Scene II.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Escal. Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most sufficient of your parish. Elb. To your worship's house, sir?

as they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for [| For which I must not plead, but that I am
Well; the matter?
them; I do it for some piece of money, and go At war, 'twixt will, and will not.
Ang.
Isab. I have a brother is condemn'd to die:
through with all.
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.
Prov.
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,
To find the faults, whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.
Isab.

Escal. To my house: Fare you well. [Exit Elbow.] What's o'clock, think you?

Just. Eleven, sir.

Escal. I pray you home to dinner with me.
you.
Just. I humbly thank

Escal. It grieves me for the death of Claudio;
But there's no remedy.

Just. Lord Angelo is severe.
Escal.

It is but needful:
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so:
Pardon is still the nurse of second wo:
But yet,-Poor Claudio!-There's no remedy.
Come, sir.

[Exeunt.

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!

All sects, all ages, smack of this vice; and he
To die for it!

Enter Angelo.

Now, what's the matter, provost?
Ang.
Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?
Ang. Did I not tell thee, yea? hadst thou not
order?

Why dost thou ask again?

Prov.

Under your good correction, I have seen,
When, after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.

Do

Ang.

O just, but severe law!

I had a brother then.-Heaven keep your honour!
[Retiring.

Lucio. [To Isab.] Give't not o'er so: to him
again, entreat him;
his gown;
Kneel down before him, hang upon
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?
Maiden, no remedy.
Ang.
Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,
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 remorsel
As mine is to him?

Ang. He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late.
Lucio. You are too cold.

[To Isabella.
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,

Lest I might be too rash: 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 slipt like him;
But he, like you, would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, begone.

Go to; let that be mine; office, or give up your place, And you shall well be spar'd.

you your

Prov.
I crave your honour's pardon.-
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?

Prov. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, Found out the remedy: How would you be,
And to be shortly of a sisterhood,

If not already.

Ang. Well, let her be admitted. [Ex. Serv.
See you the fornicatress be remov'd;

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means;
There shall be order for it.

Enter Lucio and Isabella.

Prov. Save your honour! [Offering to retire.
Ang. Stay a little while.-[To Isab.] You are
welcome: What's your will?
Isab. I am a woful 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,

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.
Be you content, fair maid:
Ang.
It is the law, not I, condemns your brother:
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
It should be thus with him;--He must die to-mor-

row.

Isab. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him,
spare him :

heaven

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens
We kill the fowl of season ;3 shall we serve
With less respect than we do minister
To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink

you:

And most desire should meet the blow of justice Who is it that hath died for this offence?

For which I would not plead, but that I must;

(1) Pity.

Be assured.

(3) When in season.

Shall I attend your lordship?
Ang.
At any time 'fore noon.
Isab. Save your honour! [Exe. Luc. Isa. and Pro.
Ang. From thee; even from thy virtue !---
thisWhat'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 flower,
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?5 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,
spleens,With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,
Who falling in the flames of her own youth,
Hath blister'd her report: She is with child;
And he that got it, sentenc'd: a young man

Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share More fit to do another such offence,

(As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question,2) that you,
his sister,
Finding yourself desir'd of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,||
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
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 let himn suffer;
What would you do?

Isab. As much for my poor brother, as myself:
That is, Were I under the terms of death,
The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed
That longing I have been sick for, ere I'd yield
My body up to shame.

Ang.

Then must your brother die.
Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way:
Better it were, a brother died at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

Ang. Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
That you have slander'd so?

Isab. Ignomy3 in ransom, and free pardon,
Are of two houses: lawful mercy is
Nothing akin to foul redemption.

Ang. You seem'd of late to make the law a ty-
rant,

And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

Isab. O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,
To have what we'd have, we speak not what we

mean:

I something do excuse the thing I hate,
For his advantage that I dearly love.
Ang. We are all frail.
Isab.

I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the world
Aloud, what man thou art.
Ang.
Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place is the state,
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;
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
To lingering sufferance: answer me to-morrow,
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.

[Exit.
Isab. To whom shall I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!
Bidding the law make court'sy, to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That had he twe ty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.

Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die :
Else let my brother die, More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

If not a feodary, but only he,
Owe, and succeed by weakness.
Ang.
Nay, women are frail too.
Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view them-

selves;

Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar

And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. [Exit.

ACT III.

Claudio, and Provost.

In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; SCENE I-A room in the prison. Enter Duke,
For we are soft as our complexions are,
And credulous to false prints.6
Ang.

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,
That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;
If you be one (as you are well express'd
By all external warrants,) show it now,
By putting on the destin❜d livery.

Isab. I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,
Let ine entreat you speak the former language.
Ang. Plainly conceive, I love you.
Isab. My brother did love Juliet; and you

tell me, That he shall die for it.

Ang. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.
Isab. I know, your virtue hath a license in't,
Which seems a little fouler than it is,
To pluck on others.
Ang.

Believe me, on mine honour,
My words express my purpose.

Isab. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd,
And most pernicious purpose!-Seeming, seeming!

(1) Agree to. (2) Conversation. (3) Ignominy.
(4) Associate.
(6) Impressions.

(5) Own.

Duke. So, then you hope of pardon from lord

Angelo?

Claud. The miserable have no other medicine,
But only hope :

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.
Duke. Be absolute10 for death; either death, or life,
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with
life,-

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art
(Servile to all the skiey influences,)
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet run'st toward him still: Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,
Are nurs'd by baseness: Thou art by no means

valiant :

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust: Happy thou art not:

(7) Hypocrisy. (8) Attestation. (9) Reluctant.
(10) Determined.

Claud. Yes. Has he affections in him,
That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,
When he would force it? Sure it is no sin;

Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good in-Or of the deadly seven it is the least.