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.

Do you your office, or give up your place,

Go to; let that be mine:

I crave your honour's pardon.

And shall well be spar'd.

you

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
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

Prov.

brother. 5

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.

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.

3 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.

London Published by F.C.&J. Rivington and Partners. Feb 1823.

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, heart were touch'd with that remorse"

If so

your As mine is to him?

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: 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. Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words.

Alas! alas!

Isab.
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. 7

6

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

7 And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

[Aside.

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.