ISABELLA

And have you Nuns no farther privileges? Yes truly; I speak not as desiring more, But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the Sisterstood, the Votarists of Saint Clare. Peace and prosperity: who is't that calls? Why her unhappy Brother? Let me ask, The rather for I now must make you know I am that Isabella, and his Sister. Woe me; for what? Sir, make me not your story. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Some one with child by him? my cousin Juliet ? Adoptedly, as schoole-maids change their names By vain, though apt affection. O, let him marry her. Does he so, Seek his life? Alas: what poor Abilitie's in me, to do him good. My power? alas, I doubt. I'll see what I can do. I will about it strait; 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. Good sir, adieu. Hark, how I'll bribe you: good my Lord turn back. And 'twer the cheaper way: Better it were a brother died at once, Then that a sister, by redeeming him Should die for ever. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon Are of two houses: lawful mercy, Is nothing kin to fowl redemption. 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. Else let my brother die, If not a fedarie but only he Owe, and succeed thy weakness. I, as the glasses where they view themselves, 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. I have no tongue but one; gentle my Lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language. My brother did love Juliet, And you tell me that he shall die for't. I know your virtue hath a licence in't, Which seems a little fouler then it is, To pluck on others. Would? Little honour, to be much believed, And most pernicious purpose: Seeming, seeming. I will proclaim thee Angelo, look for't. Sign me a present pardon for my brother, Or with and outstretched throat I'll tell the world aloud What man thou art. To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, Who would believe me? Oh perilous mouths That bear in them, one and the selfsame tongue, Either of condemnation, or approof, Bidding the Law make curtsy to their will, Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite, To follow as it draws. I'll to my brother, Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood, Yet hath he in him such a mind of Honour, That had he twenty heads to tender down On twenty bloody blocks, hee'ld yield them up, Before his sister should her body stoop, To such abhorred pollution. Then Isabel live chaste, and brother die; "More then our Brother, is our Chastity. I'll tell him yet of Angelo is request, And fit his mind to death, for his souls rest. My business is a word or two with Claudio. Why, As all comforts are: most good, most good indeed, Lord Angelo having affairs to heaven Intends you for his swift Ambassador, Where you shall be and everlasting Leiger; Therefore your best appointment make with speed, To Morrow you set on. None, but such remedy, as to save a head To cleave a heart in twain: Yes brother, you may live; There is a devilish mercy in the Judge, If you'll implore it, that will free your life, But fetter you till death. I joust, perpetual durance, a restraint Through all the world's vastidity you had To a determined scope. In such a one, as you consenting too't, Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked. O, I do fear thee Claudio, and I quake, Least thou a fevorous life shouldst entertain, And six or seven winter's more respect Then a perpetual Honour. Darest thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension, And the poor Beetle that we tread upon In corporal sufferance, finds a pang as great. As when a Giant die. There spoke my brother: there my father's graven Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die: Thou art too noble to conserve a life In base appliances. This outward sainted Deputy, Whose settled visagn, and deliberate word Nips youth in that head, and follies does new As Falcon does the Foul, is yet a devil: His filth within being cast, he would appear A pond, as deep as hell. O it's the cunning Livery of hell, The damnest body to invest, and cover In prenzie guards; dost thou think Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity Thou mightest be freed? Yes, he would giu`t thee; from this rank offence So to offend him still. This night's the time That I should do what I abhor to name, Or else thou diest to morrow. Oh, were it but my life, I'de throw it down for your deliverance As frankly as a pin. Be ready Claudio, for your death to morrow. Which is the least? What says my brother? And shamed life, a hateful. Alas, alas. O you beast, O faithless Coward, o dishonest wretch, Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice? Is't not a kind of Incest, to take life From thine own sisters shame? What should I think, Heaven shield my Mother played my Father fair: For such a warped slip of wilderness Near issued from his blood. Take my defiance, Die, perish: Might but my bending down Repreeve thee from thy fate, it should proceed. I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death, No word to save thee. O fie, fie, fie: Thy sin's not accidental, but a Trade; Mercy to thee would prove it self a Bawd, It's best that thou diest quickly. What is your Will. I have no superfluous leisure, my stay must be stolen out of other affairs: but I will attend you a while. I have herd of the Lady, and good words went with her name. Little have you to say When you depart from him, but soft and low, Remember now my brother. Peace hoa, be here. Hoa, by your leave. The better given me by so holy a man, Hath yet the Deputy sent my brother's pardon? Nay, but it is not so. O, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes. Unhappy Claudio, wretched Isabel, Injurious world, most damned Angelo. I am directed by you. To speak so in directly I am loath, I would say the truth; but to accuse him so That is your partly, ye I m advised to do it, He says, to veil full purpose. It is not truer he is Angelo, Then this is all as true, as it is strange; Nay, it is ten times true, for truth is truth To the end of reckoning. O Prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest There is another comfort, then this world, That thou neglect me not, with that opinion That I am touched with madness: make not impossible That which but seems unlike, it's not impossible But one, the wickedest caitiff on the ground May seem as shy, as graven, as joust, as absolute: As Angelo, even so may Angelo In all his dressings, caracts, titles, forms, Be and arch-villain: Believe it, royal Prince If he be less, he's nothing, but he's more, Had I more name for badness. One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick. I am a woeful Suitor to your Honour, Please but your Honour hear me. 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, betwixt will, and will not. I have a brother is condemned to die, I do beseech you let it be his fault, And not my brother. O joust, but severe Law: I had a brother then; heaven keep your honour. Must he needs die? Yes: I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven, nor man grieve at the mercy. But can you if you would? But might you doe't & do the world no wrong If so your heart were touched with that remorse, As mine is to him? Too late? why no: I that do speak a word May call it again: well, believe this No ceremony that to great ones longs, Not the Kings Crown; nor the deputed sword, The Marshals Truncheon, nor the Judges 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 slipped Like him, but he Like you Would not have been so stern. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel: should it then be thus? No: I would tell what 'twere to be a Judge, And what a prisoner. Alas, alas: 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 Judgement, should But judge you, as you are? O, think on that, And mercy then will breathe within your lips Like man new made. To morrow? o, that's sudden, Spare him, spare him: He's not prepared for death; even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven With less respect then we do minister To our grosse-selues? good, good my Lord, bethink you; Who is it that hath died for this offence? There's many have committed it. Yet show some pity. So you must be y e first that gives this sentence, And he, that suffers: O, it is excellent To have a Giants strength: but it is tyrannous To use it Like a Giant. Could great men thunder As Jove himself do's, Jove would never be quiet, For every pelting petty Officer Would use his heaven for thunder; Nothing but thunder: Merciful heaven, Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bol Splits the vn-wedgable and gnarled Oak, Then, the soft Mertill: But man, proud man, Dressed in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assured, (His glassy Essence) Like and angry Ape Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As makes the Angels weep: who with our spleens, Would all themselves laugh mortal. We cannot weigh our brother with our self, Great men may jest with Saints: 'tis wit in them, But in the less fowl profanation. That in the Captain's but a choleric word, Which in the Soldier is flat blasphemy. Because Authority, though it err Like others, Hath yet a kind of medicine in it self That skins the vice of that top; go to your bosom, Knock there, and ask your heart what it does know That's Like my brother's fault: if it confess A natural guiltiness, such as is his, Let it not found a thought upon your tongue Against my brother's life. Gentle my Lord, turn back. Not with found Sickles of the tested-gold, Or Stones, whose rate are either rich, or poor As fancy value's 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. Heaven keep your honour safe. At what hour to morrow, Shall I attend your Lordship? Save your Honour. I am come to know your pleasure. Even so: heaven keep your Honour. Under your Sentence? When, I beseech you: that in his Reprieve (Longer, or shorter) he may be so fitted That his soul sicken not. It's set down so in heaven, but not in earth. Sir, believe this. I had rather give my body, then my soul. How say you? Please you to doo't, I'll take it as a peril to my soul, It is no sin at all, but charity. 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 Morne-praier, To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your answer. Let be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better. So. True. As much for my poor Brother, as my self; That is: were I under the terms of death, the impression of keen whips, I'd wear as Rubies, And strip my self to death, as to a bed, That longing have been sick for, ere I'd yield My body up to shame. What hoa? Peace here; Grace, and good come pany. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the Law, then my son should be un lawfully born. But (o) how much is the good Duke deceived in Angelo : if ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his go uernment. Let me hear you speak farther; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not fowl in the truth of my spirit. Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her? What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from the world? what corruption in this life, that it will let this man live? But how out of this can she a vail? Show me how (good Father.) The image of it gives me content already, and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection. I thank you for this comfort: fare you well good father. He hath a Garden circummur'd with Brick, Whose western side is with a Vineyard backed; And to that Vineyard is a planched gate, That makes his opening with this bigger Key: This other does command a little door, Which from the Vineyard to the Garden leads, There have I made my promise, upon the Heavy middle of the night, to call upon him. I have t'ane a endue, and wary note vpon't, With whispering, and most guilty diligence, In Actium all of precept, he did show me The way twice over. No: none but only a repair ith' dark, And that I have possessed him, my most stay Can be but brief: for I have made him know, I have a Servant comes with me along That stays upon me; whose persuasion is, I come about my Brother. I do desire the Like. Shee'll take the enterprise upon her father, If you advise it. Beside he tells me, that if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange, for it's a physic That's bitter, to sweet end. O peace, the Friar is come. Justice, Oh royal Duke, veil your regard Upon a wronged (I would feign have said a Maid) O worthy Prince, dishonour not your eye By throwing it on any other object, Till you have herd me, in my true complaint, And given me Justice, Justice, Justice, Justice. O worthy Duke, You bid me seek redemption of the devil, Hear me your self: for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believed, Or wring redress from you: Hear me: o hear me, here. By course of Justice. Most strange: but yet most truly will I speak, That Angelo's forsworn, is it not strange? That Angelo's a murderer, is't not strange? That Angelo is and adulterous thief, And hypocrite, a virgin violator, Is it not strange? and strange? O gracious Duke Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason For inequality, but let your reason serve To make the truth appear, where it seems hid, And hide the false seems true. I am the Sister of one Claudio, Condemned upon the Act of Fornication To lose his head, condemned by Angelo, I, (in probation of a Sisterhood) Was sent to by my Brother; one Lucio As then the Messenger. That's he indeed. This Gentleman told somewhat of my Tale. I went To this pernicious Caitiff Deputy. Pardon it, The phrase is to the matter. In brief, to set the needless process by: How I persuaded, how I prayed, and kneeled, How he refeld me, and how I replied (For this was of much length) the vild conclusion I now begin with grief, and shame to utter. He would not, but by gift of my chaste body To his concupiscible intemperate lust Release my brother; and after much debatement, My sisterly remorse, confutes mine honour, And I did yield to him: But the next morn betimes, His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant For my poor brother's head. O that it were as Like as it is true. And is this all? Then o you blessed Ministers above Keep me in patience, and with ripened time Unfold the evil, which is here wrapped up In countenance: heaven shield your Grace from woe, As I thus wronged, hence unbelieved go. O give me pardon That I, your vassal, have employed, and pained Your unknown Sovereignty. I do my Lord. Most bounteous Sir. Look if it please you, on this man condemned, As if my Brother lived: I partly think, A endue sincerity governed his deeds, Till he did look on me: Since it is so, Let him not die: my Brother had but Justice, In that he did the thing for which he died. For Angelo, his Act did not overtake his bade intent, And must be buried but as and intent That perished by the way: thoughts are no subjects Intents, but merely thoughts. Who's that which calls? I, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.