Enter Provost and a Servant. SERVANT
He’s hearing of a cause. He will come straight.
I’ll tell him of you. PROVOST Pray you do. Servant exits. I’ll know
His pleasure. Maybe he will relent. Alas, 5
He hath but as offended in a dream.
All sects, all ages smack of this vice, and he
To die for ’t? Enter Angelo. ANGELO
Now, what’s the matter, provost? PROVOST
Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow? 10 ANGELO
Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order?
Why dost thou ask again? PROVOST
Lest I might be too rash.
Under your good correction, I have seen
When, after execution, judgment hath 15
Repented o’er his doom. ANGELO
Go to. Let that be mine.
Do you your office, or give up your place
And you shall well be spared. PROVOST I crave your Honor’s pardon. 20
What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
She’s very near her hour. ANGELO Dispose of her
To some more fitter place, and that with speed. Enter Servant. SERVANT
Here is the sister of the man condemned 25
Desires access to you. ANGELO
Hath he a sister? PROVOST
Ay, my good lord, a very virtuous maid,
And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
If not already. 30 ANGELO, to Servant
Well, let her be admitted. Servant exits. See you the fornicatress be removed.
Let her have needful but not lavish means.
There shall be order for ’t. | The Provost arrives at a room at the Court and asks Angelo if he's absolutely certain that Claudio should be put to death. Angelo tells him to scram. The Provost wants to know what he should do with Juliet, who's about to give birth to her illegitimate child. Angelo orders the Provost to make the "fornicatress" disappear to some "more fitter place." We're not exactly sure what that means but we're just glad to see that Angelo doesn't make her wear a scarlet "F" (for "fornicatress") on her chest. |
Enter Lucio and Isabella. PROVOST, beginning to exit
Save your Honor. 35 ANGELO
Stay a little while. To Isabella. You’re welcome.
What’s your will? ISABELLA
I am a woeful suitor to your Honor,
Please but your Honor hear me. ANGELO
Well, what’s your 40
suit? ISABELLA
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 45
At war ’twixt will and will not. ANGELO
Well, the matter? ISABELLA
I have a brother is condemned to die.
I do beseech you let it be his fault
And not my brother. 50 PROVOST, aside
Heaven give thee moving
graces. ANGELO
Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault’s condemned ere it be done.
Mine were the very cipher of a function 55
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record
And let go by the actor. ISABELLA
O just but severe law!
I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your Honor. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
Give ’t not o’er so. To him again, entreat him, 60
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. ISABELLA, to Angelo
Must he needs die? 65 ANGELOMaiden, no remedy. ISABELLA
Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. ANGELO
I will not do ’t. ISABELLA
But can you if you would? 70 ANGELO
Look what I will not, that I cannot do. ISABELLA
But might you do ’t and do the world no wrong
If so your heart were touched with that remorse
As mine is to him? ANGELO
He’s sentenced. ’Tis too late. 75 LUCIO, aside to Isabella
You are too cold. ISABELLA
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, 80
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 slipped like him, but he like you 85
Would not have been so stern. ANGELO
Pray you begone. ISABELLA
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 90
And what a prisoner. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
Ay, touch him; there’s the
vein. ANGELO
Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words. 95 ISABELLA
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 judgment should 100
But judge you as you are? O, think on that,
And mercy then will breathe within your lips
Like man new-made. ANGELO
Be you content, fair maid.
It is the law, not I, condemn your brother. 105
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow. | Isabella shows up and says she's sorry about her brother being a sexual criminal and all but could Angelo please revoke his death sentence? Isabella admits she thinks the law is "just" (Claudio deserves to be punished for his fornicating ways), but it's also too "severe." Isabella proceeds to try persuading Angelo to be merciful. As she does, Lucio stands in the background providing commentary and whispering words of advice like Isabella should stop being so "cold" and should use her feminine wiles to change Angelo's mind. Angelo insists that it's "the law" and not him that condemns Claudius to die. |
ISABELLA
Tomorrow? 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 110
With less respect than we do minister
To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink
you.
Who is it that hath died for this offense?
There’s many have committed it. 115 LUCIO, aside to Isabella
Ay, well said. ANGELO
The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
Those many had not dared to do that evil
If the first that did th’ edict infringe
Had answered for his deed. Now ’tis awake, 120
Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass that shows what future evils—
Either now, or by remissness new-conceived,
And so in progress to be hatched and born—
Are now to have no successive degrees 125
But, ere they live, to end. ISABELLA
Yet show some pity. ANGELO
I show it most of all when I show justice,
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismissed offense would after gall, 130
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
Your brother dies tomorrow; be content. ISABELLA
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he that suffers. O, it is excellent 135
To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
That’s well said. ISABELLA Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet, 140
For every pelting, petty officer
Would use his heaven for thunder,
Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Splits the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak, 145
Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 150
As makes the angels weep, who with our spleens
Would all themselves laugh mortal. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
O, to him, to him, wench. He will relent.
He’s coming. I perceive ’t. PROVOST, aside
Pray heaven she win him. 155 ISABELLA
We cannot weigh our brother with ourself.
Great men may jest with saints; ’tis wit in them,
But in the less, foul profanation. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
Thou ’rt i’ th’ right, girl. More o’ that. ISABELLA
That in the captain’s but a choleric word 160
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
Art avised o’ that? More on ’t. ANGELO
Why do you put these sayings upon me? ISABELLA
Because authority, though it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself 165
That skins the vice o’ th’ top. Go to your bosom,
Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
That’s like my brother’s fault. If it confess
A natural guiltiness such as is his,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue 170
Against my brother’s life. ANGELO, aside
She speaks, and ’tis such sense
That my sense breeds with it. He begins to exit.
Fare you well. ISABELLA
Gentle my lord, turn back. 175 ANGELO
I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow. ISABELLA
Hark how I’ll bribe you. Good my lord, turn back. ANGELO
How? Bribe me? ISABELLA
Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
You had marred all else. 180 ISABELLA
Not with fond sicles of the tested gold,
Or stones whose rate are either rich or poor
As fancy values them, but with true prayers
That shall be up at heaven and enter there
Ere sunrise, prayers from preservèd souls, 185
From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal. ANGELO Well, come to me tomorrow. LUCIO, aside to Isabella
Go to, ’tis well; away. ISABELLA
Heaven keep your Honor safe. 190 ANGELO, aside Amen.
For I am that way going to temptation
Where prayers cross. ISABELLA
At what hour tomorrow
Shall I attend your Lordship? 195 ANGELO
At any time ’fore noon. ISABELLA
Save your Honor. She exits, with Lucio and Provost. | Isabella wants to know why her brother is being singled out. Plenty of others have committed the same crime and nobody else has been punished. Angelo reasons that the law has been taking a brief cat nap but, now that it's "awake," all those other fornicators better watch out. Isabella begs Angelo to be merciful and he replies that he's showing his mercy by implementing the law. Isabella declares that men who go around playing God are as ridiculous as apes who go around imitating man's behavior. Angelo says he'll think about sparing Claudio's life and that Isabella should come back tomorrow. Isabella says she wants to offer Angelo a bribe and Angelo is all "Really, what kind of bribe do you have in mind?" (Cue the eyebrow waggling.) Isabella explains that her bribe is a heavenly gift. She's going to...pray for Angelo. There's nothing better than a virgin's prayers, insists Isabella. Not even gold. Angelo, who is clearly disappointed that Isabella didn't offer him some other kind of "heavenly" gift (if you know what we mean), tells Isabella to return the next day so they can talk about it some more. |
ANGELO
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? 200
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 205
Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground
enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo? 210
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 her
That I desire to hear her speak again 215
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 220
With all her double vigor, art and nature,
Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Ever till now
When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how. He exits. | Alone on stage, Angelo reveals that he's in lust with Isabella and that his desire makes him a lot like a piece of smelly road kill rotting in the sun. Gross. Maybe Angelo should get together with Hamlet, who similarly compares a woman's pregnant body to a dead dog that's full of maggots from lying in the sun (Hamlet, 1.2.136-150; 161-164) Angelo realizes that Isabella's virtue is what turns him on. If she wasn't so chaste, he probably wouldn't be so hot for her. A "strumpet" (promiscuous woman) would never get him this worked up. In fact, Angelo never understood until now why people are so interested in sex. |