Admit no other way to save his life
Angelo
Admit no other way to save his life—
As I subscribe not that, nor any other—
But, in the loss of question, that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desired of such a person
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from Metonymythe manacles
Of the binding law, and that there were
No earthly mean to save him but that either
You must lay down Metaphorthe treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else to let him suffer,
What would you do?Hyperbaton
O, pardon me, my lord, it oft falls out,
To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean
Isabella
As much for my poor brother as myself.Anapodoton
That is, were I under the terms of death,
Th' impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies
And strip myself to death as to a bed
That longing have been sick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.Hyperbaton & Simile
Angelo
Then must your brother die.Anastrophe
Isabella
And 'twere the cheaper way:
Better it were a brother died at once,
Than that a sister, Parenthesisby redeeming him,
Should die forever.Alliosis & Hyperbaton
Angelo
Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
That you have slander'd so?Rhetorical Question
Isabella
Ignomy in ransom and free pardon
Are of two houses: Personificationlawful mercy
Is nothing kin to Oxymoronfoul redemption.Metaphor
Angelo
You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant,
And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.Personification & Dichotomy
Isabella
O, pardon me, my lord, it oft falls out,
To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean.Epanalepsis & Alliteration
I something do excuse the thing I hate,
For his advantage that I dearly love.Hyperbaton
Angelo
We are all frail.
Isabella
Else let my brother die,
If not a fedary but only he
Owe and succeed thy weakness.
Angelo
Nay, women are frail too.
Isabella
Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves,
Which are as easy broke as they make forms.Simile
Women—help, heaven—men their creation mar
In profiting by them.Hyperbaton & Apostrophe Nay, call us ten times frail,
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints.Simile
Angelo
I think it well.
And from this testimony of your own sex,
Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames, let me be bold.
I do arrest your words. Be that you are—
That is, a woman. If you be more, you're none.
If you be one, as you are well expressed
By all external warrants, show it now
By putting on the destined livery.Metaphor
Isabella
I have no tongue but one.Synecdoche Gentle my lord,
Let me entreat you speak the former language.
Angelo
Plainly conceive I love you.
Isabella
My brother did love Juliet,
And you tell me that he shall die for ‘t.
Angelo
He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.
Isabella
I know your virtue hath a license in ‘t
Which seems a little fouler than it is
To pluck on others.
Angelo
Believe me, on mine honor,
My words express my purpose.
Isabella
Ha! Little honor to be much believed,
And most pernicious purpose.Alliteration Seeming, seeming!Epizeuxis
I will proclaim thee, Angelo, look for ‘t.
Sign me a present pardonAlliteration for my brother
Or with an outstretched throatSynecdoche I'll tell the world aloud
What man thou art.
Angelo
Who will believe thee, Isabel?Rhetorical Question
My unsoiled name, th' austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i' th' stateAnaphora
Will so your accusation overweighHyperbaton
That you shall stifle in your own report
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
AlliterationAnd now I give my sensual race the rein.
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
That banish what they sue for.Synesthesia Redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will,
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw outAntanaclasis & Alliteration
To ling'ring sufferance. Answer me tomorrow,
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.Anthimeria
He exits.
Isabella
To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me?Pysma O, perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue,Synecdoche
Either of condemnation or approof,
Bidding the law make curtsy to their will,
Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
To follow as it draws. EllipsisI'll to my brother.Pesonification
Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honor
AdynationThat, had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorred pollution.Synecdoche
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die.Apostrophe
More than our brother is our chastity.Hyperbaton
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.Synecdoche