Measure for Measure The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] · William Shakespeare
SCENE II. _The street before the prison._
_Enter, on one side, DUKE disguised as before; on the other, ELBOW, and _Officers_ with POMPEY._ _Elb._ Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard. _Duke._ O heavens! what stuff is here? _Pom._ 'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, 5 the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. _Elb._ Come your way, sir. 'Bless you, good father friar. 10 _Duke._ And you, good brother father. What offence hath this man made you, sir? _Elb._ Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have sent to the Deputy. 15 _Duke._ Fie, sirrah! a bawd, a wicked bawd! The evil that thou causest to be done, That is thy means to live. Do thou but think What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back From such a filthy vice: say to thyself, 20 From their abominable and beastly touches I drink, I eat, array myself, and live. Canst thou believe thy living is a life, So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.
_Pom._ Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, 25 sir, I would prove-- _Duke._ Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer: Correction and instruction must both work Ere this rude beast will profit. 30 _Elb._ He must before the Deputy, sir; he has given him warning: the Deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. _Duke._ That we were all, as some would seem to be, 35 From our faults, as faults from seeming, free! _Elb._ His neck will come to your waist,--a cord, sir. _Pom._ I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman and a friend of mine. _Enter LUCIO._ _Lucio._ How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels 40 of Caesar? art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting it clutched? What reply, ha? What sayest thou to this tune, matter and method? Is't not drowned i' the last rain, ha? 45 What sayest thou, Trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The trick of it?
_Duke._ You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace. _Lucio._ Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the Duke that is absent have done this? Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, 110 he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy. _Duke._ I never heard the absent Duke much detected for women; he was not inclined that way. 115 _Lucio._ O, sir, you are deceived. _Duke._ 'Tis not possible. _Lucio._ Who, not the Duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the Duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too; that let me 120 inform you. _Duke._ You do him wrong, surely. _Lucio._ Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the Duke: and I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing. 125 _Duke._ What, I prithee, might be the cause? _Lucio._ No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be locked within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand, the greater file of the subject held the Duke to be wise.
_Duke._ Wise! why, no question but he was. 130 _Lucio._ A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow. _Duke._ Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking: the very stream of his life and the business he hath helmed must, upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own bringings-forth, 135 and he shall appear, to the envious, a scholar, a statesman and a soldier. Therefore you speak unskilfully; or if your knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice. _Lucio._ Sir, I know him, and I love him. 140 _Duke._ Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love. _Lucio._ Come, sir, I know what I know. _Duke._ I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the Duke return, as our prayers 145 are he may, let me desire you to make your answer before him. If it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your name? _Lucio._ Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the 150 duke. _Duke._ He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you. _Lucio._ I fear you not. _Duke._ O, you hope the Duke will return no more; or 155 you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again.
_Lucio._ I'll be hanged first: thou art deceived in me, friar. But no more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die to-morrow or no? 160 _Duke._ Why should he die, sir? _Lucio._ Why? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would the Duke we talk of were returned again: this ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in his house-eaves, because 165 they are lecherous. The Duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to light: would he were returned! Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrussing. Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me. The Duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on 170 Fridays. He's not past it yet, and I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown bread and garlic: say that I said so. Farewell. [_Exit._ _Duke._ No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny 175 The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? But who comes here? _Enter ESCALUS, PROVOST, and _Officers_ with MISTRESS OVERDONE._ _Escal._ Go; away with her to prison! _Mrs Ov._ Good my lord, be good to me; your honour 180 is accounted a merciful man; good my lord. _Escal._ Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the same kind! This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant.
_Prov._ A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it 185 please your honour. _Mrs Ov._ My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me. Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the Duke's time; he promised her marriage: his child is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob: 190 I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me! _Escal._ That fellow is a fellow of much license: let him be called before us. Away with her to prison! Go to; no more words. [_Exeunt Officers with Mistress Ov._] 195 Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered; Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation. If my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him. _Prov._ So please you, this friar hath been with him, 200 and advised him for the entertainment of death. _Escal._ Good even, good father. _Duke._ Bliss and goodness on you! _Escal._ Of whence are you? _Duke._ Not of this country, though my chance is now 205 To use it for my time: I am a brother Of gracious order, late come from the See In special business from his Holiness. _Escal._ What news abroad i' the world? _Duke._ None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, 210 that the dissolution of it must cure it: novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce truth enough alive to make societies secure; but security enough to make fellowships accurst:-- 215 much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the Duke?
_Escal._ One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to know himself. 220 _Duke._ What pleasure was he given to? _Escal._ Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous; and let 225 me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand that you have lent him visitation. _Duke._ He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of justice: yet had he framed to himself, 230 by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolved to die. _Escal._ You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have laboured 235 for the poor gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty: but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him he is indeed Justice. _Duke._ If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein if he chance to 240 fail, he hath sentenced himself. _Escal._ I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
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