READ STUDY GUIDE: Act II, Scenes ii-iv |
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Act II, Scene iii
| [Enter DUKE, habited like 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 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. |
| 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! |
| DUKE.: |
| 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.] |
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