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.⌜Servant exits.⌝ I’ll know5 His pleasure. Maybe 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 seen15 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 20I crave your Honor’s pardon.
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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.⌜Enter Servant.⌝SERVANT 25 Here is the sister of the man condemned 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, ⌜to Servant⌝ Well, let her be admitted.⌜Servant exits.⌝ See you the fornicatress be removed. Let her have needful but not lavish means. There shall be order for ’t.Enter Lucio and Isabella.PROVOST, ⌜beginning to exit⌝ 35Save your Honor.ANGELO Stay a little while. ⌜To Isabella.⌝ You’re welcome. What’s your will?ISABELLA I am a woeful suitor to your Honor, Please but your Honor 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;
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45 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 condemned to die. I do beseech you let it be his fault50 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 condemned ere it be done.55 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 Honor.LUCIO, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ 60 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, ⌜to Angelo⌝ 65 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 70 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
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If so your heart were touched with that remorse As mine is to him?ANGELO 75He’s sentenced. ’Tis too late.LUCIO, ⌜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,80 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,85 You would have slipped like him, but he like you Would not have been so stern.ANGELO Pray you begone.ISABELLA I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel. Should it then be thus?90 No. I would tell what ’twere to be a judge And what a prisoner.LUCIO, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ Ay, touch him; there’s the vein.ANGELO Your brother is a forfeit of the law,95 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 be100 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.105 It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.
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Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow.ISABELLA Tomorrow? O, that’s sudden! Spare him, spare him. He’s not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens110 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 offense?115 There’s many have committed it.LUCIO, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ Ay, well said.ANGELO The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept. Those many had not dared to do that evil If the first that did th’ edict infringe120 Had answered 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-conceived, And so in progress to be hatched and born—125 Are now to have no successive degrees But, ⌜ere⌝ 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,130 Which a dismissed offense would after gall, And do him right that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be satisfied; Your brother dies tomorrow; be content.ISABELLA So you must be the first that gives this sentence,135 And he that suffers. O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.
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LUCIO, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ That’s well said.ISABELLA Could great men thunder140 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 bolt145 Splits the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak, Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man, Dressed in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he’s most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape150 Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As makes the angels weep, who with our spleens 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⌝ 155 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, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ Thou ’rt i’ th’ right, girl. More o’ that.ISABELLA 160 That in the captain’s but a choleric word 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,165 Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself
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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,170 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.⌜He begins to exit.⌝ Fare you well.ISABELLA 175Gentle my lord, turn back.ANGELO I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow.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, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ 180You had marred 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 there185 Ere sunrise, prayers from preservèd souls, From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal.ANGELO Well, come to me tomorrow.LUCIO, ⌜aside to Isabella⌝ Go to, ’tis well; away.ISABELLA 190 Heaven keep your Honor safe.ANGELO, ⌜aside⌝ Amen. For I am that way going to temptation Where prayers cross.ISABELLA At what hour tomorrow195 Shall I attend your Lordship?ANGELO At any time ’fore noon.
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ISABELLA Save your Honor.⌜She exits, with Lucio and Provost.⌝ANGELO From thee, even from thy virtue. What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault or mine?200 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 be205 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!210 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 her215 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 on220 To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet With all her double vigor, art and nature, Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid Subdues me quite. Ever till now When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how.He exits.
Measure for Measure
