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,

Lives not to act another. 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

To use it like a giant.

Lucio.

[Aside.] That's well said.

Isab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting, petty officer,

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,

Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man!

Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,

His glassy essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.

Lucio. [To ISAB.] O, to him, to him, wench! He

will relent:

He's coming; I perceive't.

Prov.

[Aside.] Pray heaven, she win him! Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:

place of his own rule, and contrasts what the state of the law there had been with what it then was formerly it slept, and criminals escaped, but now it is awake, and resolves to punish crimes-" but here they live to end ;" here crimes live only that they may be brought to an end. All the modern editors have erred in this passage by not attending to the old copies: mistakes have been made from carelessness of collation, and subsequently reasoned upon, as if the text had been accurately followed.

Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them,
But in the less foul profanation.

Lucio. [To ISAB.] Thou'rt in the right, girl: more

o' that.

Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio. [Aside.] Art avis'd 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 ; Knock there, and ask your heart, what it doth 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
Against my brother's life.

Ang.

[Aside.] She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. [To her.] Fare you well.

Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me.-Come again to-morrow. Isab. Hark, how I'll bribe you. Good my lord, turn back.

Ang. How! bribe me?

Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share

with you.

Lucio. [Aside.] You had marr'd all else.

5

Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,
Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor
As fancy values them; but with true prayers,
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there
Ere sun-rise: prayers from preserved souls,
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

Ang.

Well; come to me to-morrow.

Not with FOND SHEKELS] "Fond " is foolish, and in this instance worthless, or only valued by the foolish. The old copies have "sickles " for "shekels,” and Shakespeare's word may have been "cycles."

Lucio. [To ISAB.] Go to; 'tis well: away!
Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!
Ang.

For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.

Isab.

[Aside.] Amen:

At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship?

Ang.

Isab. Save your honour!

Ang.

At any time 'fore noon.

Exeunt Lucio, ISABELLA, and Provost.
From thee; even from thy virtue !—

What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?

The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!
Not she, nor doth she tempt; but it is I,
That lying by the violet in the sun,
Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be,
That modesty may more betray our sense

Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,

And pitch our evils there? O, fye, fye, fye!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things

That make her good? O, let her brother live!
Thieves for their robbery have authority,

When judges steal themselves. What! do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,

And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art and nature,

6 For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.] The meaning is not very clear, but it may thus be explained. Isabella prays, "Heaven keep your honour safe;" and Angelo answers, "Amen; for, tempted as I am, I pray for one thing, you for another; you pray heaven to keep my honour safe, I the contrary, and thus our prayers cross."

Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite.-Ever, till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how.

SCENE III.

A Room in a Prison.

[Exit.

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, I 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 need

ful.

Enter JULIET.

Look; here comes one': a gentlewoman of mine,
Who, falling in the flames of her own youth',
Hath blister'd her report. She is with child,
And he that got it, sentenc'd-a young man
More fit to do another such offence,

Than die for this.

Duke. When must he die?

As I do think, to-morrow.

Prov. [To JULIET.] I have provided for you: stay a while, And you shall be conducted.

? Who falling in the FLAMES of her own youth,] The old copies read "flawes" for flames, which word Sir W. Davenant, in his "Law against Lovers," restored. The misprint is a very easy one; and as the flames of youth is a natural expression, and the metaphor requires fire to produce the blistering mentioned in the next line, there is little doubt that Sir W. Davenant, who flourished so near the time of Shakespeare, was right.

3

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry? Juliet. I do, and bear the shame most patiently. Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,

Or hollowly put on.

Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you?

Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed?

Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father.
Duke. "Tis meet so, daughter: but least you do
repent,

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame3;
Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven,
Showing, we would not spare heaven, as we love it,
But as we stand in fear.

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil, And take the shame with joy.

Duke.

There rest.

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him.

Grace go with you! Benedicite!

8

Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious love,

but LEAST you do repent,

[Exit.

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame;] The modern editors have printed lest instead of "least," as it stands in the old copies, and have thus confused the meaning, which is, "You do repent least that the sin hath brought you to this shame," instead of repenting most the sin itself. This true reading makes the sense of the Duke's observation complete at "But as we stand in fear," without supposing his unfinished sentence to be rudely broken in upon by Juliet, as it has been invariably printed.

9 Grace go with you! Benedicite!] Ritson suggested that "Grace go with you " ought to be given to Juliet, and "Benedicite" to the Duke; but Juliet may be supposed to be so absorbed by the information that Claudio "must die to-morrow," (which words she repeats) as hardly to have heard, much less to have spoken to, the Duke at his departure.