Escal. To my house: Fare you well. What's o'clock, think you?

[Exit ELBOW.

Just. Eleven, sir.

Escal. I pray you home to dinner with me.

Just. I humbly thank you.

Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio;

But there's no remedy.

Just. Lord Angelo is severe.

Escal.

It is but needful:

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:

But yet,-Poor Claudio!-There's no remedy.

Come, sir.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Another Room in the same.

Enter Provost and a Servant.

Serv. He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight. I'll tell him of you.

Prov. Pray you do. [Exit Servant.] I'll know His pleasure; may be, he will relent: Alas,

He hath but as offended in a dream!

All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he
To die for it!—

Enter ANGELO.

Ang.

Now, what's the matter, provost ?

Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow? Ang. Did I not tell thee, yea? hadst thou not order? Why dost thou ask again?

Prov.

Lest I might be too rash:

Under your good correction, I have seen,
When, after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.

Ang.

Go to; let that be mine:

I crave your honour's pardon.

Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you shall well be spar❜d.

Prov.

What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet ?
She's very near her hour.

Ang.

Dispose of her

To some more fitter place; and that with speed.

Re-enter Servant.

Serv. Here is the sister of a man cendemn'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,

If not already.

Ang.

Well, let her be admitted.

[Exit. Servant.

See you, the fornicatress be remov'd;

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;

There shall be order for it.

Enter LUCIO and ISABELLA.

Prov. Save

your

honour!

[Offering to retire.

Ang. Stay a little while.-[To ISA B.] You are welcome :

What's your will?

Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,

Please but your honour hear me.

Well; what's your suit?

Ang.
Isab. There is a vice, that most I do abhor,

And most desire should meet the blow of justice;
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.

Heaven give thee moving graces!

Prov.
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 find the faults, whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.

Isab.

O just, but severe law!

I had a brother then.-Heaven keep your honour!

[Retiring.

Lucio. [To ISA B.] Give't not o'er so: to him again, in

treat him;

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;

You are too cold: if you should need a pin,

You could not with more tame tongue desire it:

To him, I say.

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. Ang. I will not do't.

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 remorsea

As mine is to him?

Ang.

He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late.

[To ISABELLA.

Lucio. You are too cold.

Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back again: Well, believe this,
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have slipt like him;
But he, like you, would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, begone.

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. Ay, touch him: there's the vein. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words.

[Aside.

Alas! alas!

Isab.
Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy; How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made."

Ang.

Be you content, fair maid. It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:

Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

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 prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens
We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven
With less respect than we do minister

To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you:
Who is it that hath died for his offence?

There's many have committed it.

Lucio.

Ay, well said.

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept : Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,

If the first man that did the edict infringe,
Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;

с

Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.d

b Like man new made.] You will then appear tender-hearted and merciful as the first man was in the days of innocence, immediately after his creation.MALONE.

like a prophet,

Looks in a glass,] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, much used at that time to predict, by cheats, and fortune-tellers.-WARBURTON.-the beril was a kind of crystal, which hath a weak tincture of red in it. Among other tricks of astrologers, the discovery of past or future events was supposed to be the consequence of looking into it.-REED.

d

where they live to end.] i. e. With the criminal; who being punished for his first offence, could not proceed by successive degrees in wickedness, nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice.-MALONE.

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.

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. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent;
He's coming, I perceive't.

Prov.

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.

f

. STEEVENS.

b

pelting,] i. e. Paltry.

gnarled,] Gnarre is the old English word for a knot in wood.—

8— his glassy essence,—] His own brittle existence.

who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.] By spleens, Shakspeare means the peculiar turn of the human mind, that always inclines it to a spiteful, unseasonable mirth. Had the angels that, says Shakspeare, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a passion which does not deserve that prerogative.-WARBURTON.