Serv.
He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight.
I'll tell him of you.

Prov.
Pray you, do. [Exit Servant.] I'll know
His pleasure; may be, he will relent: Alas,
He hath but as offended in a dream!
All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he
To die for it!— Enter Angelo.

Ang.
Now, what's the matter, provost?

Prov.
Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?

Ang.
Did I not tell thee, yea? hadst thou not order?
Why dost thou ask again?

Prov.
Lest I might be too rash:
Under your good correction, I have seen,
When, after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.

Ang.
Go to; let that be mine:
Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you shall well be spar'd.

Prov.
I crave your honour's pardon.—
What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
She's very near her hour.

Ang.
Dispose of her
To some more fitter place; and that with speed.

Re-enter Servant.

Serv.
Here is the sister of the man condemn'd,
Desires access to you.

Ang.
Hath he a sister?

Prov.
Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,
And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
If not already.

Ang.
Well, let her be admitted. [Exit Servant.
See you, the fornicatress be remov'd;
Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;
There shall be order for it. Enter Lucio and Isabella.

Prov.
Save your honour^{2 note}! [Offering to retire.

Ang.
Stay a little while^{3 note}

Isab.
I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
Please but your honour hear me.

Ang.
Well; what's your suit?

Isab.
There is a vice, that most I do abhor,
And most desire should meet the blow of justice;
For which I would not plead, but that I must;
For which I must not plead, but that I am
At war, 'twixt will, and will not^{4 note}

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^{5 note}
.

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^{6 note}

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 are too cold: if you should need a pin,
You could not with more tame a tongue desire it:
To him, I say.

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^{7 note}

Ang.
He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late.

Lucio.
You are too cold. [To Isabella.

Isab.
Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back again^{8 note}

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
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.

Isab.
Alas! alas!
Why, all the souls that were^{1 note}

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^{3 note}; 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.

Ang.
The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept^{4 note}:
Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man that did the edict infringe^{5 note}

Looks in a glass^{6 note}

Isab.
Yet show some pity.

Ang.
I show it most of all, when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know^{9 note}

,
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^{1 note}.

Lucio.
That's well said.

Isab.
Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting^{2 note}

Than the soft myrtle;—But man, proud man^{4 note}

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^{7 note}

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 cholerick 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^{8 note}
: Go to your bosom;
Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confess
A natural guiltiness, such as is his,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

Ang.
She speaks, and 'tis
Such sense, that my sense breeds with it^{9 note}

Isab.
Gentle my lord, turn back.

Ang.
I will bethink me:—Come again to-morrow.

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 shekels^{1 note} of the tested gold^{2 note}

Ere sun-rise; prayers from preserved souls^{3 note}

Ang.
Well: come to me
To-morrow.

Lucio.
Go to; it is well; away. [Aside to Isabel.

Isab.
Heaven keep your honour safe!

Ang.
Amen:
For I am that way going to temptation, [Aside.
Where prayers cross^{4 note}

Isab.
At what hour to-morrow
Shall I attend your lordship?

Ang.
At any time 'fore noon.

Isab.
Save your honour! [Exeunt Lucio, Isabella, and Provost.

Ang.
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^{5 note}

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there^{8 note}

And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints doth bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art, and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite;—Ever, till now,
When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how^{9 note}. [Exit.

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