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 wilderness 25 Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance 26 : Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed; Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. Isab. 0, fye, fye, fye! Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade 27: Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: "Tis best that thou diest quickly. Claud. [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. woul 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 essay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death; Do not 25 Wilderness, for wildness. 26 i. e. my refusal. 23 Trade, an established habit, a custom, a practice. satisfy your resolution 28 with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.store 50 to Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold 29 you there: Farewell. Re-enter Provost. Provost, a word with you. Leave me awhile with آرزو [Exit CLAUDIO. are come, you will be gone: maid; my mind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by my company. loss shall Prov. In good time 30. eath [Exit Provost. Duke. The hand that hath made you made you good: the goodness, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How would you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother? Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he སམཔལ return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. : 28. Do not satisfy your resolution quench or extinguish your resolution withpears to signify do not fallible hopes. Satisfy was used by old writers in the sense of to stay, stop, quench, or stint as in the phrase 'Sorrow is satisfied with tears: Dolor expletur lachrymis.To satisfy or stint hanger: Famem explere. To quench or satisfy thirst: Sitim explere.' A conjecture of the Hon. Charles Yorke's on passage will be found in Warbur ton's Letters, p. 500, 8vo. ed. 29 Hold you there: continue in that Duke. That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made trial of you only.-Therefore, fasten your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business. Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit. Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscarried at sea? Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. Duke. Her should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit 31 of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage combinate 32 husband, this wry; with both, her one Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour: in few, bestowed 33 her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not. 31 i. e. appointed time, 32 i. e. betrothed. 33 Bestowed her on her own lamentation, gave her up to her Sorrows. Isab. to What a merit were it in death, to take this poor maid from the wo world! What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live! - But how out of this can she avail? Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it. Isab. Show me how, good father. Duke. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo: answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point: only refer 34 yourself to this advantage, first, that your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shadow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience: this being granted in course, now follows all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled 35. The maid will I frame, and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it? Isab. The image of it gives me content already; and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perfection. Duke. It lies much in your holding up: Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satis 34 Refer yourself, have recourse to. 35 i. e. stripped of his covering or disguise, his affectation of virtue; desquamatus. A metaphor of a similar nature has before occurred in this play, taken from the barking, peeling, or stripping of trees. I cannot convince myself that it means weighed, unless we could imagine that counterpoised was intended. faction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there. at the moated grange 36, resides this dejected Mariana: At that place call upon me; and despatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly. Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you well, good father. [Exeunt severally. SCENE II. The Street before the Prison. Enter Duke, as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard 1. Duke. O, heavens! what stuff is here? Clo. Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allow'd, by order of law, a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins 2 too, to signify that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. . Elb. Come your way, sir:-Bless you, good father friar. Duke. And you, good brother father3: What offence hath this man made you, sir? Elb. Marry sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock 1, which we have sent to the deputy. 36 Grange, a solitary farm-house. Bastard. A sweet wine, Raisin wine, according to Minshew. 2 It is probable we should read fox on lambskins, otherwise craft will not stand for the facing. Fox-skins and lamb-skins were both used as facings according to the statute of apparel, 24 Hen. 8, c. 13. So, in Characterismi, or Lenton's Leasures, &c. 1631-An usurer is an old fox clad in lamb-skin.` 3 The Duke humorously calls him brother father, because he had called him father friar, which is equivalent to father brother, friar being derived from frère. Fr. 4 It is not necessary to take honest Pompey for a housebreaker, the locks he had occasion to pick were Spanish padlocks. In Jonson's Volpone, Corvino threatens to make his wife wear one of these strange contrivances. |