*

Finding yourself defir'd of fuch a person,
Whofe 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 fave him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this fuppofed, or else let him fuffer;
What would you do?

Ifab. As much for my poor brother, as myself;
That is, were I under the terms of death,
Th' impreffion of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing I've been feek for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

Ang. Then muft your brother die.
Ifab. And 'twere the cheaper way;
Better it were, a brother dy'd at once;
Than that a fifter, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

8

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the fentence, That you have flander'd fo?

Ifab. Ignominy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houfes; lawful mercy, fure,

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

Ang. You feem'd of late to make the law a tyrant, And rather prov'd the fliding of your brother A merriment, than a vice.

Ifab. Oh pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we I fomething do excufe the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

Ang. We are all frail.

Ifab. Elfe let my brother die.

The old editions read all building law from which the Editors have made all holding; yet M-. Theobald has binding in one of his copies.

A brother dy d at once ] Per

hans we should read,

[mean;

Better it were a brother dy`d for

once,

Than that a fifter, by redeeming
him.
Should die for ever.

If not a feodary, but only he,
* Owe, and fucceed by weakness.
Ang. Nay, women are frail too.

Ifab. Ay, as the glaffes where they view themselves;
Which are as eafy broke, as they make forms. '
Women!-help heav'n! men their creation mar,
2 In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail;
For we are soft as our complexions are,

And credulous to falfe prints. 3

Ang. I think it well;

And from this teftimony of your own fex,
Since, I fuppofe, we're made to be no stronger,
Than faults may fhake our frames, let me be bold.
I do arreft your words: Be That you are,
That is, a woman; if you're more you're none;
If you be one, as you are well exprefs'd
By all external warrants, fhew it now,
By putting on the deftin'd livery.

Gentle my lord,

Ifab. I have no tongue but one.
Let me intreat you, fpeak the former language. ✦

9 If not a foedary, but only he, &c.] his is fo obfcure, but the allufion fo fine, that it deferves to be explain'd. A feedary was one, that in the times of vaffalage held lands of the chief lord, under the tenure of paying rent and fervice: which tenures were call'd feuda amongst the Goths. Now, fays Angelo, we are all "frail; yes, replies Isabella; if "all mankind were not feoda"ries, who owe what they are "to this tenure of imbecillity, "and who fucceed each other

by the fame enure, as well "as my brother, I would give "him up." The comparing mankind, lying under the weight of original fin, to a feodary, who owes fuit and fervice to his lord, is, I think, not ill imagined.

*To owe is in this place, to own, to hold, to have poffeffion. -Glaffes

Which are as easy broke, as they make forms,] Would it not be better to read, take forms?

2

In profiting by them.] In imitating them, in taking them for examples.

4

3 And credulous to falfe prints.] i. e. take any imprettion. WARB. Speak the FORMER language] We should read FORMAL, which he here ufes for plain, direct. WARBURTON.

Ifabella anfwers to this circumlocutory courtship, that he has but one tongue, the does not understand this new phrafe, and defires him to talk his former language, that is, to talk as he talked before.

Ang.

Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you. Ifab. My brother did love Juliet; And you tell me, that he fhall die for it.

Ang. He fhall not, Ifabel, if you give me love, Ifab, I know, your virtue hath a licence in't, s Which feems a little fouler than it is,

To pluck on others.

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour, My words exprefs my purpose.

Ifab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, And most pernicious purpose !-feeming, feeming!-6 I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:

Sign me a prefent pardon for my brother,

Or, with an out-ftretch'd throat, I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art.

Ang. Who will believe thee, fabel?

My unfoil'd name, th' auftereness of my life,
7 My vouch against you, and my place i'th' state,
Will fo our accufation over weigh,

That you fhall ftifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun;
And now I give my fenfual race the rein.
Fit they content to my fharp appetite,
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they fue for: redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will:

5 I know your virtue bath a licence in't,] Alluding to the licences given by Miniflers to their Spies, to go into all fufpected companies and join in the language of Malecontents,

WARBURTON. 6feeming, feeming!Hypocrify, hypocrify; counterfeit virtue.

7 My vouch against you,] The calling his denial of her charge,

his vouch, has fomething fine. Vouch is the teftimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he infinuates his authority was fo great, that his denial would have the fame credit that a vouch or teftimony has in ordinary cafes. WARBURTON.

I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouch againft means no more than de-. nial.

Or

Or else he must not only die the death, 3
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To ling'ring fufferance. Anfwer me to-morrow;
Or by th' affection that now guides me moft,
I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can; my falfe o'erweighs your true.

[Exit.

Ifab. To whom should I complain? did I tell this, Who would believe me? O moft perilous mouths, That bear in them one and the felf fame tongue, Either of condemnation or approof;

Bidding the law make curtefy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
To follow, as it draws. I'll to my
I'll to my brother.
Tho' he hath fall'n by prompture

of the blood, Yet hath he in him fuch a mind of honour,

That had he twenty heads to tender down

On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up;
Before his fifter fhould her body stoop

To fuch abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Ifabel, live chafte; and, brother die;
More than our brother is our chastity.

I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request;

And fit his mind to death, for his foul's Reft. [Exit.

8 die the death.] This feems to be a folemn phrafe for death inflicted by law. So in

Midfummer Night's Dream. Prepare to die the death.

9 prompture Suggef tion, temptation, in tigation.

ACT

X 4

À CT III.

SCENE I.

S

The Prifon.

Enter Duke, Claudio, and Provost.

DUKE.

O, then you've hope of pardon from lord Angelo? Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, But only Hope: I've hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.

Duke. Be abfolute for death: 9 or death or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life, If I do lofe thee, I do lofe a thing,

That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art Servile to all the fkiey influences

2

That do this habitation, where thou keep'ft,

9 Be abfolute for death.] Ee determined to die, without any hope of life. Horace. -The hour which exceeds expecta

tion will be welcome.

That none but fools would keep.] But this reading is not on y contrary to all Senfe and Reafon; but to the Drift of this moral Difcourfe. The Duke, in his affum'd Character of a Friar, is endeavouring to inftil into the condemn'd Prifoner a Refignation of Mind to his Sentence; but the Senfe of the Lines, in this Reading, is a direct Perfuafive to Suicide: I make no Doubt, but the Poet wrote,

That none but fools would reck. i. e, care for, be anxious about, regret the lofs of, So in the