Just. Eleven, sir.

Escal. I pray you home to dinner with me.
Just. I humbly thank you.

Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio; But there's no remedy.

Just. Lord Angelo is severe.

Escal.

It is but needful:

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:

But yet,-Poor Claudio!-There's no remedy.
Come, sir.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Room in the same.

Enter Provost and a Servant.

Serv. He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight.

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!-

Ang.

Enter ANGELO.

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:

I crave your honour's pardon.

Do you your office, or give up your place, you shall well be spar'd.

And

Prov.

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!

[Offering to retire.

Ang. Stay a little while.-[To ISAB.] You are welcome: What's your will?

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.

'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

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 find the faults, whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.

O just, but severe law!

Isab. 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"
As mine is to him?

5

Ang.

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

[To ISABELLA.

Lucio. You are too cold.

let it be his fault,

And not my brother.] i. e. let his fault be condemned, or extirpated, but let not my brother himself suffer.

touch'd with that remorse] Remorse, for pity.

Isab. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word,
May call it back again: Well believe this,
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, were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy: How would
you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made."

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-mor

row.

Isab. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him :

"And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.] As amiable as a man come fresh out of the hands of his Creator; or, as tender-hearted and merciful as the first man was in his days of innocence, immediately after his creation.

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season; 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 :

Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,

If the first man that did the edict infringe,
Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no súccessive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.

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,

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.

8 like a prophet,

Looks in a glass,] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, a kind of crystal, which hath a weak tincture of red in it. Among other tricks of astrologers, the discovery of past or future events was supposed to be the consequence of looking into it.

9 But, where they live, to end.] i. e. they should end WHERE they began, i. e. with the criminal.