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  • William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene IV

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Scene IVA room in Angelo’s houseEnter AngeloAngeloWhen I would pray and think, I think and pray To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words; Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth, As if I did but only chew his name; And in my heart the strong and swelling evil Of my conception. The state, whereon I studied Is like a good thing, being often read, Grown fear’d and tedious; yea, my gravity, Wherein—let no man hear me—I take pride, Could I with boot change for an idle plume, Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form, How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood: Let’s write good angel on the devil’s horn: ‘Tis not the devil’s crest.Enter a ServantHow now! who’s there?ServantOne Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.AngeloTeach her the way.Exit ServantO heavens! Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, Making both it unable for itself, And dispossessing all my other parts Of necessary fitness? So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; Come all to help him, and so stop the air By which he should revive: and even so The general, subject to a well-wish’d king, Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love Must needs appear offence.Enter IsabellaHow now, fair maid?IsabellaI am come to know your pleasure.AngeloThat you might know it, would much better please me Than to demand what ’tis. Your brother cannot live.IsabellaEven so. Heaven keep your honour!AngeloYet may he live awhile; and, it may be, As long as you or I yet he must die.IsabellaUnder your sentence?AngeloYea.IsabellaWhen, I beseech you? that in his reprieve, Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted That his soul sicken not.AngeloHa! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good To pardon him that hath from nature stolen A man already made, as to remit Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven’s image In stamps that are forbid: ’tis all as easy Falsely to take away a life true made As to put metal in restrained means To make a false one.Isabella’Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.AngeloSay you so? then I shall pose you quickly. Which had you rather, that the most just law Now took your brother’s life; or, to redeem him, Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness As she that he hath stain’d?IsabellaSir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my soul.AngeloI talk not of your soul: our compell’d sins Stand more for number than for accompt.IsabellaHow say you?AngeloNay, I’ll not warrant that; for I can speak Against the thing I say. Answer to this: I, now the voice of the recorded law, Pronounce a sentence on your brother’s life: Might there not be a charity in sin To save this brother’s life?IsabellaPlease you to do’t, I’ll take it as a peril to my soul, It is no sin at all, but charity.AngeloPleased you to do’t at peril of your soul, Were equal poise of sin and charity.IsabellaThat I do beg his life, if it be sin, Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit, If that be sin, I’ll make it my morn prayer To have it added to the faults of mine, And nothing of your answer.AngeloNay, but hear me. Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant, Or seem so craftily; and that’s not good.IsabellaLet me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better.AngeloThus wisdom wishes to appear most bright When it doth tax itself; as these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder Than beauty could, display’d. But mark me; To be received plain, I’ll speak more gross: Your brother is to die.IsabellaSo.AngeloAnd his offence is so, as it appears, Accountant to the law upon that pain.IsabellaTrue.AngeloAdmit no other way to save his life,— As I subscribe not that, nor any other, But in the loss of question,—that you, his sister, Finding yourself desired of such a person, Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, Could fetch your brother from the manacles Of the all-building law; and that there were No earthly mean to save him, but that either You must lay down the treasures of your body To this supposed, or else to let him suffer; What would you do?IsabellaAs much for my poor brother as myself: That is, were I under the terms of death, The impression of keen whips I’ld wear as rubies, And strip myself to death, as to a bed That longing have been sick for, ere I’ld yield My body up to shame.AngeloThen must your brother die.IsabellaAnd ’twere the cheaper way: Better it were a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever.AngeloWere not you then as cruel as the sentence That you have slander’d so?IsabellaIgnomy in ransom and free pardon Are of two houses: lawful mercy Is nothing kin to foul redemption.AngeloYou seem’d of late to make the law a tyrant; And rather proved the sliding of your brother A merriment than a vice.IsabellaO, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean: I something do excuse the thing I hate, For his advantage that I dearly love.AngeloWe are all frail.IsabellaElse let my brother die, If not a feodary, but only he Owe and succeed thy weakness.AngeloNay, women are frail too.IsabellaAy, as the glasses where they view themselves; Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Women! Help Heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints.AngeloI think it well: And from this testimony of your own sex,— Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger Than faults may shake our frames,—let me be bold; I do arrest your words. Be that you are, That is, a woman; if you be more, you’re none; If you be one, as you are well express’d By all external warrants, show it now, By putting on the destined livery.IsabellaI have no tongue but one: gentle my lord, Let me entreat you speak the former language.AngeloPlainly conceive, I love you.IsabellaMy brother did love Juliet, And you tell me that he shall die for it.AngeloHe shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.IsabellaI know your virtue hath a licence in’t, Which seems a little fouler than it is, To pluck on others.AngeloBelieve me, on mine honour, My words express my purpose.IsabellaHa! little honour to be much believed, And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming! I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for’t: Sign me a present pardon for my brother, Or with an outstretch’d throat I’ll tell the world aloud What man thou art.AngeloWho will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil’d name, the austereness of my life, My vouch against you, and my place i’ the state, Will so your accusation overweigh, That you shall stifle in your own report And smell of calumny. I have begun, And now I give my sensual race the rein: Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes, That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother By yielding up thy body to my will; Or else he must not only die the death, But thy unkindness shall his death draw out To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow, Or, by the affection that now guides me most, I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you, Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.ExitIsabellaTo whom should I complain? Did I tell this, Who would believe me? O perilous mouths, That bear in them one and the self-same tongue, Either of condemnation or approof; Bidding the law make court’sy to their will: Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite, To follow as it draws! I’ll to my brother: Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood, Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour. That, had he twenty heads to tender down On twenty bloody blocks, he’ld yield them up, Before his sister should her body stoop To such abhorr’d pollution. Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die: More than our brother is our chastity. I’ll tell him yet of Angelo’s request, And fit his mind to death, for his soul’s rest.Exit

William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Act II

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William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene II

  • William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene II

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  • Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
  • The Twelve Dancing Princesses
  • Current Events This Week: January 2023
  • African Americans by the Numbers
  • Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
  • The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales