Measure for Measure

ACT II. Scene I. A hall in ANGELO'S house

Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a JUSTICE, PROVOST, OFFICERS, and other

 
ATTENDANTS
  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
    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,
    That, in the working of your own affections,
    Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
    Or that the resolute acting of our blood
    Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose
    Whether you had not sometime in your life
    Err'd in this point which now you censure him,
    And pull'd 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,
    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,
    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 offence
    For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
    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.
  ESCALUS. Be it as your wisdom will.
  ANGELO. Where is the Provost?
  PROVOST. Here, if it like your honour.
  ANGELO. See that Claudio
    Be executed by nine to-morrow morning;
    Bring him his confessor; let him be prepar'd;
    For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage. Exit PROVOST
  ESCALUS. [Aside] Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
    Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall;
    Some run from breaks of ice, and answer none,
    And some condemned for a fault alone.
 

Enter ELBOW and OFFICERS with FROTH and POMPEY

ELBOW. 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. ANGELO. How now, sir! What's your name, and what's the matter? ELBOW. 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. ANGELO. Benefactors! Well- what benefactors are they? Are they not malefactors? ELBOW. 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 ought to have. ESCALUS. This comes off well; here's a wise officer. ANGELO. Go to; what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow? 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, pluck'd down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, 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 honour- 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, 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 accus'd 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. POMPEY. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. ELBOW. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove it. ESCALUS. Do you hear how he misplaces? POMPEY. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing, saving your honour's reverence, for stew'd 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; your honours have seen such 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 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 you know, Master Froth, I could not give you three pence again- FROTH. No, indeed. POMPEY. Very well; you being then, if you be rememb'red, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes- FROTH. Ay, so I did indeed. POMPEY. Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be rememb'red, 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. 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. POMPEY. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. ESCALUS. No, sir, nor I mean it not. POMPEY. 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? FROTH. All-hallond eve. POMPEY. 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? FROTH. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter. POMPEY. Why, very well then; I hope here be truths. ANGELO. 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. [Exit ANGELO] Now, sir, come on; what was done to Elbow's wife, once more? POMPEY. Once? – sir. There was nothing done to her once. ELBOW. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife. POMPEY. I beseech your honour, 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 honour; 'tis for a good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face? ESCALUS. Ay, sir, very well. POMPEY. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well. ESCALUS. Well, I do so. POMPEY. Doth your honour see any harm in his face? ESCALUS. Why, no. POMPEY. I'll be suppos'd 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 the constable's wife any harm? I would know that of your honour. ESCALUS. He's in the right, constable; what say you to it? ELBOW. First, an it like you, the house is a respected 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, wicket varlet; the 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? Is this true? ELBOW. 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 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 is't your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff? ESCALUS. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou know'st what they are. ELBOW. Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue. ESCALUS. 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. What trade are you of, sir? 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. 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. 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. [Exit FROTH] Come you hither to me, Master Tapster; what's your name, Master Tapster? POMPEY. Pompey. ESCALUS. What else? POMPEY. Bum, sir. ESCALUS. Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about 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. 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. 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. 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: but it is but heading and hanging. 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 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 do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt. So for this time, Pompey, fare you well. POMPEY. 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; The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade. Exit ESCALUS. Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come 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 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? 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 or seven, the most sufficient of your parish. ELBOW. To your worship's house, sir? ESCALUS. To my house. Fare you well. [Exit ELBOW] What's o'clock, think you? JUSTICE. Eleven, sir. 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. 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. Exeunt

SCENE II. Another room in ANGELO'S house

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. [Exit SERVANT] I'll know
    His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas,
    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 to-morrow?
  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
    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 spar'd.
  PROVOST. I crave your honour's pardon.
    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.
 

Re-enter SERVANT

 
  SERVANT. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd
    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.
  ANGELO. Well, let her be admitted. Exit SERVANT
    See you the fornicatress be remov'd;
    Let her have needful but not lavish means;
    There shall be order for't.
 

Enter Lucio and ISABELLA

 
  PROVOST. [Going] Save your honour!
  ANGELO. Stay a little while. [To ISABELLA] Y'are welcome;
what's
    your will?
  ISABELLA. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
    Please but your honour hear me.
  ANGELO. Well; what's your 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
    At war 'twixt will and will not.
  ANGELO. Well; the matter?
  ISABELLA. I have a brother is condemn'd to die;
    I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
    And not my brother.
  PROVOST. [Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces.
  ANGELO. 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,
    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 honour!
  LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Give't not o'er so; to him again, entreat
him,
    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. 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.
  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 touch'd with that remorse
    As mine is to him?
  ANGELO. He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late.
  LUCIO. [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,
    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 slipp'd like him; but he, like you,
    Would not have been so stern.
  ANGELO. Pray you be gone.
  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
    And what a prisoner.
  LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Ay, touch him; there's the vein.
  ANGELO. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
    And you but waste your words.
  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
    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.
    Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
    It should be thus with him. He must die to-morrow.
  ISABELLA. To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him.
    He's not prepar'd for death. Even for our kitchens
    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] Ay, well said.
  ANGELO. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
    Those many had not dar'd to do that evil
    If the first that did th' edict infringe
    Had answer'd for his deed. Now 'tis awake,
    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 conceiv'd,
    And so in progress to be hatch'd and born-
    Are now to have no successive degrees,
    But here 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 dismiss'd offence would after gall,
    And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
    Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
    Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.
  ISABELLA. 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. [To ISABELLA] That's well said.
  ISABELLA. Could great men thunder
    As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet,
    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 gnarled oak
    Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
    Dress'd in a little brief authority,
    Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
    His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
    Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
    As makes the angels weep; who, with our speens,
    Would all themselves laugh mortal.
  LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] O, to him, to him, wench! He will relent;
    He's coming; I perceive 't.
  PROVOST. [Aside] Pray heaven she win him.
  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. [To ISABELLA] Thou'rt i' th' right, girl; more o' that.
  ISABELLA. That in the captain's but a choleric word
    Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
  LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Art avis'd 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
    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
    Against my brother's life.
  ANGELO. [Aside] She speaks, and 'tis
    Such sense that my sense breeds with it. – Fare you well.
  ISABELLA. Gentle my lord, turn back.
  ANGELO. I will bethink me. Come again to-morrow.
  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. [To ISABELLA) You had marr'd all else.
  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 sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,
    From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
    To nothing temporal.
  ANGELO. Well; come to me to-morrow.
  LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Go to; 'tis well; away.
  ISABELLA. Heaven keep your honour safe!
  ANGELO. [Aside] Amen; for I
    Am that way going to temptation
    Where prayers cross.
  ISABELLA. At what hour to-morrow
    Shall I attend your lordship?
  ANGELO. At any time 'fore noon.
  ISABELLA. Save your honour! Exeunt all but ANGELO
  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!
    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 flow'r,
    Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
    That modesty may more betray our sense
    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
    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?
    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,
    Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
    Subdues me quite. Ever till now,
    When men were fond, I smil'd and wond'red how. Exit