Ere sun-rise; prayers from preservedt souls, Ang. To-morrow. Lucio. Go to; it is well; away. Well; come to me [Aside to Isabel. Isab. Save your honour! Ang. At any time 'fore noon. [Exeunt Lucio, Isabella, and Provost. Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary When judges steal themselves. What? do I love her, And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on? • See 2 Kings, x. 27. To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet, Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid Wheu men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how. [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 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. Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful. Enter Juliet. Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, Than die for this. Duke. When must he die? Prov. As I do think, to-morrow. I have provided for you; stay a while. [To Juliet. And you shall be conducted. Duke. 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, And try your penitence, if it be sound, Or hollowly put on. Juliet. I'll gladly learn. Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you? Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed? Juliet. Mutually. Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his. Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father. Duke. 'Tis meet so, daughter: But lest you do repent, As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,- Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil; And take the shame with joy. Duke. There rest. Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow, And I am going with instruction to him. Grace go with you! Benedicite! [Exit. Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious love, That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror! SCENE 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; And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil Why does my blood thus muster to my heart; Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all the other parts Of necessary fitness? So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; Come all to help him, and so stop the air By which he should revive: and even so The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, Enter Isabella. How now, fair maid? Jeab. I am come to know your pleasure. Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me, Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live. Isab. Even so?-Heaven keep your honour! [Retiring. Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may be, As long as you, or I: Yet he must die. Isab. Under your sentence? Ang. Yea, Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer, or shorter, he may be so fitted, That his soul sicken not. Ang. Ha! Fye, these filthy vices! It were as good To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen A man already made, as to remit Their sawcy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, To make a false one. Isab. "Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. Ang. Say you so? then I shall poze you quickly. Which had you rather, That the most just law Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him, • People. |