Measure for Measure

Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you: then no more remains, But that to your sufficiency⁠— —as your worth is able, And let them work. The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice, you’re as pregnant in As art and practice hath enriched any That we remember. There is our commission, From which we would not have you warp. Call hither, I say, bid come before us Angelo. Exit an Attendant. What figure of us think you he will bear? For you must know, we have with special soul Elected him our absence to supply, Lent him our terror, dress’d him with our love, And given his deputation all the organs Of our own power: what think you of it?

Escalus

If any in Vienna be of worth To undergo such ample grace and honour, It is Lord Angelo.

Duke

Look where he comes.

Enter Angelo.

Angelo

Always obedient to your grace’s will, I come to know your pleasure.

Duke

Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life, That to the observer doth thy history Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike As if we had them not.

Pompey

Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there’s Madam Juliet. Exeunt.

Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers.

Claudio

Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world? Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Provost

I do it not in evil disposition, But from Lord Angelo by special charge.

Claudio

Thus can the demigod Authority Make us pay down for our offence by weight The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still ’tis just.

Reenter Lucio and two Gentlemen.

Lucio

Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?

Claudio

From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As surfeit is the father of much fast, So every scope by the immoderate use Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue, Like rats that ravin down their proper bane, A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.

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.

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 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.

Provost

Aside. Heaven give thee moving graces!

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.

Isabella

O just but severe law! I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!

Lucio

From thee, even from thy virtue! What’s this, what’s this? Is this her fault or mine? 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, 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! 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, 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 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. Exit.

Angelo

He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

Isabella

I know your virtue hath a licence in’t, Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others.

Angelo

Believe me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose.

Isabella

Ha! little honour to be much believed, And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming! I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for’t: Sign me a present pardon for my brother, Or with an outstretch’d throat I’ll tell the world aloud What man thou art.

Angelo

Who will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil’d name, the austereness of my life, My vouch against you, and my place i’ the state, Will so your accusation overweigh, That you shall stifle in your own report And smell of calumny. I have begun, And now I give my sensual race the rein: Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes, That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother By yielding up thy body to my will; Or else he must not only die the death, But thy unkindness shall his death draw out To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow, Or, by the affection that now guides me most, I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you, Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true. Exit.