Measure For Measure

1 Enter Duke, Claudio and Provost.
2 DUKE.
3 So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
4 CLAUDIO.
5 The miserable have no other medicine
6 But only hope.
7 I have hope to live, and am prepared to die.
8 DUKE.
9 Be absolute for death. Either death or life
10 Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:
11 If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
12 That none but fools would keep. A breath thou art,
13 Servile to all the skyey influences
14 That dost this habitation where thou keep’st
15 Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art death’s fool;
16 For him thou labour’st by thy flight to shun,
17 And yet runn’st toward him still. Thou art not noble;
18 For all th’ accommodations that thou bear’st
19 Are nursed by baseness. Thou’rt by no means valiant;
20 For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
21 Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
22 And that thou oft provok’st, yet grossly fear’st
23 Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
24 For thou exists on many a thousand grains
25 That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;
26 For what thou hast not, still thou striv’st to get,
27 And what thou hast, forget’st. Thou art not certain;
28 For thy complexion shifts to strange effects
29 After the moon. If thou art rich, thou’rt poor;
30 For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
31 Thou bear’st thy heavy riches but a journey,
32 And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
33 For thine own bowels which do call thee sire,
34 The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
35 Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum
36 For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,
37 But as it were an after-dinner’s sleep
38 Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
39 Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
40 Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
41 Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty
42 To make thy riches pleasant. What’s yet in this
43 That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
44 Lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear,
45 That makes these odds all even.
46 CLAUDIO.
47 I humbly thank you.
48 To sue to live, I find I seek to die,
49 And seeking death, find life. Let it come on.
50 ISABELLA.
51 [_Within_.] What ho! Peace here; grace and good company!
52 PROVOST.
53 Who’s there? Come in. The wish deserves a welcome.
54 DUKE.
55 Dear sir, ere long I’ll visit you again.
56 CLAUDIO.
57 Most holy sir, I thank you.
58 Enter Isabella.
59 ISABELLA.
60 My business is a word or two with Claudio.
61 PROVOST.
62 And very welcome. Look, signior, here’s your sister.
63 DUKE.
64 Provost, a word with you.
65 PROVOST.
66 As many as you please.
67 DUKE.
68 Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.
69 [_Exeunt Duke and Provost._]
70 CLAUDIO.
71 Now, sister, what’s the comfort?
72 ISABELLA.
73 Why,
74 As all comforts are, most good, most good indeed.
75 Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
76 Intends you for his swift ambassador,
77 Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.
78 Therefore your best appointment make with speed;
79 Tomorrow you set on.
80 CLAUDIO.
81 Is there no remedy?
82 ISABELLA.
83 None, but such remedy as, to save a head,
84 To cleave a heart in twain.
85 CLAUDIO.
86 But is there any?
87 ISABELLA.
88 Yes, brother, you may live.
89 There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
90 If you’ll implore it, that will free your life,
91 But fetter you till death.
92 CLAUDIO.
93 Perpetual durance?
94 ISABELLA.
95 Ay, just; perpetual durance; a restraint,
96 Though all the world’s vastidity you had,
97 To a determined scope.
98 CLAUDIO.
99 But in what nature?
100 ISABELLA.
101 In such a one as, you consenting to’t,
102 Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
103 And leave you naked.
104 CLAUDIO.
105 Let me know the point.
106 ISABELLA.
107 O, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake,
108 Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
109 And six or seven winters more respect
110 Than a perpetual honour. Dar’st thou die?
111 The sense of death is most in apprehension;
112 And the poor beetle that we tread upon
113 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
114 As when a giant dies.
115 CLAUDIO.
116 Why give you me this shame?
117 Think you I can a resolution fetch
118 From flowery tenderness? If I must die,
119 I will encounter darkness as a bride
120 And hug it in mine arms.
121 ISABELLA.
122 There spake my brother! There my father’s grave
123 Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die.
124 Thou art too noble to conserve a life
125 In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
126 Whose settled visage and deliberate word
127 Nips youth i’ th’ head, and follies doth enew
128 As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil.
129 His filth within being cast, he would appear
130 A pond as deep as hell.
131 CLAUDIO.
132 The precise Angelo?
133 ISABELLA.
134 O, ’tis the cunning livery of hell
135 The damned’st body to invest and cover
136 In precise guards! Dost thou think, Claudio,
137 If I would yield him my virginity
138 Thou mightst be freed?
139 CLAUDIO.
140 O heavens, it cannot be.
141 ISABELLA.
142 Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank offence,
143 So to offend him still. This night’s the time
144 That I should do what I abhor to name,
145 Or else thou diest tomorrow.
146 CLAUDIO.
147 Thou shalt not do’t.
148 ISABELLA.
149 O, were it but my life,
150 I’d throw it down for your deliverance
151 As frankly as a pin.
152 CLAUDIO.
153 Thanks, dear Isabel.
154 ISABELLA.
155 Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.
156 CLAUDIO.
157 Yes. Has he affections in him
158 That thus can make him bite the law by th’ nose
159 When he would force it? Sure it is no sin;
160 Or of the deadly seven it is the least.
161 ISABELLA.
162 Which is the least?
163 CLAUDIO.
164 If it were damnable, he being so wise,
165 Why would he for the momentary trick
166 Be perdurably fined? O Isabel!
167 ISABELLA.
168 What says my brother?
169 CLAUDIO.
170 Death is a fearful thing.
171 ISABELLA.
172 And shamed life a hateful.
173 CLAUDIO.
174 Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
175 To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
176 This sensible warm motion to become
177 A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
178 To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
179 In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
180 To be imprisoned in the viewless winds
181 And blown with restless violence round about
182 The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
183 Of those that lawless and incertain thought
184 Imagine howling—’tis too horrible.
185 The weariest and most loathed worldly life
186 That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
187 Can lay on nature is a paradise
188 To what we fear of death.
189 ISABELLA.
190 Alas, alas!
191 CLAUDIO.
192 Sweet sister, let me live.
193 What sin you do to save a brother’s life,
194 Nature dispenses with the deed so far
195 That it becomes a virtue.
196 ISABELLA.
197 O, you beast!
198 O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
199 Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
200 Is’t not a kind of incest to take life
201 From thine own sister’s shame? What should I think?
202 Heaven shield my mother played my father fair,
203 For such a warped slip of wilderness
204 Ne’er issued from his blood. Take my defiance,
205 Die, perish! Might but my bending down
206 Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed.
207 I’ll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
208 No word to save thee.
209 CLAUDIO.
210 Nay, hear me, Isabel.
211 ISABELLA.
212 O fie, fie, fie!
213 Thy sin’s not accidental, but a trade.
214 Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd.
215 ’Tis best that thou diest quickly.
216 [_Going._]
217 CLAUDIO.
218 O, hear me, Isabella.
219 Enter Duke as a Friar.
220 DUKE.
221 Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.
222 ISABELLA.
223 What is your will?
224 DUKE.
225 Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some
226 speech with you. The satisfaction I would require is likewise your own
227 benefit.
228 ISABELLA.
229 I have no superfluous leisure, my stay must be stolen out of other
230 affairs, but I will attend you a while.
231 DUKE.
232 [_To Claudio aside_.] Son, I have overheard what hath passed between
233 you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only
234 he hath made an assay of her virtue, to practise his judgement with the
235 disposition of natures. She, having the truth of honour in her, hath
236 made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive. I am
237 confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare
238 yourself to death. Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are
239 fallible. Tomorrow you must die; go to your knees and make ready.
240 CLAUDIO.
241 Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life that I will
242 sue to be rid of it.
243 DUKE.
244 Hold you there. Farewell.
245 [_Exit Claudio._]
246 Enter Provost.
247 Provost, a word with you.
248 PROVOST.
249 What’s your will, father?
250 DUKE.
251 That, now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while with the
252 maid; my mind promises with my habit no loss shall touch her by my
253 company.
254 PROVOST.
255 In good time.
256 [_Exit Provost._]
257 DUKE.
258 The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good. The goodness that
259 is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the
260 soul of your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair. The
261 assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath conveyed to my
262 understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I
263 should wonder at Angelo. How will you do to content this substitute,
264 and to save your brother?
265 ISABELLA.
266 I am now going to resolve him. I had rather my brother die by the law
267 than my son should be unlawfully born. But, O, how much is the good
268 Duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I
269 will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.
270 DUKE.
271 That shall not be much amiss. Yet, as the matter now stands, he will
272 avoid your accusation: he made trial of you only. Therefore fasten your
273 ear on my advisings, to the love I have in doing good, a remedy
274 presents itself. I do make myself believe that you may most
275 uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your
276 brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person;
277 and much please the absent Duke, if peradventure he shall ever return
278 to have hearing of this business.
279 ISABELLA.
280 Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to do anything that
281 appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.
282 DUKE.
283 Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of
284 Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great soldier who miscarried at
285 sea?
286 ISABELLA.
287 I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.
288 DUKE.
289 She should this Angelo have married, was affianced to her oath, and the
290 nuptial appointed. Between which time of the contract and limit of the
291 solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that
292 perished vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark how heavily this
293 befell to the poor gentlewoman. There she lost a noble and renowned
294 brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him,
295 the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage dowry; with both,
296 her combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.
297 ISABELLA.
298 Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?
299 DUKE.
300 Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort,
301 swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonour;
302 in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for
303 his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but
304 relents not.
305 ISABELLA.
306 What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from the world!
307 What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live! But how
308 out of this can she avail?
309 DUKE.
310 It is a rupture that you may easily heal, and the cure of it not only
311 saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it.
312 ISABELLA.
313 Show me how, good father.
314 DUKE.
315 This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first
316 affection. His unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have
317 quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it
318 more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his requiring with a
319 plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point. Only refer
320 yourself to this advantage: first, that your stay with him may not be
321 long; that the time may have all shadow and silence in it; and the
322 place answer to convenience. This being granted in course, and now
323 follows all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your
324 appointment, go in your place. If the encounter acknowledge itself
325 hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense; and here, by this, is
326 your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged,
327 and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame and make fit for
328 his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness
329 of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it?
330 ISABELLA.
331 The image of it gives me content already, and I trust it will grow to a
332 most prosperous perfection.
333 DUKE.
334 It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for
335 this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction.
336 I will presently to Saint Luke’s; there at the moated grange resides
337 this dejected Mariana. At that place call upon me; and dispatch with
338 Angelo, that it may be quickly.
339 ISABELLA.
340 I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.
341 [_Exit Isabella._]