Please see the bottom of the page for explanatory notes and related resources.
ACT IV SCENE IV
A room in ANGELO's house.
Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.
ESCALUS
Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.
ANGELO
In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions
show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be
not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and
redeliver our authorities there
ESCALUS
I guess not.
ANGELO
And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his
entering, that if any crave redress of injustice,
they should exhibit their petitions in the street?
9
ESCALUS
He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of
complaints, and to deliver us from devices
hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand
against us.
ANGELO
Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes
i' the morn; I'll call you at your house: give
notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet
him.
ESCALUS
I shall, sir. Fare you well.
ANGELO
Good night.
Exit ESCALUS.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body that enforc'd
20
The law against it! But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;
For my authority bears of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch
But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!
30
A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.
Exit.
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Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 4
From Measure for Measure. Ed. William J. Rolfe. New York: Harper & Brothers., 1899.
1.Hath disvouched other. Has contradicted the others. 5.Redeliver. The 1st folio has "re-liuer," the later folios "deliver."
Redeliver is due to Capell.
7.And why should we, etc "It is the conscious guilt of Angelo that
prompts this question. The reply of Escalus is such as arises from an
undisturbed mmd, that only considers the mysterious conduct of the duke
in a political point of view" (Steevens).
15.Of sort and suit. Of rank (cf. Hen. V. p. 181, note on Great sort)
and such as owe attendance. By feudal law, all vassals were bound to
be ready at all times to attend and serve their lord; or, as the expression
was, they owed him "suit and service."
18.Unpregnant. Unready, unapt for business. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 595:
"unpregnant of my cause;" and see our ed. p. 213. Cf. also the use of
pregnant in i. I. II above.
23.Tongue. For the verb, cf. Cymb. v. 4. 148:
"such stuff as madmen
Tongue and brain not."
Dares her no. "Bids her not dare to do it" (Clarke), or admonishes
her not to do it. For the use of no, a writer in the Monthly Review compares B. and F., The Chances, iii. 4: "I wear a sword to satisfy the world no" (that it is not so); and A Wife for a Month iv.: "I am sure he did not, for I charg'd him no" (not to do it). Schmidt thinks the meaning
may be "defies her denial of my assertions." Pope omits no; Hanmer reads "dares her: no;" Capell "dares her? no;" and W. "dares her on" (the conjecture of Becket).
