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• 1 2016-11-13T12:24:30-08:00 Act II 6 Measure for Measure Act II plain 2016-12-08T15:58:16-08:00 Scene 1
  Enter Angelo, Escalus, Servants, and a Justice.
   
  ANGELO
  We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
  Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
  And let it keep one shape till custom make it
  Their perch and not their terror.
  ESCALUS  Ay, but yet                                                                                   5
  Let us be keen and rather cut a little
  Than fall and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman
  Whom I would save had a most noble father.
  Let but your Honor know,
  Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,                                          10
  That, in the working of your own affections,
  Had time cohered with place, or place with wishing,
  Or that the resolute acting of your blood
  Could have attained th’ effect of your own purpose,
  Whether you had not sometime in your life                                         15
  Erred in this point which now you censure him,
  And pulled the law upon you.
  ANGELO
  ’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
  Another thing to fall. I not deny
  The jury passing on the prisoner’s life                                                  20
  May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
  Guiltier than him they try. What’s open made to
  justice,
  That justice seizes. What knows the laws
  That thieves do pass on thieves? ’Tis very pregnant,                         25
  The jewel that we find, we stoop and take ’t
  Because we see it; but what we do not see,
  We tread upon and never think of it.
  You may not so extenuate his offense
  For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,                                      30
  When I that censure him do so offend,
  Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
  And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
   
  Enter Provost.
   
  ESCALUS
  Be it as your wisdom will.
  ANGELO  Where is the Provost?                                                              35
  PROVOST
  Here, if it like your Honor.
  ANGELO  See that Claudio
  Be executed by nine tomorrow morning.
  Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared,
  For that’s the utmost of his pilgrimage.                                                40
  Provost exits.
  ESCALUS
  Well, heaven forgive him and forgive us all.
  Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.
  Some run from brakes of ice and answer none,
  And some condemnèd for a fault alone.
   
  Enter Elbow and Officers, with Froth
  and Pompey.
   
  ELBOW, to Officers  Come, bring them away. If these                         45
  be good people in a commonweal that do nothing
  but use their abuses in common houses, I know no
  law. Bring them away.
  ANGELO  How now, sir, what’s your name? And what’s
  the matter?                                                                                              50
  ELBOW  If it please your Honor, I am the poor duke’s
  constable, and my name is Elbow. I do lean upon
  justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good
  Honor two notorious benefactors.
  ANGELO  Benefactors? Well, what benefactors are they?                   55
  Are they not malefactors?
  ELBOW  If it please your Honor, I know not well what
  they are, but precise villains they are, that I am sure
  of, and void of all profanation in the world that
  good Christians ought to have.                                                            60
  ESCALUS, to Angelo  This comes off well. Here’s a wise
  officer.
  ANGELO, to Elbow  Go to. What quality are they of?
  Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak,
  Elbow?                                                                                                     65
  POMPEY  He cannot, sir. He’s out at elbow.
  ANGELO  What are you, sir?
  ELBOW  He, sir? A tapster, sir, parcel bawd; one that
  serves a bad woman, whose house, sir, was, as they
  say, plucked down in the suburbs, and now she                               70
  professes a hothouse, which I think is a very ill
  house too.
  ESCALUS  How know you that?
  ELBOW  My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and
  your Honor—                                                                                         75
  ESCALUS  How? Thy wife?
  ELBOW  Ay, sir, whom I thank heaven is an honest
  woman—
  ESCALUS  Dost thou detest her therefore?
  ELBOW  I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she,                80
  that this house, if it be not a bawd’s house, it is pity
  of her life, for it is a naughty house.
  ESCALUS  How dost thou know that, constable?
  ELBOW  Marry, sir, by my wife, who, if she had been a
  woman cardinally given, might have been accused                        85
  in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness
  there.
  ESCALUS  By the woman’s means?
  ELBOW  Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone’s means; but as
  she spit in his face, so she defied him.                                               90
  POMPEY, to Escalus  Sir, if it please your Honor, this is
  not so.
  ELBOW  Prove it before these varlets here, thou honorable
  man, prove it.
  ESCALUS, to Angelo  Do you hear how he misplaces?                        95
  POMPEY  Sir, she came in great with child, and longing,
  saving your Honor’s reverence, for stewed prunes.
  Sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very
  distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit dish, a dish
  of some threepence; your Honors have seen such                         100
  dishes; they are not china dishes, but very good
  dishes—
  ESCALUS  Go to, go to. No matter for the dish, sir.
  POMPEY  No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in
  the right. But to the point: as I say, this Mistress                          105
  Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great-bellied,
  and longing, as I said, for prunes; and
  having but two in the dish, as I said, Master Froth
  here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said,
  and, as I say, paying for them very honestly—for, as                   110
  you know, Master Froth, I could not give you threepence
  again—
  FROTH  No, indeed.
  POMPEY  Very well. You being then, if you be remembered,
  cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes—                                  115
  FROTH  Ay, so I did indeed.
  POMPEY  Why, very well. I telling you then, if you be
  remembered, that such a one and such a one were
  past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept
  very good diet, as I told you—                                                         120
  FROTH  All this is true.
  POMPEY  Why, very well then—
  ESCALUS  Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose:
  what was done to Elbow’s wife that he hath cause to
  complain of? Come me to what was done to her.                          125
  POMPEY  Sir, your Honor cannot come to that yet.
  ESCALUS  No, sir, nor I mean it not.
  POMPEY  Sir, but you shall come to it, by your Honor’s
  leave. And I beseech you, look into Master Froth
  here, sir, a man of fourscore pound a year, whose                        130
  father died at Hallowmas—was ’t not at Hallowmas,
  Master Froth?
  FROTH  All-hallond Eve.
  POMPEY  Why, very well. I hope here be truths.—He,
  sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir—To Froth.                    135
  ’Twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you
  have a delight to sit, have you not?
  FROTH  I have so, because it is an open room, and good
  for winter.
  POMPEY  Why, very well then. I hope here be truths.                       140
  ANGELO, to Escalus
  This will last out a night in Russia
  When nights are longest there. I’ll take my leave,
  And leave you to the hearing of the cause,
  Hoping you’ll find good cause to whip them all.
  ESCALUS
  I think no less. Good morrow to your Lordship                                145
  Angelo exits.
  Now, sir, come on. What was done to Elbow’s wife,
  once more?
  POMPEY  Once, sir? There was nothing done to her
  once.
  ELBOW, to Escalus  I beseech you, sir, ask him what                        150
  this man did to my wife.
  POMPEY, to Escalus  I beseech your Honor, ask me.
  ESCALUS  Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?
  POMPEY  I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman’s
  face.—Good Master Froth, look upon his Honor.                         155
  ’Tis for a good purpose.—Doth your Honor mark
  his face?
  ESCALUS  Ay, sir, very well.
  POMPEY  Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
  ESCALUS  Well, I do so.                                                                          160
  POMPEY  Doth your Honor see any harm in his face?
  ESCALUS  Why, no.
  POMPEY  I’ll be supposed upon a book, his face is the
  worst thing about him. Good, then, if his face be the
  worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do                      165
  the Constable’s wife any harm? I would know that
  of your Honor.
  ESCALUS  He’s in the right, constable. What say you to
  it?
  ELBOW  First, an it like you, the house is a respected                        170
  house; next, this is a respected fellow, and his
  mistress is a respected woman.
  POMPEY  By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected
  person than any of us all.
  ELBOW  Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet! The                 175
  time is yet to come that she was ever respected with
  man, woman, or child.
  POMPEY  Sir, she was respected with him before he
  married with her.
  ESCALUS  Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity?                   180
  Is this true?
  ELBOW, to Pompey  O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O
  thou wicked Hannibal! I respected with her before I
  was married to her?—If ever I was respected with
  her, or she with me, let not your Worship think me                      185
  the poor duke’s officer.—Prove this, thou wicked
  Hannibal, or I’ll have mine action of batt’ry on thee.
  ESCALUS  If he took you a box o’ th’ ear, you might have
  your action of slander too.
  ELBOW  Marry, I thank your good Worship for it. What                  190
  is ’t your Worship’s pleasure I shall do with this
  wicked caitiff?
  ESCALUS  Truly, officer, because he hath some offenses
  in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst,
  let him continue in his courses till thou know’st                           195
  what they are.
  ELBOW  Marry, I thank your Worship for it. To Pompey.
  Thou seest, thou wicked varlet, now, what’s
  come upon thee. Thou art to continue now, thou
  varlet, thou art to continue.                                                                200
  ESCALUS, to Froth  Where were you born, friend?
  FROTH  Here in Vienna, sir.
  ESCALUS  Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
  FROTH  Yes, an ’t please you, sir.
  ESCALUS  So. To Pompey. What trade are you of, sir?                     205
  POMPEY  A tapster, a poor widow’s tapster.
  ESCALUS  Your mistress’ name?
  POMPEY  Mistress Overdone.
  ESCALUS  Hath she had any more than one husband?
  POMPEY  Nine, sir. Overdone by the last.                                            210
  ESCALUS  Nine?—Come hither to me, Master Froth.
  Master Froth, I would not have you acquainted with
  tapsters; they will draw you, Master Froth, and you
  will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no
  more of you.                                                                                         215
  FROTH  I thank your Worship. For mine own part, I
  never come into any room in a taphouse but I am
  drawn in.
  ESCALUS  Well, no more of it, Master Froth. Farewell.
  Froth exits.
  Come you hither to me, Master Tapster. What’s your                  220
  name, Master Tapster?
  POMPEY  Pompey.
  ESCALUS  What else?
  POMPEY  Bum, sir.
  ESCALUS  Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing                         225
  about you, so that in the beastliest sense you are
  Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd,
  Pompey, howsoever you color it in being a tapster,
  are you not? Come, tell me true. It shall be the
  better for you.                                                                                       230
  POMPEY  Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
  ESCALUS  How would you live, Pompey? By being a
  bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? Is it
  a lawful trade?
  POMPEY  If the law would allow it, sir.                                                235
  ESCALUS  But the law will not allow it, Pompey, nor it
  shall not be allowed in Vienna.
  POMPEY  Does your Worship mean to geld and splay all
  the youth of the city?
  ESCALUS  No, Pompey.                                                                          240
  POMPEY  Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to ’t
  then. If your Worship will take order for the drabs
  and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.
  ESCALUS  There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell
  you. It is but heading and hanging.                                                  245
  POMPEY  If you head and hang all that offend that way
  but for ten year together, you’ll be glad to give out a
  commission for more heads. If this law hold in
  Vienna ten year, I’ll rent the fairest house in it after
  threepence a bay. If you live to see this come to                           250
  pass, say Pompey told you so.
  ESCALUS  Thank you, good Pompey. And in requital of
  your prophecy, hark you: I advise you let me not
  find you before me again upon any complaint
  whatsoever; no, not for dwelling where you do. If I                     255
  do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent and prove
  a shrewd Caesar to you. In plain dealing, Pompey, I
  shall have you whipped. So, for this time, Pompey,
  fare you well.
  POMPEY  I thank your Worship for your good counsel.                    260
  Aside. But I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune
  shall better determine.
  Whip me? No, no, let carman whip his jade.
  The valiant heart’s not whipped out of his trade.
  He exits.
  ESCALUS  Come hither to me, Master Elbow. Come                        265
  hither, Master Constable. How long have you been
  in this place of constable?
  ELBOW  Seven year and a half, sir.
  ESCALUS  I thought, by the readiness in the office, you
  had continued in it some time. You say seven years                     270
  together?
  ELBOW  And a half, sir.
  ESCALUS  Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do
  you wrong to put you so oft upon ’t. Are there not
  men in your ward sufficient to serve it?                                          275
  ELBOW  Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters. As
  they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for
  them. I do it for some piece of money and go
  through with all.
  ESCALUS  Look you bring me in the names of some six                  280
  or seven, the most sufficient of your parish.
  ELBOW  To your Worship’s house, sir?
  ESCALUS  To my house. Fare you well.
  Elbow and Officers exit.
  To Justice. What’s o’clock, think you?
  JUSTICE  Eleven, sir.                                                                                285
  ESCALUS  I pray you home to dinner with me.
  JUSTICE  I humbly thank you.
  ESCALUS
  It grieves me for the death of Claudio,
  But there’s no remedy.
  JUSTICE
  Lord Angelo is severe.                                                                           290
  ESCALUS  It is but needful.
  Mercy is not itself that oft looks so.
  Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
  But yet, poor Claudio. There is no remedy.
  Come, sir.                                                                                                 295
  They exit.
   
  Scene 2
  Enter Provost and a Servant.
   
  SERVANT
  He’s hearing of a cause. He will come straight.
  I’ll tell him of you.
  PROVOST  Pray you do.
  Servant exits.
  I’ll know
  His pleasure. Maybe he will relent. Alas,                                               5
  He hath but as offended in a dream.
  All sects, all ages smack of this vice, and he
  To die for ’t?
   
  Enter Angelo.
   
  ANGELO  Now, what’s the matter, provost?
  PROVOST
  Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?                                          10
  ANGELO
  Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order?
  Why dost thou ask again?
  PROVOST  Lest I might be too rash.
  Under your good correction, I have seen
  When, after execution, judgment hath                                                  15
  Repented o’er his doom.
  ANGELO  Go to. Let that be mine.
  Do you your office, or give up your place
  And you shall well be spared.
  PROVOST  I crave your Honor’s pardon.                                                20
  What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
  She’s very near her hour.
  ANGELO  Dispose of her
  To some more fitter place, and that with speed.
   
  Enter Servant.
   
  SERVANT
  Here is the sister of the man condemned                                              25
  Desires access to you.
  ANGELO  Hath he a sister?
  PROVOST
  Ay, my good lord, a very virtuous maid,
  And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
  If not already.                                                                                             30
  ANGELO, to Servant  Well, let her be admitted.
  Servant exits.
  See you the fornicatress be removed.
  Let her have needful but not lavish means.
  There shall be order for ’t.
   
  Enter Lucio and Isabella.
   
  PROVOST, beginning to exit  Save your Honor.                                    35
  ANGELO
  Stay a little while. To Isabella. You’re welcome.
  What’s your will?
  ISABELLA
  I am a woeful suitor to your Honor,
  Please but your Honor hear me.
  ANGELO  Well, what’s your                                                                      40
  suit?
  ISABELLA
  There is a vice that most I do abhor,
  And most desire should meet the blow of justice,
  For which I would not plead, but that I must;
  For which I must not plead, but that I am                                             45
  At war ’twixt will and will not.
  ANGELO  Well, the matter?
  ISABELLA
  I have a brother is condemned to die.
  I do beseech you let it be his fault
  And not my brother.                                                                                 50
  PROVOST, aside  Heaven give thee moving
  graces.
  ANGELO
  Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
  Why, every fault’s condemned ere it be done.
  Mine were the very cipher of a function                                               55
  To fine the faults whose fine stands in record
  And let go by the actor.
  ISABELLA  O just but severe law!
  I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your Honor.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella
  Give ’t not o’er so. To him again, entreat him,                                    60
  Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown.
  You are too cold. If you should need a pin,
  You could not with more tame a tongue desire it.
  To him, I say.
  ISABELLA, to Angelo
  Must he needs die?                                                                                   65
  ANGELO  Maiden, no remedy.
  ISABELLA
  Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
  And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
  ANGELO
  I will not do ’t.
  ISABELLA  But can you if you would?                                                   70
  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.                                                  75
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella  You are too cold.
  ISABELLA
  Too late? Why, no. 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,                                     80
  The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe
  Become them with one half so good a grace
  As mercy does.
  If he had been as you, and you as he,
  You would have slipped like him, but he like you                              85
  Would not have been so stern.
  ANGELO  Pray you begone.
  ISABELLA
  I would to heaven I had your potency,
  And you were Isabel. Should it then be thus?
  No. I would tell what ’twere to be a judge                                           90
  And what a prisoner.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella  Ay, touch him; there’s the
  vein.
  ANGELO
  Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
  And you but waste your words.                                                              95
  ISABELLA  Alas, alas!
  Why all the souls that were were forfeit once,
  And He that might the vantage best have took
  Found out the remedy. How would you be
  If He which is the top of judgment should                                         100
  But judge you as you are? O, think on that,
  And mercy then will breathe within your lips
  Like man new-made.
  ANGELO  Be you content, fair maid.
  It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.                                         105
  Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
  It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow.
  ISABELLA
  Tomorrow? O, that’s sudden! Spare him, spare him.
  He’s not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens
  We kill the fowl of season. Shall we serve heaven                           110
  With less respect than we do minister
  To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink
  you.
  Who is it that hath died for this offense?
  There’s many have committed it.                                                        115
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella  Ay, well said.
  ANGELO
  The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
  Those many had not dared to do that evil
  If the first that did th’ edict infringe
  Had answered for his deed. Now ’tis awake,                                     120
  Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet,
  Looks in a glass that shows what future evils—
  Either now, or by remissness new-conceived,
  And so in progress to be hatched and born—
  Are now to have no successive degrees                                              125
  But, ere they live, to end.
  ISABELLA  Yet show some pity.
  ANGELO
  I show it most of all when I show justice,
  For then I pity those I do not know,
  Which a dismissed offense would after gall,                                     130
  And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
  Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
  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                                                  135
  To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
  To use it like a giant.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella  That’s well said.
  ISABELLA  Could great men thunder
  As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet,                           140
  For every pelting, petty officer
  Would use his heaven for thunder,
  Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven,
  Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
  Splits the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak,                                           145
  Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
  Dressed in a little brief authority,
  Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
  His glassy essence, like an angry ape
  Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven                                  150
  As makes the angels weep, who with our spleens
  Would all themselves laugh mortal.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella
  O, to him, to him, wench. He will relent.
  He’s coming. I perceive ’t.
  PROVOST, aside  Pray heaven she win him.                                        155
  ISABELLA
  We cannot weigh our brother with ourself.
  Great men may jest with saints; ’tis wit in them,
  But in the less, foul profanation.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella
  Thou ’rt i’ th’ right, girl. More o’ that.
  ISABELLA
  That in the captain’s but a choleric word                                           160
  Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella
  Art avised o’ that? More on ’t.
  ANGELO
  Why do you put these sayings upon me?
  ISABELLA
  Because authority, though it err like others,
  Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself                                                   165
  That skins the vice o’ th’ top. Go to your bosom,
  Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
  That’s like my brother’s fault. If it confess
  A natural guiltiness such as is his,
  Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue                                     170
  Against my brother’s life.
  ANGELO, aside  She speaks, and ’tis such sense
  That my sense breeds with it.                                       He begins to exit.
  Fare you well.
  ISABELLA  Gentle my lord, turn back.                                                 175
  ANGELO
  I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow.
  ISABELLA
  Hark how I’ll bribe you. Good my lord, turn back.
  ANGELO  How? Bribe me?
  ISABELLA
  Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella  You had marred all else.                             180
  ISABELLA
  Not with fond sicles of the tested gold,
  Or stones whose rate are either rich or poor
  As fancy values them, but with true prayers
  That shall be up at heaven and enter there
  Ere sunrise, prayers from preservèd souls,                                         185
  From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate
  To nothing temporal.
  ANGELO  Well, come to me tomorrow.
  LUCIO, aside to Isabella  Go to, ’tis well; away.
  ISABELLA
  Heaven keep your Honor safe.                                                             190
  ANGELO, aside  Amen.
  For I am that way going to temptation
  Where prayers cross.
  ISABELLA  At what hour tomorrow
  Shall I attend your Lordship?                                                               195
  ANGELO  At any time ’fore noon.
  ISABELLA  Save your Honor.
  She exits, with Lucio and Provost.
  ANGELO  From thee, even from thy virtue.
  What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault or mine?
  The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha?                               200
  Not she, nor doth she tempt; but it is I
  That, lying by the violet in the sun,
  Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
  Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
  That modesty may more betray our sense                                          205
  Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground
  enough,
  Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
  And pitch our evils there? O fie, fie, fie!
  What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?                                        210
  Dost thou desire her foully for those things
  That make her good? O, let her brother live.
  Thieves for their robbery have authority
  When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her
  That I desire to hear her speak again                                                   215
  And feast upon her eyes? What is ’t I dream on?
  O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
  With saints dost bait thy hook. Most dangerous
  Is that temptation that doth goad us on
  To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet                            220
  With all her double vigor, art and nature,
  Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid
  Subdues me quite. Ever till now
  When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how.
  He exits.
   
  Scene 3
  Enter Duke, disguised as a Friar, and Provost.
   
  DUKE, as Friar
  Hail to you, provost, so I think you are.
  PROVOST
  I am the Provost. What’s your will, good friar?
  DUKE, as Friar
  Bound by my charity and my blest order,
  I come to visit the afflicted spirits
  Here in the prison. Do me the common right                                         5
  To let me see them, and to make me know
  The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
  To them accordingly.
  PROVOST
  I would do more than that if more were needful.
   
  Enter Juliet.
   
  Look, here comes one, a gentlewoman of mine,                                 10
  Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
  Hath blistered her report. She is with child,
  And he that got it, sentenced—a young man,
  More fit to do another such offense
  Than die for this.                                                                                       15
  DUKE, as Friar
  When must he die?
  PROVOST  As I do think, tomorrow.
  To Juliet. I have provided for you. Stay awhile
  And you shall be conducted.
  DUKE, as Friar, to Juliet
  Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?                                           20
  JULIET
  I do; and bear the shame most patiently.
  DUKE, as Friar
  I’ll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,
  And try your penitence, if it be sound
  Or hollowly put on.
  JULIET  I’ll gladly learn.                                                                            25
  DUKE, as Friar  Love you the man that wronged you?
  JULIET
  Yes, as I love the woman that wronged him.
  DUKE, as Friar
  So then it seems your most offenseful act
  Was mutually committed?
  JULIET  Mutually.                                                                                        30
  DUKE, as Friar
  Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
  JULIET
  I do confess it and repent it, father.
  DUKE, as Friar
  ’Tis meet so, daughter; but lest you do repent
  As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,
  Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not                                   35
  heaven,
  Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,
  But as we stand in fear—
  JULIET
  I do repent me as it is an evil,
  And take the shame with joy.                                                                  40
  DUKE, as Friar  There rest.
  Your partner, as I hear, must die tomorrow,
  And I am going with instruction to him.
  Grace go with you. Benedicite.                                                    He exits.
  JULIET
  Must die tomorrow? O injurious love                                                   45
  That respites me a life, whose very comfort
  Is still a dying horror.
  PROVOST  ’Tis pity of him.
  They exit.
   
  Scene 4
  Enter Angelo.
   
  ANGELO
  When I would pray and think, I think and pray
  To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words,
  Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
  Anchors on Isabel. God in my mouth,
  As if I did but only chew His name,                                                        5
  And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
  Of my conception. The state whereon I studied
  Is, like a good thing being often read,
  Grown sere and tedious. Yea, my gravity,
  Wherein—let no man hear me—I take pride,                                      10
  Could I with boot change for an idle plume
  Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,
  How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
  Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
  To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood.                                       15
  Let’s write “good angel” on the devil’s horn.
  ’Tis not the devil’s crest. Knock within. How now,
  who’s there?
   
  Enter Servant.
   
  SERVANT
  One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.
  ANGELO
  Teach her the way. Servant exits. O heavens,                                      20
  Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,
  Making both it unable for itself
  And dispossessing all my other parts
  Of necessary fitness?
  So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons,                              25
  Come all to help him, and so stop the air
  By which he should revive. And even so
  The general subject to a well-wished king
  Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
  Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love                              30
  Must needs appear offense.
   
  Enter Isabella.
   
  How now, fair maid?
  ISABELLA  I am come to know your pleasure.
  ANGELO
  That you might know it would much better please me
  Than to demand what ’tis. Your brother cannot live.                         35
  ISABELLA  Even so. Heaven keep your Honor.
  ANGELO
  Yet may he live a while. And it may be
  As long as you or I. Yet he must die.
  ISABELLA  Under your sentence?
  ANGELO  Yea.                                                                                             40
   
  ISABELLA
  When, I beseech you? That in his reprieve,
  Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted
  That his soul sicken not.
  ANGELO
  Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
  To pardon him that hath from nature stolen                                         45
  A man already made, as to remit
  Their saucy sweetness that do coin God’s image
  In stamps that are forbid. ’Tis all as easy
  Falsely to take away a life true made
  As to put metal in restrainèd means                                                       50
  To make a false one.
  ISABELLA
  ’Tis set down so in heaven, but not in Earth.
  ANGELO
  Say you so? Then I shall pose you quickly:
  Which had you rather, that the most just law
  Now took your brother’s life, or, to redeem him,                               55
  Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
  As she that he hath stained?
  ISABELLA  Sir, believe this:
  I had rather give my body than my soul.
  ANGELO
  I talk not of your soul. Our compelled sins                                          60
  Stand more for number than for accompt.
  ISABELLA  How say you?
  ANGELO
  Nay, I’ll not warrant that, for I can speak
  Against the thing I say. Answer to this:
  I, now the voice of the recorded law,                                                    65
  Pronounce a sentence on your brother’s life.
  Might there not be a charity in sin
  To save this brother’s life?
  ISABELLA  Please you to do ’t,
  I’ll take it as a peril to my soul,                                                              70
  It is no sin at all, but charity.
  ANGELO
  Pleased you to do ’t, at peril of your soul,
  Were equal poise of sin and charity.
  ISABELLA
  That I do beg his life, if it be sin
  Heaven let me bear it. You granting of my suit,                                 75
  If that be sin, I’ll make it my morn prayer
  To have it added to the faults of mine
  And nothing of your answer.
  ANGELO  Nay, but hear me.
  Your sense pursues not mine. Either you are                                       80
  ignorant,
  Or seem so, crafty, and that’s not good.
  ISABELLA
  Let me be ignorant and in nothing good,
  But graciously to know I am no better.
  ANGELO
  Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright                                         85
  When it doth tax itself, as these black masks
  Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
  Than beauty could, displayed. But mark me.
  To be receivèd plain, I’ll speak more gross:
  Your brother is to die.                                                                              90
  ISABELLA  So.
  ANGELO
  And his offense is so, as it appears,
  Accountant to the law upon that pain.
  ISABELLA  True.
  ANGELO
  Admit no other way to save his life—                                                   95
  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 the manacles                                     100
  Of the all-binding law, and that there were
  No earthly mean to save him but that either
  You must lay down the treasures of your body
  To this supposed, or else to let him suffer,
  What would you do?                                                                              105
  ISABELLA
  As much for my poor brother as myself.
  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                                   110
  My body up to shame.
  ANGELO  Then must your brother die.
  ISABELLA  And ’twere the cheaper way.
  Better it were a brother died at once
  Than that a sister, by redeeming him,                                                 115
  Should die forever.
  ANGELO
  Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
  That you have slandered so?
  ISABELLA
  Ignomy in ransom and free pardon
  Are of two houses. Lawful mercy                                                        120
  Is nothing kin to foul redemption.
  ANGELO
  You seemed of late to make the law a tyrant,
  And rather proved the sliding of your brother
  A merriment than a vice.
  ISABELLA
  O, pardon me, my lord. It oft falls out,                                               125
  To have what we would have, we speak not what we
  mean.
  I something do excuse the thing I hate
  For his advantage that I dearly love.
  ANGELO
  We are all frail.                                                                                       130
  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,                               135
  Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
  Women—help, heaven—men their creation mar
  In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail,
  For we are soft as our complexions are,
  And credulous to false prints.                                                               140
  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—                                          145
  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.
  ISABELLA
  I have no tongue but one. Gentle my lord,                                         150
  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.                                           155
  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.                                                            160
  ISABELLA
  Ha! Little honor to be much believed,
  And most pernicious purpose. Seeming, seeming!
  I will proclaim thee, Angelo, look for ’t.
  Sign me a present pardon for my brother
  Or with an outstretched throat I’ll tell the world                              165
  aloud
  What man thou art.
  ANGELO  Who will believe thee, Isabel?
  My unsoiled name, th’ austereness of my life,
  My vouch against you, and my place i’ th’ state                               170
  Will so your accusation overweigh
  That you shall stifle in your own report
  And smell of calumny. I have begun,
  And now I give my sensual race the rein.
  Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;                                                  175
  Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
  That banish what they sue for.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 out                                      180
  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.
  He exits.
  ISABELLA
  To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,                                     185
  Who would believe me? O, perilous mouths,
  That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue,
  Either of condemnation or approof,
  Bidding the law make curtsy to their will,
  Hooking both right and wrong to th’ appetite,                                  190
  To follow as it draws. I’ll to my brother.
  Though he hath fall’n by prompture of the blood,
  Yet hath he in him such a mind of honor
  That, had he twenty heads to tender down
  On twenty bloody blocks, he’d yield them up                                   195
  Before his sister should her body stoop
  To such abhorred pollution.
  Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die.
  More than our brother is our chastity.
  I’ll tell him yet of Angelo’s request,                                                   200
  And fit his mind to death, for his soul’s rest.
  She exits.