What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine? Than woman's lightnefs? having wafie ground enough, And pitch our evils there? Oh, fie, fie, fie! When judges fteal themfelves. What? do I love her, And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on ? Oh, cunning enemy, that to catch a faint, Is that temptation, that doth goad us on To fin in loving virtue. Ne'er could the Strumpet, The Duke here, under the character of a friar, in confeffing Juliet, gives an admirable leffon on the nature of contrition, diftinguishing it very properly from attrition merely; and, at the fame time, expreffes a juft but fevere fentence againft a woman's failure in the point of chastity; their education, their manners, and the moral confequences of their frailty, throwing fo many more bars in their way, han the modes of the world have oppofed to the other fex. Duke to Juliete Repent you, fair one, of the fin you carry? Juliet. I do; and bear the fhame most patiently. Duke. I'll teach you how you fhall arraign your confcience, Or hollowly put on. leafe Juliet. I'll gladly learn. fore 1 Duke. Love you the man that wronged you? paren Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wronged him. Duke. Duke. So then, it feems, your most offenceful a&t Juliet. Mutually. Duke. Then was your fin of heavier kind than his. Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil. Duke. There reft. SCENE X. The frailty of human nature is well defcribed in the wanderings of the mind in prayer, and the ftruggle between virtue and paffion, in the first-speech here; which concludes with obferving, how apt the pageantry or falfe feemings of power are to impofe on the world, even the great vulgar, as well as the Small. Angelo folus. When I would pray and think, I think and pray And in my heart the ftrong and fwelling evil Grown feared and tedious; yea, my gravity, Which the air beats for vain. Oh place! oh form! 'Tis yet the Devil's creft. SCENE XI. There is a proper fentiment of Christian humility, expreffed by Isabella, in this place : Let me be ignorant; and in nothing good, • Doctor Johnfon's reading, instead of 'tis not. And And just after, there is a virtuous argument finely fupported by her, against the infidious pleadings of the Deputy; who, after refufing her a pardon for her brother, thus proceeds: Angelo. Admit no other way to fave his life, But in the lost of question) that you, his fifter, Ijabella. As much for my poor brother, as myfelf The impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies, That longing I've been fick for, ere I'd yield Angelo. Then muft your brother die. Better it were a brother died for once, Angelo. Were not you, then, as cruel as the fentence Ifabella. Ignominy in ranfom, and free pardon, Is nothing kin to foul redemption. ACT III. SCENE I The Duke, remaining still under the disguise of a friar, comes to the prifon to prepare Claudio for death; upon which fubject he makes a number of moral and philofophic reflections; but these last moftly. of the Stoic kind, by obferving on the precarioufnefs and infignificancy of human life; the whole of which I fhall give here at full length. Duke to Claudio. Be abfolute for death ; or death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life; + Doctor Johnson more roperly reads refs, for canvas, of the question. If I do lofe thee, I do lofe a thing, That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art, That do this habitation where thou keep'ft, And yet runn'ft toward him full. Thou art not noble ; Are nurfed by bafeness; thou'rt by no means valiant ; Of a poor worm. Thy best of reft is fleep, Do curfe the gout, ferpigo, and the rheum, For ending thee no fooner. Thou haft nor youth, nor age; Lye hid more than a thousand deaths; yet death we fear, And in the next fcene, lfabella, after hinting to her brother at certain base conditions, on which his fentence might be remitted, endeavours to ftrengthen his refolution to prefer death before difhonour, by.. fomewhat of the fame manner of reafoning, as above; but more conclufive and concife: Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Dr. Johnfon reads affects, and with good reafon. J The The fenfe of death is moft in apprehenfion; To this fufpicion of his weakness he replies, with the spirit becoming a man of honour and vir tue : Claudio. Why give you me this shame But after having paid this compliment to heroism, Human Nature comes in for its fhare, in turn; and he then pleads for life, even on the most abject terms: Claudio, Oh, Isabel! Ifabella. What says my brother ? Claudio. Death's a fearful thing. Ifabella. And shamed life a hateful. Claudio. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obftruction, and to rot; This fenfible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delinquent * fpirit To what we fear of death. What an ignoble fentiment is here expreffed, in the four laft lines of this fpeech! and yet the great Macenas had the fame, and declared it very nearly in the fame words! What a difgrace to letters! But hiftory defcribes him to have been a person of foppifh and effeminate manners; and 'tis but rarely that the outward character belies the inward one. * Inftead of delighted. Johnlon. Ifabella's |