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Lie hid more thousand deaths : yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

I humbly thank you.

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

Duke. Bring them to speak, where I may be conceald,
Yet hear them.

[Exeunt DUKE and Provost Claud.

Now sister, what's the comfort ?
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift embassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting lieger;
Therefore your best appointment make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.

Is there no remedy?
To cleave a heart in twain.

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.

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

But in what nature ?
Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to't)
Would bark your honor from that trunk you bear,
And leave you naked.

Let me know the point.
Lest thou a feverish life should'st entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect
Than a perpetual honor. 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.

Think you


Why give you me this shame
I can a resolution fetch
From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.
Isab. There spake my brother; there my


grato Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die: Thou art too noble to conserve a life In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,– Whose settled visage and deliberate word Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth enmew, As falcon doth the fowl,—is yet a devil.

Claud. The princely Angelo ?
O heavens! it cannot be.

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

Thanks, dear Isabella.
Claud. O Isabel !
Isab. What says my brother ?

Death is a fearful thing. Isab. And shamed life a hateful.

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
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 round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling !—'tis too horrible !
The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.

Isab. Alas! alas !

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, faithless coward ! O, dishonest wretch
Take my defiance:
Die; perish! might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed :
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.

Claud. Nay, hear me,

Isabel. Isab. 'Tis best that thou diest quickly.

O, fye, fye, fye!




King John, is the first of that series of Dramas, written by our Poet to illustrate somo of the most important events in English history. The old chroniclers furnished him with abundant material for his labors; but in this Play he has taken a chronicle historical Drama, entitled “The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England," and by his incomparable powers of transmutation, he has presented us with a vivid life-stirring picture of the eventful reign of this, one of the weakest monarchs that ever swayed the sceptre of England.



PRINCE HENRY, his son ; afterwards King Henry III.
ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late Duke of Bre-

tagne, the elder brother of King John.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.
GEFFREY Fitz-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief justiciary of England.
WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.
ROBERT Bigot, Earl of Norfolk.
HUBERT DE BURGH, chamberlain to the King.
ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge.
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his half-brother, illegitimate son to King

Richard the First.
JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
PETER, of Pomfret, a prophet.
PHILIP, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
Cardinal PANDULPH, the Pope's legate.

Melon, a French lord.
CHATILLON, ambassador from France to King John.
CONSTANCE, mother to Arthur.
Blanch, daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and niece to

King John.

Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

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SCENE.-ANGIERS. The French King's Tent.

False blood to false blood join'd! Gone to be friends!
Shall Lewis have Blanch ? and Blanch those provinces ?
It is not se; thou hast mis-epoke, misheard;
Be well advis'd, tell d'er thy tale again:
I trust, I may not trust thee; for thy word
Is but the vain breath of a common man :
Believe me, I do not believe thee, man;
I have a king's oath to the contrary,
Thou shalt be punish'd før thus frighting me,
For I am sick, and capable of fears;
Oppress’d with wrongs, and therefore full of fears;
A widow, husbandless, subject to fears;
A woman, naturally born to fears ;
And though thou now confess, thou didst but jest,
With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce,
But they will quake and tremble all this day.
What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head ?

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