Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 1
A hall In ANGELO’s house.
Angelo : We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
[p]Setting it up to fear the
birds of prey,
[p]And let it keep one shape, till custom make
it
[p]Their perch and not their terror.
Escalus : Ay, but yet
[p]Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
[p]Than fall,
and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman
[p]Whom I would save, had a
most noble father!
[p]Let but your honour know,
[p]Whom I believe to
be most strait in virtue,
[p]That, in the working of your own
affections,
[p]Had time cohered with place or place with
wishing,
[p]Or that the resolute acting of your blood
[p]Could have
attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
[p]Whether you had not
sometime in your life
[p]Err'd in this point which now you censure
him,
[p]And pull'd the law upon you.
Angelo : 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
[p]Another thing to fall. I not
deny,
[p]The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
[p]May in the sworn
twelve have a thief or two
[p]Guiltier than him they try. What's open
made to justice,
[p]That justice seizes: what know the laws
[p]That
thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,
[p]The jewel that we
find, we stoop and take't
[p]Because we see it; but what we do not
see
[p]We tread upon, and never think of it.
[p]You may not so
extenuate his offence
[p]For I have had such faults; but rather tell
me,
[p]When I, that censure him, do so offend,
[p]Let mine own
judgment pattern out my death,
[p]And nothing come in partial. Sir, he
must die.
Escalus : Be it as your wisdom will.
Angelo : Where is the provost?
Provost : Here, if it like your honour.
Angelo : See that Claudio
[p]Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
[p]Bring
him his confessor, let him be prepared;
[p]For that's the utmost of
his pilgrimage.
Escalus : [Aside] Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
[p]Some rise by
sin, and some by virtue fall:
[p]Some run from brakes of ice, and
answer none:
[p]And some condemned for a fault alone.
Elbow : Come, bring them away: if these be good people in
[p]a commonweal that
do nothing but use their abuses in
[p]common houses, I know no law:
bring them away.
Angelo : How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?
Elbow : If it Please your honour, I am the poor duke's
[p]constable, and my
name is Elbow: I do lean upon
[p]justice, sir, and do bring in here
before your good
[p]honour two notorious benefactors.
Angelo : Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are
[p]they not
malefactors?
Elbow : If it? please your honour, I know not well what they
[p]are: but
precise villains they are, that I am sure
[p]of; and void of all
profanation in the world that
[p]good Christians ought to have.
Escalus : This comes off well; here's a wise officer.
Angelo : Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your
[p]name? why dost thou
not speak, Elbow?
Pompey : He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.
Angelo : What are you, sir?
Elbow : He, sir! a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that
[p]serves a bad woman;
whose house, sir, was, as they
[p]say, plucked down in the suburbs;
and now she
[p]professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill
house too.
Escalus : How know you that?
Elbow : My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,--
Escalus : How? thy wife?
Elbow : Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman,--
Escalus : Dost thou detest her therefore?
Elbow : I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as
[p]she, that this
house, if it be not a bawd's house,
[p]it is pity of her life, for it
is a naughty house.
Escalus : How dost thou know that, constable?
Elbow : Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman
[p]cardinally
given, might have been accused in
[p]fornication, adultery, and all
uncleanliness there.
Escalus : By the woman's means?
Elbow : Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she
[p]spit in his face,
so she defied him.
Pompey : Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.
Elbow : Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable
[p]man; prove it.
Escalus : Do you hear how he misplaces?
Pompey : Sir, she came in great with child; and longing,
[p]saving your
honour's reverence, for stewed prunes;
[p]sir, we had but two in the
house, which at that very
[p]distant time stood, as it were, in a
fruit-dish, a
[p]dish of some three-pence; your honours have
seen
[p]such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very
[p]good
dishes,--
Escalus : Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir.
Pompey : No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in
[p]the right: but to
the point. As I say, this
[p]Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with
child, and
[p]being great-bellied, and longing, as I said,
for
[p]prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said,
[p]Master
Froth here, this very man, having eaten the
[p]rest, as I said, and,
as I say, paying for them very
[p]honestly; for, as you know, Master
Froth, I could
[p]not give you three-pence again.
Froth : No, indeed.
Pompey : Very well: you being then, if you be remembered,
[p]cracking the
stones of the foresaid prunes,--
Froth : Ay, so I did indeed.
Pompey : Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be
[p]remembered, that such
a one and such a one were past
[p]cure of the thing you wot of, unless
they kept very
[p]good diet, as I told you,--
Froth : All this is true.
Pompey : Why, very well, then,--
Escalus : Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What
[p]was done to
Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to
[p]complain of? Come me to what
was done to her.
Pompey : Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
Escalus : No, sir, nor I mean it not.
Pompey : Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's
[p]leave. And, I
beseech you, look into Master Froth
[p]here, sir; a man of four-score
pound a year; whose
[p]father died at Hallowmas: was't not at
Hallowmas,
[p]Master Froth?
Froth : All-hallond eve.
Pompey : Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir,
[p]sitting, as I say,
in a lower chair, sir; 'twas in
[p]the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed
you have a delight
[p]to sit, have you not?
Froth : I have so; because it is an open room and good for winter.
Pompey : Why, very well, then; I hope here be truths.
Angelo : This will last out a night in Russia,
[p]When nights are longest
there: I'll take my leave.
[p]And leave you to the hearing of the
cause;
[p]Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all.
Escalus : I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.
[p][Exit
ANGELO]
[p]Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once
more?
Pompey : Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.
Elbow : I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.
Pompey : I beseech your honour, ask me.
Escalus : Well, sir; what did this gentleman to her?
Pompey : I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.
[p]Good Master
Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a
[p]good purpose. Doth your
honour mark his face?
Escalus : Ay, sir, very well.
Pompey : Nay; I beseech you, mark it well.
Escalus : Well, I do so.
Pompey : Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
Escalus : Why, no.
Pompey : I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst
[p]thing about
him. Good, then; if his face be the
[p]worst thing about him, how
could Master Froth do the
[p]constable's wife any harm? I would know
that of
[p]your honour.
Escalus : He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it?
Elbow : First, an it like you, the house is a respected
[p]house; next, this
is a respected fellow; and his
[p]mistress is a respected woman.
Pompey : By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected
[p]person than any of
us all.
Elbow : Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet! the
[p]time has yet to
come that she was ever respected
[p]with man, woman, or child.
Pompey : Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.
Escalus : Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is
[p]this true?
Elbow : O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked
[p]Hannibal! I respected
with her before I was married
[p]to her! If ever I was respected with
her, or she
[p]with me, let not your worship think me the
poor
[p]duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or
[p]I'll
have mine action of battery on thee.
Escalus : If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your
[p]action of
slander too.
Elbow : Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't
[p]your worship's
pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?
Escalus : Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him
[p]that thou
wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him
[p]continue in his courses
till thou knowest what they
[p]are.
Elbow : Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou
[p]wicked varlet,
now, what's come upon thee: thou art
[p]to continue now, thou varlet;
thou art to continue.
Escalus : Where were you born, friend?
Froth : Here in Vienna, sir.
Escalus : Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
Froth : Yes, an't please you, sir.
Escalus : So. What trade are you of, sir?
Pompey : Tapster; a poor widow's tapster.
Escalus : Your mistress' name?
Pompey : Mistress Overdone.
Escalus : Hath she had any more than one husband?
Pompey : Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.
Escalus : Nine! Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master
[p]Froth, I would not
have you acquainted with
[p]tapsters: they will draw you, Master
Froth, and you
[p]will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear
no
[p]more of you.
Froth : I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never
[p]come into any room
in a tap-house, but I am drawn
[p]in.
Escalus : Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell.
[p][Exit FROTH]
[p]Come
you hither to me, Master tapster. What's your
[p]name, Master
tapster?
Pompey : Pompey.
Escalus : What else?
Pompey : Bum, sir.
Escalus : Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;
[p]so that in the
beastliest sense you are Pompey the
[p]Great. Pompey, you are partly a
bawd, Pompey,
[p]howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are
you
[p]not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.
Pompey : Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
Escalus : How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What
[p]do you think of
the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?
Pompey : If the law would allow it, sir.
Escalus : But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall
[p]not be allowed
in Vienna.
Pompey : Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the
[p]youth of the
city?
Escalus : No, Pompey.
Pompey : Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then.
[p]If your
worship will take order for the drabs and
[p]the knaves, you need not
to fear the bawds.
Escalus : There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you:
[p]it is but
heading and hanging.
Pompey : If you head and hang all that offend that way but
[p]for ten year
together, you'll be glad to give out a
[p]commission for more heads:
if this law hold in
[p]Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in
it
[p]after three-pence a bay: if you live to see this
[p]come to
pass, say Pompey told you so.
Escalus : Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your
[p]prophecy, hark
you: I advise you, let me not find
[p]you before me again upon any
complaint whatsoever;
[p]no, not for dwelling where you do: if I do,
Pompey,
[p]I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd
[p]Caesar
to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall
[p]have you whipt: so, for
this time, Pompey, fare you well.
Pompey : I thank your worship for your good counsel:
[p][Aside]
[p]but I shall
follow it as the flesh and fortune shall
[p]better determine.
[p]Whip
me? No, no; let carman whip his jade:
[p]The valiant heart is not
whipt out of his trade.
Escalus : Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master
[p]constable. How
long have you been in this place of constable?
Elbow : Seven year and a half, sir.
Escalus : I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had
[p]continued in it
some time. You say, seven years together?
Elbow : And a half, sir.
Escalus : Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you
[p]wrong to put you
so oft upon 't: are there not men
[p]in your ward sufficient to serve
it?
Elbow : Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they
[p]are chosen,
they are glad to choose me for them; I
[p]do it for some piece of
money, and go through with
[p]all.
Escalus : Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven,
[p]the most
sufficient of your parish.
Elbow : To your worship's house, sir?
Escalus : To my house. Fare you well.
[p][Exit ELBOW]
[p]What's o'clock, think
you?
Justice : Eleven, sir.
Escalus : I pray you home to dinner with me.
Justice : I humbly thank you.
Escalus : It grieves me for the death of Claudio;
[p]But there's no remedy.
Justice : Lord Angelo is severe.
Escalus : It is but needful:
[p]Mercy is not itself, that oft looks
so;
[p]Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:
[p]But yet,--poor
Claudio! There is no remedy.
[p]Come, sir.
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Next: Act 2 - Scene 2
