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Isab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio.
This is the point.
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action; but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions), hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith

Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
Isab. Doth he so seek his life?
Lucio.

Has censur'd him

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Assay the power you have. Isab. My power! Alas! I doubt,

Lucio.

Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt: go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs

As they themselves would owe them.
Isab. I'll see what I can do.
Lucio.

But, speedily.
Isab. I will about it straight;
No longer staying but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you :
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Isab.
Good sir, adieu.

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.-A Hall in Angelo's house.

Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants.

Ang. We must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch, and not their terror.

Escal.

Ay, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
Than fall, and bruise to death: alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
Let but your honour know,

(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not, sometime in your life,
Err'd in this point which now you censure him,

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The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence,
For I have had such faults; but rather tell me
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Escal. Be it as your wisdom will.
Where is the provost?
Prov. Here, if it like your honour.
Ang.

Ang.

See that Claudi

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

Exit Proves
Escal. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive as
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none;
And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c.

Elb. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but ase their abuses in common houses, I know no law; bring them away.

Ang. How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?

Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor dake constable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.

Ang. Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they are they not malefactors?

Elb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are: but precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good christians ought to have.

Escal. This comes off well; here's a wise office. Ang. Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Clo. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow. Ang. What are you, sir?

Elb. He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, pluck'd down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very house too.

Escal. How know you that?

Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,—

Escal. How! thy wife?

Elb. Ay sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest

woman,

Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore? Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

Escal. How dost thou know that, constable? Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanle ness there.

Escal. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means: bat as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

Clo. Sir, if it please your honour, this it not so. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou bonourable man, prove it.

Escal. Do you hear how he misplaces? (To Angela.

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Escal. Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir.

Cio. No indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right: but, to the point: as I say, this mistress Ebow, being, as I say, with child, and being great belly'd, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said, master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly;-for, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you three-pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

Clo. Very well: you being then, if you be remember'd, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes. Froth. Ay, so I did, indeed.

Clo. Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remember'd, that such a one, and such a one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you.

Froth. All this is true.

Clo. Why, very well then.

Escal. Come, you are a tedious fool to the purDose-What was done to Elbow's wife, that he ath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to her.

Clo. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
Escal. No, sir, uor I mean it not.

Co. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your hoter's leave: and, I beseech you, look into master Foth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound a year; #se father died at Hallowmas :-Was't not at Hallowmas, master Froth?

Froth. All-hollond eve.

Clo. Why, very well; I hope here be truths: he, ar, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir;-'twas in he Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a Jeight to sit : have you not?

Froth. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter.

Cle. Why, very well then;-I hope here be truths. Ang. This will last out a night in Russia,

en nights are longest there: I'll take my leave, And leave you to the hearing of the cause; doing, you'll find good cause to whip them all. Escal. I think no less: good morrow to your lordship. (Exit Angelo. Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife,

ace more?

Clo. Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once. Eh. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man hd to my wife.

Clo. I beseech your honour, ask me.
Escal. Well, sir: what did this gentleman to her?
Co. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's
-Good master Froth, look upon his honour;
fir a good purpose: doth your honour mark his
Escal. Ay, sir, very well.
(face?

Clo. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
Estal. Well, I do so.

Cio. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
Escal. Why, no.

at of your honour.

Clo. I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the orst thing about him: good then; if his face be worst thing about him, how could master Froth the constable's wife any harm? I would know [to it? Escal. He's in the right: constable, what say you Elb. First, an it like you, the house is a respected ase; next, this is a respected fellow; and his tress is a respected woman.

C. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more repected person than any of us all.

Eb. Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet:

the time is yet to come, that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child.

Clo. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.

Escal. Which is the wiser here? justice, or ini quity?-Is this true?

Elb. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I respected with her, before I was married to her! If ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me the poor duke's officer:-Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of battery on thee.

Escal. If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your action of slander too.

Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it: what is't your worship's pleasure I should do with this wicked caitiff?

Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some of fences in him, that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses, till thou know'st what they are.

Elb. Marry, I thank your worship for it :-Thou see'st, thou wicked varlet now, what's come upon thee; thou art to continue now, thou varlet; thou

art to continue.

Escal. Where were you born, friend? (ToFroth.)
Froth. Here in Vienna, sir.

Escal. Are you of fourscore pounds a-year?
Froth. Yes, and't please you, sir.
Escal. So. What trade are you of, sir?
(To the Clown.)
Clo. A tapster; a poor widow's tapster.
Escal. Your mistress's name?
Clo. Mistress Over-done.

Escal. Hath she had any more than one husband?
Clo. Nine, sir; Over-done by the last.

Escal. Nine!--Come hither to me, master Froth. Master Froth, I would not have you acquainted with tapsters; they will draw you, master Froth, and you will hang them: get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.

Froth. I thank your worship: for mine own part, I never come into any room in a taphouse, but I am drawn in.

Escal. Well; no more of it, master Froth, farewell. [Exit Froth.]-Come you hither to me, master tapster; what's your name, master tapster? Clo. Pompey.

Escal. What else? Clo. Bum, sir.

Escal. Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster. Are you not? come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you.

Clo. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow, that would live. Escal. How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?

Clo. If the law would allow it, sir.

Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna.

Clo. Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the youths in the city?

Escal. No, Pompey.

Clo. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then if your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.

:

Escal. There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you: it is but heading and hanging.

Clo. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If this law hold

in Vienna ten years, I'll rent the fairest house in it, after three-pence a bay: if you live to see this come to pass, say Pompey told you so.

Escal. Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy, hark you,-I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint

whatsoever, no, not for dwelling where you do: if I | Let her have needful, but not lavish, means:
do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove There shall be order for it.
a shrewd Cæsar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey,
shall have you whipt: so for this time, Pompey, fare
you well.

Clo. I thank your worship for your good counsel; but I shall follow it, as the flesh and fortune shalĺ better determine.

Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade;
The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade. [Exit.
Escal. Come hither to me, master Elbow; come
hither, master constable. How long have you been
in this place of constable?

Elb. Seven years and a half, sir.

Escal. I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had continued in it some time: you say, seven years together?

Elb. And a half, sir.

Escal. Alas! it hath been great pains to you! They do you wrong to put you so oft upon't; are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it?

Elb. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all.

Escal. Look you, bring me in the name of some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish. Elb. To your worship's house, sir?

Escal. To my house fare you well. [Exit Elbow. What's o'clock, think you?

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.

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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.
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 cypher 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.) Giv'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 b
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 wo
wrong,

If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse
As mine is to him?

Ang.
He's sentenc'd; 'tis too lat
Lucio. You are too cold.
(To Isabell
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! would 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.

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.

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 t
[spare him

morrow.

Isab. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare his He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven

[you :

[slept :

With less respect than we do minister
To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink
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
Those many had not dar'd to do that evil,
If the first man, that did the edict infringe,
dad answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake;
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Loks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
Ether now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no successive 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 sen

tence;

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Isab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
For every pelting, petty officer,

Would use his heaven for thunder: nothing but
Merciful heaven!
[thunder.-

a rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
yst the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
han the soft myrtle ;-O, but man, proud man!
rest in a little brief authority;

dost ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
lus glassy essence,-like an angry ape,
Mays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

a make the angels weep; who, with our spleens, Vould all themselves laugh mortal.

Lacio. O, to him, to him, wench: he will relent; l's coming, I perceive 't. Prov. Pray heaven, she win him! Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: reat men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; lat in the less, foul profanation.

Lecio. Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o' that. Isub. That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Vrch in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lucio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't. Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? Isab. Because authority, though it err like others, lath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

wat skins the vice o' the top: go to your bosom; nock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know ast's like my brother's fault: if it confess

A satural guiltiness, such as is his,

et it not sound a thought upon your tongue izainst ray brother's life.

She speaks, and 'tis

Ang. sah sense, that my sense breeds with it.-Fare you Lab. Gentle my lord, turn back. [well. Ang. I will bethink me:-Come again to-morrow. Isab. Hark! how I'll bribe you: good my lord, Ang. How! bribe me? [turn back.

Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share

with you.

Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold, Or stones, whose rates are either rich, or poor, As fancy values them: but with true prayers, That shall be up at heaven, and enter there, Ere sun-rise: prayers from preserved souls, from fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

Ang. I-morrow.

Well: : come to me

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Shall I attend your worship? Ang.

Isab. Save your honour!

Ang.

At any time 'fore noon.

[enough,

[Exeunt Lucio, Isabella, and Provost.
From thee; even from thy virtue !-
What's this? what's this? Is this her fault, or mine?
The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!
Not she; nor doth she tempt: but it is I,
That lying by the violet, in the sun,
Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be,
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there? O, fy, fy, fy!
What dost thou? or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully, for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live:
Thieves for their robbery have authority,
When judges steal themselves. What? do I love
That I desire to hear her speak again,
[her,
And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue; never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite :-Ever, till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how.

(Exit

SCENE III-A Room in a Prison.
Enter Duke, habited like 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?

I come to visit the afflicted spirits
Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd order,

Here in the prison: do me the common right
To let me see them; and to make me know
The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
To them accordingly.

(needful. Prov. I would do more than that, if more were Enter JULIET.

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

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repent,

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven;

Lucio. Go to; it is well; away. (Aside to Isabel.) Showing, we'd not spare heaven, as we love it,

H

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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;

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,
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 sonls
To thy false seeming? Blood, thou still art blood:
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
'Tis not the devil's crest.

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How now, fair maid?
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!
[Retiring.

Ang. Yet may he live a while; and, it may be, 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, That his soul sicken not.

Ang. Ha! Fy, 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,
In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made,
As to put mettle in restrained means,
To make a false one.

Isab. "Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.
Ang. Say you so? then I shall poze 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?
Sir, believe this,

Isab.

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I'll take it as a peril to my soul. It is no sin at all, but charity.

Please you to dot,

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, Were equal poize 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, 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.

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 those black masks Proclaim an enshield beanty ten times louder Than beauty could displayed-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 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, Finding yourself desir'd of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, Could fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-binding 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 let him saffer; What would you do?

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

Ang.

Then must your brother de Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way: 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?

Isab. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy is Nothing a-kin to foul redemption.

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant. And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother A merriment than a vice.

Isab. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we'd 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 by weakness.
Ang.

Nay, women are frail to Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view the

selves;

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 frai For we are soft as our complexions are,

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