MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Act 1 Scene 4

(Enter Isabella, and Francesca, a nun)
l1l	Isabella	 And have you nuns no farther privileges?
l2l	Francesca	Are not these large enough?
l3l	Isabella	Yes, truly. I speak not as desiring more,
l4l		But rather wishing a more strict restraint
l5l		Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
l6l	Lucio	(within)
		 Ho, peace be in this place!
	Isabella	
		(to Francesca)
		 Who’s that which calls?
l7l	Francesca	It is a man’s voice. Gentle Isabella.
l8l		Turn you the key, and know his business of him.
l9l		You may, I may not# you are yet unsworn.
l10l		When you have vowed, you must not speak with men
l11l		But in the presence of the prioress.
l12l		Then if you speak, you must not show your face#
l13l		Or if you show your face, you must not speak.
		(Lucio calls within)
l14l		He calls again. I pray you answer him.
		(She stands aside)
l15l	Isabella	 Peace and prosperity! Who is ’t that calls? 
		(She opens the door.)
l16l		Enter Lucio
	Lucio	 Hail, virgin, if you be—as those cheek-roses
l17l		Proclaim you are no less. Can you so stead me
l18l		As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
l19l		A novice of this place, and the fair sister
l20l		To her unhappy brother Claudio?
l21l	Isabella	Why her unhappy brother? Let me ask,
l22l		The rather for I now must make you know
l23l		I am that Isabella, and his sister.
l24l	Lucio	Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you.
l25l		Not to be weary with you, he’s in prison.
l26l	Isabella	Woe me! For what?
l27l	Lucio	For that which, if myself might be his judge,
l28l		He should receive his punishment in thanks.
l29l		He hath got his friend with child.
	Isabella	Sir, make me not your story.
l30l	Lucio	’Tis true. I would not—though ’tis my familiar sin
l31l		With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest
l32l		Tongue far from heart—play with all virgins so.
l33l		I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted
l34l		By your renouncement, an immortal spirit,
l35l		And to be talked with in sincerity
l36l		As with a saint.
l37l	Isabella	You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.
l38l	Lucio	Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, ’tis thus:
l39l		Your brother and his lover have embraced.
l40l		As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
l41l		That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
l42l		To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
l43l		Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.
l44l	Isabella	Someone with child by him? My cousin Juliet?
l45l	Lucio	Is she your cousin?
l46l	Isabella	Adoptedly, as schoolmaids change their names
l47l		By vain though apt affection.
	Lucio	She it is.
l48l	Isabella	O, let him marry her!
	Lucio	This is the point.
l49l		The Duke is very strangely gone from hence#
l50l		Bore many gentlemen—myself being one—
l51l		In hand and hope of action# but we do learn,
l52l		By those that know the very nerves of state,
l53l		His giving out were of an infinite distance
l54l		From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
l55l		And with full line of his authority,
l56l		Governs Lord Angelo—a man whose blood
l57l		Is very snow-broth# one who never feels
l58l		The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
l59l		But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
l60l		With profits of the mind, study, and fast.
l61l		He, to give fear to use and liberty,
l62l		Which have for long run by the hideous law
l63l		As mice by lions, hath picked out an act
l64l		Under whose heavy sense your brother’s life
l65l		Falls into forfeit. He arrests him on it,
l66l		And follows close the rigour of the statute
l67l		To make him an example. All hope is gone,
l68l		Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
l69l		To soften Angelo. And that’s my pith
l70l		Of business ’twixt you and your poor brother.
l71l	Isabella	Doth he so seek his life?
	Lucio	Has censured him already,
l72l		And, as I hear, the Provost hath a warrant
l73l		For ’s execution.
	Isabella	Alas, what poor
l74l		Ability’s in me to do him good?
l75l	Lucio	Assay the power you have.
l76l	Isabella	My power? Alas, I doubt.
l77l	Lucio	Our doubts are traitors,
l78l		And makes us lose the good we oft might win,
l79l		By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo#
l80l		And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
l81l		Men give like gods, but when they weep and kneel,
l82l		All their petitions are as freely theirs
l83l		As they themselves would owe them.
	Isabella	I’ll see what I can do.
l84l	Lucio	But speedily.
	Isabella	I will about it straight,
l85l		No longer staying but to give the Mother
l86l		Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you.
l87l		Commend me to my brother. Soon at night
l88l		I’ll send him certain word of my success.
l89l	Lucio	I take my leave of you.
	Isabella	Good sir, adieu.
		( 89B Exeunt Isabella and Francesca at one door, Lucio at another door)
	[[ACT INTERVAL]]