Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 2
The street before the prison.
Elbow : Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will
[p]needs buy and
sell men and women like beasts, we
[p]shall have all the world drink
brown and white bastard.
Vincentio : O heavens! what stuff is here
Pompey : 'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the
[p]merriest was put
down, and the worser allowed by
[p]order of law a furred gown to keep
him warm; and
[p]furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify,
that
[p]craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.
Elbow : Come your way, sir. 'Bless you, good father friar.
Vincentio : And you, good brother father. What offence hath
[p]this man made you,
sir?
Elbow : Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we
[p]take him to be a
thief too, sir; for we have found
[p]upon him, sir, a strange
picklock, which we have
[p]sent to the deputy.
Vincentio : Fie, sirrah! a bawd, a wicked bawd!
[p]The evil that thou causest to
be done,
[p]That is thy means to live. Do thou but think
[p]What 'tis
to cram a maw or clothe a back
[p]From such a filthy vice: say to
thyself,
[p]From their abominable and beastly touches
[p]I drink, I
eat, array myself, and live.
[p]Canst thou believe thy living is a
life,
[p]So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.
Pompey : Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet,
[p]sir, I would
prove--
Vincentio : Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,
[p]Thou wilt prove
his. Take him to prison, officer:
[p]Correction and instruction must
both work
[p]Ere this rude beast will profit.
Elbow : He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him
[p]warning: the
deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if
[p]he be a whoremonger, and
comes before him, he were
[p]as good go a mile on his errand.
Vincentio : That we were all, as some would seem to be,
[p]From our faults, as
faults from seeming, free!
Elbow : His neck will come to your waist,--a cord, sir.
Pompey : I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman and a
[p]friend of
mine.
Lucio : How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of
[p]Caesar? art thou led
in triumph? What, is there
[p]none of Pygmalion's images, newly made
woman, to be
[p]had now, for putting the hand in the pocket
and
[p]extracting it clutch'd? What reply, ha? What
[p]sayest thou to
this tune, matter and method? Is't
[p]not drowned i' the last rain,
ha? What sayest
[p]thou, Trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which
is
[p]the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The
[p]trick of it?
Vincentio : Still thus, and thus; still worse!
Lucio : How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she
[p]still, ha?
Pompey : Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she
[p]is herself in
the tub.
Lucio : Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be
[p]so: ever your
fresh whore and your powdered bawd:
[p]an unshunned consequence; it
must be so. Art going
[p]to prison, Pompey?
Pompey : Yes, faith, sir.
Lucio : Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell: go, say I
[p]sent thee thither.
For debt, Pompey? or how?
Elbow : For being a bawd, for being a bawd.
Lucio : Well, then, imprison him: if imprisonment be the
[p]due of a bawd,
why, 'tis his right: bawd is he
[p]doubtless, and of antiquity too;
bawd-born.
[p]Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to the
prison,
[p]Pompey: you will turn good husband now, Pompey; you
[p]will
keep the house.
Pompey : I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.
Lucio : No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear.
[p]I will pray,
Pompey, to increase your bondage: If
[p]you take it not patiently,
why, your mettle is the
[p]more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. 'Bless you,
friar.
Vincentio : And you.
Lucio : Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?
Elbow : Come your ways, sir; come.
Pompey : You will not bail me, then, sir?
Lucio : Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar?
[p]what news?
Elbow : Come your ways, sir; come.
Lucio : Go to kennel, Pompey; go.
[p][Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY and
Officers]
[p]What news, friar, of the duke?
Vincentio : I know none. Can you tell me of any?
Lucio : Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other
[p]some, he is in
Rome: but where is he, think you?
Vincentio : I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.
Lucio : It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from
[p]the state, and
usurp the beggary he was never born
[p]to. Lord Angelo dukes it well
in his absence; he
[p]puts transgression to 't.
Vincentio : He does well in 't.
Lucio : A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in
[p]him: something
too crabbed that way, friar.
Vincentio : It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.
Lucio : Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred;
[p]it is well
allied: but it is impossible to extirp
[p]it quite, friar, till eating
and drinking be put
[p]down. They say this Angelo was not made by man
and
[p]woman after this downright way of creation: is it
[p]true,
think you?
Vincentio : How should he be made, then?
Lucio : Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some, that he
[p]was begot between
two stock-fishes. But it is
[p]certain that when he makes water his
urine is
[p]congealed ice; that I know to be true: and he is
a
[p]motion generative; that's infallible.
Vincentio : You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.
Lucio : Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the
[p]rebellion of a
codpiece to take away the life of a
[p]man! Would the duke that is
absent have done this?
[p]Ere he would have hanged a man for the
getting a
[p]hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing
[p]a
thousand: he had some feeling of the sport: he
[p]knew the service,
and that instructed him to mercy.
Vincentio : I never heard the absent duke much detected for
[p]women; he was not
inclined that way.
Lucio : O, sir, you are deceived.
Vincentio : 'Tis not possible.
Lucio : Who, not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and
[p]his use was to
put a ducat in her clack-dish: the
[p]duke had crotchets in him. He
would be drunk too;
[p]that let me inform you.
Vincentio : You do him wrong, surely.
Lucio : Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the
[p]duke: and I
believe I know the cause of his
[p]withdrawing.
Vincentio : What, I prithee, might be the cause?
Lucio : No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be locked within the
[p]teeth and the
lips: but this I can let you
[p]understand, the greater file of the
subject held the
[p]duke to be wise.
Vincentio : Wise! why, no question but he was.
Lucio : A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.
Vincentio : Either this is the envy in you, folly, or mistaking:
[p]the very
stream of his life and the business he hath
[p]helmed must upon a
warranted need give him a better
[p]proclamation. Let him be but
testimonied in his own
[p]bringings-forth, and he shall appear to
the
[p]envious a scholar, a statesman and a soldier.
[p]Therefore you
speak unskilfully: or if your
[p]knowledge be more it is much darkened
in your malice.
Lucio : Sir, I know him, and I love him.
Vincentio : Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with
[p]dearer love.
Lucio : Come, sir, I know what I know.
Vincentio : I can hardly believe that, since you know not what
[p]you speak. But,
if ever the duke return, as our
[p]prayers are he may, let me desire
you to make your
[p]answer before him. If it be honest you have
spoke,
[p]you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call
[p]upon
you; and, I pray you, your name?
Lucio : Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke.
Vincentio : He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to
[p]report you.
Lucio : I fear you not.
Vincentio : O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you
[p]imagine me too
unhurtful an opposite. But indeed I
[p]can do you little harm; you'll
forswear this again.
Lucio : I'll be hanged first: thou art deceived in me,
[p]friar. But no more
of this. Canst thou tell if
[p]Claudio die to-morrow or no?
Vincentio : Why should he die, sir?
Lucio : Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish. I would
[p]the duke we talk
of were returned again: the
[p]ungenitured agent will unpeople the
province with
[p]continency; sparrows must not build in
his
[p]house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke
[p]yet would
have dark deeds darkly answered; he would
[p]never bring them to
light: would he were returned!
[p]Marry, this Claudio is condemned for
untrussing.
[p]Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me.
The
[p]duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on
[p]Fridays. He's
not past it yet, and I say to thee,
[p]he would mouth with a beggar,
though she smelt brown
[p]bread and garlic: say that I said so.
Farewell.
Vincentio : No might nor greatness in mortality
[p]Can censure 'scape;
back-wounding calumny
[p]The whitest virtue strikes. What king so
strong
[p]Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
[p]But who
comes here?
Escalus : Go; away with her to prison!
Mistress Overdone : Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted
[p]a merciful
man; good my lord.
Escalus : Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in
[p]the same kind!
This would make mercy swear and play
[p]the tyrant.
Provost : A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please
[p]your honour.
Mistress Overdone : My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me.
[p]Mistress Kate
Keepdown was with child by him in the
[p]duke's time; he promised her
marriage: his child
[p]is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and
Jacob:
[p]I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse
me!
Escalus : That fellow is a fellow of much licence: let him be
[p]called before
us. Away with her to prison! Go to;
[p]no more words.
[p][Exeunt
Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE]
[p]Provost, my brother Angelo will
not be altered;
[p]Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be
furnished
[p]with divines, and have all charitable preparation.
[p]if
my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be
[p]so with him.
Provost : So please you, this friar hath been with him, and
[p]advised him for
the entertainment of death.
Escalus : Good even, good father.
Vincentio : Bliss and goodness on you!
Escalus : Of whence are you?
Vincentio : Not of this country, though my chance is now
[p]To use it for my time:
I am a brother
[p]Of gracious order, late come from the See
[p]In
special business from his holiness.
Escalus : What news abroad i' the world?
Vincentio : None, but that there is so great a fever on
[p]goodness, that the
dissolution of it must cure it:
[p]novelty is only in request; and it
is as dangerous
[p]to be aged in any kind of course, as it is
virtuous
[p]to be constant in any undertaking. There is
scarce
[p]truth enough alive to make societies secure; but
[p]security
enough to make fellowships accurst: much
[p]upon this riddle runs the
wisdom of the world. This
[p]news is old enough, yet it is every day's
news. I
[p]pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?
Escalus : One that, above all other strifes, contended
[p]especially to know
himself.
Vincentio : What pleasure was he given to?
Escalus : Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at
[p]any thing
which professed to make him rejoice: a
[p]gentleman of all temperance.
But leave we him to
[p]his events, with a prayer they may prove
prosperous;
[p]and let me desire to know how you find
Claudio
[p]prepared. I am made to understand that you have
[p]lent him
visitation.
Vincentio : He professes to have received no sinister measure
[p]from his judge,
but most willingly humbles himself
[p]to the determination of justice:
yet had he framed
[p]to himself, by the instruction of his frailty,
many
[p]deceiving promises of life; which I by my good
[p]leisure have
discredited to him, and now is he
[p]resolved to die.
Escalus : You have paid the heavens your function, and the
[p]prisoner the very
debt of your calling. I have
[p]laboured for the poor gentleman to the
extremest
[p]shore of my modesty: but my brother justice have
I
[p]found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him
[p]he is
indeed Justice.
Vincentio : If his own life answer the straitness of his
[p]proceeding, it shall
become him well; wherein if he
[p]chance to fail, he hath sentenced
himself.
Escalus : I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
Vincentio : Peace be with you!
[p][Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost]
[p]He who the sword
of heaven will bear
[p]Should be as holy as severe;
[p]Pattern in
himself to know,
[p]Grace to stand, and virtue go;
[p]More nor less to
others paying
[p]Than by self-offences weighing.
[p]Shame to him whose
cruel striking
[p]Kills for faults of his own liking!
[p]Twice treble
shame on Angelo,
[p]To weed my vice and let his grow!
[p]O, what may
man within him hide,
[p]Though angel on the outward side!
[p]How may
likeness made in crimes,
[p]Making practise on the times,
[p]To draw
with idle spiders' strings
[p]Most ponderous and substantial
things!
[p]Craft against vice I must apply:
[p]With Angelo to-night
shall lie
[p]His old betrothed but despised;
[p]So disguise shall, by
the disguised,
[p]Pay with falsehood false exacting,
[p]And perform an
old contracting.
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