Chapter: SCENE IV.

_A room in ANGELO'S house._

  _Enter ANGELO._

_Ang._ When I would pray and think, I think and pray
To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name;                                  5
And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception. The state, whereon I studied,
Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,
Wherein--let no man hear me--I take pride,                          10
Could I with boot change for an idle plume,
Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood:                        15
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn;
'Tis not the devil's crest.

  _Enter a _Servant_._

                            How now! who's there?

_Serv._ One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

_Ang._ Teach her the way. O heavens!
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,                          20
Making both it unable for itself,
And dispossessing all my other parts
Of necessary fitness?
So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons:
Come all to help him, and so stop the air                           25
By which he should revive: and even so
The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offence.

  _Enter ISABELLA._

                          How now, fair maid?                       30

_Isab._ I am come to know your pleasure.

_Ang._ That you might know it, would much better please me
Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.

_Isab._ Even so.--Heaven keep your honour!

_Ang._ Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be,                      35
As long as you or I: yet he must die.

_Isab._ Under your sentence?

_Ang._ Yea.
_Isab._ When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,
Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted                              40
That his soul sicken not.

_Ang._ Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit
Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image                   45
In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made,
As to put metal in restrained means
To make a false one.

_Isab._ 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.               50

_Ang._ Say you so? then I shall pose you quickly.
Which had you rather,--that the most just law
Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
As she that he hath stain'd?

_Isab._                    Sir, believe this,                       55
I had rather give my body than my soul.

_Ang._ I talk not of your soul: our compell'd sins
Stand more for number than for accompt.

_Isab._                               How say you?

_Ang._ Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak
Against the thing I say. Answer to this:--                          60
I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:
Might there not be a charity in sin
To save this brother's life?

_Isab._                    Please you to do't,
I'll take it as a peril to my soul,                                 65
It is no sin at all, but charity.

_Ang._ Pleased you to do't at peril of your soul,
Were equal poise of sin and charity.

_Isab._ That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,                     70
If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer.

_Ang._                    Nay, but hear me.
Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,
Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.                          75

_Isab._ Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,
But graciously to know I am no better.

_Ang._ Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright
When it doth tax itself; as these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder                        80
Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me;
To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:
Your brother is to die.

_Isab._ So.

_Ang._ And his offence is so, as it appears,                        85
Accountant to the law upon that pain.

_Isab._ True.

_Ang._ Admit no other way to save his life,--
As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question,--that you, his sister,                 90
Finding yourself desired of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-building law; and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either                        95
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;
What would you do?

_Isab._ As much for my poor brother as myself:
That is, were I under the terms of death,                          100
The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield
My body up to shame.

_Ang._             Then must your brother die.

_Isab._ And 'twere the cheaper way:                                105
Better it were a brother died at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

_Ang._ Were not you, then, as cruel as the sentence
That you have slander'd so?                                        110

_Isab._ Ignomy in ransom and free pardon
Are of two houses: lawful mercy
Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

_Ang._ You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;
And rather proved the sliding of your brother                      115
A merriment than a vice.

_Isab._ O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,
To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean:
I something do excuse the thing I hate,
For his advantage that I dearly love.                              120

_Ang._ We are all frail.

_Isab._                Else let my brother die,
If not a feodary, but only he
Owe and succeed thy weakness.

_Ang._ Nay, women are frail too.

_Isab._ Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;             125
Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
Women!--Help Heaven! men their creation mar
In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail;
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints.

_Ang._                       I think it well:                      130
And from this testimony of your own sex,--
Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames,--let me be bold;--
I do arrest your words. Be that you are,
That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;                     135
If you be one,--as you are well express'd
By all external warrants,--show it now,
By putting on the destined livery.

_Isab._ I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,
Let me entreat you speak the former language.                      140

_Ang._ Plainly conceive, I love you.

_Isab._ My brother did love Juliet,
And you tell me that he shall die for it.

_Ang._ He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

_Isab._ I know your virtue hath a license in't,                    145
Which seems a little fouler than it is,
To pluck on others.

_Ang._            Believe me, on mine honour,
My words express my purpose.

_Isab._ Ha! little honour to be much believed,
And most pernicious purpose!--Seeming, seeming!--                  150
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud
What man thou art.

_Ang._           Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,                      155
My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun;
And now I give my sensual race the rein:                           160
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death,                            165
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow.
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.    [_Exit._       170

_Isab._ To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof;
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;                       175
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That, had he twenty heads to tender down                           180
On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
More than our brother is our chastity.                             185
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.    [_Exit._


  NOTES: II, 4.

  SCENE IV.] SCENE X. Pope.
  2: _empty_] om. Seymour conj.
  3: _invention_] _intention_ Pope.
  4: _Heaven_] _Heaven's_ Rowe. _Heaven is_ Capell.
  5: _his_] _its_ Pope.
  9: _fear'd_] _scar'd_ Hanmer. _sear_ Heath conj. _stale_ Anon. conj.
    See note (IX).
  10: _take_] _took_ Seymour conj.
  12: _for vain. O place,_] F4. _for vaine. O place,_ F1 F2 F3.
    _for vane. O place,_ or _for vane o' the place._ Manlone conj.
  15: _thou art blood_] _thou art but blood_ Pope.
    _thou still art blood_ Malone.
  17: _'Tis not_] _Is't not_ Hanmer. _'Tis yet_ Johnson conj.
  18: _desires_] _asks_ Pope.
  21: _both it_] _both that_ Pope. _it both_ Collier MS.
  22: _all_] om. Hanmer, who makes lines 19-23 end at
    _blood, both that, dispossessing, fitness._
  27: _subject_] F1 F2 F3. _subjects_ F4.
  28: _part_] _path_ Collier MS.
  31: SCENE XI. Pope.
  33: _demand_] _declare_ Hanmer.
  _Your brother_] _He_ Hanmer.
  34: _your honour_] _you_ Hanmer.
  45: _sweetness_] _lewdness_ Hanmer.
  46: _easy_] _just_ Hanmer.
  48: _metal_] Theobald. _mettle_ Ff.
  _means_] _mints_ Steevens conj. _moulds_ Malone conj.
  50: _'Tis ... earth_] _'Tis so set down in earth but not in heaven_
    Johnson conj.
  51: _Say_] _And say_ Pope. _Yea, say_ S. Walker conj. ending lines
    50, 51 at _heaven, then I._
  53: _or_] Rowe (after Davenant), _and_ Ff.
  58: _for accompt_] _accompt_ Pope.
  68: _Were ... charity._] _Were't ... charity?_ Hanmer.
    _'Twere ... charity._ Seymour conj.
  70: _of_] om. Pope.
  71: _make it my morn prayer_] _make't my morning prayer_ Hanmer.
  73: _your_] _yours_ Johnson conj.
  75: _craftily_] Rowe (after Davenant). _crafty_ Ff.
  76: _me_] om. F1.
  80: _enshield_] _in-shell'd_ Tyrwhitt conj.
  81: _mark me_] _mark me well_ Hanmer.
  90: _loss_] _loose_ Singer MS. _toss_ Johnson conj. _list_ Heath conj.
    _force_ Collier MS.
  94: _all-building_] Ff. _all-holding_ Rowe. _all-binding_ Johnson.
    See note (X).
  97: _to let_] _let_ Hanmer.
  103: _have_] _I've_ Rowe. _I have_ Capell. _had_ Knight.
    See note (XI).
  _sick_] _seek_ Johnson (a misprint).
  104, 105: Capell (conj.) and Collier end the first line at _must_.
  106: _at_] _for_ Johnson conj.
  111: _Ignomy in_] _Ignomie in_ F1. _Ignominy in_ F2 F3 F4.
    _An ignominious_ Pope.
  112, 113: _mercy Is nothing kin_] Ff. _mercy sure
    Is nothing kin_ Pope. _mercy is Nothing akin_ Steevens.
    See note (XII).
  117: _oft_] _very oft_ Hanmer, who ends lines 116, 117 at _me ...
    have_.
  118: _we would_] _we'd_ Steevens. This line printed as two in Ff.
  122: _feodary_] F2 F3 F4. _fedarie_ F1.
  123: _thy weakness_] _by weakness_ Rowe. _to weakness_ Capell.
    _this weakness_ Harness (Malone conj.).
  126: _make_] _take_ Johnson conj.
  127: _their_] _thy_ Edd. conj.
  135: _you be_] _you're_ Pope.
  140: _former_] _formal_ Warburton.
  143: _for it_] Pope. _for't_ Ff.
  153: Pope ends the line at _world_.
  163: _redeem_] _save_ Pope.
  171: _should_] _shall_ Steevens.
  172: _perilous_] _most perilous_ Theobald. _these perilous_
    Seymour conj. _pernicious_ S. Walker conj.
  175: _court'sy_] _curtsie_ Ff.
  179: _mind_] _mine_ Jackson conj.
  185: Inverted commas prefixed to this line in Ff.

 At his house in Vienna, Angelo tells the audience that he's been praying a lot lately, but even when he prays, he thinks of Isabella, which makes him feel slimy. A servant announces that Isabella has arrived and Angelo gets all hot and bothered. Isabella enters and Angelo tells her immediately that Claudio must die. Angelo declares that pardoning a fornicator like Claudio would be as bad as pardoning a murderer and then compares illegitimate children to counterfeit coins. Isabella points out that divine law forbids murder and fornication equally, but earthly law says that murder is worse. Angelo slyly asks Isabella if she would rather "give up body to such sweet uncleanness" or have her brother sentenced to death . Isabella doesn't understand what Claudio is getting at and replies that she'd rather give her "body" than her "soul." Angelo propositions her again and, once more, Isabella doesn't catch his drift. Angelo notes that Isabella is either completely clueless or she's craftily pretending she doesn't know what he means. Angelo finally comes right out and asks what Isabella would do if she had a choice between letting Claudio die or "lay down the treasures of body" to save his life . Isabella says she'd rather die than "yield body up to shame" . Angelo says fine, your brother is going to die. Isabella says that sleeping with a man would be like a death for her. Angelo accuses her of being as cruel as the death penalty and then claims that he loves Isabella. Isabella points out that her brother loves Juliet and he's been sentenced to death for it. She threatens to tell on Angelo if he doesn't set her brother free immediately. Angelo points out that nobody will believe her because he is an important and well-respected member of the community. Also, if Isabella doesn't agree to sleep with him, Angelo is going to make sure Claudio's death is long and painful. Isabella's got until tomorrow to decide. Isabella delivers a "woe is me" type speech and says she'll go to her brother immediately. She's certain that Claudio will agree with her that her chastity is far more important than his life.

