Enter Duke ⌜as a Friar,⌝ Claudio, and Provost.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?CLAUDIO The miserable have no other medicine But only hope. I have hope to live and am prepared to die.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ 5 Be absolute for death. Either death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life: If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep. A breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences10 That ⌜doth⌝ this habitation where thou keep’st Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art death’s fool, For him thou labor’st by thy flight to shun, And yet runn’st toward him still. Thou art not noble, For all th’ accommodations that thou bear’st15 Are nursed by baseness. Thou ’rt 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’st20 Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself, For thou exists on many a thousand grains
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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,25 For thy complexion shifts to strange effects After the moon. If thou art rich, thou ’rt 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,30 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,35 But as it were an after-dinner’s sleep Dreaming on both, for all thy blessèd youth Becomes as agèd and doth beg the alms Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich, Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty40 To make thy riches pleasant. What’s yet in this That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear, That makes these odds all even.CLAUDIO I humbly thank you.45 To sue to live, I find I seek to die, And seeking death, find life. Let it come on.ISABELLA, ⌜within⌝ What ho! Peace here, grace, and good company.PROVOST Who’s there? Come in. The wish deserves a welcome.DUKE, ⌜as Friar, to Claudio⌝ Dear sir, ere long I’ll visit you again.CLAUDIO 50Most holy sir, I thank you.Enter Isabella.ISABELLA, ⌜to Provost⌝ My business is a word or two with Claudio.
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PROVOST And very welcome.—Look, signior, here’s your sister.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ Provost, a word with you.PROVOST 55As many as you please.DUKE, ⌜as Friar, aside to Provost⌝ Bring ⌜me⌝ to hear ⌜them⌝ speak, where I may be concealed.⌜Duke and Provost exit.⌝CLAUDIO Now, sister, what’s the comfort?ISABELLA Why,60 As all comforts are, most good, most good indeed. Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift ambassador, Where you shall be an everlasting leiger; Therefore your best appointment make with speed.65 Tomorrow you set on.CLAUDIO Is there no remedy?ISABELLA None but such remedy as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain.CLAUDIO But is there any?ISABELLA 70Yes, brother, you may live. There is a devilish mercy in the judge, If you’ll implore it, that will free your life But fetter you till death.CLAUDIO Perpetual durance?ISABELLA 75 Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint, ⌜Though⌝ all the world’s vastidity you had, To a determined scope.CLAUDIO But in what nature?ISABELLA In such a one as, you consenting to ’t,80 Would bark your honor from that trunk you bear And leave you naked.
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CLAUDIO Let me know the point.ISABELLA O, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,85 And six or seven winters more respect Than a perpetual honor. 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 great90 As when a giant dies.CLAUDIO 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,95 And hug it in mine arms.ISABELLA 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—100 Whose settled visage and deliberate word Nips youth i’ th’ head, and follies doth ⌜enew⌝ As falcon doth the fowl—is yet a devil. His filth within being cast, he would appear A pond as deep as hell.CLAUDIO 105 The prenzie Angelo?ISABELLA O, ’tis the cunning livery of hell The damned’st body to invest and cover In prenzie guards. Dost thou think, Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity110 Thou mightst be freed?CLAUDIO O heavens, it cannot be!ISABELLA Yes, he would give ’t thee; from this rank offense, So to offend him still. This night’s the time
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That I should do what I abhor to name,115 Or else thou diest tomorrow.CLAUDIO Thou shalt not do ’t.ISABELLA O, were it but my life, I’d throw it down for your deliverance As frankly as a pin.CLAUDIO 120 Thanks, dear Isabel.ISABELLA Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.CLAUDIO Yes. Has he affections in him That thus can make him bite the law by th’ nose, When he would force it? Sure it is no sin,125 Or of the deadly seven it is the least.ISABELLA Which is the least?CLAUDIO If it were damnable, he being so wise, Why would he for the momentary trick Be perdurably fined? O, Isabel—ISABELLA 130 What says my brother?CLAUDIO Death is a fearful thing.ISABELLA And shamèd life a hateful.CLAUDIO Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction and to rot,135 This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling region of thick-ribbèd ice, To be imprisoned in the viewless winds140 And blown with restless violence round about The pendent world; or to be worse than worst Of those that lawless and incertain thought Imagine howling—’tis too horrible. The weariest and most loathèd worldly life145 That age, ache, ⌜penury,⌝ and imprisonment
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Can lay on nature is a paradise To what we fear of death.ISABELLA Alas, alas!CLAUDIO Sweet sister, let me live.150 What sin you do to save a brother’s life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far That it becomes a virtue.ISABELLA O, you beast! O faithless coward, O dishonest wretch,155 Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? Is ’t not a kind of incest to take life From thine own sister’s shame? What should I think? Heaven shield my mother played my father fair, For such a warpèd slip of wilderness160 Ne’er issued from his blood. Take my defiance; 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.CLAUDIO 165 Nay, hear me, Isabel—ISABELLA O, fie, fie, fie! Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade. Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd. ’Tis best that thou diest quickly.CLAUDIO 170O, hear me, Isabella—⌜Enter Duke as a Friar.⌝DUKE, ⌜as Friar, to Isabella⌝ Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.ISABELLA What is your will?DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you. The175 satisfaction I would require is likewise your own benefit.ISABELLA I have no superfluous leisure. My stay must
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be stolen out of other affairs, but I will attend you awhile.DUKE, ⌜as Friar, taking Claudio aside⌝ 180Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an assay of her virtue, to practice his judgment with the disposition of natures. She,185 having the truth of honor 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 satisfy your resolution with hopes that are190 fallible. Tomorrow you must die. Go to your knees and make ready.CLAUDIO Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life that I will sue to be rid of it.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ Hold you there. Farewell.—Provost, a195 word with you.⌜Enter Provost.⌝PROVOST What’s your will, father?DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me awhile with the maid. My mind promises with my habit no loss shall touch her by200 my company.PROVOST In good time.He exits, ⌜with Claudio.⌝DUKE, ⌜as Friar, to Isabella⌝ The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good. The goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness,205 but grace, being the soul of your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath conveyed to my understanding; and but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How will210 you do to content this substitute and to save your brother?
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ISABELLA 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 good215 duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ That shall not be much amiss. Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation:220 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 brother225 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.ISABELLA Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to230 do anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great soldier who miscarried235 at sea?ISABELLA I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ She should this Angelo have married, was affianced to her oath, and the nuptial appointed.240 Between which time of the contract and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wracked at sea, having in that perished vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman. There she lost a noble245 and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him, the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage dowry; with
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both, her combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.ISABELLA 250Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ Left her in her tears and dried not one of them with his comfort, swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonor; in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which255 she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them but relents not.ISABELLA What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from the world! What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live! But how out of this260 can she avail?DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ It is a rupture that you may easily heal, and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonor in doing it.ISABELLA Show me how, good father.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ 265This 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 to270 Angelo, answer his requiring with a plausible obedience, agree with his demands to the point. Only refer 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 to275 convenience. This being granted in course, and 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, is280 your brother saved, your honor untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may,
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the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit285 from reproof. What think you of it?ISABELLA The image of it gives me content already, and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.DUKE, ⌜as Friar⌝ It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to Angelo. If for this night he entreat290 you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to Saint Luke’s. There at the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana. At that place call upon me, and dispatch with Angelo that it may be quickly.ISABELLA 295I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.She exits. ⌜The Duke remains.⌝
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