't not o'er so to him again, intreat him; Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown; Isub. Must he needs die? Maiden, no remedy. 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. Isub. 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 Ang. He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late. Lucio. You are too cold. [To Isabella. Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word, May call it back again: Well, believe this, No ceremony 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 slipt like him ; But he, like you, would not have been so stern. Ang. Pray you, begone. Isab. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel? should it then be thus? No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner. Lucio. Ay, touch him: there's the vein. [Aside. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. Isab. Alas! alas! Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; morrow. Ay, well said. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, Lucio. sentence; And he, that suffers: O, it is excellent Lucio. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent; Lucio. Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o'that. Isab. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lucio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't. Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself, That skins the vice o' the top: Go to your bosom ; Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know That's like my brother's fault: if it confess Ang. row. Ang. I will bethink me :-Come again to mor[turn back. Isab. Hark, how I'll bribe you: Good my lord, Ang. How bribe me? Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with you. Lucio. You had marr'd all else. Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold, Am that way going to temptation, Isab. Amen for I [Aside. At what hour to-morrow Not she; nor doth she tempt: but it is I, That modesty may more betray our sense ? When men were fond, I smil'd and wonder'd how. [Exit. SCENE III.-A Room in a Prison. Enter Duke, habited like a Friar, and Provost. Duke. Hail to you, provost! so, I think you are. Prov. I am the provost: What's your will, good friar ? Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd order, 1 come to visit the afflicted spirits Here in the prison: do me the common right To let me see them; and to make me know The nature of their crimes, that I may minister To them accordingly. Prov. I would do more than that if more were needful. Mutually. Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father. [his. Duke. 'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent, As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven; Showing, we'd not spare heaven, as we love it, Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil; Duke. There rest. SCENE IV.-A Room in Angelo's House Enter Angelo. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and pray To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words: Teach her the way. [Exit Serv. Why does my blood thus muster to my heart: And dispossessing all the other parts So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; 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, 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 Isab. "Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. 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 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, Please you to do'c, 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, 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 beauty ten times louder Than beauty could displayed.--But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gross⚫ Your brother is to die. Isub. So. Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain. Isab. True. 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, 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. 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. Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence That you have slander'd so? Isub. Ignominy 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 By all external warrants,) show it now, By putting on the destin'd livery. Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me intreat you speak the former language. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me, That he shall die for it. Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't, Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others. Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose. Isa. Ha little honour to be much believed, And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seem. ing! I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't: Ang. That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother Or else he must not only die the death, [Erit Isab. To whom shall I complain? Did I tell this, Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die : And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. ACT III. SCENE I.A Room in the Prison. Enter Duke, Claudio, and Provost. [Exit. 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. noble ; Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep, certain; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, nor age; But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and rich, Claud. Prov. Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. Claud. Most holy sir, I thank you. Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's Duke. Provost, a word with you. [your sister. As many as you please. Duke. Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd, Yet hear them. [Exeunt Duke and Provost. Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort? Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good in Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, [deed: Intends you for his swift embassador, 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, But fetter you till death. Claud. Perpetual durance? Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity you had, To a determin'd scope. 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, Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain, And six or seven winters more respect Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension; And the poor beetle, that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies. 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. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to morClaud, Yes.-Has he affections in him, [row. That thus can make him bite the law by the nose; When he would force it? Sure it is no sin; Or of the deadly seven it is the least. Claud. If it were damnable, he, being so wise, 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 spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendent world; or to be worse than worst Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life, That age, ach, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death. |