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-conceived,
And so in progress to be hatched and born,)
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.
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 dismissed 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 thun-

der. -
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!
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
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.

Lucio. 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. Art advised 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:1 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.

She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. 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. You had marred all else.

Isab. Not with fondshekels 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 sunrise; prayers from preserved souls,
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.
Ang.

Well ; come to me
To-morrow.

Lucio. Go to; it is well; away. [Aside to ISABEL.
Isab. Heaven keep your honor safe !
Ang.

Amen.
For I am that way going to temptation, [ Aside.
Where prayers cross.
Isab.

At what hour to-morrow
Shall I attend your lordship?
Ang.

At any time 'fore noon. Isab. Save your honor !

[Exeunt Lucio, ISABELLA, and Provost. Ang.

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, fie, fie, fie!
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

3

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

1 The petition of the Lord's Prayer, “ Lead us not into temptation, is here considered as crossing or intercepting the way in which Angelo was going: he was exposing himself to temptation by the appointment for the morrow's meeting.

Is that temptation, that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigor, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite ;-ever, till now,
When men were fond, I smiled, and wondered how !1

[Exit.

SCENE III. A Room in a Prison.

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 blest 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 To them accordingly. Prov. I would do more than that, if more were

needful.

may minister

Enter JULIET.
Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,
Who, falling in the flames? of her own youth,
Hath blistered her report: she is with child;
And he that got it, sentenced ;-a young man
More fit to do another such offence,
Than die for this.
Duke.

When must he die ?
Prov. As I do think, to-morrow.-
I have provided for you ; stay a while,

[T. JULIET And you

shall be conducted. Důke. 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,

1 Dr. Johnson thinks the second act should end here.

2 The folio reads flawes. VOL. I.

46