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,
Who falling in the flames of her own youth,
-- 72 --
Hath blister'd her report2 note
: She is with child;
And he that got it, sentenc'd: a young man
More fit to do another such offence,
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.
-- 73 --
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 repent3 note
,
As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,—
Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven;
Showing, we'd not spare heaven4 note
, as we love it,
But as we stand in fear,—
-- 74 --
Juliet.
I do repent me, as it is an evil;
And take the shame with joy.
Duke.
There rest5 note.
Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him.—
Grace go with you! Benedicite6 note
!
[Exit.
Juliet.
Must die to-morrow! O, injurious love7 note
,
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror!
Prov.
'Tis pity of him.
[Exeunt.
-- 75 --
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
