Enter ISABELLA.

Isab. 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.

Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. Look, signier, here's your sister.

Duke. Provost, a word with you.

Prov. As many as you please.

Duke. Bring them to speak where I may be con

ceal'd,

Yet hear them.

[Exeunt Duke and Provost.

Claud. Now, sister what's the comfort?

Isab. Why, as all comforts are: most good indeed :

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

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,

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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.”

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. Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio and I quake, Lest thou a feverous life shoul'dst entertain, And six or seven winters, inore 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.

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80

91

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 Fij

"Nips

"Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew, "As faulcon doth the fowl,"-is yet a devil; "His filth within being cast, he would appear "A pond as deep as hell.”

Claud. The princely Angelo?

Isab. Oh, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, "The damned'st body to invest and cover

"In princely guards!" Dost thou think, Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou might'st be freed?

Claud. Oh, heavens! it cannot be.

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Isab. Yes, he would give it thee, for 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 dy'st to-morrow,

Claud. Thou shall not do't.

Isab. Oh, were it but my life,

I'd throw it down for your deliverance

As frankly as a pin,

Claud. Thanks, dear Isabel.

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Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow, Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him,

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.

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? Oh Isabel!

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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 not where;
To lye 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 region of thick-ribbed ice; fon
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendant 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.

Isab. Alas! alas!

Claud, Sweet sister, let me live: What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far, That it becomes a virtue.

Isab. "Oh, you beast!"

Oh, faithless coward! Oh, dishonest wretch!

Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

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150

From thine own sister's shame What should I

think?

Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair!

Take my defiance :

For such a warped slip of wilderness

Ne'er issu'd from his blood.

Die; perish might but my bending down

Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:

I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel...........

Isab. Oh, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade :
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:

'Tis best that thou dy'st quickly.

Claud. Oh, hear me, Isabella,

Re-enter Duke.

160

Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.

3

Isab. What is your will?

169

Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require, is likewise your own benefit.

Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while.

Duke. [To CLAUDIO aside.] Son, I have over-heard what hath past between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an assay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious

denial,