Measure for Measure: ACT II , SCENE II. Another room in the same.

Measure for Measure: ACT II


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

		SCENE I. A hall In ANGELO's house.

		SCENE II. Another room in the same.

		SCENE III. A room in a prison.

		SCENE IV. A room in ANGELO's house.

	ACT III

	ACT IV

	ACT V

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SCENE II. Another room in the same.

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
5     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

10 Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?

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,
15    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 spared.

Provost

20    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

25 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,
30    If not already.

ANGELO

Well, let her be admitted.

Exit Servant

      See you the fornicatress be removed:
      Let have needful, but not lavish, means;
      There shall be order for't.

Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO

Provost

35 God save your honour!

ANGELO

Stay a little while.

To ISABELLA

You're welcome: what's your will?

ISABELLA

I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
Please but your honour hear me.

ANGELO

40 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
45    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

50 (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,
55    And let go by the actor.

ISABELLA

O just but severe law!
I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!

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

Must he needs die?

ANGELO

65 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

70 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 sentenced; 'tis too late.

LUCIO

75 (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 slipt like him; but he, like you,
85    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,
90    And what a prisoner.

LUCIO

Ay, touch him; there's the vein.

ANGELO

Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words.

ISABELLA

95    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

      To-morrow! 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 offence?
      There's many have committed it.

LUCIO

(Aside to ISABELLA) Ay, well said.

ANGELO

115   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,
120   Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
      Either new, 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.

ISABELLA

125 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,
130   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 suffer's. O, it is excellent
      To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
135   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 ne'er be quiet,
      For every pelting, petty officer
140   Would use his heaven for thunder;
      Nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven,
      Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
      Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
      Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,
145   Drest 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
      As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
150   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!

ISABELLA

155   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.

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' 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,
      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. Fare you well.

ISABELLA

Gentle my lord, turn back.

ANGELO

I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.

ISABELLA

175 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 marr'd all else.

ISABELLA

      Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,
180   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
185   To nothing temporal.

ANGELO

Well; come to me to-morrow.

LUCIO

(Aside to ISABELLA) Go to; 'tis well; away!

ISABELLA

Heaven keep your honour safe!

ANGELO

      (Aside) Amen:
190   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

195 'Save your honour!

Exeunt ISABELLA, 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?
      Dost thou desire her foully for those things
210   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?
215   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,
220   Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
      Subdues me quite. Even till now,
      When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.

Exit

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