But yet, poor Claudio! there's no remedy. Come, Sir. SCENE [Exeunt. VI. Enter Provost, and a Servant. Serv. He's hearing of a caufe; he will come ftraight: I'll tell him of you. Prov. Pray you, do; I'll know His pleasure; 't may be, he'll relent; alas! All fects, all ages fmack of this vice; and he Enter Angelo. Ang. Now, what's the matter, Provoft? Prov. Is it your will, Claudio fhall die to morrow? Ang. Did not I tell thee, yea? hadft thou not order? Why doft thou ask again? Prov. Left I might be too rafh. Under your good correction, I have seen, When, after execution, judgment hath Repented o'er his doom. Ang. Go to; let that be mine, Do you your office, or give up your place, Prov. I crave your pardon. What shall be done, Sir, with the groaning Juliet? She's very near her hour. Ang. Difpofe of her To fome more fitting place, and that with speed. Ang. Hath he a fifter? Prov. Ay, my good lord, a very virtuous maid, And to be fhortly of a fifter-hood, If not already. Ang. Ang. Well, let her be admitted. See the fornicatrefs be remov'd; you, [Exit Servant. Let her have needful, but not lavish, means; S C CEN E VII. Enter Lucio and Ifabella. Prov. 'Save your honour. Ang. Stay yet a while. your will? Y'are welcome; what's Ifab. I am a woful fuitor to your Honour, Please but your Honour hear me. Ang. Well, what's your fuit? Ifab. There is a vice that most I do abhor, Ifab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die; And not my brother. Prov. Heav'n give thee moving graces! Ang. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? To find the faults, whofe fine ftands in record, Ifab. O juft, but severe law! I had a brother then; heav'n keep your Honour! Lucio. Give not o'er fo: to him again, intreat him, Ifab. Muft he needs die? Ang.! Ang. Maiden, no remedy. Ifab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him; And neither heav'n, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do't. Ifab. But can you, if you would? Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. Ifab. But might you do't, and do the world no wrong, If fo your heart were touch'd with that remorse, Ang. He's fentenc'd; 'tis too late. Lucio. You are too cold. Ifab. 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 fword, "The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, "Become them with one half fo good a grace, "As mercy does: if he had been as you, And you as he, you would have flipt like him; But he, like you, would not have been so stern. Ang. Pray you, be gone. Ifab. I wou'd to heav'n I had your potency, Lucio. Ay, touch him; there's the vein. Ifab. Alas! alas! 3 "Why, all the fouls that are, were forfeit once: "And he, that might the 'vantage best have took, "Found out the remedy. How would you be, 3-all the fouls that WERE,] This is falfe divinity. We fhould read ARE. If he, which is the top of judgment, fhould "But judge you, as you are? oh, 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. He's not prepar'd for death: Even for our kitchins [you: To our grofs felves? good, good my lord, bethink Lucio. Ay, well faid. Ang. The law hath not been dead, tho' it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, If the first man that did th' edict infringe, Had anfwer'd for his deed. Now, 'tis awake; 4 And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made.] This is a fine thought, and finely expreffed: The meaning is, that mercy will add fuch grace to your perfon, that you will appear as amiable as man come fre out of the hands of his creator. 5 like a prophet, Looks in a glafs] This alludes to the fopperies of the Berril, much ufed at that time by cheats and fortune-teliers to predict by. [(a) But ere they live, Oxford Edit. Vulg. But here they live.] Ifab. Yet fhew fome pity. 66 ; Ang. I fhew it most of all, when I fhew justice; "For then I pity those, I do not know "Which a difmifs'd offence would after gaul; And do him right, that, anfwering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be fatisfy'd; Your brother dies to-morrow; be content. Ifab. So you must be the first, that gives this fen tence; - And he, that fuffers: oh, 'tis excellent To have a giant's ftrength; but it is tyrannous, Lucio. That's well faid. Ifab. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet; Would ufe his heav'n for thunder; Nothing but thunder: merciful heav'n! • Thou rather with thy fharp, and fulph'rous, bolt 'Split'ft the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, Than the foft myrtle: O, but man! proud man, • Dreft in a little brief authority, • Moft ignorant of what he's most affur'd, Plays fuch fantaftick tricks before high heav'n, • Would all themselves laugh mortal. Lucio. 6 As makes the angels weep; ] The notion of angels weeping for the fins of men is rabbinical. gelos inducunt Hebræorum magiftri. Ob peccatum fentes an- 7 who, with our spleens, Would all themselves laugh mortal.] Mr. Theobald fays the meaning of this is, that if they were endowed with our Spleens and perishable organs, they would laugh themselves out of immortality: Which amounts to this, that if they were mortal they would not be immortal. Shakespear meant no fuch nonfenfe. By Spleens, he meant that peculiar turn of the human mind, that always violently inclines it to a fpiteful, unfeasonable mirth. Had VOL. I. C c the |