Chapter: SCENE III.


_A room in a prison._

  _Enter, severally, DUKE disguised as a friar, and PROVOST._

_Duke._ Hail to you, provost!--so I think you are.

_Prov._ I am the provost. What's your will, good friar?

_Duke._ Bound by my charity and my blest order,
I come to visit the afflicted spirits
Here in the prison. Do me the common right                           5
To let me see them, and to make me know
The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
To them accordingly.

_Prov._ I would do more than that, if more were needful.

  _Enter JULIET._

Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,                        10
Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report: she is with child;
And he that got it, sentenced; a young man
More fit to do another such offence
Than die for this.                                                  15

_Duke._          When must he die?

_Prov._                          As I do think, to-morrow.
I have provided for you: stay awhile,    [_To Juliet._
And you shall be conducted.

_Duke._ Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

_Jul._ I do; and bear the shame most patiently.                     20

_Duke._ I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,
And try your penitence, if it be sound,
Or hollowly put on.

_Jul._            I'll gladly learn.

_Duke._ Love you the man that wrong'd you?

_Jul._ Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.                   25

_Duke._ So, then, it seems your most offenceful act
Was mutually committed?

_Jul._                Mutually.

_Duke._ Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.

_Jul._ I do confess it, and repent it, father.

_Duke._ 'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent,             30
As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,
Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven,
Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,
But as we stand in fear,--

_Jul._ I do repent me, as it is an evil,                            35
And take the shame with joy.

_Duke._                    There rest.
Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him.
Grace go with you, _Benedicite!_    [_Exit._

_Jul._ Must die to-morrow! O injurious love,                        40
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror!

_Prov._                'Tis pity of him.    [_Exeunt._


  NOTES: II, 3.

  SCENE III.] SCENE IX. Pope. Act III. SCENE I. Johnson conj.
  7: _crimes that I may_] _several crimes that I May_ Seymour conj.
  9: Enter JULIET] Transferred by Dyce to line 15.
  11: _flaws_] F3 F4. _flawes_ F1 F2. _flames_ Warburton
    (after Davenant).
  26: _offenceful_] _offence full_ F1.
  30: _lest you do repent_] F4. _least you do repent_ F1 F2 F3.
    _repent you not_ Pope.
  33: _we would not spare_] Ff. _we'd not seek_ Pope.
    _we'd not spare_ Malone. _we would not serve_ Collier MS.
    _we'd not appease_ Singer conj.
  36: _There rest_] _Tis well; there rest_ Hammer.
  39: _Grace_] _So grace_ Pope. _May grace_ Steevens conj.
    _All grace_ Seymour conj. _Grace go with you_ is assigned to Juliet
    by Dyce (Ritson conj.).
  40: _love_] _law_ Hanmer.

 Meanwhile, the Duke shows up at the prison disguised as a friar so he can "minister" to the inmates. Juliet enters and the Provost tells the Duke/Friar that Juliet is going to have a baby out of wedlock and her baby daddy is sentenced to die tomorrow. The Duke/Friar asks Juliet if she repents her sin. She does. The Duke wants to know if the sex was consensual. It was. Juliet says that her sin was bigger than Claudio's. The Duke/Friar tells Juliet he's off to see Claudio, who is set to die tomorrow. Juliet is shocked to hear of Claudio's punishment and says as much.

