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 Prov. As many as you please. Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd 10, Yet hear them. Claud. [Exeunt Duke and Provost. 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 11: Therefore your best appointment 12 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 Claud. you till death. Perpetual durance? Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity 13 you had, To a determined scope 14. Claud. But in what nature? 10 The first folio reads, bring them to hear me speak, &c.' the second folio reads, bring them to speak.' The emendation is by Steevens. 11 A leiger is a resident. 13 i. e. vastness of extent. 12 i. e. preparation. 14To a determin'd scope.' A confinement of your mind to one painful idea: to ignominy, of which the remembrance can neither be suppressed nor escaped. Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to't) Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked 15. 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 16. 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: In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,- 15 A metaphor, from stripping trees of their bark. In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great This beautiful passage is in all our minds and memories, but it most frequently stands in quotation detached from the antecedent line: The sense of death is most in apprehension,' without which it is liable to an opposite construction. The meaning is:— 'fear is the principal sensation in death, which has no pain; and the giant when he dies feels no greater pain than the beetle?' 17In whose presence the follies of youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it.' To enmew is a term in Falconry, signifying to restrain, to keep in a mew or cage either by force or terror. His filth within being cast, he would appear Claud. The princely Angelo? Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'st body to invest and cover In princely guards 18! Dost thou think, Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity, Thou might'st be freed? Claud. O, heavens! it cannot be. Isab. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank offence, So to offend him still 19: This night's the time Or else thou diest to-morrow. Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow. That thus can make him bite the law by the nose, 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! 18 Guards were trimmings, facings, or other ornaments applied upon a dress. It here stands, by synecdoche, for dress. 19 i. e. From the time of my committing this offence, you might persist in sinning with safety.' 20 Frankly, freely. 21 Has he passions that impel him to transgress the law at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? Surely then it cannot be a sin so very heinous, since Angelo, who is so wise, will venture it? Shakspeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. Isab. What says my Claud. brother? 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 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! 22 Delighted, is occasionally used by Shakspeare for delightful, or causing delight; delighted in. So, in Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3: 'If virtue no delighted beauty lack.' And Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 4: 'Whom best I love, I cross, to make my gift The more delayed, delighted. 23 Jonson, in his Cataline, Act ii. Sc. 4, sion: We're spirits bound in ribs of ice.' has a similar expresShakspeare returns Milton seems to have to the various destinations of the disembodied Spirit, in that pathetic speech of Othello in the fifth Act. had Shakspeare before him when he wrote the second book of Paradise Lost, v. 595-603. 24 Viewless, invisible, unseen. 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 25 Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance 26: Die; perish! might but my bending down Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed: Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. Isab. Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade 27: Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: "Tis best that thou diest quickly. Claud. O, fye, fye, fye! [Going, O hear me, Isabella. Re-enter Duke. Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word. Isab. What is your will? 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 overheard what hath past between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an essay 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 which he is most glad to receive: I 26 i. e. my refusal. 27 Trade, an established habit, a custom, a practice. 25 Wilderness, for wildness. |