Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 2
Another room in the same.
Servant : He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight
[p]I'll tell him of
you.
Provost : Pray you, do.
[p][Exit Servant]
[p]I'll know
[p]His pleasure; may be
he will relent. Alas,
[p]He hath but as offended in a dream!
[p]All
sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he
[p]To die for't!
Angelo : Now, what's the matter. Provost?
Provost : Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?
Angelo : Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?
[p]Why dost thou ask
again?
Provost : Lest I might be too rash:
[p]Under your good correction, I have
seen,
[p]When, after execution, judgment hath
[p]Repented o'er his
doom.
Angelo : Go to; let that be mine:
[p]Do you your office, or give up your
place,
[p]And you shall well be spared.
Provost : I crave your honour's pardon.
[p]What shall be done, sir, with the
groaning Juliet?
[p]She's very near her hour.
Angelo : Dispose of her
[p]To some more fitter place, and that with speed.
Servant : Here is the sister of the man condemn'd
[p]Desires access to you.
Angelo : Hath he a sister?
Provost : Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,
[p]And to be shortly of a
sisterhood,
[p]If not already.
Angelo : Well, let her be admitted.
[p][Exit Servant]
[p]See you the
fornicatress be removed:
[p]Let have needful, but not lavish,
means;
[p]There shall be order for't.
Provost : God save your honour!
Angelo : Stay a little while.
[p][To ISABELLA]
[p]You're welcome: what's your
will?
Isabella : I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
[p]Please but your honour hear
me.
Angelo : Well; what's your suit?
Isabella : There is a vice that most I do abhor,
[p]And most desire should meet
the blow of justice;
[p]For which I would not plead, but that I
must;
[p]For which I must not plead, but that I am
[p]At war 'twixt
will and will not.
Angelo : Well; the matter?
Isabella : I have a brother is condemn'd to die:
[p]I do beseech you, let it be
his fault,
[p]And not my brother.
Provost : [Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces!
Angelo : Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?
[p]Why, every fault's
condemn'd ere it be done:
[p]Mine were the very cipher of a
function,
[p]To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
[p]And
let go by the actor.
Isabella : O just but severe law!
[p]I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your
honour!
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA] Give't not o'er so: to him
[p]again, entreat
him;
[p]Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:
[p]You are too
cold; if you should need a pin,
[p]You could not with more tame a
tongue desire it:
[p]To him, I say!
Isabella : Must he needs die?
Angelo : Maiden, no remedy.
Isabella : Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,
[p]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,
[p]If so your heart
were touch'd with that remorse
[p]As mine is to him?
Angelo : He's sentenced; 'tis too late.
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA] You are too cold.
Isabella : Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word.
[p]May call it back again.
Well, believe this,
[p]No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
[p]Not
the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
[p]The marshal's truncheon,
nor the judge's robe,
[p]Become them with one half so good a
grace
[p]As mercy does.
[p]If he had been as you and you as he,
[p]You
would have slipt like him; but he, like you,
[p]Would not have been so
stern.
Angelo : Pray you, be gone.
Isabella : I would to heaven I had your potency,
[p]And you were Isabel! should
it then be thus?
[p]No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,
[p]And
what a prisoner.
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA]
[p]Ay, touch him; there's the vein.
Angelo : Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
[p]And you but waste your
words.
Isabella : Alas, alas!
[p]Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;
[p]And
He that might the vantage best have took
[p]Found out the remedy. How
would you be,
[p]If He, which is the top of judgment, should
[p]But
judge you as you are? O, think on that;
[p]And mercy then will breathe
within your lips,
[p]Like man new made.
Angelo : Be you content, fair maid;
[p]It is the law, not I condemn your
brother:
[p]Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
[p]It should be
thus with him: he must die tomorrow.
Isabella : To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!
[p]He's not
prepared for death. Even for our kitchens
[p]We kill the fowl of
season: shall we serve heaven
[p]With less respect than we do
minister
[p]To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink
you;
[p]Who is it that hath died for this offence?
[p]There's many
have committed it.
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA] Ay, well said.
Angelo : The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:
[p]Those many had
not dared to do that evil,
[p]If the first that did the edict
infringe
[p]Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake
[p]Takes note of
what is done; and, like a prophet,
[p]Looks in a glass, that shows
what future evils,
[p]Either new, or by remissness
new-conceived,
[p]And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,
[p]Are
now to have no successive degrees,
[p]But, ere they live, to end.
Isabella : Yet show some pity.
Angelo : I show it most of all when I show justice;
[p]For then I pity those I
do not know,
[p]Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;
[p]And do
him right that, answering one foul wrong,
[p]Lives not to act another.
Be satisfied;
[p]Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.
Isabella : So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
[p]And he, that
suffer's. O, it is excellent
[p]To have a giant's strength; but it is
tyrannous
[p]To use it like a giant.
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA] That's well said.
Isabella : Could great men thunder
[p]As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be
quiet,
[p]For every pelting, petty officer
[p]Would use his heaven for
thunder;
[p]Nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven,
[p]Thou rather with
thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
[p]Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled
oak
[p]Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,
[p]Drest in a little
brief authority,
[p]Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
[p]His
glassy essence, like an angry ape,
[p]Plays such fantastic tricks
before high heaven
[p]As make the angels weep; who, with our
spleens,
[p]Would all themselves laugh mortal.
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA] O, to him, to him, wench! he
[p]will
relent;
[p]He's coming; I perceive 't.
Provost : [Aside] Pray heaven she win him!
Isabella : We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:
[p]Great men may jest with
saints; 'tis wit in them,
[p]But in the less foul profanation.
Lucio : Thou'rt i' the right, girl; more o, that.
Isabella : That in the captain's but a choleric word,
[p]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,
[p]Hath yet a kind of
medicine in itself,
[p]That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your
bosom;
[p]Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
[p]That's
like my brother's fault: if it confess
[p]A natural guiltiness such as
is his,
[p]Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
[p]Against my
brother's life.
Angelo : [Aside] She speaks, and 'tis
[p]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.
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] You had marr'd all else.
Isabella : Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,
[p]Or stones whose rates are
either rich or poor
[p]As fancy values them; but with true
prayers
[p]That shall be up at heaven and enter there
[p]Ere sun-rise,
prayers from preserved souls,
[p]From fasting maids whose minds are
dedicate
[p]To nothing temporal.
Angelo : Well; come to me to-morrow.
Lucio : [Aside to ISABELLA] Go to; 'tis well; away!
Isabella : Heaven keep your honour safe!
Angelo : [Aside]. Amen:
[p]For I am that way going to temptation,
[p]Where
prayers cross.
Isabella : At what hour to-morrow
[p]Shall I attend your lordship?
Angelo : At any time 'fore noon.
Isabella : 'Save your honour!
Angelo : From thee, even from thy virtue!
[p]What's this, what's this? Is this
her fault or mine?
[p]The tempter or the tempted, who sins
most?
[p]Ha!
[p]Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
[p]That,
lying by the violet in the sun,
[p]Do as the carrion does, not as the
flower,
[p]Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
[p]That modesty may
more betray our sense
[p]Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground
enough,
[p]Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
[p]And pitch our
evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
[p]What dost thou, or what art thou,
Angelo?
[p]Dost thou desire her foully for those things
[p]That make
her good? O, let her brother live!
[p]Thieves for their robbery have
authority
[p]When judges steal themselves. What, do I love
her,
[p]That I desire to hear her speak again,
[p]And feast upon her
eyes? What is't I dream on?
[p]O cunning enemy, that, to catch a
saint,
[p]With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
[p]Is that
temptation that doth goad us on
[p]To sin in loving virtue: never
could the strumpet,
[p]With all her double vigour, art and
nature,
[p]Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
[p]Subdues me
quite. Even till now,
[p]When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd
how.
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