Measure for Measure Part 11

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 a.s.signed to Juliet by Dyce (Ritson conj.).

40: _love_] _law_ Hanmer.

SCENE IV. _A room in ANGELO'S house._

_Enter ANGELO._

_Ang._ When I would pray and think, I think and 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; 5 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, 10 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 souls To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood: 15 Let's write good angel on the devil's horn; 'Tis not the devil's crest.

_Enter a _Servant_._

How now! who's there?

_Serv._ One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

_Ang._ Teach her the way. O heavens!

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, 20 Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness?

So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons: Come all to help him, and so stop the air 25 By which he should revive: and even so The general, subject to a well-wish'd king, Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love Must needs appear offence.

_Enter ISABELLA._

How now, fair maid? 30

_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!

_Ang._ Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be, 35 As long as you or I: yet he must die.