To be received plain, I 'll speak more gross:
Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

Ang. And his offense is so, as it appears,
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 sis-
ter,

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
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.

90. That is, conversation that tends to nothing.-H. N. H.

"in the loss of question"; in the embarrassment of discussion; simply as a means of making my point clear.-C. H. H.

103. "That longing have been sick for"; Rowe suggested, “I've been sick for.”—I. G.

Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way:

Better it were a brother died at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die forever.

Ang. Were not you, then, as cruel as the sentence have slander'd so?

That

you

Isab. Ignomy in ransom and free pardon

Are of two houses: lawful mercy

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

110

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather proved the sliding of your brother 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. 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.

120

Isab. Aye, as the glasses where they view themselves;

Which are as easy broke as they make forms.

122-124. A very obscure passage. The original reads, thy weakness, which fairly defies explanation. The word this is adopted by Mr. Collier from an old manuscript note in a copy of the first folio belonging to Lord Francis Egerton. With this change, the passage, though still obscure, makes good sense enough: "If we are not all frail,-if my brother have no feodary, that is, no companion, one holding by the same tenure of frailty,-if he alone be found to own and succeed to this weakness,-then let him die."—H. N. H. 125. The comparison is proverbial: "Glasses and lasses are brittle ware" (Hazlitt, English Proverbs).-C. H. H.

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.

130

I think it well:
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;
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.
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,

Which seems a little fouler than it is,

To pluck on others.

Ang.

Believe me, on mine honor,

My words express my purpose.

141

127. The meaning appears to be, that men debase their natures by taking advantage of women's weakness. She therefore calls on Heaven to assist them.-H. N. H.

145-147. That is, your virtue assumes an air of licentiousness, which is not natural to you, on purpose to try me.-H. N. H.

Isab. Ha! little honor 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, 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,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering suffrance. Answer me to-mor-

row,

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 [Exit. 170 Isab. To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,

true.

162. "prolixious blushes" means what Milton has elegantly called *sweet reluctant amorous delay."-H. N. H.

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;
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 honor,
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.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.

[Exit.

172. "O perilous mouths"; the line is defective as it stands (?) "O pernicious mouths" (Walker), or "these perilous" (Seymour).— I. G.