Page 1098 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Hail virgin, if you be − as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no less − can you so stead me
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
A novice of this place, and the fair sister

To her unhappy brother Claudio? [20]

ISABELLA
Why ‘her unhappy brother’? Let me ask,
The rather for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella, and his sister.

LUCIO
Gentle and fair. Your brother kindly greets you.

Not to be weary with you, he’s in prison. [25]

ISABELLA
Woe me! For what?

LUCIO
For that which, if myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

ISABELLA
Sir, make me not your story.

LUCIO
’Tis true. [30]
I would not, though ’tis my familiar sin,
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest
Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so.

I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit, [35]
And to be talk’d with in sincerity,
As with a saint.

ISABELLA