Must he needs die?
Isabella, to Angelo
Must he needs die?
Angelo
Maiden, no remedy.
Isabella
Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Angelo
I will not do ’t.
Isabella
But can you if you would?
Angelo
Look what I will not, that I cannot do.
Isabella
But might you do ’t and do the world no wrong
If so your heart were touched with that remorse
As mine is to him?
Angelo
He’s sentenced. ’Tis too late.
Lucio, aside to Isabella
You are too cold.
Isabella
AnapodotonsToo late? Why, no.Stichomythia I that do speak a word
May call it back again. Well believe this:
No ceremony that to great ones longs,
Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robePolysyndeton
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.Metaphor
If he had been as you, and you as he,Chiasmus
You would have slipped like him, but he like youChiasmus
Would not have been so stern.
Angelo
Pray you begone.
Isabella
I would to heaven I had your potency,
And you were Isabel.Chiasmus Should it then be thus?
No. DichotomyI would tell what ’twere to be a judge
And what a prisoner.Hypophora
Lucio, aside to Isabella
Ay, touch him; there’s the vein.