By yielding up thy body to my will; Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true. [Exit. Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die : And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. life, If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing For all the accommodations that thou bear'st, For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork 1 The death. This phrase seems originally to have been a mistaken translation of the French La mort. Chaucer uses it frequently, and it is common to all writers of Shakspeare's age. 21. e. tempration, instigation. And what thou hast, forget'st: Thou art not cer- For thy complexion shifts to strange affects," Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Of palsied eld;11 and when thou art old, and rich, Claud. I humbly thank you. Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good Prov. Who's there? come in; the wish deserves Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio. your sister. Duke. Provost, a word with you. Prov. As many as you please. Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd,12 Yet hear them. [Exeunt Duke and Provost. Claud. 9 Serpigo, is a leprous eruption. 5 10 This is exquisitely imagined. When we are young, we busy ourselves in forming schemes for succeeding time, and miss the gratifications that are before us; when we are old, we amuse the languor of age with the recollection of youthful pleasures or performances; so that our life, of which no part is filled with the business of the present time, resembles our dreams after dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the designs of the evening. 3 i. e. determined. 4 Keep here means care for, a common acceptation of the word in Chaucer and later writers. 5 i. e. dwellest. So, in Henry IV. Parti: Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept. 6 Shakspeare here meant to observe, that a minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can dis- 11 Old age. In youth, which is or ought to be the happlay, or luxury enjoy, is procured by baseness, by offi-piest time, man commonly wants means to obtain what ces of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. he could enjoy, he is dependent on palsied eld; must All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the beg alms from the coffers of heary avarice; and being shambles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building very niggardly supplied, becomes as aged, looks like an was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of orna-old man on happiness beyond his reach. And when he ment from among the damps and darkness of the mine. is old and rich, when he has wealth enough for the 7 Worm is put for any creeping thing or serpent. purchase of all that formerly excited his desires, he has Shakspeare adopts the vulgar error, that a serpent no longer the powers of enjoyment. wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue is forked. In old tapestries and paintings the tongues of serpents and dragons always appear barbed like the point of an arrow. 8 The old copy reads effects. We should read affects, ie. affections, passions of the mind. See Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 4. 12 The first folio reads, bring them to hear me speak, &c.' the second folio reads, 'bring them to speak.' The emendation is by Steevens. 13 A leiger is a resident. 15 i. e. vastness of extent. 16 To a determin'd scope.' A confinement of your Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him, Isab. What says my brother? Death is a fearful thing. mind to one painful idea: to ignominy, of which the To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot: 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 opposite construction. 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? 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 synecdoche, for dress. 5 i. e. From the time of my committing this offence, you might persist in sinning with safety.' 6 Frankly, freely. To what we fear of death. Isab. Alas! alas! Sweet sister, let me live: Isab. O, you beast! Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father fair! Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. O, fye, fye, fye! [Going. O hear me, Isabella. Isab. What is your will? Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require, is likewise your own benefit. 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? Shak speare 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.' Whom best I love, I cross, to make my gift 9 Jonson, in his Cataline, Act ii. Sc. 4, has a simi lar 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. 13 Trade, an established habit, a custom, a practice. Do not satisfy your resolution1 with hopes that are | them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready. Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: Farewell. Re-enter Provost. Provost, a word with you. [Exit CLAUDIO. Prov. What's your will, father? pany. Prov. In good time.3 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? 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 unkind[Erit Provost.ness, 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 Duke. That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the dethe matter now stands, he will avoid your accusa-ceit from reproof. What think you of it? tion; he made trial of you only.-Therefore fasten Isab. The image of it gives me content already; your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perdoing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make fection. 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. 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. 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. 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 SCENE II. The street before the prison. Enter 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 Duke. O, heavens! what stuff is here? Duke. Her should this Angelo have married: Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? 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, 1 Do not satisfy your resolution, appears to signify do not quench or extinguish your resolution with falli-lar nature has before occurred in this play, taken from ble hopes. Satisfy was used by old writers in the sense the barking, peeling, or stripping of trees. I cannot of to stay, stop, quench, or stint: as in the phrase convince myself that it means weighed, unless we could 'Sorrow is satisfied with tears: Dolor expletur lachry- imagine that counterpoised was intended. mis.-To satisfy or stint hunger: Famem explere. To 9 Grange, a solitary farm-house. 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. 2 Hold you there: continue in that resolution. 3 i. e. a la bonne heure, so be it, very well. 4 i. e. appointed time. 5 i. e. betrothed. 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-sking 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 6 Bestowed her on her own lamentation, gave her is an old fox clad in lamb-skin.” up to her sorrows. 7 Refer yourself, have recourse to. 12 The Duke humorously calls him brother father, because he had called him father friar, which is equi 8 i. e. stripped of his covering or disguise, his affec-valent to father brother, friar being derived from tation of virtue; desquamatus. A metaphor of a simi-frere. Fr. sir, we take him to be a thief, too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock,' which we have sent to the deputy. Duke. Fye, sirrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd! So stinkingly depending? Go, mend, go, mend. Clo. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I would prove Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer; bondage: if you take it not patiently, why your mettle is the more: Adieu, trusty Pompey.-Bless you, friar. Duke. And you. Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey? Ha? Elb. Come your ways, sir; come. Clo. You will not bail me then, sir? Lucio. Then, Pompey? nor now.-What news abroad, friar? What news? Elb. Come your ways, sir; come. [Exeunt ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. What news, friar, of the duke? Duke. I know none: Can you tell me of any? Lucio. Some say, he is with the emperor of Russia; other some, he is in Rome: But where is he, think you? Duke. I know not where: But wheresoever, I wish him well. Elb. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him, to him warning; the deputy cannot abide a whore-steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was master: if he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be Free from our faults, as faults from seeming, free!2 Enter LUCIO. Elb. His neck will come to your waist, a cord,3 sir. Clo. I spy comfort; I cry, bail: Here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine." 4 Lucio. How now, noble Pompey? What, at the heels of Cæsar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting it clutch'd? What reply? Ha? What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i'the last rain? Ha? What say'st thou, trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words? Or how? The trick of it? Duke. Still thus, and thus! still worse! Lucio. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still? Ha? Clo. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.5 never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to't. Duke. He does well in't. Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him: something too crabbed that way, friar. Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it. Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well ally'd: but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say, this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after the downright way of creation: Is it true think you? Duke. How should he be made then? Lucio. Some report a sea-maid spawn'd him :Some that he was begot between two stock-fishes: But it is certain, that when he makes water, his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion" ungenerative, that's infallible. Duke. You are pleasant, sir; and speak apace. Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away the life of a man? Would the duke, that is absent, have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing of a thousand: He had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instruct Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so: Ever your fresh whore, and your pow-ed him to mercy. der'd bawd: An unshun'd consequence; it must be so Art going to prison, Pompey? Clo. Yes, faith, sir. Lucio. Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey: Farewell: Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? Or how? Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. Lucio. Well, then imprison him: If imprisonment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: Bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawdborn. Farewell, good Pompey: Commend me to the prison, Pompey; You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house." Clo. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail. Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to increase your 1 It is not neccessary to take honest Pompey for a housebreaker, the locks he had occasion to pick were Spanish padlocks. In Jonson's Volpone, Corvino threatens to make his wife wear one of these strange contrivances. 2 i. e. As faults are free from or destitute of all comeliness or seeming.' 3 His neck will be tied, like your waist, with a cord. The friar wore a rope for a girdle. 4 i. e. Have you no new courtesans to recommend to your customers. 5 The method of cure for a certain disease was grossly called the powdering tub. See the notes on the Lub fast and the diet, in Timon of Athens, Act iv. in the Variorum of Shakspeare. 6 i. e. inevitable. 7 i. e. stay at home, alluding to the etymology of husband. Duke. I never heard the absent duke much detected 10 for women; he was not inclined that way. Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived. Duke. 'Tis not possible. Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty-and his use was, to put a ducat in her clackdish:11 the duke had crotchets in him: He would be drunk too; and let me inform you. Duke. You do him wrong, surely. Lucio. Sir, I was an inward12 of his : A shy fellow was the duke: and, I believe, I know the cause of his withdrawing. Duke. What, I pr'ythee, might be the cause? Lucio. No,--pardon;-'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand,-The greater file13 of the subject held the duke to be wise. Duke. Wise? why, no question but he was. fellow. Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing' Escal. That fellow is a fellow of much licence:let him be called before us.-Away with her to priDuke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mis-son: Go to; no more words. [Exeunt Bawd and taking; the very stream of his life, and the business be hath helmed, must, upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own bringings forth, and he shall appear to the envious, a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier: Therefore, you speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice. Officers.] Provost, my brother Angelo will not be alter'd, Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation: if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him. Lacis. Sir, I know him, and I love him. Duke. Love talks with better knowledge, and. knowledge with dearer love. Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know. Duke. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return (as our prayers are he may,) let me desire you to make your answer before him: If it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your name? Lacio. Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke. Duke. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you. Lario. I fear you not. Duke. O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again. Lucio. I'll be hang'd first: thou art deceived in me, friar. But no more of this; Canst thou tell if Claudio die to-morrow, or no? Prov. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advised him for the entertainment of death. Escal. Good even, good father. Duke. Bliss and goodness on you? Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is see, To use it for my time: I am a brother Escal. One, that, above all other strifes, contended especially to know himself. Duke. What pleasure was he given to? Escal. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous; and let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand, that you have lent him visitation. Duke. Why should he die, sir? Lucio. Why? for filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would, the duke, we talk of, were return'd again: this ungenitur'd agent will unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he Duke. He professes to have received no sinister would never bring them to light: would he were measure from his judge, but most willingly humreturn'd! Marry, this Claudio is condemn'd for un-bles himself to the determination of justice: yet had trussing. Farewell, good friar; I pry'thee, pray he framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailfor me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat ty, many deceiving promises of life; which 1, by mutton on Fridays. He's now past it; yet, and I my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar, though is he resolved to die. she smelts brown bread and garlick: say, that I said so. Farewell. [Exit. Duke. No might nor greatness in mortality Enter ESCALUS, Provost, Bawd, and Officers. Prov. A bawd of eleven years continuance, may it please your honour. Band. My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me: mistress Kate Keep-down was with child by him in the duke's time, he promised her marriage; his child is a year and a quarter old, ee Philip and Jacob: I have kept it myself; and goes about to abuse me. see how he 1 i. e. inconsiderate. Escal. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor gentleman, to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him, he is indeed-justice.10 Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein, if well. Duke. Peace be with you! [Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost. 8 The allusion is to those legal securities into which fellowship leads men to enter for each other. For this He that 2 Guided, steered through, a metaphor from navi- quibble Shakspeare has high authority, 3 Opposite, opponent. 4 Ungenitur'd. This word seems to be formed from genitoirs, a word which occurs several times in Holland's Pliny, vol. ii. p. 321, 560, 589, and comes from the French genitoires. 5 A wench was called a laced mutton. In Doctor Faustus, 1604, Lechery says, 'I am one that loves an h of raw mutton better than an ell of stock-fish.' 6 Smelt, for smelt of. 7 Farfeit, transgress, offend, from forfaire. Fr. hateth suretiship is sure. Prov. xi. 15. 9 i. e. satisfied; probably because conviction leads to decision or resolution. 10 Summum jus, summa injuria. 11 This passage is very obscure, nor can it be cleared without a more licentious paraphase than the reader may be willing to allow. heaven should be not less holy than severe; should be He that bears the sword of able to discover in himself a pattern of such grace as can avoid temptation, and such virtue as may go abroad into the world without danger of seduction.' |