MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Act 2 Scene 3

(Enter at one door the Duke, disguised as a friar, and at another door the Provost)
l1l	Duke	 Hail to you, Provost!—so I think you are.
l2l	Provost	I am the Provost. What’s your will, good friar?
l3l	Duke	Bound by my charity and my blest order,
l4l		I come to visit the afflicted spirits
l5l		Here in the prison. Do me the common right
l6l		To let me see them, and to make me know
l7l		The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
l8l		To them accordingly.
l9l	Provost	I would do more than that, if more were needful.
		( 9 Enter Juliet)
l10l		Look, here comes one, a gentlewoman of mine,
l11l		Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
l12l		Hath blistered her report. She is with child,
l13l		And he that got it, sentenced—a young man
l14l		More fit to do another such offence
l15l		Than die for this.
l16l	Duke	When must he die?
l17l	Provost	As I do think, tomorrow.
l18l		(To Juliet)
		 I have provided for you. Stay a while,
l19l		And you shall be conducted.
l20l	Duke	Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
l21l	Juliet	I do, and bear the shame most patiently.
l22l	Duke	I’ll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,
l23l		And try your penitence if it be sound
l24l		Or hollowly put on.
l25l	Juliet	I’ll gladly learn.
l26l	Duke	Love you the man that wronged you?
l27l	Juliet	Yes, as I love the woman that wronged him.
l28l	Duke	So then it seems your most offenceful act
l29l		Was mutually committed?
	Juliet	Mutually.
l30l	Duke	Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
l31l	Juliet	I do confess it and repent it, father.
l32l	Duke	’Tis meet so, daughter. But lest you do repent
l33l		As that the sin hath brought you to this shame—
l34l		Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven,
l35l		Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,
l36l		But as we stand in fear—
l37l	Juliet	I do repent me as it is an evil,
l38l		And take the shame with joy.
	Duke	There rest.
l39l		Your partner, as I hear, must die tomorrow,
l40l		And I am going with instruction to him.
l41l		Grace go with you. Benedicite!
		(Exit)
l42l	Juliet	 Must die tomorrow? O injurious law,
l43l		That respites me a life whose very comfort
l44l		Is still a dying horror!
	Provost	’Tis pity of him.
		(Exeunt)