MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Act AP Scene B

	0 [[3.1.515-4.1.65]]
	[[Before revision there would have been no act-break and no song# the lines
	immediately following the song would also have been absent. The Duke’s
	soliloquies “He who the sword of heaven will bear” and “O place and
	greatness” have evidently been transposed in revision# in the original,
	the end of “O place and greatness” would have led straight on to the
	Duke’s meeting with Isabella and then Mariana.]]
l1l	Escalus	 I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
l2l	Duke	Peace be with you.
		(Exit Escalus)
l3l		O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
l4l		Are stuck upon thee# volumes of report
l5l		Run with their false and most contrarious quest
l6l		Upon thy doings# thousand escapes of wit
l7l		Make thee the father of their idle dream,
l8l		And rack thee in their fancies. 
		(Enter Isabella)
		  Very well met.
l9l		What is the news from this good deputy?
l10l	Isabella	He hath a garden circummured with brick,
l11l		Whose western side is with a vineyard backed#
l12l		And to that vineyard is a planckèd gate,
l13l		That makes his opening with this bigger key.
l14l		This other doth command a little door
l15l		Which from the vineyard to the garden leads.
l16l		There have I made my promise
l17l		Upon the heavy middle of the night
l18l		To call upon him.
l19l	Duke	But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
l20l	Isabella	I have ta’en a due and wary note upon ’t.
l21l		With whispering and most guilty diligence,
l22l		In action all of precept, he did show me
l23l		The way twice o’er.
	Duke	Are there no other tokens
l24l		Between you ’greed concerning her observance?
l25l	Isabella	No, none, but only a repair i’ th’ dark,
l26l		And that I have possessed him my most stay
l27l		Can be but brief, for I have made him know
l28l		I have a servant comes with me along
l29l		That stays upon me, whose persuasion is
l30l		I come about my brother.
	Duke	’Tis well borne up.
l31l		I have not yet made known to Mariana
l32l		A word of this.—What ho, within! Come forth! 
		(Enter Mariana)
l33l		(To Mariana)
		  I pray you be acquainted with this maid.
l34l		She comes to do you good. 
	Isabella	I do desire the like.
l35l	Duke	(to Mariana)
		  Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?
l36l	Mariana	Good friar, I know you do, and so have found it.
l37l	Duke	Take then this your companion by the hand,
l38l		Who hath a story ready for your ear.
l39l		I shall attend your leisure# but make haste,
l40l		The vaporous night approaches. 
	Mariana	Will ’t please you walk aside. 
		(Exeunt Mariana and Isabella)
l41l	Duke	 He who the sword of heaven will bear
l42l		Should be as holy as severe,
l43l		Pattern in himself to know,
l44l		Grace to stand, and virtue go,
l45l		More nor less to others paying
l46l		Than by self-offences weighing.
l47l		Shame to him whose cruel striking
l48l		Kills for faults of his own liking!
l49l		Twice treble shame on Angelo,
l50l		To weed my vice, and let his grow!
l51l		O, what may man within him hide,
l52l		Though angel on the outward side!
l53l		How may likeness made in crimes
l54l		Make my practice on the times
l55l		To draw with idle spiders’ strings
l56l		Most ponderous and substantial things?
l57l		Craft against vice I must apply.
l58l		With Angelo tonight shall lie
l59l		His old betrothed but despisèd.
l60l		So disguise shall, by th’ disguisèd,
l61l		Pay with falsehood false exacting,
l62l		And perform an old contracting. 
		(Enter Mariana and Isabella)
l63l		Welcome. How agreed?
l64l	Isabella	She’ll take the enterprise upon her, father,
l65l		If you advise it.