license in't, 145
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 believed,
And most pernicious purpose!--Seeming, seeming!-- 150
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 world aloud
What man thou art.

_Ang._ Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life, 155
My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,
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: 160
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death, 165
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 true. [_Exit._ 170

_Isab._ To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
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; 175
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That, had he twenty heads to tender down 180
On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld 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. 185
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. [_Exit._

NOTES: II, 4.

SCENE IV.] SCENE X. Pope.
2: _empty_] om. Seymour conj.
3: _invention_] _intention_ Pope.
4: _Heaven_] _Heaven's_ Rowe. _Heaven is_ Capell.
5: _his_] _its_ Pope.
9: _fear'd_] _scar'd_ Hanmer. _sear_ Heath conj. _stale_ Anon. conj.
See note (IX).
10: _take_] _took_ Seymour conj.
12: