This text of Measure for Measure is from Volume I of the nine-volume 1863 Cambridge edition of Shakespeare. The Preface ([e-text 23041]) and the other plays from this volume are each available as separate e-texts.

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THE WORKS

OF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

EDITED BY

WILLIAM GEORGE CLARK, M.A.

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND PUBLIC ORATOR
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE;

and JOHN GLOVER, M.A.

LIBRARIAN OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

VOLUME I.

Cambridge and London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1863.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

[ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ].[1]

Scene—Vienna.

[1.] Dramatis Personæ] The Names of all the Actors Ff (added at the end of the play).

[2.] Omitted in Ff.

[3.] Clowne. Ff.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

[ACT I.]

[ I. 1 Scene I.] An apartment in the Duke’s palace.

Enter Duke, Escalus, [Lords and Attendants].

Duke. Escalus.

Escal. My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold,

Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;

5 Since I am [put] to know that your own science

Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: then no more [remains,]

[But that to your sufficiency] . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as your worth is able,

10 And let them work. The nature of our people,

Our [city’s] institutions, and the terms

For common justice, you’re as pregnant in

As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember. There is our commission,

15 From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,

I say, bid come before us Angelo.

[Exit an Attendant.]

What figure of us think you he will bear?

For you must know, we have with special [soul]

Elected him our absence to supply;

20 Lent him our terror, dress’d him with our love,

And given his deputation all the organs

Of our own power: [what] think you of it?

Escal. If any in Vienna be of worth

To undergo such ample grace and honour,

It is Lord Angelo.

I. 1.
25 Duke.

Look where he comes.

[Enter Angelo.]

Ang. Always obedient to your Grace’s will,

I come to know [your pleasure].

Duke.

Angelo,

There is a kind of [character] in thy [life],

That to th’ observer doth thy [history]

30 Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings

Are not thine own so proper, as to waste

Thyself upon thy virtues, [they] on thee.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

35 Did not go forth of us, ’twere [all alike]

[As if we] had them not. Spirits are not finely touch’d

But to fine issues; [nor] Nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence,

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines

40 Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech

To one that can [my part in him] advertise;

[Hold therefore, Angelo:—]

In our remove be thou at full ourself;

45 [Mortality] and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: old Escalus,

Though first in question, is thy secondary.

Take thy commission.

Ang.

Now, good my lord,

Let there be some more test made of my metal,

I. 1.
50 Before so noble and so great a figure

Be stamp’d [upon it].

Duke.

[No more] evasion:

We have with a [leaven’d and prepared] choice

Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.

Our haste from hence is of so quick condition,

55 That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion’d

Matters of needful value. We shall write [to you],

As time and our concernings shall importune,

How it goes with us; and do look to know

What doth befall you here. So, fare you well:

60 To the hopeful execution do I leave you

Of [your commissions].

Ang.

Yet, give leave, my lord,

That we may bring you something on the way.

Duke. My haste may not admit it;

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do

65 With any scruple; your scope is as mine own,

So to enforce or qualify the [laws]

As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand:

I’ll privily away. I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their eyes:

70 Though it do well, I do not relish well

Their loud applause and Aves vehement;

Nor do I think the man of safe discretion

That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.

Ang. The heavens give safety to your purposes!

I. 1.
75 Escal. Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!

Duke. I thank you. Fare you well. [Exit.]

Escal. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave

To have free speech with you; and it concerns me

To look into the bottom of my place:

80 A power I have, but of what strength and nature

I am not yet instructed.

Ang. ’Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,

And we may soon our satisfaction have

Touching that point.

Escal.

I’ll wait upon [your] honour.

Exeunt.

[ I. 2 Scene II.] A street.

Enter Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the King of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king.

First Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the 5 King of Hungary’s!

Sec. Gent. Amen.

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table.

10 Sec. Gent. ‘Thou shalt not steal’?

Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

[First Gent.] Why, ’twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal. There’s not a soldier of us all, that, in the 15 thanksgiving [before] meat, [do] relish the petition well that prays for peace.

Sec. Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it.

Lucio. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was said.

20 Sec. Gent. No? a dozen times at least.

First Gent. What, in metre?

[Lucio.] In any proportion or in any language.

First Gent. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all I. 2.
25 controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

First Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.

Lucio. I grant; as there may between the [lists] and the 30 velvet. Thou art the list.

First Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou’rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

35 Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.

First Gent. I think I have done myself wrong, have 40 I not?

Sec. Gent. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.[ ]

[Lucio. Behold, behold], where Madam Mitigation comes! [I have] purchased as many diseases under her roof 45 as come to—

Sec. Gent. To what, I pray?

Lucio. Judge.

Sec. Gent. To three thousand [dolours] a year.

First Gent. Ay, and more.

I. 2.
50 Lucio. A French crown more.

First Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error; I am sound.

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; 55 impiety has made a feast of thee.

[Enter Mistress Overdone].

First Gent. How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?

Mrs Ov. Well, well; there’s one yonder arrested and carried to prison was worth five thousand of you all.

60 Sec. Gent. Who’s that, I pray thee?

Mrs Ov. Marry, sir, that’s Claudio, Signior Claudio.

First Gent. Claudio to prison? ’tis not so.

Mrs Ov. Nay, but I know ’tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these 65 three days his [head] to be chopped off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this?

Mrs Ov. I am too sure of it: and it is for getting

Madam Julietta with child.

70 Lucio. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

Sec. Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose.

I. 2.
75 First Gent. But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.

Lucio. Away! let’s go learn the truth of it.

Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen.

Mrs Ov. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am 80 custom-shrunk.

[Enter Pompey.]

How now! what’s the news with you?

Pom. Yonder man is carried to prison.

Mrs Ov. Well; what has he done?

Pom. A woman.

85 Mrs Ov. But what’s his offence?

Pom. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.

Mrs Ov. What, is there a maid with child by him?

Pom. No, but there’s a woman [with maid] by him.

You have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

90 Mrs Ov. What proclamation, man?

Pom. All [houses] in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

Mrs Ov. And what shall become of those in the city?

Pom. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, 95 but that a wise burgher put in for them.

Mrs Ov. But shall [all] our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

Pom. To the ground, mistress.

Mrs Ov. Why, here’s a change indeed in the commonwealth! I. 2.
100 What shall become of me?

Pom. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients: though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I’ll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your 105 eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Mrs Ov. What’s to do here, Thomas tapster? let’s withdraw.

Pom. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there’s Madam Juliet.

Exeunt.

[Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers.]

110 Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,

But from [Lord] Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demigod Authority

115 Make us pay down for our [offence] [by weight]

[The words] of heaven;—on whom it will, it will;

On whom it will not, so; [yet still ’tis just].

Re-enter Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

120 As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So [every scope] by the immoderate use

Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,

Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,

[A thirsty evil]; and when we drink we die.

I. 2.
125 Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the [morality] of imprisonment. What’s thy offence, Claudio?

Claud. What but to speak of would offend again.

130 Lucio. What, is’t murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

Prov. Away, sir! you must go.

135 Claud. One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you.

Lucio. A hundred, if they’ll do you any good.

Is lechery so look’d after?

Claud. Thus stands it with me:—upon a true contract

I got possession of Julietta’s bed:

140 [You know the lady]; she is fast my wife,

Save that we do the [denunciation] lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,

Only for [propagation] of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

145 From whom we thought it meet to hide our love

Till time had made them for us. But it chances

The stealth of our [most] mutual entertainment

With character too gross is writ [on] Juliet.

Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud.

Unhappily, even so.

I. 2.
150 And the new Deputy now for the Duke,—

Whether it be the [fault and glimpse] of newness,

Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,

Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

155 He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;

Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up.

I stagger in:—but this new governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties

160 Which have, like unscour’d armour, hung by the wall

So long, that [nineteen] zodiacs have gone round,

And none of them been worn; and, for a name,

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me: ’tis surely for a name.

165 Lucio. I warrant [it is]: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milkmaid, if [she be] in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done so, but he’s not to be found.

I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service:

170 This day my sister should the cloister enter

And there receive her approbation:

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;

Implore her, in my [voice], that she make friends

To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him:

I. 2.
175 I have great hope in that; for in her [youth]

There is a [prone] and speechless dialect,

Such as [move] men; [beside], she hath prosperous art

When she will play with reason and discourse,

And well she can persuade.

180 Lucio. I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand [under] grievous [imposition], as for [the enjoying of] thy life, [who I would] be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I’ll to [her].

185 Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.

Lucio. Within two hours.

Claud.

Come, officer, away!

Exeunt.

[ I. 3 Scene III.] A monastery.

Enter Duke and Friar Thomas.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought;

Believe not that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete [bosom]. Why I desire thee

To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose

5 More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends

Of burning youth.

Fri. T.

May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you

How I have ever loved the life removed,

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies

10 Where youth, and cost, [and witless] bravery [keeps].

I have deliver’d to Lord Angelo,

A man of [stricture] and firm abstinence,

My absolute power and place here in Vienna,

And he supposes me travell’d to Poland;

15 [For] so I have strew’d it in the common ear,

And so it is received. Now, pious sir,

You will demand of me why I do this?

Fri. T. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting laws,

20 The needful bits and curbs [to] headstrong [weeds],

Which for [this fourteen] years we have let [slip];

Even like an o’ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,

Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,

I. 3.
25 Only [to] stick it in their children’s sight

For [terror], not to use, in time [the rod]

Becomes more [mock’d] than fear’d; so our decrees.

Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

30 The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart

Goes all decorum.

Fri. T.

It rested in your Grace

To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased:

And it in you more dreadful would have seem’d

Than in Lord Angelo.

Duke.

I [do] fear, too dreadful:

35 Sith ’twas my fault to give the people scope,

’Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them

For what I bid them do: for we bid this [be done],

When evil deeds have their permissive pass,

And not [the] punishment. Therefore, [indeed], my father,

40 I have on Angelo imposed the office;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,

And yet my nature never in the [fight]

[To do in slander]. [And] to behold his sway,

I will, as ’twere a brother of your order,

45 Visit both prince and people: therefore, [I] prithee,

Supply me with the habit, and instruct me

How I may formally [in person bear me]

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action

At [our] more leisure shall I render you;

I. 3.
50 Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;

Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses

That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,

If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

Exeunt.

[ I. 4 Scene IV.] A nunnery.

Enter Isabella and Francisca.

Isab. And have you nuns no farther privileges?

Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more;

But rather wishing a more strict restraint

5 Upon the [sisterhood, the votarists] of Saint Clare.

Lucio [within]. Ho! Peace be in this place!

Isab.

Who’s that which calls?

Fran. It is a man’s voice. Gentle Isabella,

Turn you the key, and know his business of him;

You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.

10 When you have vow’d, you must not speak with men

But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.

He calls again; I pray you, answer him. Exit.

15 Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is’t that calls?

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses

Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me

As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister

20 To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Isab. Why, ‘her unhappy brother’? let me ask

The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Isabella and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:

I. 4.
25 Not to be weary with you, he’s in prison.

Isab. Woe me! for what?

Lucio. [For that which], if myself might be his judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks:

He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir,[ make me not your story].

30 Lucio.

[It is true.]

[I would not]—though ’tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,

Tongue far from heart—play with all virgins so:

I hold you as a thing ensky’d and sainted;

35 By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;

And to be talk’d with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, ’tis thus:—

40 Your brother and his lover [have] embraced:

As those that feed grow full,—as blossoming time,

That from the [seedness] the bare fallow [brings]

To teeming foison,—even so her plenteous womb

Expresseth [his] full tilth and husbandry.

45 Isab. Some one with child by him?—My cousin Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names

By vain, though apt, affection.

Lucio.

She it is.

Isab. [O, let him] marry her.

Lucio.

This is the point.

I. 4.
50 The duke [is] very strangely gone from hence;

Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,

In hand, [and] hope of action: but we [do] learn

By those that know the very nerves of state,

His [givings-out] were of an infinite distance

55 From his true-meant design. Upon his place,

And with full line of his authority,

Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood

Is very snow-broth; one who never feels

The wanton stings and motions of the sense,

60 But doth rebate and blunt [his] natural edge

With profits of the mind, study and fast.

He—to give fear to use and liberty,

Which have [for long] run by the hideous law,

As mice by lions—hath pick’d out an act,

65 Under whose heavy sense your brother’s life

Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;

And follows close the rigour of the statute,

To make him an example. All [hope is] gone,

Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer

70 To soften Angelo: and that’s my [pith of business]

’[Twixt] you and your poor brother.

[Isab.] Doth he [so seek] his life?

[Lucio.]

[Has] censured him

Already; and, [as] I hear, the provost hath

[A warrant for his] execution.

I. 4.
75 Isab. Alas! what poor ability’s in me

To do him good?

Lucio.

Assay the power you have.

Isab. My power? Alas, I doubt,—

Lucio.

Our doubts are traitors,

And [make] us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,

80 And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,

Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,

All their petitions are as [freely] theirs

As they themselves would owe them.

Isab. I’ll see what I can do.

Lucio.

But speedily.

85 Isab. I will about it straight;

No longer staying but to give the Mother

Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:

Commend me to my brother: soon at night

I’ll send him certain word of my success.

Lucio. I take my leave of you.

90 Isab.

Good sir, adieu.

Exeunt.

[ACT II.]

[ II. 1 Scene I.] A hall in Angelo’s house.

Enter Angelo, Escalus, and a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants, behind.

Ang. 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.

Escal.

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 honour 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 attain’d the effect of your own purpose,

Whether you had not sometime in your life

15 Err’d in this point [which now you censure him],

And pull’d the law upon you.

Ang. ’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 [know] the laws

That theives do pass on thieves? ’Tis [very] pregnant,

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take’t,

II. 1.
25 Because we see it; but what we do not see

We tread upon, and never think of it.

You may not so extenuate his offence

For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,

When I, that censure him, do so offend,

30 Let mine own judgement pattern out my death,

And nothing come in partial. [Sir], he must die.

Escal. Be it as your wisdom will.

Ang.

Where is the provost?

Prov. Here, if it like your honour.

Ang.

See that Claudio

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:

35 Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared;

For that’s the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit Provost.]

Escal. [[Aside]] 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;

40 And some condemned for a fault alone.

[Enter Elbow, and Officers with Froth and Pompey.]

Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law: bring them away.

Ang. How now, sir! What’s your name? and what’s 45 the matter?

Elb. If it please your honour, 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 honour two notorious benefactors.

II. 1.
50 Ang. Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors?

Elb. If it please your honour, 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 55 ought to have.

Escal. This comes off well; here’s a wise officer.

Ang. Go to: what quality are [they] of? Elbow is your name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow?

Pom. He cannot, sir; he’s out at elbow.

60 Ang. What are you, sir?

Elb. 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 professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too.

65 Escal. How know you that?

Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,—

Escal. How? thy wife?

Elb. Ay, sir;—whom, I thank heaven, is an honest 70 woman,—

Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore?

Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd’s house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

II. 1.
75 Escal. How dost thou know that, constable?

Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all [uncleanliness] there.

Escal. By [the] woman’s means?

80 Elb. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone’s means: but as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

Pom. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.

Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man; prove it.

85 Escal.Do you hear how he misplaces?

Pom. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing, saving your honour’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 three-pence; 90 your honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes,—

Escal. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir.

Pom. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right: but to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, 95 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 you know, Master Froth, I could not II. 1.
100 give you three-pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

Pom. Very well;—you being then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes,—

Froth. Ay, so I did indeed.

Pom. Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be remembered, 105 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,—

Froth. All this is true.

110 Pom. Why, very well, then,—

Escal. 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.

Pom. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.

115 Escal. No, sir, [nor] I mean it not.

Pom. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour’s leave. And, I beseech you, look [into] Master Froth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound a year; whose father died at Hallowmas:—was’t not at Hallowmas, Master Froth?—

120 Froth. [All-hallond] eve.

Pom. Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower [chair, sir]; ’twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not?

II. 1.
125 Froth. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for [winter].

Pom. Why, very well, then; I hope here be truths.

Ang. This will last out a night in Russia,

When nights are longest there: I’ll take my leave,

130 And leave you to the hearing of the cause;

Hoping you’ll find good cause to whip them all.

Escal. I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.

[Exit Angelo.]

Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow’s wife, once more?

135 Pom. Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.

Elb. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.

Pom. I beseech your honour, ask me.

Escal. Well, sir; what did this gentleman to her?

140 Pom. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman’s face. Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; ’tis for a good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?

Escal. Ay, sir, very well.

Pom. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.

145 Escal. Well, I do so.

Pom. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?

Escal. Why, no.

Pom. I’ll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him. Good, then; if his face be the worst II. 1.
150 thing about him, how could Master Froth do the constable’s wife any harm? I would know that of your honour.

Escal. He’s in the right. Constable, what say you to it?

Elb. First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is 155 a respected woman.

Pom. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any of us all.

Elb. Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet! the time is yet to come that she was ever respected with 160 man, woman, or child.

Pom. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.

Escal. Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is this true?

165 Elb. 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 the poor duke’s officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or I’ll have mine action of battery 170 on thee.

Escal. If he took you a box o’ th’ ear, you might have your action of slander too.

Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is’t your worship’s pleasure I shall do with this wicked II. 1.
175 caitiff?

Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou knowest what they are.

Elb. Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, 180 thou wicked varlet, now, what’s come upon thee: thou art to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue.

Escal. Where were you born, friend?

Froth. Here in Vienna, sir.

Escal. Are you of fourscore pounds a year?

185 Froth. Yes, an’t please you, sir.

Escal. So. What trade are [you] of, sir?

Pom. A tapster; a poor widow’s tapster.

Escal. Your mistress’ name?

Pom. Mistress Overdone.

190 Escal. Hath she had any more than one husband?

Pom. Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.

Escal. 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] 195 them. Get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.

Froth. I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into any room in a taphouse, but I am drawn in.

Escal. Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell. [[Exit Froth.]] Come you hither to me, Master tapster. II. 1.
200 What’s your name, Master tapster?

Pom. Pompey.

Escal. What else?

Pom. Bum, sir.

Escal. Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about 205 you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it [in] being a tapster, are you not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.

Pom. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.

210 Escal. How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?

Pom. If the law would allow it, sir.

Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey; [nor] it 215 shall not be allowed in Vienna.

Pom. Does your worship mean to geld and [splay] all the youth of the city?

Escal. No, Pompey.

Pom. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to’t, 220 then. If your worship will take order for the drabs and [the knaves], you need not to fear the bawds.

Escal. There [are] pretty orders beginning, I can tell you: it is but heading and hanging.

Pom. If you head and hang all that offend that way II. 1.
225 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 three-pence a [bay]: if you live to see this come to pass, say Pompey told you so.

Escal. Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of 230 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 do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Cæsar to you; in plain dealing, [Pompey], I shall have you whipt: so, for 235 this time, Pompey, fare you well.

Pom. I thank your worship for your good counsel: [[Aside]] but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine.

Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade:

240 The valiant heart is not whipt out of his trade. [Exit.]

Escal. Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?

Elb. Seven year and a half, sir.

245 Escal. I thought, by [your] readiness in the office, you had continued in it some time. You say, seven years together?

Elb. And a half, sir.

Escal. Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you wrong to put you so oft upon’t: are there not men II. 1.
250 in your ward sufficient to serve it?

Elb. 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.

Escal. Look you bring me in the names of some six 255 or seven, the most sufficient of your parish.

Elb. To your worship’s house, sir?

Escal. To my house. Fare you well.

Exit Elbow.

What’s o’clock, think you?

Just. Eleven, sir.

260 Escal. I pray you [home] to dinner with me.

Just. I humbly thank you.

Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio;

But there’s no remedy.

Just. Lord Angelo is severe.

Escal.

It is but needful:

265 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.

Exeunt.

[ II. 2 Scene II.] Another room in the same.

Enter Provost and a Servant.

Serv. He’s hearing of a cause; [he will] come straight:

I’ll tell him of you.

Prov.

Pray you, do. [Exit Servant.] I’ll know

His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas,

He hath [but as offended] in a dream!

5 All [sects], all ages smack [of this] vice; and he

To die for ’t!

Enter Angelo.

Ang.

Now, what’s the matter, provost?

Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?

Ang. Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?

Why [dost thou] ask again?

Prov.

Lest I might be too rash:

10 Under your good correction, I have seen,

When, after execution, Judgement hath

Repented o’er his doom.

Ang.

[Go to]; let that be mine:

Do you your office, or give up your place,

And you shall well be spared.

Prov.

I crave your [honour’s] pardon.

15 What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?

She’s very near her hour.

Ang.

Dispose of her

To some more [fitter] place, and that with speed.

Re-enter Servant.

Serv. Here is the sister of the man condemn’d

Desires access to you.

Ang.

Hath he a sister?

20 Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,

And to be shortly of a sisterhood,

If not already.

Ang.

[Well], let her be admitted.

Exit Servant.

See you the fornicatress be removed:

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;

There shall be order [for ’t].

Enter Isabella and Lucio.

II. 2.
25 Prov.

[God save] your honour!

Ang. Stay while. [To Isab.] You’re welcome: what’s your will?

Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,

[Please] but your honour hear me.

Ang.

[Well]; what’s your suit?

Isab. There is a vice that most I do abhor,

30 [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

At war ’twixt will and will not.

Ang.

Well; the matter?

Isab. I have a brother is condemn’d to die:

35 I do beseech you, let it be his fault,

And not my brother.

Prov. [Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces!

Ang. Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?

Why, every fault’s condemn’d ere it be done:

Mine were the very cipher of a function,

40 [To fine] the [faults] whose fine stands in record,

And let go by the actor.

Isab.

O just but severe law!

I had a brother, then.—Heaven keep your honour!

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Give’t not o’er so: to him again, entreat him;

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:

45 You are too cold; if you should need a pin,

You could not with [more tame a] tongue desire it:

To him, I say!

Isab. Must he needs die?

Ang.

Maiden, no remedy.

Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,

II. 2.
50 And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.

Ang. I will not do’t.

Isab.

But can you, if you would?

Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

Isab. But [might you] do’t, and do the world no wrong,

If so your heart were touch’d with that remorse

As mine is to [him].

55 Ang.

He’s sentenced; ’tis too late.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] [You are] too cold.

Isab. 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],

60 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.

If he had been as you, and you as he,

65 You would have slipt like him; but he, like you,

Would not have been so stern.

Ang.

Pray you, be gone.

Isab. 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,

And what a prisoner.

70 Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Ay, touch him; there’s the vein.

Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,

And you but waste your words.

Isab.

Alas, alas!

Why, all the souls [that were] were forfeit once;

And He that might the vantage best have took

II. 2.
75 Found out the remedy. How would you be,

If He, which is the [top] of judgement, should

But judge you as you are? O, think on that;

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.

Ang.

Be you content, fair maid;

80 It is the law, not I [condemn] your brother:

Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him: he [must die] to-morrow.

Isab. To-morrow! O, that’s [sudden!] Spare him, spare him!

He’s not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens

85 We kill the fowl of season: [shall we serve] heaven

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 offence?

There’s many have committed it.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Ay, well said.

90 Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:

Those many had not dared to do that evil,

If [the first that did the edict] infringe

Had answer’d for his deed: now ’tis awake,

Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,

95 Looks in a glass, [that shows what] future evils,

[Either now], or by remissness new-conceived,

And so in progress to be hatch’d and born,

Are now to have no successive degrees,

But, [ere] they live, to end.

Isab.

Yet show some pity.

II. 2.
100 Ang. I show it most of all when I show justice;

For then I pity those I do not know,

Which a dismiss’d offence would after gall;

And do him right that, answering one foul wrong.

Lives not to act another. [Be] satisfied;

105 Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

Isab. So you must be the first that gives this sentence.

And he, that suffers. O, [it is] excellent

To have a giant’s strength; but [it is] tyrannous

To use it like a giant.

Lucio.

[Aside to Isab.] That’s well said.

110 Isab. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would [ne’er] be quiet,

For every pelting, petty officer

[Would] use his heaven for thunder.

Nothing but thunder! Merciful [Heaven],

115 Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt

[Split’st] the unwedgeable and gnarled oak

Than the soft myrtle: [but] man, [proud] man,

Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,

120 His [glassy] essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven

As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] O, to him, to him, wench! he will relent;

He’s coming; I perceive’t.

II. 2.
125 Prov.

[Aside] Pray heaven she win him!

Isab. [We cannot] weigh our brother with [ourself]:

Great men may jest with [saints]; ’tis wit in them.

But in the less foul profanation.

Lucio. Thou’rt [i’ the right], girl; more o’ that.

130 Isab. That in the captain’s but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Art [avised] o’ that? [more on’t].

Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me?

Isab. Because authority, though it err like others.

135 Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o’ the 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,

140 Let it not sound a thought upon [your] tongue

Against my brother’s life.

Ang.

[Aside] She speaks, and ’tis

Such sense, that my sense [breeds] with it. Fare you well.

Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back.

Ang. I will bethink me: come again to-morrow.

145 Isab. Hark how I’ll bribe you: good my lord, turn back.

Ang. How? bribe me?

Isab. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Yon had marr’d all else.

Isab. Not with fond [shekels] of the tested gold,

II. 2.
150 Or stones whose [rates are] either rich or poor

As fancy values them; but with true prayers

That shall be up at heaven and enter there

Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,

From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate

To nothing temporal.

155 Ang.

Well; come to me to-morrow.

Lucio. [Aside to Isab.] Go to; ’tis well; away!

Isab. Heaven keep your honour safe!

Ang.

[Aside] [Amen]:

For I am that way going to temptation,

[Where] prayers cross.

Isab.

At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend [your lordship]?

160 Ang.

At any time ’fore noon.

Isab. [’Save] your honour!

[Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and Provost.]

Ang.

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!]

165 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

170 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?

Dost thou desire her foully for those things

II. 2.
175 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,

And feast upon her eyes? What is’t I dream on?

180 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,

With all her double vigour, art and nature,

185 Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid

Subdues me quite. [Ever till now],

When men were fond, I smiled, and wonder’d how. Exit.

[ II. 3 Scene III.] A room in a prison.

Enter, severally, Duke disguised as a friar, and Provost.

Duke. Hail to you, provost!—so I think you are.

Prov. I am the provost. What’s your will, good friar?

Duke. Bound by my charity and my blest order,

I come to visit the afflicted spirits

5 Here in the prison. Do me the common right

To let me see them, and to make me know

The nature of their [crimes, that I may] minister

To them accordingly.

Prov. I would do more than that, if more were needful.

[Enter Juliet.]

10 Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,

Who, falling in the [flaws] of her own youth,

Hath blister’d her report: she is with child;

And he that got it, sentenced; a young man

More fit to do another such offence

15 Than die for this.

Duke. When must he die?

Prov.

As I do think, to-morrow.

I have provided for you: stay awhile, To Juliet.

And you shall be conducted.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

20 Jul. I do; and bear the shame most patiently.

Duke. I’ll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,

Or hollowly put on.

Jul.

I’ll gladly learn.

Duke. Love you the man that wrong’d you?

II. 3.
25 Jul. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong’d him.

Duke. So, then, it seems your most [offenceful] act

Was mutually committed?

Jul.

Mutually.

Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.

Jul. I do confess it, and repent it, father.

30 Duke. ’Tis meet so, daughter: but [lest you do repent],

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,

Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven,

Showing [we would not spare] heaven as we love it,

But as we stand in fear,—

35 Jul. I do repent me, as it is an evil,

And take the shame with joy.

Duke.

[There rest.]

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,

And I am going with instruction to him.

[Grace] go with you, Benedicite! Exit.

40 Jul. Must die to-morrow! O injurious [love],

That respites me a life, whose very comfort

Is still a dying horror!

Prov.

’Tis pity of him.

Exeunt.

[ II. 4 Scene IV.] A room in Angelo’s house.

Enter Angelo.

Ang. 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: [Heaven] in my mouth,

5 As if I did but only chew [his] name;

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 [fear’d] and tedious; yea, my gravity,

10 Wherein—let no man hear me—I [take] pride,

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

15 To thy false seeming! Blood, [thou art blood]:

Let’s write good angel on the devil’s horn;

[’Tis not] the devil’s crest.

Enter a Servant.

How now! who’s there?

Serv. One Isabel, a sister, [desires] access to you.

Ang. Teach her the way. 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:

II. 4.
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-wish’d king,

Quit their own [part], and in obsequious fondness

Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love

Must needs appear offence.

Enter Isabella.

30 How now, fair maid?

[Isab.] I am come to know your pleasure.

Ang. That you might know it, would much better please me

Than to [demand] what ’tis. [Your brother] cannot live.

Isab. Even so.—Heaven keep [your honour]!

35 Ang. Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be,

As long as you or I: yet he must die.

Isab. Under your sentence?

Ang. Yea.

Isab. When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,

40 Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted

That his soul sicken not.

Ang. Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good

To pardon him that hath from nature stolen

A man already made, as to remit

45 Their saucy [sweetness] that do coin heaven’s image

In stamps that are forbid: ’tis all as [easy]

Falsely to take away a life true made,

As to put [metal] in restrained [means]

To make a false one.

II. 4.
50 Isab. [’Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.]

Ang. [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,

Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness

As she that he hath stain’d?

55 Isab.

Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my soul.

Ang. I talk not of your soul: our compell’d sins

Stand more for number than [for accompt].

Isab.

How say you?

Ang. Nay, I’ll not warrant that; for I can speak

60 Against the thing I say. Answer to this:—

I, now the voice of the recorded law,

Pronounce a sentence on your brother’s life: