Page 1121 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

But ere they live, to end.

ISABELLA
Yet show some pity. [100]

ANGELO
I show it most of all when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss’d offence would after gall,

And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied; [105]
Your brother dies tomorrow; be content.

ISABELLA
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,

And he, that suffers. O, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant. [110]

LUCIO
[to Isabella]
That’s well said.

ISABELLA
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, [115]
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Splits the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
Dress’d in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d − [120]
His glassy essence − like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven

As makes the angels weep; who, with our spleens,