THE PRAYERS OF MAIDENS EFFECTUAL.

Go to lord Angelo,

And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owe* them.

ACT II.

ALL MEN FRAIL.

Let but your honour know,f

(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coherd‡ with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood

Could have attained the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not some time in your life
Err'd in this point which now you censure him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

THE FAULTS OF OTHERS NO JUSTIFICATION OF

OUR OWN.

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,

May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try: What's open made to justice,

That justice seizes. What know the laws,

That thieves do pass§ on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant.

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.

You may not so extenuate his offence,

For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
When I, that censure** him, do so offend,

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial.

* Have.

§ Pass judgment.

**Sentence.

† Examine.

Plain.

+ Suited.

¶ Because.

MERCY FREQUENTLY MISTAKEN.

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second wo.

MERCY IN GOVERNORS COMMENDED.

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does.

THE DUTY OF MUTUAL FORGIVENESS.

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
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.

Yet show some pity.

JUSTICE.

Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice, For then I pity those I do not know,

Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another.

THE ABUSE OF AUTHORITY.

O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Could great men thunder,

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er 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 bolt, Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled† oak,

* Paltry.

+ Knotted.

Than the soft myrtle-O, but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority;

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep: who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.

THE PRIVILEGE OF AUTHORITY.

Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them, But, in the less, foul profanation.

That in the captain's but a choleric word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

HONEST BRIBERY..

Hark, how I'll bribe you.

Ang. How bribe me?

Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with you.

Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested* gold, Or stones, whose rates are either rich, or poor, As fancy values 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.

THE POWER OF VIRTUOUS DUTY.

Is this her fault, or mine?

The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha! 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
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground
enough,

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there? O, fy, fy,

* Attested, stamped.

fy!

+ Preserved from the corruption of the world..

See 2 Kings, x. 27.

What dost thou? or what art thou, Angelo?
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,

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,
With all her double vigour, art, and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite.

LOVE IN A GRAVE SEVERE GOVERNOR.

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;

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,
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?

FORNICATION AND MURDER EQUALLED.

It were as good

To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit

Their saucy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image

In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy

Falsely to take away a life true made,

As to put mettle in restrained means,
To make a false one.

LOWLINESS OF MIND.

Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better.

Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself.

TEMPORAL FAR BETTER THAN ETERNAL DEATH.

Better it were, a brother died at once, Than that a sister by redeeming him, Should die for ever.

WOMEN'S FRAILTY.

Nay, women are frail too.

Isab. Ay, 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.*

ACT III.

HOPE.

The miserable have no other medicine,

But only hope.

REFLECTIONS ON THE VANITY OF LIFE.

Reason thus with life,

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art, (Servile to all the skiey influences,)

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet run'st toward him still: Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,
Are nurs'd by baseness: thou art by no means
valiant;

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep,