171: _should_] _shall_ Steevens. 172: _perilous_] _most perilous_ Theobald. _these perilous_ Seymour conj. _pernicious_ S. Walker conj. 175: _court'sy_] _curtsie_ Ff. 179: _mind_] _mine_ Jackson conj. 185: Inverted commas prefixed to this line in Ff. ACT III. SCENE I. _A room in the prison._ _Enter DUKE disguised as before, CLAUDIO, and PROVOST._ _Duke._ So, then, you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo? _Claud._ The miserable have no other medicine But only hope: I've hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. _Duke._ Be absolute for death; either death or life 5 Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life: If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences. That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, 10 Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool; For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble; For all the accommodations that thou bear'st Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant; 15 For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself; For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains 20 That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not; For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get. And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; 25 For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none; For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire, The mere effusion of thy proper loins, 30 Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age. But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms 35 Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich, Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear, 40 That makes these odds all even. _Claud._ I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find I seek to die; And, seeking death, find life: let it come on. _Isab._ [_within_] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company! _Prov._ Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome. 45 _Duke._ Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. _Claud._ Most holy sir, I thank you. _Enter ISABELLA._ _Isab._ My business is a word or two with Claudio.