Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Juliet. Mutually. Duke. Then was your fin of heavier kind than bis. Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil. SCENE Χ. The frailty of human nature is well described in the wanderings of the mind in prayer, and the struggle between virtue and passion, in the first speech here; which concludes with observing, how apt the pageantry or false seemings of power are to impofe on the world, even the great vulgar, as well as the fmall. Angelo folus. When I would pray and think, I think and pray Let's write good angel on the Devil's horn; 'Tis yet * the Devil's creft. SCENE ΧΙ. There is a proper fentiment of Christian humility, expressed by Isabella, in this place : Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, Doctor Johnson's reading, instead of 'sis not. And And just after, there is a virtuous argument finely supported by her, against the infidious pleadings of the Deputy; who, after refusing her a pardon for her brother, thus proceeds : Angelo. Admit no other way to save his life, Jabella. As much for my poor brother, as myself- 1.1 :1 My body up to shame. Angelo. Then must your brother die. Should die for ever. 1 Angelo. Were not you, then, as cruel as the fentence That you have slandered so? 1 Isabella. Ignominy in ransom, and free pardon,.. Is nothing kin to foul redemption. The Duke, remaining still under the disguise of a friar, comes to the prison to prepare Claudio for death, upon which subject he makes a number of moral and philosophic reflections; but these last mostly of the Stoic kind, by observing on the precarioufness and infignificancy of human life; the whole of which I shall give here at full length. Duke 10 Claudio. Be absolute for death; or death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life; + Doctor Johnfon more properly reads refs, for canvas, of the question, هنر : If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing, That do this habitation where thou keep'st, Are nursed by baseness; thou'rt by no means valiant; Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep, Do curse the gout, ferpigo, and the rheum, : For ending thee no fooner. Thou hast nor youth, nor age; And in the next scene, Isabella, after hinting to her brother at certain base conditions, on which his fentence might be remitted, endeavours to strengthen his resolution to prefer death before dishonour, by.. fomewhat of the same manner of reasoning, as above; but more conclusive and concife: Oh, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, • Dr. Johnfon reads affects, and with good reason. The : L The sense of death is most in apprehenfion; To this fufpicion of his weakness he replies, with the spirit becoming a man of honour and vir tue: Claudio. Why give you me this shame And hug it in my arms. But after having paid this compliment to heroism, Human Nature comes in for its share, in turn; and he then pleads for life, even on the most abject terms: Claudio, Oh, Isabel! Ifabella. What says my brother ? Claudio. Death's a fearful thing. Isabella. And shamed life a hateful. Claudio. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delinquent * spirit What an ignoble sentiment is here expressed, in the four laft lines of this speech! and yet the great Mæcenas had the fame, and declared it very nearly in the fame words! What a disgrace to letters! But history describes him to have been a person of foppish and effeminate manners; and 'tis but rarely that the outward character belies the inward one. • Instead of delighted. Johnfon. Ifabella's Isabella's indignation against her brother on this occafion, though it has no relation to the subjects we are upon, yet as it may have an effect in raising the same resentment against vice and meanness, in the minds of my readers, I think it worthy to be inferted here: Isabella. Oh, you beaft! Oh, faithless coward! Oh, dishonest wretch ! From thine own filter's shame? What should I think? Heaven grant my mother played my father fair! Ne'er issued from his blood-Take my defiance- ..... Oh, fie, fie, fie! Thy fin's not accidental, but a trade; 'Twere best that thou diest quickly. In the last speech of this scene, our Author gives us a shocking, but too just description of Slander : ACT IV. SCENE Ш. In the laft paffage of this Scene, the Duke repeats the fame reflection, in still stronger terms: O place and greatness! Millions of false eyes Such has been the complaint of all ages, even when the scandal was merely oral; but how much more intolerable has the offence become, of late years, when obloquy is not only privately spoken, but publicly printed, and openly circulated throughout these kingdoms? The Freedom of the Press should be ever held |