MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Act 2 Scene 4

(Enter Angelo)
l1l	Angelo	 When I would pray and think, I think and pray
l2l		To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words,
l3l		Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
l4l		Anchors on Isabel# God in my mouth,
l5l		As if I did but only chew his name,
l6l		And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
l7l		Of my conception. The state whereon I studied
l8l		Is like a good thing, being often read,
l9l		Grown seared and tedious. Yea, my gravity,
l10l		Wherein—let no man hear me—I take pride,
l11l		Could I with boot change for an idle plume
l12l		Which the air beats in vain. O place, O form,
l13l		How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
l14l		Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
l15l		To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood.
l16l		Let’s write “good angel” on the devil’s horn—
l17l		’Tis now the devil’s crest.
		(Enter Servant)
		 How now? Who’s there?
l18l	Servant	 One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.
l19l	Angelo	 Teach her the way.
		(Exit Servant)
		 O heavens,
l20l		Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,
l21l		Making both it unable for itself,
l22l		And dispossessing all my other parts
l23l		Of necessary fitness?
l24l		So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons—
l25l		Come all to help him, and so stop the air
l26l		By which he should revive—and even so
l27l		The general subject to a well-wished king
l28l		Quit their own part and, in obsequious fondness,
l29l		Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
l30l		Must needs appear offence.
		(Enter Isabella)
		 How now, fair maid?
l31l	Isabella	I am come to know your pleasure.
l32l	Angelo	(aside)
		 That you might know it would much better please me
l33l		Than to demand what ’tis.
		(To Isabella)
		 Your brother cannot live.
l34l	Isabella	Even so. Heaven keep your honour.
l35l	Angelo	Yet may he live a while, and it may be
l36l		As long as you or I. Yet he must die.
l37l	Isabella	Under your sentence?
l38l	Angelo	Yea.
l39l	Isabella	When, I beseech you?—that in his reprieve,
l40l		Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted
l41l		That his soul sicken not.
l42l	Angelo	Ha, fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
l43l		To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
l44l		A man already made, as to remit
l45l		Their saucy sweetness that do coin God’s image
l46l		In stamps that are forbid. ’Tis all as easy
l47l		Falsely to take away a life true made
l48l		As to put metal in restrainèd moulds,
l49l		To make a false one.
l50l	Isabella	’Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.
l51l	Angelo	Say you so? Then I shall pose you quickly.
l52l		Which had you rather: that the most just law
l53l		Now took your brother’s life, or, to redeem him,
l54l		Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
l55l		As she that he hath stained?
	Isabella	Sir, believe this.
l56l		I had rather give my body than my soul.
l57l	Angelo	I talk not of your soul. Our compelled sins
l58l		Stand more for number than for account.
	Isabella	How say you?
l59l	Angelo	Nay, I’ll not warrant that, for I can speak
l60l		Against the thing I say. Answer to this.
l61l		I now, the voice of the recorded law,
l62l		Pronounce a sentence on your brother’s life.
l63l		Might there not be a charity in sin
l64l		To save this brother’s life?
	Isabella	Please you to do ’t,
l65l		I’ll take it as a peril to my soul
l66l		It is no sin at all, but charity.
l67l	Angelo	Pleased you to do ’t at peril of your soul
l68l		Were equal poise of sin and charity.
l69l	Isabella	That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
l70l		Heaven let me bear it. You granting of my suit,
l71l		If that be sin, I’ll make it my morn prayer
l72l		To have it added to the faults of mine,
l73l		And nothing of your answer.
	Angelo	Nay, but hear me.
l74l		Your sense pursues not mine. Either you are ignorant,
l75l		Or seem so craftily, and that’s not good.
l76l	Isabella	Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good
l77l		But graciously to know I am no better.
l78l	Angelo	Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright
l79l		When it doth tax itself: as these black masks
l80l		Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
l81l		Than beauty could, displayed. But mark me.
l82l		To be receivèd plain, I’ll speak more gross.
l83l		Your brother is to die.
l84l	Isabella	So.
l85l	Angelo	And his offence is so, as it appears,
l86l		Accountant to the law upon that pain.
l87l	Isabella	True.
l88l	Angelo	Admit no other way to save his life—
l89l		As I subscribe not that nor any other—
l90l		But, in the loss of question, that you his sister,
l91l		Finding yourself desired of such a person
l92l		Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
l93l		Could fetch your brother from the manacles
l94l		Of the all-binding law, and that there were
l95l		No earthly mean to save him, but that either
l96l		You must lay down the treasures of your body
l97l		To this supposed, or else to let him suffer—
l98l		What would you do?
l99l	Isabella	As much for my poor brother as myself.
l100l		That is, were I under the terms of death,
l101l		Th’ impression of keen whips I’d wear as rubies,
l102l		And strip myself to death as to a bed
l103l		That longing have been sick for, ere I’d yield
l104l		My body up to shame.
l105l	Angelo	Then must your brother die.
l106l	Isabella	And ’twere the cheaper way.
l107l		Better it were a brother died at once
l108l		Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
l109l		Should die for ever.
l110l	Angelo	Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
l111l		That you have slandered so?
l112l	Isabella	Ignominy in ransom and free pardon
l113l		Are of two houses# lawful mercy
l114l		Is nothing kin to foul redemption.
l115l	Angelo	You seemed of late to make the law a tyrant,
l116l		And rather proved the sliding of your brother
l117l		A merriment than a vice.
l118l	Isabella	O pardon me, my lord. It oft falls out
l119l		To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean.
l120l		I something do excuse the thing I hate
l121l		For his advantage that I dearly love.
l122l	Angelo	We are all frail.
	Isabella	Else let my brother die—
l123l		If not a federy, but only he,
l124l		Owe and succeed thy weakness.
	Angelo	Nay, women are frail too.
l125l	Isabella	Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves,
l126l		Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
l127l		Women? Help, heaven! Men their creation mar
l128l		In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail,
l129l		For we are soft as our complexions are,
l130l		And credulous to false prints.
	Angelo	I think it well,
l131l		And from this testimony of your own sex,
l132l		Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger
l133l		Than faults may shake our frames, let me be bold.
l134l		I do arrest your words. Be that you are#
l135l		That is, a woman. If you be more, you’re none.
l136l		If you be one, as you are well expressed
l137l		By all external warrants, show it now,
l138l		By putting on the destined livery.
l139l	Isabella	I have no tongue but one. Gentle my lord,
l140l		Let me entreat you speak the former language.
l141l	Angelo	Plainly conceive, I love you.
l142l	Isabella	My brother did love Juliet,
l143l		And you tell me that he shall die for it.
l144l	Angelo	He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.
l145l	Isabella	I know your virtue hath a licence in ’t,
l146l		Which seems a little fouler than it is,
l147l		To pluck on others.
	Angelo	Believe me, on mine honour,
l148l		My words express my purpose.
l149l	Isabella	Ha, little honour to be much believed,
l150l		And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!
l151l		I will proclaim thee, Angelo# look for ’t.
l152l		Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
l153l		Or with an outstretched throat I’ll tell the world aloud
l154l		What man thou art.
	Angelo	Who will believe thee, Isabel?
l155l		My unsoiled name, th’ austereness of my life,
l156l		My vouch against you, and my place i’ th’ state,
l157l		Will so your accusation overweigh
l158l		That you shall stifle in your own report,
l159l		And smell of calumny. I have begun,
l160l		And now I give my sensual race the rein.
l161l		Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite.
l162l		Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
l163l		That banish what they sue for. Redeem thy brother
l164l		By yielding up thy body to my will,
l165l		Or else he must not only die the death,
l166l		But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
l167l		To ling’ring sufferance. Answer me tomorrow,
l168l		Or by the affection that now guides me most,
l169l		I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
l170l		Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.
		(Exit)
l171l	Isabella	 To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
l172l		Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
l173l		That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue
l174l		Either of condemnation or approof,
l175l		Bidding the law make curtsy to their will,
l176l		Hooking both right and wrong to th’ appetite,
l177l		To follow as it draws! I’ll to my brother.
l178l		Though he hath fall’n by prompture of the blood,
l179l		Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour
l180l		That had he twenty heads to tender down
l181l		On twenty bloody blocks, he’d yield them up
l182l		Before his sister should her body stoop
l183l		To such abhorred pollution.
l184l		Then Isabel live chaste, and brother die:
l185l		More than our brother is our chastity.
l186l		I’ll tell him yet of Angelo’s request,
l187l		And fit his mind to death, for his soul’s rest.
		(Exit)
	[[ACT INTERVAL]]