Imatges de pàgina
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Had answer'd for his deed: now, 'tis awake; Takes uote of what is done; and, like a prophet,

Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
(Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,)
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.

Isab. Yet show some pity.

From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.

Ang. Well come to me To-morrow.

Lucio. Go to; it is well; away.

Aside to ISABELLA.

Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!
Ang. Amen: for I

Am that way going to temptation,

Ang. I show it most of all, when I show Where prayers cross.

justice;

For then I pity those I do not know,

Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;

And do bim right, that answering one foul wrong,

Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

Isab. So, you must be the first that gives this sentence;

And he, that suffers: Oh! it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Lucio. That's well said.

Isab. 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,
Than the soft myrtle: Oh! 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.

Lucio. Oh! to him, to him, wench: he will relent;

He's coming, I perceive't.

Prov. Pray heaven, she win him!

Isab. At what hour to-morrow Shall I attend your lordship?

Ang. At any time 'fore noou.
Isab. Save your honour!

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[Aside.

[Exeunt LUCIO, ISABELLA, and PROVOST. Ang. 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!

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 fie, fie, fle!
What dost thou or what art thou, Angelo!
Dost thou desire her foully, for those things
That make her good! Oh! 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 strum-
pet,

With all her double vigour, art, and nature,

Isab. We cannot weigh our brother with our-Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid

self:

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

Lucio. Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o'that. Isab. That in the captain's but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't.
Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me?
Isab. Because authority, though it err like
others.

Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o' the 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
Against my brother's life.

Ang. She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.

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Subdues me quite ;-Ever, till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how.

[Exit.

SCENE II1.- A Room in a Prison.

Enter DUKE habited like a Friar, and
PROVOST.

Duke. Hail to you, provost! so, I think you

are.

Prov. I am the provost: What's your will, good friar?

Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd 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.

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

Enter JULIET.

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, Who falling in the flames 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,

Isub. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall Than die for this.

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 sunrise; prayers from preserved ý souls,
+ Knotted.

• Paltry.
1 Attested, stamped.
Preserved from the corruption of the world.

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Ang. 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 studied,

I

Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,
Wherein (et 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 thon with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seening? Blood, thou still art
blood:

Let's write good angel on the devil's horn,
'Tis not the devil's crest.

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prieve,

Longer, or shorter, he may so be fitted,
That his soul sicken nut.

Ang. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices ! It were as good

To pardon bim, 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.

Isab. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.

Ang. Say you so? then I shall pose you quickly.

Which had you rather, That the most just law,
Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem A,
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness,
As she that he bath stain'd?

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Against the thing I say. Answer to this ;—
I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence ou your brother's life:
Might there not be charity in sin.

To save this brother's life?

Isab. Please you to do't,

I'll take it as a peril to my soul,
It is no sin at all, but charity.

Ang. Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, Were equal poise of sin and charity.

Isab. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, Heaven, let me bear it! you granting of mny suit,

If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer.

Ang. Nay, but bear me:

Your sense pursues not mine: either you are

ignorant,

Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good. Isab. 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: as these black maski Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times cauer Than beauty could displayed.-But mark me; To be received plain, I'll speak more gress: Your brother is to die.

Isab. So.

Ang. And bis offence is so, as it appears Accountant to the law upon that pain. + Isab. True.

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life, (As I subscribe not that, nor any other, But in the loss of question, 6) that you, bis sister, Finding yourself desir'd of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or owa great

place,

Could fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-binding law; and that there were

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No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else let him suffer;
What would you do?

Isab. As much for my poor brother, as nyself:
That is, Were I under the terms of death,
The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

Ang. Then must your brother die.
Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way:
Better it were, a brother die at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sen-
That you have slander'd so?
[tence

Isab. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon,
Are of two houses: lawful mercy is
Nothing akin to foul redemption.

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a
tyrant ;

And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

Isab. O pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,
To have what we'd have, we speak not what

we mean:

I something do excuse the thing I hate,
For bis advantage that I dearly love.

Ang. We are all frail.

Isab. Else let my brother die,

If not a feodary, but only he,
Owe, and succeed by weakness.

Ang. 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

[frail

In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints. §

Ang. I think it well.

And from this testimony of your own sex,
(Since, I suppose, we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames,) let me be
bold;-

By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance: answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him: As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your
[Erit.
Isab. To whom shall I complain? Did I tell
this,

true.

Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite
To follow as it draws ! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the
blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die :
More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.
[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE 1.-A Room in the Prison. Enter DUKE, CLAUDIO, and PROVOST. Duke. So, then you hope of pardon from lord Angelo ?

Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, But only hope :

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Duke. Be absolute for death; either death, or life,

Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life :

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

I do arrest your words; Be that you are,
That is, a woman; If you be more, you're none : (Servile to all the skiey influences,)
If you be one, (as you are well express'd
By all external warrants,) show it now,
By putting on the destined livery.

That none but fools would keep a breath thou

Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language. Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.

Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you tell
That he shall die for it.
[me,
Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me
love.

Isab. I know, your virtue hath a licence in't,
Which seems a little fouler than it is,
To pluck on others.

Ang. Believe me, on mine honour,

My words express my purpose.

Isab. Ha little honour to be much believ'd, And most pernicious purpose 1-Seeming, seeming! |

I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the
Aloud, what man thou art.

[world

[state,

Ang. Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch¶ against you, and my place i'the
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report,
And smell of calumny. I have begun;
And now I give my sensual race the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite:
Lay by all nicety, and prolixious
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy
brother

blushes,

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[art, That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, Hourly afflict mercly, 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,
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not

thyself;

For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust: Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast, forget'st: Thou are not

certain;

For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,+
After the moon: if thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: Friend hast thou none :
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout, serpigo, ; and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner: Thou hast nor youth,
nor age;

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and
rich,

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Claud. I bumbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find, I seek to die:
And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.
Enter ISABELLA,

Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

Prou. Who's there? come in; the wish deserves a welcome.

Duke. Dear Sir, ere long I'll visit you again. Claud, Most holy Sir, I thank you.

Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio.

Prov. And very welcome.

here's your sister.

Look, signior,

Duke. Provost, a word with you.
Prov. As many as you please.

Duke. Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd,

Yet hear them. [Exeunt DUKE and PROVOST.
Cland. Now, sister, what's the comfort?
Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good|
in deed :

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Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for a swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:
Therefore your best appointment + make with
To-morrow you set on.
[speed;

Claud. Is there no remedy ↑

Isab. None, but such remedy, as to save a head.

To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud. But is there any?

Isab. Yes, brother, you may live ;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

Cland. Perpetual durance?

Isub. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity ‡ you had, To a determin'd scope.

Claud. But in what nature?

Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to't) Would bark your honour from that trunk you Aud leave you naked.

Claud. Let me know the point.

[bear,

Isab. Oh! I do fear thee, Claudio ; and I quake
Lest thou a fev'rous life should'st entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect
Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die ?
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

Claud. Why give you me this shame ?
Think you I can a resolution fetch
From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug in it mine arms.

Isab. There spake my brother; there my

father's grave

Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thon must die :

Thou art too noble to conserve a life

Claud. O heavens! it cannot be.

Isab. Yes, he would give it Lace, from this rank offence,

So to offend him still: This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name.
Or else thou diest to-morrow.

Claud. Thou shalt not do't.

Isab, Oh! were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.

Claud. Thanks, dear Isabel.

Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to

morrow.

Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him, That thus can make him bite the law by the uer, When he would force it? Sure it is no sia, Or of the deadly seven it is the least. Isab. Which is the least?

Claud. If it were damnable, be, being so warWhy, would he for the momentary trick Be perdurably + fin'd ?—O Isabel! Isab. What says my brother? Claud. Death is a fearful thing. Isab. And shamed life a hateful. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot: where: This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd in the viewless! winds, And blown with restless violence rouwl shust The pendent world; or to be worse taa * ́ Of those, that lawless and inc-rtain thoughts Imagine howling -tis too horrible! The weariest and most loathed wordly hê, That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death,

Isab. Alas! alas !

Claud. Sweet sister let me live; What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far, That it becomes a virtue.

Isab. O you beast!

O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch !
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice !
Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

From thine own sister's shame ? What shamid I think?

Heaven shield, my mother play'd my father (ar!
For such a warped slip of wilderness p

| Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance: 1
Die; perrish might but my bending dewa
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proccet:
I pray a thousand prayers for thy death.
No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel.

Isab. O fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade:
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd;
'Tis best that thou diest quickly,
Claud. O hear me, Isabella.

Re-enter Duke.

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Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.

Isab. What is your will?

Duke. Might you dispense with your le

In base appliances. This outward-sainted de- I would by and by bave some speech with TWRI

puty,

Whose settled visage and deliberate word

Nips youth i'the head, and follies doth enmew, ý
As falcon doth the fowl,-is yet a devil;
His filth within being cast, he would appear
A pond as deep as hell.

Claud. The princely Angelo ?

Isub. Oh! tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'st, body to invest and cover In princely guards! Dost thou think, Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity, Thou might'st be freed.

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the satisfaction I would require, is likewise y at own benefit.

Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my s must be stolen out of other affairs; but I wat attend you a while.

Duke. To CLAUDIO, aside.] Son, I have ov heard what hath past between you and sister. Angelo bad never the purpose to O rupt her; only he hath made an essay of bef virtue, to practise his judgracat with the s position of natures: she, having the towth s honour in her, bath made him that gracious éc

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nial which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it.

Duke. Hold you there: Farewell.

[Exit CLAUDIO.

Re-enter PROVOST. Provost, a word with you.

tion in this life, that it will let this man live !-But how out of this can she avail?

Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it.

Isab. Show me how, good father.

Duke. This fore-named maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point: only refer yourself to this adProv. What's your will, father? vantage,-first, that your stay with him may not Duke. That now you are come, you will be be long; that the time may have all shadow and gone: Leave me a while with the maid my silence in it; and the place answer to convenimind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch ence: this being granted in course, now follows her by my company. all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead Prov. In good time. [Exit PROVOST. up your appointment, go in your place: if the Duke. The band that hath made your fair, encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may hath made you good: the goodness, that is compel him to her recompense and here, by cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in good-this, is your brother saved, your honour auness; but grace, being the soul of your com- tainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the plexion, should keep the body of it ever fair.corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame, The assault, that Angelo hath made to you, and make fit for his attempt. If you think well fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the and, but that frailty hath examples for his fall- benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What ing, I should wonder at Angelo. How would think you of it ? you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother?

Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But oh! how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.

Isab. The image of it gives me content already; and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

quickly.

Duke. It lies much in your holding up: Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there, at the inoated grange, resides this deDuke. That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as jected Mariana: At that place call upon me the matter now stands, he will avoid your ac-and despatch with Angelo, that it may be ensation; he made trial of you only.-There fore, fasten your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have bearing of this business.

Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul iu the truth of my spirit.

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscarried at sea?

Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you
well, good father.
[Exeunt severally.

SCENE II.-The Street before the Prison.
Enter DUKE, as a Friar; to him ELBOW,
CLOWN, and Officers.

Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.

Duke. O heavens! what stuff is here ?

Clo. 'Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allow'd by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lambskins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.

Elb. Come your way, Sir :-Bless you, good father friar.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have married ; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, Duke. And you, good brother father: What and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frede-offence hath this man made you, Sir? rick was wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd Elb. Marry, Sir, he hath offended the law; vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how and, Sir, we take him to be a thief too, Sir; heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: for we have found upon him, Sir, a strange there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, ber combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?

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pick-lock, which we have sent to the deputy.
Duke. Fie, sirrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd!
The evil that thon causest to be done,
That is thy means to live: Do thou but think
What 'tis to cram a maw, or clothe a back,
From such a filthy vice: say to thyself,-
From their abominable and beastly touches
I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.
Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
So stinkingly depending? Go, mend go, mend.
Clo. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, Sir;
but yet, Sir, I would prove---

Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs
for sin,

Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer;

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Tora Spaaisn padlock."

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