1240Thou hast neither heate, affection, limbe, nor beautie

1241To make thy riches pleasant: what's yet in this

1242That beares the name of life? Yet in this life

1243Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we feare

1244That makes these oddes, all euen.

1245Cla. I humblie thanke you.

1246To sue to liue, I finde I seeke to die,

1247And seeking death, finde life: Let it come on.

1249Isab. What hoa? Peace heere; Grace, and good com-

1250panie.

1251Pro. Who's there? Come in, the wish deserues a

1252welcome.

1253Duke. Deere sir, ere long Ile visit you againe.

1254Cla. Most holie Sir, I thanke you.

1255Isa. My businesse is a word or two with Claudio.

1256Pro. And verie welcom: looke Signior, here's your

1257sister.

1258Duke. Prouost, a word with you.

1259Pro. As manie as you please.

1260Duke. Bring them to heare me speak, where I may be

1261conceal'd.

1262Cla. Now sister, what's the comfort?

1263Isa. Why,

1264As all comforts are: most good, most good indeede,

1265Lord Angelo hauing affaires to heauen

1266Intends you for his swift Ambassador,

1267Where you shall be an euerlasting Leiger;

1268Therefore your best appointment make with speed,

1269To Morrow you set on.

1270Clau. Is there no remedie?

1271Isa. None, but such remedie, as to saue a head

1272To cleaue a heart in twaine:

1273Clau. But is there anie?

1274Isa. Yes brother, you may liue;

1275There is a diuellish mercie in the Iudge,

1276If you'l implore it, that will free your life,

1277But fetter you till death.

1278Cla. Perpetuall durance?

1279Isa. I iust, perpetuall durance, a restraint

1280Through all the worlds vastiditie you had

1281To a determin'd scope.

1282Clau. But in what nature?

1283Isa. In such a one, as you consenting too't,

1284Would barke your honor from that trunke you beare,

1285And leaue you naked.

1286Clau. Let me know the point.

1287Isa. Oh, I do feare thee Claudio, and I quake,

1288Least thou a feauorous life shouldst entertaine,

1289And six or seuen winters more respect

1290Then a perpetuall Honor. Dar'st thou die?

1291The sence of death is most in apprehension,

1292And the poore Beetle that we treade vpon

1293In corporall sufferance, finds a pang as great,

1294As when a Giant dies.

1295Cla. Why giue you me this shame?

1296Thinke you I can a resolution fetch

1297From flowrie tendernesse? If I must die,

1298I will encounter darknesse as a bride,

1299And hugge it in mine armes.

1300Isa. There spake my brother: there my fathers graue

1301Did vtter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:

1302Thou art too noble, to conserue a life

1303In base appliances. This outward sainted Deputie,

1304Whose setled visage, and deliberate word

1305Nips youth i'th head, and follies doth emmew

1306As Falcon doth the Fowle, is yet a diuell:

1307His filth within being cast, he would appeare

1308A pond, as deepe as hell.

1309Cla. The prenzie, Angelo?

1310Isa. Oh 'tis the cunning Liuerie of hell,

1311The damnest bodie to inuest, and couer

1312In prenzie gardes; dost thou thinke Claudio,

1313If I would yeeld him my virginitie

1314Thou might'st be freed?

1315Cla. Oh heauens, it cannot be.

1316Isa. Yes, he would giu't thee; from this rank offence

1317So to offend him still. This night's the time

1318That I should do what I abhorre to name,

1319Or else thou diest to morrow.

1320Clau. Thou shalt not do't.

1321Isa. O, were it but my life,

1322I'de throw it downe for your deliuerance

1323As frankely as a pin.

1324Clau. Thankes deere Isabell.

1325Isa. Be readie Claudio, for your death to morrow.

1326Clau. Yes. Has he affections in him,

1327That thus can make him bite the Law by th' nose,

1328When he would force it? Sure it is no sinne,

1329Or of the deadly seuen it is the least.

1330Isa. Which is the least?

1331Cla. If it were damnable, he being so wise,

1332Why would he for the momentarie tricke

1333Be perdurablie fin'de? Oh Isabell.

1334Isa. What saies my brother?

1335Cla. Death is a fearefull thing.

1336Isa. And shamed life, a hatefull.

1337Cla. I, but to die, and go we know not where,

1338To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot,

1339This sensible warme motion, to become

1340A kneaded clod; And the delighted spirit

1341To bath in fierie floods, or to recide

1342In thrilling Region of thicke-ribbed Ice,

1343To be imprison'd in the viewlesse windes

1344And blowne with restlesse violence round about

1345The pendant world: or to be worse then worst

1346Of those, that lawlesse and incertaine thought,

1347Imagine howling, 'tis too horrible.

1348The weariest, and most loathed worldly life

1349That Age, Ache, periury, and imprisonment

1350Can lay on nature, is a Paradise

1351To what we feare of death.

1352Isa. Alas, alas.

1353Cla. Sweet Sister, let me liue.

1354What sinne you do, to saue a brothers life,

1355Nature dispenses with the deede so farre,

1356That it becomes a vertue.

1357Isa. Oh you beast,

1358Oh faithlesse Coward, oh dishonest wretch,

1359Wilt thou be made a man, out of my vice?

1360Is't not a kinde of Incest, to take life

1361From thine owne sisters shame? What should I thinke,

1362Heauen shield my Mother plaid my Father faire:

1363For such a warped slip of wildernesse

1364Nere issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance,

1365Die, perish: Might but my bending downe

1366Repreeue thee from thy fate, it should proceede.

1367Ile pray a thousand praiers for thy death,

1368No word to saue thee.

1369Cla. Nay heare me Isabell.

1370Isa. Oh fie, fie, fie:

1371Thy sinn's not accidentall, but a Trade;