Measure for measure

ACT III

SCENE I. A room in the prison.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before, CLAUDIO, and Provost

DUKE VINCENTIO

So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?

CLAUDIO

The miserable have no other medicine

But only hope:

I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Be absolute 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 skyey 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 runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble,

For all the accommodations that thou bear'st

Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt 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 provokest, 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,

For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get,

And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain,

For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,

After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor,

For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,

Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,

And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none,

For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,

The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both, for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld, and when thou art old and rich,

Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,

To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this

That bears the name of life? Yet in this life

Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,

That makes these odds all even.

CLAUDIO

I humbly thank you.

To sue to live, I find I seek to die,

And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.

ISABELLA

[Within] What, ho! Peace here, grace and good company!

Provost

Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.

CLAUDIO

Most holy sir, I thank you.

Enter ISABELLA

ISABELLA

My business is a word or two with Claudio.

Provost

And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Provost, a word with you.

Provost

As many as you please.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.

Exeunt DUKE VINCENTIO and Provost

CLAUDIO

Now, sister, what's the comfort?

ISABELLA

Why,

As all comforts are, most good, most good indeed.

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

Intends you for his swift ambassador,

Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:

Therefore your best appointment make with speed,

To-morrow you set on.

CLAUDIO

Is there no remedy?

ISABELLA

None, but such remedy as, to save a head,

To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUDIO

But is there any?

ISABELLA

Yes, brother, you may live:

There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

If you'll implore it, that will free your life,

But fetter you till death.

CLAUDIO

Perpetual durance?

ISABELLA

Ay, just, perpetual durance, a restraint,

Though all the world's vastidity you had,

To a determined scope.

CLAUDIO

But in what nature?

ISABELLA

In such a one as, you consenting to't,

Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,

And leave you naked.

CLAUDIO

Let me know the point.

ISABELLA

O, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake,

Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,

And six or seven winters more respect

Than a perpetual honour. Darest thou die?

The sense of death is most in apprehension,

And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,

In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great

As when a giant dies.

CLAUDIO

Why give you me this shame?

Think you I can a resolution fetch

From flowery tenderness? If I must die,

I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms.

ISABELLA

There spake my brother, there my father's grave

Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:

Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,

Whose settled visage and deliberate word

Nips youth i' the head and follies doth emmew

As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil

His filth within being cast, he would appear

A pond as deep as hell.

CLAUDIO

The prenzie Angelo!

ISABELLA

O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned'st body to invest and cover

In prenzie guards! Dost thou think, Claudio?

If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou mightst be freed.

CLAUDIO

O heavens! it cannot be.

ISABELLA

Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,

So to offend him still. This night's the time

That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.

CLAUDIO

Thou shalt not do't.

ISABELLA

O, were it but my life,

I'ld throw it down for your deliverance

As frankly as a pin.

CLAUDIO

Thanks, dear Isabel.

ISABELLA

Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.

CLAUDIO

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,

Or of the deadly seven, it is the least.

ISABELLA

Which is the least?

CLAUDIO

If it were damnable, he being so wise,

Why would he for the momentary trick

Be perdurably fined? O Isabel!

ISABELLA

What says my brother?

CLAUDIO

Death is a fearful thing.

ISABELLA

And shamed life a hateful.

CLAUDIO

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where,

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot,

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod, and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice,

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world, or to be worse than worst

Of those that lawless and incertain thought

Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury and imprisonment

Can lay on nature is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

ISABELLA

Alas, alas!

CLAUDIO

Sweet sister, let me live:

What sin you do to save a brother's life,

Nature dispenses with the deed so far

That it becomes a virtue.

ISABELLA

O you beast!

O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!

Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?

Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!

For such a warped slip of wilderness

Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance!

Die, perish! Might but my bending down

Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:

I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,

No word to save thee.

CLAUDIO

Nay, hear me, Isabel.

ISABELLA

O, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.

Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:

'Tis best thou diest quickly.

CLAUDIO

O hear me, Isabella!

Re-enter DUKE VINCENTIO

DUKE VINCENTIO

Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.

ISABELLA

What is your will?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and

by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I

would require is likewise your own benefit.

ISABELLA

I have no superfluous leisure, my stay must be

stolen out of other affairs, but I will attend you awhile.

Walks apart

DUKE VINCENTIO

Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you

and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to

corrupt her, only he hath made an essay of her

virtue to practise his judgment with the disposition

of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her,

hath made him that gracious denial which he is most

glad to receive. I am confessor to Angelo, and I

know this to be true, therefore prepare yourself to

death: do not satisfy your resolution with hopes

that are fallible: tomorrow you must die, go to

your knees and make ready.

CLAUDIO

Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love

with life that I will sue to be rid of it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Hold you there: farewell.

Exit CLAUDIO

Provost, a word with you!

Re-enter Provost

Provost

What's your will, father

DUKE VINCENTIO

That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me

awhile with the maid: my mind promises with my

habit no loss shall touch her by my company.

Provost

In good time.

Exit Provost. ISABELLA comes forward

DUKE VINCENTIO

The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good:

the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty

brief in goodness, but grace, being the soul of

your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever

fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you,

fortune hath conveyed to my understanding, and, but

that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should

wonder at Angelo. How will you do to content this

substitute, and to save your brother?

ISABELLA

I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my

brother die by the law than my son should be

unlawfully born. But, O, how much is the good duke

deceived in Angelo! If ever he return and I can

speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or

discover his government.

DUKE VINCENTIO

That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter

now stands, he will avoid your accusation, he made

trial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on my

advisings: to the love I have in doing good a

remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe

that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged

lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother from

the angry law, do no stain to your own gracious

person, and much please the absent duke, if

peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of

this business.

ISABELLA

Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to do

anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have

you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of

Frederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea?

ISABELLA

I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

DUKE VINCENTIO

She should this Angelo have married, was affianced

to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between

which time of the contract and limit of the

solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea,

having in that perished vessel the dowry of his

sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the

poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and

renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most

kind and natural, with him, the portion and sinew of

her fortune, her marriage-dowry, with both, her

combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.

ISABELLA

Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them

with his comfort, swallowed his vows whole,

pretending in her discoveries of dishonour: in few,

bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet

wears for his sake, and he, a marble to her tears,

is washed with them, but relents not.

ISABELLA

What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid

from the world! What corruption in this life, that

it will let this man live! But how out of this can she avail?

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the

cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps

you from dishonour in doing it.

ISABELLA

Show me how, good father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance

of her first affection: his unjust unkindness, that

in all reason should have quenched her love, hath,

like an impediment in the current, made it more

violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo, answer his

requiring with a plausible obedience, agree with

his demands to the point, only refer yourself to

this advantage, first, that your stay with him may

not be long, that the time may have all shadow and

silence in it, and the place answer to convenience.

This being granted in course,--and now follows

all,--we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up

your appointment, go in your place, if the encounter

acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to

her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother

saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana

advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid

will I frame and make fit for his attempt. If you

think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness

of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.

What think you of it?

ISABELLA

The image of it gives me content already, and I

trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily

to Angelo: if for this night he entreat you to his

bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will

presently to Saint Luke's: there, at the moated

grange, resides this dejected Mariana. At that

place call upon me, and dispatch with Angelo, that

it may be quickly.

ISABELLA

I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.

Exeunt severally

SCENE II. The street before the prison.

Enter, on one side, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before, on the other, ELBOW, and Officers with POMPEY

ELBOW

Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will

needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we

shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.

DUKE VINCENTIO

O heavens! what stuff is here

POMPEY

'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the

merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by

order of law a furred gown to keep him warm, and

furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that

craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.

ELBOW

Come your way, sir. 'Bless you, good father friar.

DUKE VINCENTIO

And you, good brother father. What offence hath

this man made you, sir?

ELBOW

Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we

take him to be a thief too, sir, for we have found

upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have

sent to the deputy.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Fie, sirrah! a bawd, a wicked bawd!

The evil that thou causest to be done,

That is thy means to live. Do thou but think

What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back

From such a filthy vice: say to thyself,

From their abominable and beastly touches

I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.

Canst thou believe thy living is a life,

So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.

POMPEY

Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir, but yet,

sir, I would prove--

DUKE VINCENTIO

Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,

Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer:

Correction and instruction must both work

Ere this rude beast will profit.

ELBOW

He must before the deputy, sir, he has given him

warning: the deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if

he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were

as good go a mile on his errand.

DUKE VINCENTIO

That we were all, as some would seem to be,

From our faults, as faults from seeming, free!

ELBOW

His neck will come to your waist,--a cord, sir.

POMPEY

I spy comfort, I cry bail. Here's a gentleman and a

friend of mine.

Enter LUCIO

LUCIO

How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of

Caesar? art thou led in triumph? What, is there

none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be

had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and

extracting it clutch'd? What reply, ha? What

sayest thou to this tune, matter and method? Is't

not drowned i' the last rain, ha? What sayest

thou, Trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is

the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The

trick of it?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Still thus, and thus, still worse!

LUCIO

How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she

still, ha?

POMPEY

Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she

is herself in the tub.

LUCIO

Why, 'tis good, it is the right of it, it must be

so: ever your fresh whore and your powdered bawd:

an unshunned consequence, it must be so. Art going

to prison, Pompey?

POMPEY

Yes, faith, sir.

LUCIO

Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell: go, say I

sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or how?

ELBOW

For being a bawd, for being a bawd.

LUCIO

Well, then, imprison him: if imprisonment be the

due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: bawd is he

doubtless, and of antiquity too, bawd-born.

Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to the prison,

Pompey: you will turn good husband now, Pompey, you

will keep the house.

POMPEY

I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.

LUCIO

No, indeed, will I not, Pompey, it is not the wear.

I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage: If

you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the

more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. 'Bless you, friar.

DUKE VINCENTIO

And you.

LUCIO

Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?

ELBOW

Come your ways, sir, come.

POMPEY

You will not bail me, then, sir?

LUCIO

Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar?

what news?

ELBOW

Come your ways, sir, come.

LUCIO

Go to kennel, Pompey, go.

Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY and Officers

What news, friar, of the duke?

DUKE VINCENTIO

I know none. Can you tell me of any?

LUCIO

Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia, other

some, he is in Rome: but where is he, think you?

DUKE VINCENTIO

I know not where, but wheresoever, I wish him well.

LUCIO

It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from

the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born

to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence, he

puts transgression to 't.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He does well in 't.

LUCIO

A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in

him: something too crabbed that way, friar.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.

LUCIO

Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred,

it is well allied: but it is impossible to extirp

it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put

down. They say this Angelo was not made by man and

woman after this downright way of creation: is it

true, think you?

DUKE VINCENTIO

How should he be made, then?

LUCIO

Some report a sea-maid spawned him, some, that he

was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is

certain that when he makes water his urine is

congealed ice, that I know to be true: and he is a

motion generative, that's infallible.

DUKE VINCENTIO

You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.

LUCIO

Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the

rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a

man! Would the duke that is absent have done this?

Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a

hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing

a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport: he

knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.

DUKE VINCENTIO

I never heard the absent duke much detected for

women, he was not inclined that way.

LUCIO

O, sir, you are deceived.

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis not possible.

LUCIO

Who, not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty, and

his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the

duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too,

that let me inform you.

DUKE VINCENTIO

You do him wrong, surely.

LUCIO

Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the

duke: and I believe I know the cause of his

withdrawing.

DUKE VINCENTIO

What, I prithee, might be the cause?

LUCIO

No, pardon, 'tis a secret must be locked within the

teeth and the lips: but this I can let you

understand, the greater file of the subject held the

duke to be wise.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Wise! why, no question but he was.

LUCIO

A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Either this is the envy in you, folly, or mistaking:

the very stream of his life and the business he hath

helmed must upon a warranted need give him a better

proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own

bringings-forth, and he shall appear to the

envious a scholar, a statesman and a soldier.

Therefore you speak unskilfully: or if your

knowledge be more it is much darkened in your malice.

LUCIO

Sir, I know him, and I love him.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with

dearer love.

LUCIO

Come, sir, I know what I know.

DUKE VINCENTIO

I can hardly believe that, since you know not what

you speak. But, if ever the duke return, as our

prayers are he may, let me desire you to make your

answer before him. If it be honest you have spoke,

you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call

upon you, and, I pray you, your name?

LUCIO

Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the duke.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to

report you.

LUCIO

I fear you not.

DUKE VINCENTIO

O, you hope the duke will return no more, or you

imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But indeed I

can do you little harm, you'll forswear this again.

LUCIO

I'll be hanged first: thou art deceived in me,

friar. But no more of this. Canst thou tell if

Claudio die to-morrow or no?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Why should he die, sir?

LUCIO

Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish. I would

the duke we talk of were returned again: the

ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with

continency, sparrows must not build in his

house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke

yet would have dark deeds darkly answered, he would

never bring them to light: would he were returned!

Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrussing.

Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me. The

duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on

Fridays. He's not past it yet, and I say to thee,

he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown

bread and garlic: say that I said so. Farewell.

Exit

DUKE VINCENTIO

No might nor greatness in mortality

Can censure 'scape, back-wounding calumny

The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong

Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

But who comes here?

Enter ESCALUS, Provost, and Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE

ESCALUS

Go, away with her to prison!

MISTRESS OVERDONE

Good my lord, be good to me, your honour is accounted

a merciful man, good my lord.

ESCALUS

Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in

the same kind! This would make mercy swear and play

the tyrant.

Provost

A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please

your honour.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me.

Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the

duke's time, he promised her marriage: his child

is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob:

I have kept it myself, and see how he goes about to abuse me!

ESCALUS

That fellow is a fellow of much licence: let him be

called before us. Away with her to prison! Go to,

no more words.

Exeunt Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE

Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered,

Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished

with divines, and have all charitable preparation.

if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be

so with him.

Provost

So please you, this friar hath been with him, and

advised him for the entertainment of death.

ESCALUS

Good even, good father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Bliss and goodness on you!

ESCALUS

Of whence are you?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Not of this country, though my chance is now

To use it for my time: I am a brother

Of gracious order, late come from the See

In special business from his holiness.

ESCALUS

What news abroad i' the world?

DUKE VINCENTIO

None, but that there is so great a fever on

goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it:

novelty is only in request, and it is as dangerous

to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous

to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce

truth enough alive to make societies secure, but

security enough to make fellowships accurst: much

upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This

news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I

pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?

ESCALUS

One that, above all other strifes, contended

especially to know himself.

DUKE VINCENTIO

What pleasure was he given to?

ESCALUS

Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at

any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a

gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to

his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous,

and let me desire to know how you find Claudio

prepared. I am made to understand that you have

lent him visitation.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He professes to have received no sinister measure

from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself

to the determination of justice: yet had he framed

to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many

deceiving promises of life, which I by my good

leisure have discredited to him, and now is he

resolved to die.

ESCALUS

You have paid the heavens your function, and the

prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have

laboured for the poor gentleman to the extremest

shore of my modesty: but my brother justice have I

found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him

he is indeed Justice.

DUKE VINCENTIO

If his own life answer the straitness of his

proceeding, it shall become him well, wherein if he

chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself.

ESCALUS

I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Peace be with you!

Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost

He who the sword of heaven will bear

Should be as holy as severe,

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go,

More nor less to others paying

Than by self-offences weighing.

Shame to him whose cruel striking

Kills for faults of his own liking!

Twice treble shame on Angelo,

To weed my vice and let his grow!

O, what may man within him hide,

Though angel on the outward side!

How may likeness made in crimes,

Making practise on the times,

To draw with idle spiders' strings

Most ponderous and substantial things!

Craft against vice I must apply:

With Angelo to-night shall lie

His old betrothed but despised,

So disguise shall, by the disguised,

Pay with falsehood false exacting,

And perform an old contracting.

Exit