Is that temptation, that doth goad us on When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how!! 1 [Erit. 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 bless'd 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 may minister To them accordingly. Prou. I would do more than that, if more were needful. ISCENE IV. A Room in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO. Ang. When I would pray and think, I think and pray To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words; Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth, As if I did but only chew his name; And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil Of my conception: The state, whereon I studied, Is like a good thing, being often read, Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity, Wherein (let no man hear me) I take pride, Could I, with boot, change for an idle plume, Which the air beats for vain. O place! O form! How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls To thy false seeming ? Blood, thou still art blood Let's write good angel on the devil's horn, 'Tis not the devil's crest.10 In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easv Falsely to take away a life true made, put mettle restrained means, 1 Dr. Johnson thinks the second act should end here. To make a false one. 14 2 The folio reads flawes. 3 i. e. not spare to offend heaven. 4 1. e. keep yourself in this frame of mind. 50 injurious love. Sir Thomas Hanmer proposed read law instead of love. 6 Invention for imagination. So, in Shakspeare's 103d Sonnet: a face, That overgoes my blunt invention quite.' And in King Henry V. O for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention." 7 Boot is profit. Si. e. outside. 9 Shakspeare judiciously distinguishes the different operations of high place upon different minds. Fools are frighted and wise men allured. Those who cannot judge but by the eye are easily awed by splendour; those who consider men as well as conditions, are easily ersuaded to love the appearance of virtue dignified with power 10 Though we should write good angel on the de. vil's horn, it will not change his nature, so as to give him a right to wear that crest. This explanation of Malone's is confirmed by a passage in Lylys Midas, Melancholy! is melancholy a word for barber' mouth? Thou shouldst say heavy, dull, and doltish: melancholy is the crest of courtiers." 11 i. e. the people or multitude subject to a king. So, in Hamlet: the play pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general. It is supposed that Shakspeare, in this passage, and in one before (Act i. Sc. 2,) intended to flatter the unkingly weakness of James I. which made him so impatient of the crowds which flocked to see him, at his first coming, that he restrained them by proclamation. 12 i. e. that hath killed a man. 13 Sweetness has here probably the sense of licker ishness. 14 The thought is simply, that murder is as easy as I'll take it as a perił to my soul, Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, Were equal poise of sin and charity. Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of my suit, If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your answer. Ang. Nay, but hear me : Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant, Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good. Isab. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better. Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself as these black masks3 Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder That beauty could displayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gross: Your brother is to die. Isab. So. Ang. And his offence is so, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain.s Isab. True. Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, (As I subscribes not that, nor any other, But in the loss of question,") that you, his sister, Finding yourself desir'd of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, Could fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-binding law; and that there were No earthly mean to save him, but that either You must lay down the treasures of your body To this supposed, or else to let him suffer; What would you do? Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself: That is, were I under the terms of death, The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies, And strip myself to death, as to a bed That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield My body up to shame. Ang. Ang. I think it well: And from this testimony of your own sex, Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language.. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell me, That he shall die for it. Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. Which seems a little fouler than it is, Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose. And most pernicious purpose!-seeming, seem ing! I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't : Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life, My vouch14 against you, and my place i' the state, Will so your accusation overweigh, That you shall stifle in your own report, And smell of calumny. I have begun; Then must your brother are. And now I give my sensual race the rein: Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way: Better it were, a brother died at once, fornication; and the inference which Angelo would draw is, that it is as improper to pardon the latter as the former. 1 Isabel appears to use the words 'give my body, in a different sense to Angelo. Her meaning appears to be, I had rather die than forfeit my eternal happiness by the prostitution of my person." 2 i. e, actions that we are compelled to, however numerous, are not imputed to us by heaven as crimes. 3 The masks worn by female spectators of the play are here probably meant; however improperly, a compliment to them is put into the mouth of Angelo: un less the demonstrative pronoun is put for the prepositive article? At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, we have a passage of similar import: These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows, Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair." Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother 4 i. e. enshielded, covered. 5 Pain, penalty 6 Subscribe agree to. 71. e. conversation that tends to nothing 8 Ignomy, Ignominy. 91 adopt Mr. Nares' explanation of this difficult passage as the most satisfactory yet offered: If he is the only feodary, i. e. subject who holds by the common tenure of human frailty. Owes, i. e. possesses and succeeds by, holds his right of succession by it. Warburton says that the allusion is so fine that it deserves to be explained. The comparing mankind lying under the weight of original sin, to a feodary who owes suit and service to his lord, is not ill imagined." 10 The meaning appears to be, that 'men debase their natures by taking advantage of women's weakness." She therefore calls on Heaven to assist them. 11 i. e. impressions. 12 i. e. your virtue assumes an air of licentiousness, which is not natural to you, on purpose to try me." 13 Seeming is hypocrisy. 14 Vouch, assertion 15 A metaphor from a lamp or candle extinguished in its own grease. 16 Prolizious blushes mean what Milton has elegantly called Sweet reluctant delay. If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art, (Servile to all the skiey influences,) That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,5 Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool; For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, Isab. Why, as all comforts are, most good indeed: Where you shall be an everlasting leiger: 12ld wed Therefore your best appointment14 make with speed; 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 To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot The weariest and most loathed worldly life, 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! O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch! From thine own sister's shame? What should I think? In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy, - Is't not a kind of incest, to take life 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 princely Angelo? Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'st body to invest and cover. In princely guards! Dost thou think, Claudio, 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. Thou shalt not do't. I'd throw it down for your deliverance As frankly as a pin. Claud. Thanks, my dear Isabel. Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair! Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. O, fye, fye, fye! Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade: [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 Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to- would by and by have some speech with you: the mind to one painful idea: to ignominy, of which the In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great This beautiful passage is in all our minds and memories, but it most frequently stands in quotation detached from the antecedent line: The sense of death is most in apprehension,' without which it is liable to an oppositestruction. The meaning is: fear is the principal sensation in death, which has no pain; and the giant when he dies feels no greater pain than the beetle?" Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile. Duke. [TO CLAUDIO, aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath passed 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: 7 Has he passions that impel him to transgress the law at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? Surely then it cannot be a sin so very heinous, since Angelo, who is so wise, will venture it? Shakspeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio. 8 Delighted, is occasionally used by Shakspeare for delightful, or causing delight; delighted in. So, in Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3; If virtue no delighted beauty lack.' And Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 4: Whom best I love, I cross, to make my gift The more delayed, delighted. 3 In whose presence the follies of youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it. To enmew is a term in Falconry, signifying to restrain, to keep in a mew or cage either by force or terror. 4 Guards were trimmings, facings, or other ornaments applied upon a dress. It here stands, by syneedoche, for dress. 5 i. e. From the time of my committing this offence, you might persist in sinning with santy 6 Frankly, freely. 9 Jonson, in his Cataline, Act ii. Sc. 4, has a similar expression: We're spirits bound in ribs of ice. Shakspeare returns to the various destinations of the disembodied Spirit, in that pathetic speech of Othello in the fifth Act. Milton seems to have had Shakspeare before him when he wrote the second book of Paradise Lost, v. 595-603. 10 Viewless, invisible, unseen. 11 Wilderness, for wildness. 12 i. e. my refusal. 18 Trade, an established habit, a custom, a practic Prov. In good time. [Exit Provost. Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath 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 contend 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 return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. 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 of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked 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 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 dowry; with both, her combinates husband, this well-seeming Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of 1 Do not satisfy your resolution, appears to signify do not quench or extinguish your resolution with 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 lachry nis. To satisfy or stint hunger: Famem explere. To quench or satisfy thirst: Sitem explere! A conjecture of the Hon. Charles Yorke's on this passage will be found in Warburton's Letters, p. 500, 8vo. ed. Hold you there: continue in that resolution. 3 i. e. a la bonne heure, so be it, very well. 4 1. e. appointed time. them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour: in few, bestowed 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. Isab. 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 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 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. 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 satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there at the moated grange, 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.10 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-skins11 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 father:12 What offence hath this man made you, sir? Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, lar 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. 9 Grunge, a solitary farm-house. 10 Bastard. A sweet wine, Raisin wine, according to Minshew. 11 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 5 i. e. betrothed. 6 Bestowed her on her oron lamentation, gave her is an old fox clad in lamb-skin." up to her sorrows. 7 Refer yourself, have recourse to. 8 i. e. stripped of his covering or disguise, his affectation of virtue; desquamatus. A metaphor of a simi 12 The Duke humorously calls him brother father, because he had called him father friar, which is equi. valent to father brother, friar being derived from frere. Fr. |