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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?

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. Ever till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd and wond'red how. Exit

SCENE III. A prison

Enter, severally, DUKE, disguised as a FRIAR, and PROVOST

DUKE.

Hail to you, Provost! so I think you are.

PROVOST.

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

To let me see them, and to make me know

The nature of their crimes, that I may minister

To them accordingly.

PROVOST.

I would do more than that, if more were needful.

Enter JULIET

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,

Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,

Hath blister'd her report. She is with child;

And he that got it, sentenc'd- a young man

More fit to do another such offence

Than die for this.

DUKE.

When must he die?

PROVOST.

As I do think, to-morrow.

[To JULIET] I have provided for you; stay awhile

And you shall be conducted.

DUKE.

Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

JULIET.

I do; and bear the shame most patiently.

DUKE.

I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound

Or hollowly put on.

JULIET.

I'll gladly learn.

DUKE.

Love you the man that wrong'd you?

JULIET.

Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.

DUKE.

So then, it seems, your most offenceful act

Was mutually committed.

JULIET.

Mutually.

DUKE.

Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.

JULIET.

I do confess it, and repent it, father.

DUKE.

'Tis meet so, daughter; but lest you do repent

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,

Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven,

Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,

But as we stand in fear-

JULIET.

I do repent me as it is an evil,

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

JULIET. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious law,

That respites me a life whose very comfort

Is still a dying horror!

PROVOST.

'Tis pity of him. Exeunt

SCENE IV. ANGELO'S house

Enter ANGELO

ANGELO.

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 sere 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! Blood, thou art blood.

Let's write 'good angel' on the devil's horn;

'Tis not the devil's crest.

Enter SERVANT

How now, who's there?

SERVANT.

One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

ANGELO.

Teach her the way. [Exit SERVANT] O heavens!

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,

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