Page 1140 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUDIO
But is there any?

ISABELLA
Yes, brother, you may live: [65]
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you’ll implore it, that will free your life,

But fetter you till death.

CLAUDIO
Perpetual durance?

ISABELLA
Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,
Though all the world’s vastidity you had, [70]
To a determin’d scope.

CLAUDIO

But in what nature?

ISABELLA

In such a one as, you consenting to’t,
Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
And leave you naked.

CLAUDIO
Let me know the point.

ISABELLA
O, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake [75]

Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect
Than a perpetual honour. Dar’st thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension;

And the poor beetle that we tread upon [80]