Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure

	And he, that suffer's. O, it is excellent
	To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous	130
	To use it like a giant.
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
ISABELLA	Could great men thunder
	As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
	For every pelting, petty officer
	Would use his heaven for thunder;	135
	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,
	Drest in a little brief authority,	140
	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,
	Would all themselves laugh mortal.	145
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
	will relent;
	He's coming; I perceive 't.
Provost	Aside
ISABELLA	We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:
	Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,
	But in the less foul profanation.	150
LUCIO	Thou'rt i' the right, girl; more o, that.
ISABELLA	That in the captain's but a choleric word,
	Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
ANGELO	Why do you put these sayings upon me?
ISABELLA	Because authority, though it err like others,	155
	Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
	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,	160
	Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
	Against my brother's life.
ANGELO	Aside
	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.	165
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
ISABELLA	Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,
	Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor	170
	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.	175
ANGELO	Well; come to me to-morrow.
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
ISABELLA	Heaven keep your honour safe!
ANGELO	Aside
	For I am that way going to temptation,
	Where prayers cross.
ISABELLA	At what hour to-morrow	180
	Shall I attend your lordship?
ANGELO	At any time 'fore noon.
ISABELLA	'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?	185
	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,	190
	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!	195
	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,	200
	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	205
	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. Even till now,
	When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.	210
	Exit
ACT II 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?	10
Provost	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.	20
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.	25
	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,	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.	35
	Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO
Provost	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.	40
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	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.	50
Provost	Aside
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.	55
ISABELLA	O just but severe law!
	I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
	again, entreat him;
	Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:
	You are too cold; if you should need a pin,	60
	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,	65
	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,	70
	If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse
	As mine is to him?
ANGELO	He's sentenced; 'tis too late.
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
ISABELLA	Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word.
	May call it back again. Well, believe this,	75
	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.	80
	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.
ANGELO	Pray you, be gone.
ISABELLA	I would to heaven I had your potency,	85
	And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?
	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,	90
	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,	95
	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;	100
	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 tomorrow.
ISABELLA	To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!
	He's not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens	105
	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.	110
LUCIO	Aside to ISABELLA
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 the edict infringe
	Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake
	Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,	115
	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.	120
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,	125
	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,