For which I must not plead, but that I am 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 1. Prov. Heaven give thee moving graces! 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 fine 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 IsAB.] Give't not o'er so: to him again, intreat him: Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown; You could not with more tame a tongue desire it: 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 remorse As mine is to him? Ang. Lucio. You are too cold. [To ISABELLA. Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word, May call it back again: Well, believe3 this, He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late. 1 i. e. let my brother's fault die or be extirpated, but let not him suffer. 2 i. e. to pronounce the fine or sentence of the law upon the crime, and let the delinquent escape.' 3 i. e. be assured of it, No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, 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. [Aside. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And, you but waste your words. 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? 0, think on that: And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made 4. 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 5: 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 this offence? There's many have committed it. Lucio. Ay, well said. You will then be as tender hearted and merciful as the first man was in his days of innocence.' 5 i. e. when in season. VOL. II. 2* Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept : Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, Isab. Yet show some pity. Ang. I show it most of all, when 1 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 9, petty officer, Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven! Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, 6 Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam,' is a maxim of our law. This alludes to the deceptions of the fortune-tellers, who pretended to see future events in a beryl, or crystal glass. 8 One of Judge Hale's 'Memorials' is of the same tendency:"When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember that there is a mercy likewise due to the country.' 9 Pelting for paltry, 10 Gnarled, knotted. 11 Mr. Douce has remarked the close affinity between this pas Drest in a little brief authority: Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens, Would all themselves laugh mortal 12. 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 advis'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 13: Go to your bosom; Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Ang. She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it 14. Fare you well. Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. Ang. I will bethink me:-Come again to-morrow. sage and one in the second satire of Persius. Yet we have no translation of the poet of Shakspeare's age. Ignovisse putas, quia, cum tonat, ocyus ilex Sulfure discutitur sacro, quam tuque domusque ?* 12 The notion of angels weeping for the sins of men is rabbinical. By spleens Shakspeare meant that peculiar turn of the hu man mind, that always inclines it to a spiteful and unseasonable mirth. Had the angels that, they would laugh themselves out of their immortality, by indulging a passion unworthy of that prerogative. 13 Shakspeare has used this indelicate metaphor again in Hamlet: 'It will but skin and film the ulcerous place." 14 i. e. Such sense as breeds or produces a consequence in his mind. Malone thought that sense here meant sensual desire. 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 marr'd all else. Isab. Not with fond 15 shekels of the tested 16 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 17 souls, From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal. Ang. To-morrow. Lucio. Go to; it is well away, Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe! Ang. Well: come to me [Aside to ISABEL. Amen 18: At what hour to-morrow For I am that way going to temptation, [Aside. Where prayers cross 19. Isab. Shall I attend your lordship? 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, 15 Fond, in its old signification sometimes meant foolish. In its modern sense it evidently implied a doting or extravagant affection; here it signifies overvalued or prized by folly. -16 i. e. tried, refined. 17 Preserved from the corruption of the world. 18 Isabella prays that his honour may be safe, meaning only to give him his title: his imagination is caught by the word honour, he feels that it is in danger, and therefore says amen to her benediction. 19 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. |