Re-enter Servant. Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd Desires access to you. Ang. Hath he a sister? Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a sisterhood, 20 If not already. Ang. Well, let her be admitted. [Exit Servant. See you the fornicatress be removed : Let her have needful, but not lavish, means; Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO. Prov. God save your honour! Ang. Stay a little while. [To Isab.] You 're welcome: what's your will? Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour, Please but your honour hear me. Ang. Well; what's your suit? Isab. There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire should meet the blow of justice; 30 For which I would not plead, but that I must; For which I must not plead, but that I am At war 'twixt will and will not. Ang. Well; the matter? Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die : I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother. Prov. [Aside] graces! Heaven give thee moving 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 fine the faults whose fine stands in record, And let go by the actor. Isab. I had a brother, then. O just but severe law ! Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Give't not o'er so: to Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown: Isab. Must he needs die? Ang. Maiden, no remedy. Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. Isab. 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 wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse Ang. He's sentenced; 'tis too late. Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] word, no; I, that do speak a May call it back again. Well, believe this, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, If he had been as you and you as he, You would have slipt like him; but he, like you, Ang. Pray you, be gone. 40 50 60. 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. [Aside to Isab.] Ay, touch him; there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, Isab. Ang. Be you content, fair maid; It should be thus with him: he must die to morrow. Isab. To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him! He's not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, be think you; Who is it that hath died for this offence? There's many have committed it. Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Ay, well said. 70 80 ceived as suddenly starting into existence in Angelo like the child's first breath. 85. of season, when it is fit for killing. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept : Those many had not dared to do that evil, If the first that did the edict infringe Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake, Isab. Yet show some pity. Ang. I show it most of all when I show justice; For then I pity those I do not know, Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall; And do him right that, answering one foul wrong, Be satisfied; Your brother dies to-morrow; be content. Isab. So you must be the first that gives this sentence, And he, that suffers. O, it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] That's well said. Isab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, Would use his heaven for thunder; Nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven, Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak Drest in a little brief authority, 90. Alluding to the legal 96. Either (monosyllabic). maxim: Dormiunt aliquando 90 100 ΓΙΟ leges, moriuntur nunquam. 112. pelting, insignificant. Most ignorant of what he's most assured, Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] O, to him, to him, He's coming; I perceive 't. Prov. [Aside] Pray heaven she win him! Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them, But in the less foul profanation. 120 Lucio. Thou 'rt i' the right, girl; more o' that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word, 130 Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Art avised o' that? more on't. Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? Isab. Because authority, though it err like others, Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself, That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom ; know That's like my brother's fault: if it confess A natural guiltiness such as is his, Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Ang. [Aside] She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.—Fare you well. Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. 120. glassy, resembling a mirror both in reflecting power mirth as well as of ill-humour. 132. avised, assured. 140 136. skins, covers with a skin. 142. my sense breeds with it, it begets new thoughts in me. |