Introduction
Measure for Measure depicts a social experiment. Duke Vincentio of Vienna is thinking that obedience to the laws have become too lax and announces that he must leave the city and places his puritanical deputy, Angelo, in charge. The Duke then disguises himself as a local friar in order to witness what happens. Angelo rigorously enforces the laws against morality, closing the brothels and having one of the main characters in the play, Claudio, arrested for getting his finance, Juliet, pregnant. Furthermore, Claudio’s punishment is determined by Angelo to be death. When Claudio asks his sister, Isabella, a novice nun, to intercede on his behalf, Angelo himself experiences a strong lustful attraction to Isabel and offers to pardon her brother only if she has sex with Angelo. When Isabella refuses it seems Claudio must die. But a friar (the Duke) visits Claudio and they concoct a plan to save his life by having Isabella merely pretend to agree to have sex with Angelo, and then Angelo’s fiancé he abandoned, Mariana, will slip in and change places with Isabella and Claudio will be saved and Angelo will have to marry Mariana. They pull off the bed switch but Angelo still refuses to pardon Claudio. More complications arise, naturally, and finally the Duke abandons his disguise and orders Angelo to marry Mariana and Claudio is finally saved. The play ends with a quadruple wedding!
Ultimately, this is a play about justice, morality and mercy and the gap that exists between innocence and corruption. But mostly it is a bare boned examination of human relationships. This being a comedy, albeit a difficult one, mercy and innocence prevail, but not before the various themes are all given considerable examination. Early in the play an elderly judge reflects in an aside that ‘Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” Nothing is what it seems in Measure for Measure. The Duke does not really ever leave Vienna but is watching his experiment the entire while, disguised as a monk. He proposes the bed trick, insists falsely that Claudio is dead and then ends up marrying the same novice-nun who Angelo tried to bed. The puritanical Angelo rages with lust for Isabella, who will pretend to have sex to save her brother Claudio, who is condemned to die anyway, even though Isabella apparently fulfilled Angelo’s terms for his release. But even Claudio’s death is staged and a pirate’s head is substituted for his. In the end the Duke condemns Angelo to death for his actions but it is Mariana and Isabella who successfully plead for his life, so that love and forgiveness finally triumph over hypocrisy and the rigours of the law. The act 5 resolution in Measure for Measure leaves us breathless, when one surprise after another springs itself upon us. The title of the play references Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again… judge not, lest you be judged.” This is a rich play of complex characters who grow and change throughout the performance. It is an excellent play, affording readers and viewers these same opportunities for growth and change in our perspectives of what it is to be human in our interactions with one another.
Act I (4 scenes)
Scene i
The Duke’s palace
Enter Duke and Escalus
Duke: “Escalus! Bid come before us Angelo. For you must know we have with special soul elected him our absence to supply. What think you of it?”
Escalus: “If any in Vienna be of worth to undergo such ample grace and honour, it is Lord Angelo.”
Enter Angelo
Angelo: “Always obedient to your Grace’s will, I come to know your pleasure.”
Duke: “Angelo – in our remove be thou at full ourself; mortality and mercy in Vienna live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus, though first in question, is thy secondary. Take thy commission.”
Angelo: “Now, good my lord, let there be some more test made of my metal, before so noble and so great a figure be stamped upon it.”
Duke: “No more evasion! We have with a leavened and prepared choice proceeded to you; therefore take your honours. Our haste from hence leaves unquestioned matters of needful value. We shall write to you, and do look to know what doth before you here. So, fare you well. To the hopeful execution do I leave you of your commissions. Your scope is as my own, so enforce or qualify the laws as to your soul seems good. Once more, fare you well.”
Analysis
This play will be about Angelo as the ruler of Vienna, during the absence of the Duke. Therefore, this first scene of the play sets that up nicely. Law enforcement has been lax and Angelo is a strict Puritanical leader. What we will learn, as suggested in the introduction above, is that the Duke is very curious to see what will happen with Angelo as the supreme ruler of Vienna. In fact, the Duke does not go away, as he claims. He will remain in Vienna, disguise as a friar, in order to closely monitor the effectiveness of Angelo’s rule.
Act I
Scene ii
A street
Enter Lucio and two gentlemen. They see Mistress Overdone approaching.
Lucio: “Behold, behold! I have purchased many diseases under her roof.”
Mrs. Overdone: “Well, well! There’s one yonder arrested and carried to prison.”
1 Gentleman: “Who’s that, I pray thee?’
Mrs Overdone: “Claudio, Signior Claudio.”
1 Gentleman: “Claudio to prison? Tis not so.”
Mrs Overdone: “Nay, but I know tis so: I saw him arrested and saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head is to be chopped off.”
Lucio: “Art thou sure of this?”
Mrs Overdone: “I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam Juliet with child.”
Lucio: “Away; let’s go learn the truth of this.”
Enter Pompey (a clown and servant to Mistress Overdone)
Mrs Overdone: ” How now! What’s the news with you?”
Pompey: “Yonder man is carried to prison, groping for trouts in a particular river. You have not heard of the proclamation?”
Mrs Overdone: “What proclamation, man?”
Pompey: “All houses of resort in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.”
Mrs Overdone: “But shall become of me?”
Pompey: “Come, fear not you: good counsellors lack not clients. Though you change your place you need not change your trade; I’ll be your tapster still. Courage. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there’s Madam Juliet.”
Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet and officers.
Claudio: “Bear me to prison, where I am committed.”
Provost: “I do it not in evil disposition, but from Lord Angelo by special charge.”
Lucio: “Why, how now, Claudio, whence comes this restraint?”
Claudio: “From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty.”
Lucio: “What’s thy offence, Claudio?”
Claudio: “What but to speak of would offend again.”
Lucio: “What, is it murder?”
Claudio: “No.”
Lucio: “Lechery?”
Claudio: “Call it so.”
Lucio: “Is lechery so looked after?”
Provost: “Away, sir, you must go.”
Claudio: “I got possession of Juliet’s bed. She is fast my wife, save that we do the denunciation lack of outward order.”
Lucio: “With child, perhaps?”
Claudio: “Unhappily, even so. And the new deputy now for the Duke, who, newly in his seat, that it may know he can command, lets it straight feel the spur. But this new governor awakes me all the enrolled penalties which have hung by the wall and now puts the neglected act freshly on me.”
Lucio: “Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.”
Claudio: “I have done so, but he’s not to be found. I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service: this day my sister should the cloister enter; acquaint her with the danger of my state; implore her, in my voice, that she make friends with this strict deputy. I have great hope in that; for in her youth there is a prone and speechless dialect such as move men. Well she can persuade.”
Lucio: “I pray she may.”
Claudio: “I thank you.”
Analysis
We immediately learn that Angelo is cracking down hard on morality crimes in Vienna. The houses of prostitution are all being shut down and Angelo has been arrested for having sex with his fiancé, Juliet, before the wedding. He cannot appeal to the Duke because the Duke has apparently vanished. All Claudio can do is appeal to Lucio to inform Isabella, Claudio’s sister, who will soon take her final vows as a nun. She is very persuasive and Claudio hopes she might intervene with Angelo on Claudio’s behalf. This will advance the story and insert a dramatic twist onto Angelo, the puritanical ruler of Vienna.
Act I
Scene iii
A monastery
Enter the Duke and Friar Thomas
Duke: “My desire of thee to give me secret harbour hath a purpose.”
Friar Thomas: “May your Grace speak of it?”
Duke: “I have delivered to Lord Angelo, a man of stricture and firm abstinence, my absolute power and place here in Vienna, and he supposes me to have travelled to Poland. Now, pious sir, you will demand of me why I do this.”
Friar Thomas: “Gladly, my lord.”
Duke: “We have strict statutes and most biting laws, which for these fourteen years we have let slip. So our decrees, dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; and liberty plucks justice by the nose; the baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart goes all decorum. Therefore, indeed, my father, I have on Angelo imposed the office. And to behold his sway, I will, as ’twere a brother of your order, visit both prince and people. Therefore, I prithee, supply me with a habit, and instruct me how I may formally in person bear me like a true friar. Lord Angelo is precise; hence shall we see, if power change purpose, what our seemers be.”
Analysis
Here is where we learn that the missing Duke, thought to be in Poland, will really remain here in Vienna, watching the events unfold with Angelo at the helm of state. He will assume the disguise of a friar. The laws have not been sufficiently applied for fourteen years, so he is turning things over to the Angelo, a man ‘precise’ and of ‘firm abstinence’.
Act I
Scene iv
A nunnery
Enter Isabella and Francisca
Lucio: “Ho! Peace be in this place!”
Isabella: “Who is that who calls?”
Francisca: “it is a man’s voice. Gentle Isabella, know his business. You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn; when you have vowed, you must not speak with men.”
Exit Francisca
Isabella: “Peace and prosperity! Who is it who calls?”
Enter Lucio:
Lucio: “Hail, virgin, if you be. Can you bring me to the sight of Isabella, a novice of this place, and the fair sister to her unhappy brother Claudio?”
Isabella: “Why her unhappy brother? I am that Isabella, and his sister.”
Lucio: “Gentle and fair, your brother is in prison.”
Isabella: “Woe me! For what?”
Lucio: “He hath got his friend with child. Your brother and his lover have embraced, even so her plenteous womb expresses his full husbandry.”
Isabella: “My cousin Juliet?”
Lucio: “She it is.”
Isabella: “O, let him marry her.”
Lucio: “This is the point. The Duke is very strangely gone from hence. Upon his place, and with full line of his authority, governs Lord Angelo. He, to give fear to liberty, which has for long run by the hideous law, has picked out an act under whose heavy sentence your brother’s life falls into forfeit; he arrests him on it, and follows close to the rigour of the statute to make him an example. All hope is gone, unless you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo.”
Isabella: “Does he so seek his life?”
Lucio: “The provost has a warrant for his execution.”
Isabella: “Alas! What poor ability is in me to do him good?”
Lucio: “Go to Lord Angelo, and let him learn to know, when maidens sue, men give like gods.”
Isabella: “I’ll see what I can do.”
Lucio: “But speedily.”
Isabella: “I will about it straight. Good sir, adieu .”
Analysis
Lucio does as Claudio requested of him, appealing to his sister Isabella, a novice nun, to intercede on his behalf and speak to Angelo about his case. Angelo is cracking down hard on sexual impropriety in Vienna. However, assigning the death penalty onto Claudio for having sex with his intended bride seems excessive. Let the events proceed!
Act II (4 scenes)
Scene i
A hall in Angelo’s house
Enter Angelo, Escalus, a Justice and the Provost
Angelo: “We must not make a scarecrow of the law, setting it up to fear the birds of prey, and let it keep one shape till custom make it their perch, and not their terror.”
Escalus: “Ay, but yet let us be keen. Alas, this gentleman, whom I would save, whom I believe to be most straight in virtue, that, in the working of your own affections, had time cohered with place, whether you had not sometime in your life erred in this point which now you censure him.”
Angelo: “Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, another thing to fall. You may not so extenuate his offence; but rather tell me, when I, that censure him, do so offend, let mine own judgment pattern out my death. Sir, he must die.”
Escalus: “Be it as your wisdom will.”
Angelo: “Provost, see that Claudio be executed by nine tomorrow morning. Bring him his confessor; let him be prepared.”
Exit Provost
Escalus: (aside) “Well, heaven forgive him, and forgive us all! Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.“
Enter Constable Elbow with Froth and Pompey
Elbow: “Come, bring them away. If these be good people in the commonwealth who do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law.”
Angelo: “How now, sir! What’s your name and what’s the matter?”
Elbow: “If it please your honour, I am the poor Duke’s constable, and my name is Elbow. I do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.”
Angelo: “Benefactors? Are they not malefactors?”
Elbow: “If it please your honour, but precise villains they are.”
Escalus: “Here’s a wise officer.”
Angelo: “What quality are they of?”
Elbow: “He, sir? A tapster, sir; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs.”
Pompey: “Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.”
Angelo: “I’ll take my leave, and leave you to the hearing of the cause, hoping you find good cause to whip them all.”
Escalus: “I think no less.”
Exit Angelo
Escalus: “So, what trade are you of, sir?”
Pompey: “A tapster, a poor widow’s tapster.”
Escalus: “Your mistress’ name?”
Pompey: “Mistress Overdone.”
Escalus: “Has she had any more than one husband?”
Pompey: “Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.”
Escalus: “Nine! Come hither to me, master Froth. I would not have you acquainted with tapsters. They will draw you and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.”
Froth: “For my own part, I never come into any room in a tap house but I am drawn in.”
Escalus: “Well, no more of it, Master Froth. Farewell. (exit Froth) Come you hither to me, Master Tapster. What’s your name?”
Pompey: “Pompey.”
Escalus: “What else?”
Pompey: “Bum, sir.”
Escalus: “Truth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the Great. Pompey, you are a bawd and a tapster, are you not?”
Pompey: “Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.”
Escalus: “How would you live, Pompey – by being a bawd? Is that a lawful trade?”
Pompey: “If the law would allow it, sir.”
Escalus: “But the law will not allow it, Pompey; it shall not be allowed in Vienna. There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you; it is but heading and hanging.”
Pompey: “If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten years together, you’ll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If you live to see this come to pass, say Pompey told you so.”
Escalus: “Thank you, good Pompey; and in requital of your prophesy, hark you: I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever. If I do, Pompey, I shall prove a shrewd Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt. So for this time, Pompey, fare you well.”
Pompey: “I thank your worship for your good counsel. (aside) But I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine. Whip me? No, no; the valiant heart’s not whipt out of his trade.”
Exit Pompey
Escalus: “It grieves me for the death of Claudio; but there’s no remedy.”
Justice: “Lord Angelo is severe.”
Escalus: “It is but needful; mercy is not itself that often looks so; pardon is still the nurse of second woe. But yes, poor Claudio! There is no remedy.”
Analysis
Wise old Escalus appeals to Angelo to reconsider his harsh sentence open Claudio, but Angelo is rigid and will not alter his execution order: ‘Sir, he must die.’ Once Angelo leaves, Escalus delivers, in an aside, perhaps the play’s greatest quote: “Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.” When two men associated with the bawdy houses are brought before Angelo he questions them and leaves them to be judged by Escalus, in a comic exchange.
Act II
Scene ii
Another room in Angelo’s house.
Enter Angelo, Provost and a servant
Angelo: “Now, what’s the matter, Provost?”
Provost: “Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?”
Angelo: “Did not I tell thee yea? Why does thou ask again? Do you your office, or give up your place, and you shall well be spared.”
Provost: “I crave your honour’s pardon, what shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? She’s very near her hour.”
Angelo: “Dispose of her to some more fitter place, and that with speed.”
Servant: “Here is the sister of the man condemned; she desires access to you.”
Angelo: “Hath he a sister?”
Provost: “Ay, my good lord, a very virtuous maid, and to be shortly of a sisterhood, if not already.”
Angelo: “Well, let her be admitted.”
Enter Lucio and Isabella
Angelo: (to Isabella) “Stay a little while. What is your will?”
Isabella: “I am a woeful suitor to your honour.”
Angelo: “Well, what is your suit?”
Isabella: “There is a vice that most I do abhor, and most desire should meet the blow of justice; for which I would not plead, but that I must.”
Angelo: “Well, the matter?”
Isabella: “I have a brother is condemned to die; I do beseech you, let it be his fault, and not my brother.”
Angelo: “Condemn the fault and not the actor of it.”
Isabella: “Must he needs die? “
Angelo: “Maiden, no remedy.”
Isabella: “Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, and neither heaven nor man would grieve at the mercy.”
Angelo: “I will not do it.”
Isabella: “But might you do it, and do the world no wrong, if so your heart were touched with that remorse as mine is to him.”
Angelo: “He is sentenced; it is too late. Pray you be gone. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, and you but waste your words.”
Isabella: “How would you be if He, who is the top of judgment, should but judge you as you are? O, think on that; and very then will breathe within your lips, like a man made new.”
Angelo: “Be you content, fair maid. Were he my kinsman, it should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow.”
Isabella: “Tomorrow! O, that’s sudden! Spare him! He’s not prepared for death. Bethink you, my lord, who has died for this offence? There are many who have committed it.”
Lucio: (aside) “Ay, well said.”
Angelo: “The law has not been dead, though it has slept. Now tis awake, so take note of what is done.”
Isabella: “Yet show some pity.”
Angelo: “I show It most of all when I show justice. And do him right who, answering one foul wrong, lives not to act another. Be satisfied: your brother dies tomorrow.”
Isabella: “So you must be the first to give this sentence. O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength! But it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
Angelo: “Why do you put these sayings upon me?”
Isabella: “Because authority has yet a kind of medicine in itself. Go to your bosom, knock there, and ask your heart what it knows that’s like my brother’s fault. Gentle my lord, turn back.”
Angelo: “I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow.”
Isabella: “Hark, how I’ll bribe you.”
Angelo: “How, bribe me?”
Isabella: “Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you. Not with tested gold, but with true prayers, that shall be up at heaven.”
Angelo: “Well, come to me tomorrow.”
Isabella: “Heaven keep your honour safe!”
Exit all but Angelo
Angelo: (aside) “Amen; for I am that way going to temptation where prayers cross. What’s this? Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? Ha! Not she; nor does she tempt; but it is I who, does as the carrion does, not as the flower, corrupt with virtuous season. O, fie, fie, fie! What art thou, Angelo? Does thou desire her foully for those things that make her good? O, let her brother live! Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal themselves. What, do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast upon her eyes? What is it I dream on? O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint, with saints doth bait thy hook! Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid subdues me quite.”
Analysis
The main dramatic tension of the play is presented here between Isabella and Angelo. First the Provost appeals to Angelo to reconsider his sentence upon Claudio. Then Isabella arrives to try to save her brother’s life. Angelo will not budge until he finally admits that he will think it over and have her return tomorrow. She offers to bribe him with true prayers that will reach heaven. Then in a dramatic aside, we learn that he is lusting after this sister of Claudio’s and this sister of the Church. He is tempted to commit the same crime as Claudio is being sentenced to die over. The Puritan is apparently less pure than we were led to believe.
Act II
Scene iii
A prison
Enter the Duke, disguised as a Friar, and the Provost
Duke: “Hail to you, Provost!”
Provost: “What is your will, good friar?”
Duke: “Bound by my charity, I come to visit the afflicted spirits here in the prison. Do me the common right to let me see them, and to make me know the nature of their crimes, that I may minister to them accordingly.”
Enter Juliet
Provost: “Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman. She is with child; and he who got it is sentenced to die for this.”
Duke: “When must he die?”
Provost: “Tomorrow.”
Duke: (to Juliet) “Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?”
Juliet: “I do; and bear the shame most patiently.”
Duke: “Love you the man who wronged you?”
Juliet: “Yes, as I love the woman who wronged him.”
Duke: “So then, it seems, your act was mutually committed. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.”
Juliet: “I do confess it, and repent it, father.”
Duke: “Your partner, as I hear, must die tomorrow.”
Juliet: “Must die tomorrow! O, injurious law!”
Analysis
The Duke, disguised as a friar, comes to the prison to visit the ‘afflicted spirits’ and there encounters Claudio’s pregnant fiancé, whom he informs of Claudio’s death sentence, which is to be carried out tomorrow. Clearly, the Duke would be more charitable than Angelo, as he absolves Juliet’s sins. The Duke, in disguise, will be everywhere throughout the play, attempting to assess the characters caught up in Angelo’s prosecution of the law and right the wrongs wrought by Angelo’s excesses.
Act II
Scene iv
Angelo’s house
Enter Angelo and a servant
Angelo: “How now, who’s there?”
Servant: “One Isabella, a sister, desires access to you.”
Angelo: “Teach her the way. (exit servant) O heavens! Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, dispossessing all of my other parts of necessary fitness?”
Enter Isabella
Angelo: “How now, fair maid?”
Isabella: “I am come to know your pleasure.”
Angelo: “That you might know it would much better please me than to demand what it is. Your brother cannot live. Yet may he live awhile. 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 uncleanliness as she who he has stained?”
Isabella: “Sir, believe this: I had rather give my body than my soul.”
Angelo: “I talk not of your soul. 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?”
Isabella: “Please you to do it. It is no sin at all, but charity. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, heaven let me bear it.”
Angelo: “Nay, but hear me; your sense pursues not mine; either you are ignorant or seem so, craftily; and that’s not good. But mark me: I’ll speak more gross – your brother is to die. Admit no other way to save his life, that you, his sister, finding yourself desired by such a person could fetch your brother from the manacles of the all-binding law; and that there were no earthly means to save him but that either you must lay down the treasures of your body to this supposed, or else let him suffer – what would you do?”
Isabella: “As much for my poor brother as myself. The impression of keen whips I’d wear as rubies, ere I’d yield my body up to shame.”
Angelo:”Then must your brother die.”
Isabella: “Better it were a brother died at once than that a sister, by redeeming him, should die forever.”
Angelo: “Were you not, then, as cruel as the sentence that you have slandered so?”
Isabella: “Lawful mercy is nothing kin to foul redemption.”
Angelo: “Let me be bold: plainly conceived, I love you.”
Isabella: “My brother did love Juliet, and you tell me that he shall die for it.”
Angelo: “He shall not, Isabella, if you give me love.”
Isabella: “Sign me a present pardon for my brother or I’ll tell the world aloud what man thou art.”
Angelo: “Who will believe thee, Isabella? My unsoiled name, the austereness of my life, my vouch against you, and my place in the state, will so your accusation overweigh. And now I give my sensual race the rein: fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; redeem thy brother by yielding up thy body to my will; or else he must not only die the death, but thy unkindliness shall his death draw out to lingering sufferance. Answer me tomorrow or I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you, say what you can: my false overweighs your true.“
Exit Angelo
Isabella: “To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, who would believe me? I’ll to my brother. Yet has he in him such a mind of honour that, had he twenty heads to tender down on twenty bloody blocks, he’d yield them up before his sister should her body stoop to such abhorred pollution. Then, Isabella, live chaste, and, brother, die: more than our brother is our chastity. I’ll tell him of Angelo’s request, and fit his mind to death, for his soul’s rest.”
Analysis
Angelo acts upon his attraction to Isabella, telling her that she can only save her brother if she agrees to have sex with him. Isabella is a chaste novice nun and naturally refuses to even consider Angelo’s proposition, even if it means that her brother is condemned to death. She furthermore threatens to expose him for what he has suggested to her. He claims that no one would believe her. So much for the Puritanical Angelo. And so much, it would seem, for poor Claudio.
Act III (2 scenes)
Scene i
The prison
Enter the Duke, disguised, Claudio and the Provost
Duke: “So, you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?”
Claudio: “The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope: I have hope to live, and am prepared to die.”
Duke: “Be absolute for death. Reason thus with life. If I do lose thee, I lose a thing that none but fools would keep. Merely, thou art death’s fool; for him thou labours by thy flight to shun and yet runs toward him still. Thy best of rest is sleep, yet grossly fears thy death, which is no more. For thou exists on many a thousand grains that issue out of dust. For what thou has not, still thou strives to get, and what thou has, forgets. Thou bears thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee. What yet is this that bears the name of life? Yet in this life lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear.”
Claudio: “I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find I seek to die; and, seeking death, find life. Let it come on.”
Enter Isabella
Isabella: “My business is a word or two with Claudio.”
Provost: “Look, Signior, here’s your sister.”
Duke: “Provost, a word with you. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.”
Exit he Duke and the Provost
Claudio: “Now sister, what’s the comfort?”
Isabella: “Why, as all comforts are. Lord Angelo intends you for his swift ambassador, where you shall be an everlasting ledger. Therefore, your best appointment make with speed; tomorrow you set on.”
Claudio: “Is there no remedy?”
Isabella: “None, to save a head, to cleave a heart in twain.”
Claudio: “But is there any?”
Isabella: “Yes, brother, you may live: there is a devilish mercy in the judge, if you’ll implore it, that will free your life.”
Claudio: “But in what nature? Let me know the point.”
Isabella: “Dar’st thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension.”
Claudio: “If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in my arms.”
Isabella: “Yes, thou must die. This outward-sainted deputy is yet a devil. He would appear a pond as deep as hell.”
Claudio: “The precise Angelo.”
Isabella: “Does thou think, Claudio, if I would yield him my virginity thou might be freed?”
Claudio: “O heavens! It cannot be.”
Isabella: “This night’s the time that I should do what I abhor to name, or else thou dies tomorrow.”
Claudio: “Thou shall not do it.”
Isabella: “O, were it but my life! I’d throw it down for your deliverance as frankly as a pin.”
Claudio: “Thanks, dear Isabella.”
Isabella: “Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.”
Claudio: “Sure it is no sin; or of the deadly seven it is the least. O Isabella!”
Isabella: “What says my brother?”
Claudio: “Death is a fearful thing.”
Isabella: “And a shamed life hateful.”
Claudio: “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; to lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; to be imprisoned in the viewless winds, and blown with restless violence round about the pendent world; tis too horrible. The weariest and most loathed worldly life that age, ache and imprisonment can lay on nature is a paradise to what we fear of death. Sweet sister, let me live. What sin you do to save a brother’s life, nature dispenses with the deed so far that it becomes a virtue.”
Isabella; “O you beast! O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch! Will thou be made a man out of my vice? Is it not a kind of incest to take life from thine own sister’s shame? Take my defiance; die; perish. I’ll pray a thousand prayers for thy death, no word to save thee. Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd; tis best that thou die quickly.”
Re-enter the Duke
Duke: “Vouchsafe a word, young sister. I would by and by have some speech with you.”
Isabella: “I will attend you awhile.”
Isabella stands apart
Duke: “Son, I have overheard what has passed between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he has made an assay of her virtue to practice his judgment. I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore, prepare yourself to death; go to your knees and make ready.”
Claudio: “Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life that I will sue to be rid of it.”
Exit Claudio
Provost: “What is your will, father?”
Duke: “That, now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me awhile with the maid.”
Exit Provost
Duke: “The hand that has made you fair has made you good. The assault that Angelo has made to you, fortune has conveyed to my understanding, and I should wonderments at Angelo. How will you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother?”
Isabella: “I had rather my brother die by the law than my son should be unlawfully born.”
Duke: “You made trial of you only. Therefore, fasten your ear on my advising. A remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent Duke, if he shall ever return to have hearing of this business.”
Isabella: “Let me hear you speak farther: I have spirit to do anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.”
Duke: “Have you not heard speak of Mariana?”
Isabella: “I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.”
Duke: “She should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed.”
Isabella: “Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?”
Duke: “Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort, pretending in the discoveries of her dishonour; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.”
Isabella: “What corruption in this life that will let this man live. But how out of this can she avail?”
Duke: “It is a rupture that you may easily heal; and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it.”
Isabella: “Show me how, good father.”
Duke: “The forenamed maid has yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, has made it more unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands; only refer yourself to this advantage: first, that your stay with him may not be long. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment and go in your place. If the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense; and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Marina advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. What think you of it?”
Isabella: “The image of it gives me content already ; and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.”
Duke: “It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction.”
Isabella: “Fare you well, good father.”
Analysis
The Duke, disguised as a friar and prowling about Vienna while Angelo rules, has gone to the prison to speak with Claudio. He waxes poetic to him about not being afraid to die until Isabella arrives. Then he conceals himself so that he can overhear the conversation between Claudio and Isabella. The Duke is the master manipulator, always behind the scenes. Once Isabella tells Claudio that he must, in fact, prepare to die since the only way he can be released is if she were to have sex with Angelo, he implores her to have sex with Angelo in order to save his life. ‘Sweet sister, let me live.’ She is repulsed by this suggestion and tells him he must die. The Duke emerges as friar and asks to speak with Isabella. He has a plan to save the entire situation. Isabella must agree to sleep with Angelo and then at the last minute Angelo’s former fiancé, Mariana, who he ditched unceremoniously, will take her place. Angelo will believe he has been intimate with Isabella. This will require him to honour his vows to Mariana, preserve the honour of Isabella, free Claudio from his prison and death warrant and please the Duke, should he ever return. Isabella agrees to the plan. The Duke is on to what a wicked job Angelo is doing in his place, but concocts this plan to right these wrongs regarding Claudio, Isabella, Angelo and Mariana before he returns to rule again as Duke of Vienna.
Act III
Scene ii
The street before the prison
Enter the Duke, disguised, the officer Elbow, and Pompey
Duke: “What offence has this man made you, sir?”
Elbow: “He has offended the law.”
Duke: “A bawd, sirrah, a wicked bawd! The evil that thou causes to be done, that is thy means to live. Can thou believe thy living is a life, so stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend. Take him to prison, officer.”
Elbow: “He must before the deputy, sir. He has given him warning. The deputy cannot abide a whoremaster. His neck will come to your waste – a cord, sir.”
Enter Lucio
Pompey: “I cry bail.”
Lucio: “How now, noble Pompey? What, at the wheels of Caesar? How does my dear morsel, thy mistress? Ever your fresh whore? Art thou going to prison, Pompey?”
Pompey: “Yes, faith, sir.”
Lucio: “For debt, Pompey, or how?”
Elbow: “For being a bawd.”
Lucio: “Well, then, imprison him. Bawd he is doubtless, and of antiquity, too; bawd-born. Farewell, good Pompey.”
Pompey: “I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.”
Lucio: “No, indeed, will I not. I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage. Go to the kennel, Pompey, go.”
Exit Elbow with Pompey
Lucio: “What news, friar, of the Duke?”
Duke: “I know none. Can you tell me of any?”
Lucio: “Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; others that he is in Rome; but where is he, think you?”
Duke: “I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.”
Lucio: “Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence. He puts transgressions to it.”
Duke: “He does well in it.”
Lucio: “A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm.”
Duke: “It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.”
Lucio: “Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred. But what a ruthless thing this is in him, for the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the absent Duke have done this? He had some feeling and that instructed him to mercy. The greater file of the subject held the Duke to be wise.”
Duke: “Wise? Why, no question but he was.”
Lucio: “A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.”
Duke: “Either this is envy in you, folly or mistaking. The very stream of his life gives him a better proclamation. Therefore, you speak unskilfully.”
Lucio: “Sir, I know him, and I love him.”
Due: “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. I pray you your name?”
Lucio: “Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the 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.”
Lucio: “But no more of this. Can thou tell me if Claudio dies tomorrow or no?”
Duke: Why should he die, sir?”
Lucio: “I would the Duke we talk of were returned again. Would he were returned!”
Exit Lucio
Duke: “But who comes here?”
Enter Escalus and Provost with Mistress Overdone
Escalus: “Go, away with her to prison.”
Mrs Overdone: “Good, my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted a merciful man.”
Escalus: “Away with her to prison; no more words.” (exit officers with Mrs Overdone) “Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered: Claudio must die tomorrow. Let him have all charitable preparation.”
Provost: “So please you, this friar has been with him, and has advised him for the entertainment of death.”
Escalus: “Good even, good father.”
Duke: “Bliss and goodness on you.”
Escalus: “What news abroad in the world?”
Duke: “There is scarce truth enough alive to make societies secure; but security enough to make fellowships accurst. Much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the Duke? What pleasure was he given to?”
Escalus: “Rather rejoicing to see another merry than merry at anything which professed to make him rejoice; a gentleman of all temperance. Let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared.”
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 many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now he is resolved to die.”
Escalus: “I have laboured for the poor gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother justice have I found so severe that he has forced me to tell him that he is indeed justice.”
Exit all but the Duke
Duke: “Twice treble shame on Angelo, to weed my vice and let his grow! O, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side! How may likeness, made in crimes, make a practice on the times, to draw with idle spiders’ strings most ponderous and substantial things! Craft against vice I must apply. With Angelo tonight shall lie his old betrothed but despised; so disguise shall, by the disguised, pay with falsehood false exacting, and perform an old contracting.”
Analysis
The disguised Duke continues to examine the emerging situation created by Angelo. He insists that Pompey go to prison for being a bawd and running Mistress Overdone’s bawd house. Then he questions Lucio about the Duke, and Lucio, while declaring his love for the Duke, also refers to him as superficial and ignorant. Finally, with Escalus, the Duke also inquires of his own reputation and Escalus revels in the Duke’s gentlemanly temperance. Clearly the Duke is taking advantage of his disguise to learn how various people regard him. He and Escalus discuss Claudio’s state of mind before his imminent execution. The scene ends with the Duke reflecting in an aside about Angelo’s shame and the craft he must employ to right Angelo’s wrongs.
Act IV (6 scenes)
Scene i
The moated grange at Saint Luke’s
Enter the Duke disguised, Mariana and Isabella
Duke: “I shall crave your forbearance a little. Maybe I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.”
Mariana: “I am always bound to you.”
Exit Mariana
Isabella: “He has a garden, and to the vineyard is a planted gate. There have I made my promise, upon the heavy middle of the night, to call upon him.”
Duke: “I have not yet made known to Mariana a word of this. I pray you be acquainted with this maid; she comes to do you good.”
Isabella: “I do desire the like.”
Re-enter Mariana
Duke: (to Mariana) “Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?”
Marina: “Good friar, I know you do.”
Duke: “Take, then, this your companion by the hand, who has a story ready for your ear.”
Exit Mariana and Isabella
Duke: “O place and greatness! Millions of false eyes are stuck upon thee. Thousand escapes of wit make thee the father of their idle dreams, and rack thee in their fancies.”
Re-enter Mariana and Isabella
Duke: “Welcome, how agreed?”
Isabella: “She’ll take the enterprise upon her, father, if you advise it. (to Mariana) Little have you to say when you depart from him, but soft and low, ‘remember now my brother’.”
Mariana: “Fear me not.”
Duke: “Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. He is your husband on a pre-contract. To bring you thus together is no sin.”
Analysis
The Duke’s plan is coming together. Angelo will be tricked into believing he is having sex with Isabella. Mariana agrees to this as a way of forcing Angelo into marrying her. Isabella agrees to it in order to preserve her virtue and free her brother. The bed switch was a popular plot device in the literature of Shakespeare’s day and plays a prominent role in both Measure for Measure and All’s Well That Ends Well. In both cases it forces the man to commit to a woman he broke off a contract with by slipping her into his bed, just as he believes he is about to have sex with someone new. Controversial indeed, but it would not have shocked Renaissance audiences one bit.
Act IV
Scene ii
The prison
Enter the Provost and Pompey
Provost: “Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man’s head? Tomorrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common executor, who in his office lacks a helper; if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a notorious bawd.”
Pompey: “Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind; but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive some instruction from my fellow partner.”
Provost: “Where is Abhorson?”
Enter Abhorson
Abhorson: “Do you call, sir?”
Provost: “Sirrah, here is a fellow who will help you tomorrow in your executions. He has been a bawd.”
Abhorson: “A bawd, sir? Fie upon him! He will discredit our mystery.”
Pompey: “Pray, sir, for surely you have a hanging look – do you call your occupation a mystery?”
Abhorson: “Ay, sir; a mystery.”
Pompey: “But what mystery there should be in hanging? I cannot imagine.”
Provost: “Are you agreed?”
Pompey: “Sir, I will serve him.”
Abhorson: “Come on, Bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.”
Pompey: “I do desire to learn, sir.”
Provost: “Call hither Barnardine and Claudio. The one has my pity; not a jot the other, being a murderer.”
Enter Claudio
Provost: “Look, here’s the warrant, Claudio, for thy death. By eight tomorrow thou must be made immortal. Where’s Barnardine?”
Claudio: “Fast locked up in sleep. He will not wake.”
Provost: “Well, go, prepare yourself.”
Exit Claudio
Enter the Duke, disguised
Provost: “Welcome, father. What comfort is for Claudio?”
Duke: “There is some hope.”
Provost: “It is a bitter deputy.”
Duke: “Not so, not so; he does with holy abstinence subdue that in himself which he spurs on his power to qualify in others. Were he mealed with that which he corrects, then were he tyrannous; but this being so, he is just. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, but he must die tomorrow?”
Provost: “None, sir, none.”
Duke: “You should hear more by morning.”
Provost: “Happily you something know. Lord Angelo has to the public ear professed the contrary.”
Enter a messenger
Provost: “This is his lordship’s man.”
Duke: “And here comes Claudio’s pardon.”
Exit the messenger
Duke: (an aside) “This is his pardon, purchased by such sin for which the pardoner himself is in.” (to Provost) “Now, sir, what news? Pray you, let’s hear.”
Provost : (reading) “Whatsoever you may hear to he contrary, let Claudio be executed by four o’clock, and, in the afternoon, Barnadine. Let me have Claudio’s head sent to me by five. Fail not to do your office, and you will answer for it at your peril.”
Duke: “Who is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the afternoon?”
Provost: “One who is a prisoner nine years.”
Duke: “How came it that the absent Duke had not either delivered him to his liberty or executed him?”
Provost: “His friends still wrought reprieves for him. Indeed, he is a man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what’s past, present or what’s to come. Give him leave to escape and he would not.”
Duke: “More of him anon. Claudio, whom here you have a warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who has sentenced him. To make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days respite in the delaying death.”
Provost: “How may I do it, having the express command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view of Angelo?”
Duke: “By the vow of my order, let this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo.”
Provost: “Angelo has seen them both, and will discover the favour.”
Duke: “O, death is a great disguiser; shave the head and tie the beard. If anything fall to you, I will plead against it with my life. Look you, sir, here is the hand and the seal of the Duke. The signet is not strange to you.”
Provost: “I know them both.”
Duke: “The contents of this is the return of the Duke; within these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this day receives letters perchance of the Duke’s death. Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine’s head. I will advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed, but this shall absolutely resolve you.”
Analysis
The Duke continues to direct all proceedings from behind the scenes, disguised as a friar. The provost informs Pompey that if he will only become the executioner’s assistant, and partake in the execution of Claudio and one other prisoner, then all charges will be dropped against him. Naturally, Pompey, the bawd, agrees. When the Duke arrives, still disguised as a friar, the provost asks him if there is any good news regarding Claudio. The friar (Duke) suggests that a pardon is imminent. When a messenger arrives it is thought to be the pardon. However, when the provost reads the message it states that Claudio must be executed in the morning and his severed head delivered to Angelo. The friar (Duke) instructs that Barnardine’s head be substituted for Claudio’s. He is willing to sacrifice Barnardine for Claudio. Measure for Measure indeed. The friar (Duke) also announces that the Duke, unbeknownst to Angelo, will return within two days.
Act IV
Scene iii
The prison
Enter Pompey
Pompey: “I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession; one would think it were Mistress Overdone’s own house, for here be many of her old customers. Here’s young Master Rash and Master Caper. Then have we here young Dizy and young Master Deepvow and Master Starvelackey, the rapier and dagger man, and young Drophier, who killed lusty Pudding, and Master Forthlight and brave Master Shootie, the great traveller, and wild Halfcan, who stabbed Pots, and, I think, forty more – all great doers in our trade, and are now ‘for the Lord’s sake’.”
Enter Abhorson
Abhorson: “Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.”
Pompey: “Master Barnardine! You must rise and be hanged.”
Abhorson: “What ho, Barnardine!”
Barnardine: (within) “A pox on your throats! Who makes such noise? What are you?”
Pompey: “Your friends, sir; the hangmen.”
Barnardine: (within) “Away, you rogue, away; I am sleepy.”
Pompey: “Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep afterwards.”
Abhorson: “Go in and fetch him out.”
Pompey: “He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.”
Enter Barnardine
Abhorson: “Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?”
Pompey: “Very ready, sir.”
Barnardine: “How now, Abhorson, what’s the news with you?”
Abhorson: “Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for look, you; the warrant’s come.”
Barnardine: “You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not fit for it.”
Pompey: “O, the better, sir! For he who drinks all night and is hanged in the morning may sleep the sounder all the next day.”
Enter the Duke disguised
Abhorson: “Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father.”
Duke: “Sir, hearing how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with you.”
Barnardine: “Friar, not I; I have been drinking hard all night. I will not consent to die this day, that is certain.”
Duke: “O, sir, you must; and therefore I beseech you look forward on the journey you shall go.”
Barnardine: “I swear I will not die today for any man’s persuasion.”
Exit Barnardine
Duke: “Unfit to live or die. After him fellows; bring him to the block.”
Exit Abhorson and Pompey
Enter Provost
Provost: “Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?”
Duke: “A creature unprepared, and to transport him in the mind he is in were damnable.”
Provost: “Here in the prison, father, there died this morning of a cruel fever one Ragozine, a most notorious pirate, a man of Claudio’s years; his beard and head just of his colour. What if we satisfy the deputy with the visage of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?”
Duke: “O, tis an accident that heaven provides! Dispatch it presently; the hour drags on. See that this be done.”
Provost: “This shall be done, good father, presently.”
Duke: “Quick, send the head to Angelo.”
Exit Provost
Duke: “Now will I write letters to Angelo whose contents shall witness to him I am near at home. Him I will desire to meet at the consecrated fount.”
Enter Provost
Provost: “Here is the head. I’ll make all speed.”
Exit provost
Isabella: (within) “Peace, ho!”
Duke: “The tongue of Isabella. She’s come to know if yet her brother’s pardon be come hither; but I will keep her ignorant of her own good, to make her heavenly comforts of despair when it is least expected.”
Duke: “Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.”
Isabella: “The better, given me by so holy a man. Has yet the deputy sent my brother’s pardon?”
Duke: “He has released him , Isabella, from the world. his head is off and sent to Angelo.”
Isabella: “Nay, but it is not so.”
Duke: “It is no other.”
Isabella: “O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!”
Duke: “You shall not be admitted to his sight.”
Isabella: “Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabella! Injurious world! Most damned Angelo!”
Duke: “This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot; forbear it, therefore; give your cause to heaven. Mark what I say, which you shall find by every syllable a faithful verity. The Duke comes home tomorrow. Nay, dry your eyes. Already he has carried notice to Escalus and Angelo, who do prepare to meet him at the gates, there to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom in that good path that I would wish it go, and you shall have your bosom on his wretch, revenges to your heart and general honour.”
Isabella: “I am directed by you.”
Duke: “This letter, then, to Friar Peter give. Say, by this token, I desire his company at Mariana’s house tonight. Her cause and yours I’ll perfect him, withal; and he shall bring you before the Duke. For my poor self, I am combined by a sacred vow, and shall be absent. Command these fretting waters from your eyes with a light heart. Who’s here?”
Enter Lucio
Lucio: “O, pretty Isabella, I am pale in my heart to see thine eyes so red. Thou must be patient. They say the Duke will be here tomorrow. By my troth, Isabella, I loved thy brother. If the old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he would have lived.”
Exit Isabella
Duke: “Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholding to your reports. He lives not in them.”
Lucio: “Friar, thou knows not the Duke so well as I do; he’s a better woodman than thou takes him for.”
Duke: “Well, you’ll answer this one day. Fare ye well.”
Lucio: “Nay, tarry; I’ll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty tales of the Duke.”
Duke: “You have told me too many of him already.”
Lucio: “I was once before him for getting a wench with child.”
Duke: “Did you such a thing?”
Lucio: “Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would else have married me to the rotten meddler. I’ll go with thee to the lane’s end. If bawdy talk offend you, we’ll have very little of it.”
Analysis
Pompey sees many of the same people in prison that he knows from Mistress Overdone’s brothel. Claudio and Barnardine are scheduled to be executed but Barnadine is badly hung over and refuses to die today. Barnardine has this one scene and only a handful of lines but he has carried the play in many a production of Measure for Measure with his stubborn comedic role of one who refuses to die today. They were going to substitute Barnardine’s head for Claudio’s before Angelo. But it turns out a pirate just died this morning and he even bears a resemblance to Claudio, so they substitute his head instead. So Angelo will be tricked in bed by Isabella and Mariana and tricked with the exchanged heads of a pirate and Claudio, all in the same night. Isabella comes to the friar (Duke), expecting to learn of the pardon based on her supposedly having slept with Angelo, but the friar informs her that Claudio has already been executed and that the Duke is returning soon and she should come to see Angelo punished by him. The Duke has preserved his duel identity among his subjects, who have no idea that it is he who has remained amongst them, manipulating the situation at every turn.
Act IV
Scene iv
Angelo’s house
Enter Angelo and Escalus
Angelo: “His actions show much like to madness; pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates? And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?”
Escalus: “To have a dispatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.”
Exit Escalus
Angelo: “This deed unshapes me quite. A deflowered maid! And by an eminent body that enforced the law against it! But that her tender shame will not proclaim against her maiden loss, how might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no. Would yet that her brother had lived. Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, nothing goes right.”
Analysis
Angelo and Escalus have letters from the Duke and hardly know what to make of them. Angelo fears Isabella may reveal what has supposedly been done to her. He still has no idea that he bedded Mariana instead. He wishes he had not, again supposedly, had Claudio executed, as he is about to face the Duke at the gates of the city.
Act IV
Scene v
Fields outside the city
Enter the Duke and Friar Peter
Duke: “These letters at fit time deliver to me. The provost knows our purposes and our plot. Send me Flavius.”
Friar Peter: “It shall be speeded well.”
Enter Varrius
Duke: “I thank thee, Varrius. Come, we will walk. There’s other of our friends will greet us here anon.”
Analysis
The Duke, in his own guise, is returning to Vienna and is gathering his friends about him. We sense that he is preparing to reveal his intentions.
Act IV
Scene vi
A street near the city gates
Enter Isabella and Mariana
Isabella: “I would speak the truth; but to accuse him so, that is your part. Yet I am advised to do it.”
Mariana: “Be ruled by him.”
Isabella: “Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure he speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for tis a physic that’s bitter to sweet end.”
Enter Friar Peter
Isabella: “O peace! The friar is come.”
Friar Peter: “I have found you out a stand most fit, where you may have such vantage on the Duke. Very near the Duke is entering; therefore, hence away.”
Analysis
Isabella and Mariana discuss the encounter they anticipate with the Duke and Angelo. Friar Peter arrives with news that he has found the perfect spot for them to observe the Duke as he enters the city. Act V is next. We can marvel at so much of what must be resolved in this final single scene act, as all of the characters gather in Vienna for the much anticipated return of the Duke.
Act V (1 scene)
Scene i
The city gate
Enter the Duke, Varrius, Angelo, Escalus, Lucio, Provost and citizens
Duke: “My very worthy cousin, fairly met! Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.”
Angelo / Escalus: “Happy return to your royal Grace!”
Duke: “We have made inquiry of you, and we hear such goodness of your justice that our soul cannot but yield you forth to public thanks.”
Enter Friar Peter and Isabella
Friar Peter: “Now is your time; speak loud and kneel before him.”
Isabella: “Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard upon a wronged – I would fain have said a maid! O worthy Prince, dishonour not your eye by throwing it on any other object till you have heard me in my true complaint, and given me justice, justice, justice, justice.”
Duke: “Relate your wrongs. In what? By whom? Be brief. Here is Lord Angelo and he shall give you justice; reveal yourself to him.”
Isabella: “O worthy Duke, you bid me seek redemption of the devil! Hear me yourself, for that which I must speak must either punish me, not being believed, or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me!”
Angelo: “My lord, her wits, I fear, are not firm; she has been a suitor to me for her brother, cut off by course of justice -“
Isabella: “By course of justice!”
Angelo: “And she will speak most bitterly and strange.”
Isabella: “Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak. That Angelo’s forsworn, is it not strange? That Angelo is a murderer, is it not strange? That Angelo is an adulterous thief, a hypocrite, a virgin-violator, is it not strange and strange?”
Duke: “Nay, it is ten times strange.”
Isabella: “This is all as true as it is strange.”
Duke: “Away with her, poor soul.”
Isabell: “O Prince! Neglect me not with the opinion that I am touched with madness. Make not impossible that which but seems unlikely. Even so may Angelo, in all his dressings, titles, forms, be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal Prince, if he be less, he’s nothing; but he’s more had I more names for badness.”
Duke: “By my honesty, if she be mad, as I believe no other, her madness has the oddest frame of sense, as ever I heard in madness.“
Isabella: “O gracious Duke, harp not on that; nor do not banish reason for inequality; but let your reason serve to make the truth appear where it seems hid, and hide the false seems true.”
Duke: “Many who are not mad have, surely, more lack of reason. What would you say?”
Isabella: “I am the sister of one Claudio, condemned upon the act of fornication to lose his head; condemned by Angelo. I was sent to by my brother.”
Lucio: “I came to her from Claudio, and desired her to try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo for her poor brother’s pardon.”
Duke: “You were not bid to speak.”
Isabella: “This gentleman told somewhat of my tale.”
Lucio: “Right.”
Duke: ” It may be right, but you are in the wrong to speak before your time. Proceed.”
Isabella: “I went to this pernicious caitiff deputy.”
Duke: “That’s somewhat madly spoken.”
Isabella: “Pardon it; the phrase is to the matter.”
Duke: “The matter – proceed.”
Isabella: “In brief – How I proceeded, how I prayed, and kneeled. He would not, but by gift of my chaste body to his intemperate lust, release my brother, and, after much debate, I did yield to him. But the next morn, he sends a warrant for my poor brother’s head.”
Duke: “This is most likely. By heaven, fond wretch, thou knows not what thou speaks, or else thou art suborned against his honour in hateful practice. First, his integrity stands without blemish; next, it imports no reason that with such vehemency he should pursue faults proper to himself. Someone has set you on; confess the truth, and say by whose advice thou came here to complain.”
Isabella: “And is this all? Then, O you blessed ministers above, keep me in patience; and, with ripened time, unfold the evil which is here wrapped up in countenance! Heaven shield your Grace from woe, as I, thus wronged, hence unbelieved go.”
Duke: “An officer! To prison with her. Shall we thus permit a blasting and scandalous breath to fall on him so near us? Who knew of your intent and coming hither?”
Isabella: “One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick?”
Duke: “Who knows that Lodowick?”
Lucio: “My lord, I know him; tis a meddling friar. I do not like the man; had he been lay, my lord, for certain words he spoke against your Grace in your retirement, I would have swing’d him soundly.”
Duke: “Words against me? And to set on this wretched woman here against our substitute! Let this friar be found.”
Lucio: “A saucy friar, a very scurvy fellow.”
Duke: “Know you that Friar Lodowick?”
Friar Peter: “I know him for a man divine and holy; not scurvy, as reported by this gentleman. He in time may come to clear himself; but in this instant he is sick, my lord, of a strange fever. Being come to knowledge that there was a complaint intended against Lord Angelo – came I hither to speak, as from his mouth. First, for this woman – to justify this worthy nobleman, so vulgarly and personally accused – her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, till she herself confess it.”
Duke: “Good friar, let’s hear it.”
Exit Isabella guarded
Duke: “Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? Come, cousin Angelo; in this I’ll be impartial; be you judge of your own case.”
Enter Mariana veiled
Duke: “Is this the witness, friar? First let her show her face, and after speak.”
Mariana: “Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face until my husband bid me.”
Duke: “What, are you married?”
No, my lord.”
Duke: “Are you a maid?”
Mariana: “No, my lord.”
Duke: “A widow, then?”
Mariana: Neither, my lord. I have known my husband; yet my husband knows not that ever he knew me.”
Duke: “This is no witness for Lord Angelo.”
Mariana: “Now I come to it, my lord: she who accuses him of fornication, in self-same manner does accuse my husband.”
Duke: “You say your husband.”
Mariana: “Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, who thinks he knows that he never knew my body, but knows he thinks that he knows Isabella’s.”
Angelo: “This is strange abuse. Let’s see thy face.”
Mariana: “My husband bids me; now I will unmask.”
Mariana unveils
Mariana: “This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, which once thou swore was worth the looking on; this is the hand which, with a vowed contract, was fast belocked in thine; this is the body that took away the match from Isabella, and did supply thee in her imagined person.”
Duke: “Know you this woman?”
Angelo: “My lord, I must confess I know this woman; and five years since there was some speech of marriage between myself and her, which was broke off, since which time of five years I never spoke with her, saw her, nor heard from her, upon my faith and honour.”
Mariana: “Noble Prince, as there comes light from heaven and words from breath, I am affianced this man’s wife as strongly as words could make up vows. And, my good lord, but Tuesday night last gone, he knew me as a wife.”
Angelo: “I did but smile until now. Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice; my patience here is touched. I do perceive these poor informal women are no more but instruments of some more mightier member who sets them on. Let me have way, my lord, to find this practice out.”
Duke: “Ay, with my heart; and punish them to your height of pleasure. Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, compact with her that’s gone. Lord Escalus, sit with my cousin to find out this abuse, whence tis derived. There is another friar who sets them on; let him be sent for.”
Friar Peter: “Would he were here, my lord. For he indeed has set the women on to this complaint. Your provost knows the place where he abides, and he may fetch him.”
Duke: “Go, do it instantly.”
Exit Provost
Duke; “And you, my noble and well warranted cousin, do with your injuries as seems you best in any chastisement. I for a while will leave you; but stir not you till you have well determined upon these slanderers.”
Escalus: “My lord, we’ll do it thoroughly
Exit the Duke
Escalus: “Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?”
Lucio: “Honest in nothing but in his clothes.”
Escalus: “We shall entreat you to abide he until he come, and enforce them against him. We shall find this friar a notable fellow. Call that same Isabella here once again; I would speak with her.”
Enter officers with Isabella and the Provost with the Duke in his disguise as friar
Lucio: “My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of.”
Escalus: “Come, sir; did you set these women on to slander Lord Angelo? They have confessed you did.”
Duke: “Tis false. Where is the Duke? Tis he should hear me speak.”
Escalus: “The Duke is in us; and we will hear you speak; look you speak justly.”
Duke: “Is the Duke gone? Then is your case gone too.”
Lucio: “This is the rascal!”
Escalus: “Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar, is it not enough thou has suborned these women to accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth, to call him villain; to tax him with injustice? Take him hence; to the rack with him!”
Duke: “Be not so hot; the Duke dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he dare rack his own; his subject am I not. My business in this state made me a looker-on here in Vienna, where I have seen corruption boil and bubble till it overrun the stew: laws for all faults, but faults so countenanced that the strong statutes stand as much in mock as mark.”
Escalus: “Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!”
Angelo: “What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?”
Lucio: “Tis he, my lord. Come hither bald-pate. Do you remember what you said of the Duke? Was the Duke a flesh monger, a fool and a coward, as you then reported him to be?”
Duke: “You must, sir, change persons with me ere you make that my report; you, indeed, spoke so of him; and much more, much worse.”
Lucio: “O thou damnable fellow”
Duke: “I protest I love the Duke as I love myself.”
Angelo: “Hark how the villain would close now, after his treasonable abuses!”
Escalus: “Such a fellow is not to be talked with. Away with him to prison!”
The Provost lays hands on the Duke
Angelo: “What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.”
Lucio: “Come, sir; come, sir; come. Why, you bald-pated lying rascal, you must be hooded, must you?”
Lucio pulls off the friar’s hood, and discovers the Duke
Duke: (to Lucio) “Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.”
Lucio: “This may prove worse than hanging.”
Duke: (to Escalus) “What you have spoke I pardon; sit you down.” (to Angelo) “Hast thou word or wit that yet can do thee office?”
Angelo: “O my dread lord, I should be guiltier than my guiltiness; let my trial be mine own confession; immediate sentence then, and sequent death, is all the grace I beg.”
Duke: “Come hither, Mariana. Say, was thou ever contracted to this woman?”
Angelo: “I was, my lord.”
Duke: “Go, take her hence and marry her instantly. Do you the office, friar; which consummated, return him here again.”
Exit Angelo, Marina, Friar, Peter and Provost
Escalus: “My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour than at the strangeness of it.”
Duke: “Come hither, Isabella. Your friar is now your prince. I am still attorney’d at your service.”
Isabella: “O, give me pardon.”
Duke: “You are pardoned, Isabella. And now, dear maid, your brother’s death, I know, sits at your heart. And you may marvel why I obscured myself, labouring to save his life. That life is better life, past fearing death, than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort, so happy is your brother.”
Isabella: “I do, my lord.”
Enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter and Provost
Duke: “For this new-married man approaching here, whose salt imagination yet hath wronged your well-defended honour, you must pardon for Mariana’s sake; but as he judged your brother – being criminal in double violation of sacred chastity and of promise-breach – the very mercy of the law cries out most audible, an Angelo for Claudio, death for death! Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure. Then, Angelo, thy faults thus manifested, we do condemn thee to the very block where Claudio stooped to death, and with like haste, away with him!”
Mariana: “O my most gracious lord, I hope you will not mock me with a husband.”
Duke: “It is your husband mocked you with a husband. We do widow you withal, to buy you a better husband.”
Mariana: “O my dear lord, I crave no other, nor no better man.”
Duke: “Never crave him; we are definitive.”
Mariana: “Gentle, my liege – ” (kneeling)
Duke: “Away with him to death!” (to Lucio) “Now, sir, to you.”
Mariana: “Sweet Isabel, lend me your knees. Do yet but kneel by me; they say the best men are moulded out of faults; and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad; so may my husband.”
Duke: “He dies for Claudio’s death.”
Isabella: (kneeling) “Most bounteous sir, look, if it please you, on this man condemned, as if my brother lived. I partly think a due sincerity covered his deeds, till he did look on me; since it is so let him not die. My brother had but justice, in that he did the thing for which he died; for Angelo, his act did not overtake his bad intent, but must be buried but as an intent that perished by the way. Thoughts are no subjects; intents but merely thoughts.”
Mariana: “Merely, my lord.”
Duke: “Your suit’s unprofitable. I have bethought me of another fault. Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded at an unusual hour?”
Provost: “It was commanded so by private message.”
Duke: “For which I do discharge you of your office; give up your keys.”
Provost: “Pardon me, noble lord; I thought it was a fault, but knew it not; one in the prison, who should by private order else have died, I have reserved alive.”
Duke: “Who is he?”
Provost: “His name is Barnardine.”
Duke: “Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him.”
Exit Provost
Escalus: “I am sorry one so learned and so wise as you, Lord Angelo, should slip so grossly.”
Angelo: “I am sorry that such sorrow I procure; and so deep sticks it in my penitent heart that I crave death more willingly than mercy; tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.”
Enter Provost with Barnardine
Duke: “Which is that Barnardine?”
Provost: “This, my lord.”
Duke: “Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul, that apprehends no further than this world, and squares thy life accordingly. Thou art condemned; but, for those earthly faults, I quit them all, and pray thee take this mercy to provide for better times to come. What muffled fellow is that?”
Provost: “This is another prisoner who I saved, who should have died when Claudio lost his head; as like almost to Claudio as himself.”
Provost unmuffles Claudio
Duke: (to Isabella) “If he be like your brother, for his sake is he pardoned; and for your lovely sake, give me your hand and say you will be mine. He is my brother too. But fitter time for that. By this Lord Angelo perceives he is safe; Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well. Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours. And yet here’s one in place I cannot pardon.” (to Lucio) “You, sirrah, who knew me for a fool, a coward, an ass, a madman! Wherein have I so deserved of you that you extol me thus?”
Lucio: “Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would please you I might be whipped.”
Duke: “Whipped first, sir, and hanged after. Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city, if any woman wronged by this lewd fellow, as I have heard him swear himself there’s one whom he begot with child, let her appear, and he shall marry her. The nuptial finished, let him be whipped and hanged.”
Lucio: “I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore.”
Duke: “Upon my honour, thou shalt marry her. Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal emit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; and see our pleasure herein executed.”
Lucio: “Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping and hanging.”
Duke: “Slandering a prince deserves it.”
Exit officers and Lucio
Duke: “She, Claudio, who you wronged, look you restore. Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo; I have confessed her, and I know her virtue. Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness; thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy; Forgive him, Angelo, who brought you home the head of Ragozine for Claudio’s: the offence pardons itself. Dear Isabella, I have a motion much imports your good; whereto if you’ll a willing ear incline, what’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. So, bring us to our place, where we’ll show what’s yet behind that’s meet you all should know.”
Analysis
Act five is one lengthy scene and a whole lot of unpacking to finally attain all of the resolution required to render Measure for Measure the comedy that it is. The Duke returns as himself, after being present throughout the play disguised as Friar Lodowick. The Duke enthusiastically encounters Angelo at the city gate, praising him for a job well done in his own absence. But he has everything planned out for how he will manage all of the corruption he is ever so aware of. Isabella and Mariana have received letters from the Duke stating that he may deal harshly with them at first, but that this is merely part of his ploy to reveal everything he knows. Isabella arrives to seek justice from the Duke, who tells her to present her case to Angelo directly. “You bid me seek redemption of the devil” is her response. Angelo claims her wits are compromised and when the Duke hears her accusations he pretends not to believe a word of it regarding his trusted Angelo and orders Isabella to prison, although he does admit that her apparent madness does contain ‘the oddest frame of sense.’ He asks Isabella who has set her up to concoct such a tall tale of accusations against Angelo and she replies that it was Friar Lodowick. The Duke wants to meet this Friar Lodowick, who of course is himself. At this point Mariana shows up veiled and reveals herself to be the wife of Angelo, who knew her when he thought he knew Isabella. She unveils herself and Angelo admits that he once knew her and nearly married her but has not seen or heard from her in years. He has no idea that the women pulled the old bed trick on him. He still believes he has had sex with Isabella, when it fact it was Mariana. Apparently Friar Lodowick set these women upon Angelo and the Duke demands the Provost bring Friar Lodowick to be interrogated. But since, as we know, the Duke himself is Friar Lodowick, the Duke must excuse himself before the friar can appear. Once he does arrive the friar claims he never set the women up to concoct any such tale as they claim to be true. Escalus does not believe the friar and Lucio claims the friar bespoke harshly of the Duke so they determine the friar should be sent off to prison. The friar wisely and with much wit claims to love the Duke as he loves himself. Lucio then pulls off the friar’s cloak and reveals that the friar and the Duke are indeed one and the same person. Lucio realizes he is in a heap of trouble and Angelo immediately confesses everything and insists he be put to death. Instead the Duke declares that Angelo shall marry Mariana before he is put to death, ‘measure for measure’, for the death of Claudio. The Duke next embraces Isabella, stating that ‘your friar is now your prince’. Mariana and Isabella beg for the life of Angelo. He next pardons the prisoner Barnadine and after Claudio is revealed to be alive and well, the Duke pardons the life of Angelo. Lucio is made to marry the woman he admitted to the friar that he impregnated before he is to be whipped and hanged. In the end the Duke restores the relationship between Claudio and Juliet, wishes joy to the marriage of Angelo and Mariana, and proposes marriage to Isabella. This is one of Shakespeare’s most intricate resolution scenes. The Duke watched everything that went on in Vienna the entire time Angelo was ruling the city. He is fully aware of everything that went down, disguised as Friar Lodowick. He knew Angelo condemned Claudio to die and then propositioned Isabella as the only way to save her brother. He knew that Isabella turned him down and then he himself, as Friar Lodowick, proposed the bed trick as a way to preserve Isabella’s honour, save Claudio and have Mariana restored as Angelo’s rightful wife to be. He also knew that Claudio was never executed, as he himself arranged that the head of the dead pirate Ragozine be substituted for Claudio’s. So when he returns to the city he at first feigns ignorance just to see what people are claiming before revealing the friar to be the Duke and then meting out justice accordingly.
Final Thoughts
This is a very fine play about morality, justice and mercy. It is a comedy, but is considered one of at least three ‘problem plays’, not easily categorized, along with All’s Well That Ends Well and Troilas and Cressida. It seems a dark comedy, more intended to shock than to entertain or enchant. The Duke appears in the play as a conscientious leader until he disappears into the back streets of Vienna as a sometimes meddling and a sometimes prankster friar, only to emerge as the all-knowing Duke once again in Act V. Angelo is presented as a deeply moral figure until he is consumed by lust for Isabella when she arrives to plead for the life of her brother. His abuse of power is the core component of Measure for Measure. Isabella and her powerfully persuasive voice is a celibate novice-nun confronted by the gross proposition from Angelo in exchange fo the life of her brother. This is a comedy that is hardly a laughing matter. Shakespeare straddles the line between comedy and tragedy throughout much of this morally elusive play. Nothing is what it seems in Measure for Measure and every character’s perspective on the proceedings in Vienna are uniquely their own. Performances over the centuries have seen mixed reviews, although the character of Isabella has been consistently strong. Judi Dench portrayed a notable Isabella in the 1980s and both Charles Laughton and John Guilgud have had great success as the troubled Angelo. There are numerous film versions of Measure for Measure on Youtube and several stage productions in addition to many clips and much analysis.
William Shakespeare: Journey Through Genius 