That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,
(Servile to all the skiey influences,)

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,"
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;

For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,

And yet run'st toward him still: Thou art not noble;

For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,

Are nurs'd by baseness: Thou art by no means valiant; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st

Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains

That issue out of dust: Happy thou art not:
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast, forget'st: Thou art not certain:
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,"
After the moon: If thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: Friend hast thou none:
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo,' and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner: Thou hast nor youth nor age;

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both: for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged,s and doth beg the alms

keep:]-in this place means care for.

keep'st,] Residest.

Are nurs'd by baseness:] A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by baseness, by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry; and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.-JOHNSON.

d Thy death, which is no more.] Dr. Johnson is very indignant at this sentiment; but, as Malone justly observes, Shakspeare meant to say no more, "than that the passage from this life to another is as easy as sleep."

e

effects,] Read affects, or affections. Thy complexion, i. e. thy disposition changes with the moon.

serpigo,] The serpigo is a kind of tetter, or dry eruption.

Becomes as aged,] Youth becomes as aged, by being obliged to conform to the inclinations, and beg the alms, of the old.

Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this,
Yet in this life

That bears the name of life?

Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

Claud.

I humbly thank you.

To sue to live, I find, I seek to die;

And, seeking death, find life: Let it come on.

Enter ISABELLA.

Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!
Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a wel-
Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. [come.
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 your
Duke. Provost, a word with you.
[sister.

Prov.

As many as you please. Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be

conceal'd.

Claud.

[Exeunt Duke and Provost.

Now, sister, what's the comfort?

Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good in deed:

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

Intends you for his swift embassador,

Where you shall be an everlasting lieger:h

Therefore your best appointment 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.

Isab. Yes, brother, you may live; There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

But is there any?

your life,

Perpetual durance?

If you'll implore it, that will free

But fetter you till death.

Claud.

Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,

Though all the world's vastidity you had,

To a determin'd scope.'

Claud.

But in what nature?

Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to't) Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked.

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.

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:

Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,—

Whose settled visage and deliberate word

Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew,*

As falcon doth the fowl-is yet a devil;

His filth within being cast,' he would appear

A pond as deep as hell.

Claud.

The priestly Angelo?

Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned'st body to invest and cover

In priestly garbs! Dost thou think, Claudio,

To 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.-JOHNSON.

-follies doth enmew,] Forces follies to lie in cover, without daring to show themselves.-JonNSON.

- cast,] To cast a pond, is to empty it of mud.-JOHNSON.

In priestly garbs!] I have here made an alteration in the text, which appears to be fully warranted by the first folio.-For priestly garbs, the old copy reads prensie gardes. This nonsense is much more likely to be a misprint for priestly garbs, which is intelligible, than for princely guards, which does not

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: This night's the time

That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.

Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow.
Claud. Yes.-Has he affections in him,

That thus can make him bite the law by the nose;

When he would force it? Sure it is no sin;

Or of the deadly seven it is the least.

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 !

Isab. What says my brother?
Claud.

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

A kneaded clod; and the delighted" spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless" winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ach, penury, and imprisonment

unite with the context. The word prenzie appears also in the exclamation of Claudio above, which I have corrected to the priestly Angelo?

delighted-] Is often used in Shakspeare for that which we delight

in.-NARES's Glossary.

viewless-] Invisible.

Can lay on nature, is a paradise

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,

Nature dispenses with the deed so far,

That it becomes a virtue.

Isab.

O, you beast!

my vice?

O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of

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 wildernessP

Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take defiance :"

my

Die; perish! might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.
Isab.

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade:"
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 ·wilderness—] i. e. Wildness. The word was used in this sense by

P

Milton.

q defiance:] i. e. Refusal.
trade:] i. e. Established habit.

T