Measure for Measure By William Shakespeare

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Measure for Measure

William Shakespeare

Published: 1604

Categorie(s): Fiction, Drama

Source: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ About Shakespeare:

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623 two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. Source: Wikipedia

Also available on Feedbooks Shakespeare:

- Romeo and Juliet (1597)

- Hamlet (1599)

- Macbeth (1606)

- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596)

- Julius Caesar (1599)

- Othello (1603)

- The Merchant of Venice (1598)

- Much Ado About Nothing (1600)

- King Lear (1606)

- The Taming of the Shrew (1594)

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Act I

SCENE I. An apartment in the DUKE'S palace.

> Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, ESCALUS, Lords and Attendants

DUKE VINCENTIO

> Escalus.

ESCALUS

> My lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO

> Of government the properties to unfold,

> Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;

> Since I am put to know that your own science

> Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

> My strength can give you: then no more remains,

> But that to your sufficiency as your Worth is able,

> And let them work. The nature of our people,

> Our city's institutions, and the terms

> For common justice, you're as pregnant in

> As art and practise hath enriched any

> That we remember. There is our commission,

> From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,

> I say, bid come before us Angelo.

>

> Exit an Attendant

>

> What figure of us think you he will bear?

> For you must know, we have with special soul

> Elected him our absence to supply,

> Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love,

> And given his deputation all the organs

> Of our own power: what think you of it?

ESCALUS

> If any in Vienna be of worth

> To undergo such ample grace and honour,

> It is Lord Angelo.

DUKE VINCENTIO

> Look where he comes.

>

> Enter ANGELO

ANGELO

> Always obedient to your grace's will,

> I come to know your pleasure.

DUKE VINCENTIO

> Angelo,

> There is a kind of character in thy life,

> That to the observer doth thy history

> Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings

> Are not thine own so proper as to waste

> Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.

> Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

> Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

> Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

> As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd

> But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends

> The smallest scruple of her excellence

> But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines

> Herself the glory of a creditor,

> Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech

> To one that can my part in him advertise;

> Hold therefore, 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 stamp'd upon it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

> No more evasion:

> We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice

> Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.

> Our haste from hence is of so quick condition

> That it prefers itself and leaves unquestion'd

> Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,

> As time and our concernings shall importune,

> How it goes with us, and do look to know

> What doth befall you here. So, fare you well;

> To the hopeful execution do I leave you

> Of your commissions.

ANGELO

> Yet give leave, my lord,

> That we may bring you something on the way.

DUKE VINCENTIO

> My haste may not admit it;

> Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do

> With any scruple; your scope is as mine own

> So to enforce or qualify the laws

> As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand:

> I'll privily away. I love the people,

> But do not like to stage me to their eyes:

> Through it do well, I do not relish well

> Their loud applause and Aves vehement;

> Nor do I think the man of safe discretion

> That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.

ANGELO

> The heavens give safety to your purposes!

ESCALUS

> Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!

DUKE

> I thank you. Fare you well.

>

> Exit

ESCALUS

> I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave

> To have free speech with you; and it concerns me

> To look into the bottom of my place:

> A power I have, but of what strength and nature

> I am not yet instructed.

ANGELO

> 'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,

> And we may soon our satisfaction have

> Touching that point.

ESCALUS

> I'll wait upon your honour.

>

> Exeunt

SCENE II. A Street.

> Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen

LUCIO

> If the duke with the other dukes come not to

> composition with the King of Hungary, why then all

> the dukes fall upon the king.

First Gentleman

> Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of

> Hungary's!

Second Gentleman

> Amen.

LUCIO

> Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that

> went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped

> one out of the table.

Second Gentleman

> 'Thou shalt not steal'?

LUCIO

> Ay, that he razed.

First Gentleman

> Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and

> all the rest from their functions: they put forth

> to steal. There's not a soldier of us all, that, in

> the thanksgiving before meat, do relish the petition

> well that prays for peace.

Second Gentleman

> I never heard any soldier dislike it.

LUCIO

> I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where

> grace was said.

Second Gentleman

> No? a dozen times at least.

First Gentleman

> What, in metre?

LUCIO

> In any proportion or in any language.

First Gentleman

> I think, or in any religion.

LUCIO

> Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all

> controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a

> wicked villain, despite of all grace.

First Gentleman

> Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.

LUCIO

> I grant; as there may between the lists and the

> velvet. Thou art the list.

First Gentleman

> And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou'rt

> a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief

> be a list of an English kersey as be piled, as thou

> art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak

> feelingly now?

LUCIO

> I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful

> feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own

> confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I

> live, forget to drink after thee.

First Gentleman

> I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?

Second Gentleman

> Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.

LUCIO

> Behold, behold. where Madam Mitigation comes! I

> have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to—

Second Gentleman

> To what, I pray?

LUCIO

> Judge.

Second Gentleman

> To three thousand dolours a year.

First Gentleman

> Ay, and more.

LUCIO

> A French crown more.

First Gentleman

> Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou

> art full of error; I am sound.

LUCIO

> Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as

> things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow;

> impiety has made a feast of thee.

>

> Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE

First Gentleman

> How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried

> to prison was worth five thousand of you all.

Second Gentleman

> Who's that, I pray thee?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.

First Gentleman

> Claudio to prison? 'tis not so.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested, saw

> him carried away; and, which is more, within these

> three days his head to be chopped off.

LUCIO

> But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so.

> Art thou sure of this?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> I am too sure of it: and it is for getting Madam

> Julietta with child.

LUCIO

> Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two

> hours since, and he was ever precise in

> promise-keeping.

Second Gentleman

> Besides, you know, it draws something near to the

> speech we had to such a purpose.

First Gentleman

> But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.

LUCIO

> Away! let's go learn the truth of it.

>

> Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what

> with the gallows and what with poverty, I am

> custom-shrunk.

>

> Enter POMPEY

>

> How now! what's the news with you?

POMPEY

> Yonder man is carried to prison.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> Well; what has he done?

POMPEY

> A woman.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> But what's his offence?

POMPEY

> Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> What, is there a maid with child by him?

POMPEY

> No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have

> not heard of the proclamation, have you?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> What proclamation, man?

POMPEY

> All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> And what shall become of those in the city?

POMPEY

> They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too,

> but that a wise burgher put in for them.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be

> pulled down?

POMPEY

> To the ground, mistress.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth!

> What shall become of me?

POMPEY

> Come; fear you not: good counsellors lack no

> clients: though you change your place, you need not

> change your trade; I'll be your tapster still.

> Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that

> have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you

> will be considered.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

> What's to do here, Thomas tapster? let's withdraw.

POMPEY

> Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to

> prison; and there's Madam Juliet.

>

> Exeunt

>

> Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers

CLAUDIO

> Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

> Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Provost

> I do it not in evil disposition,

> But from Lord Angelo by special charge.

CLAUDIO

> Thus can the demigod Authority

> Make us pay down for our offence by weight

> The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;

> On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.

>

> Re-enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen

LUCIO

> Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?

CLAUDIO

> From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

> As surfeit is the father of much fast,

> So every scope by the immoderate use

> Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,

> Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,

> A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.

LUCIO

> If could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would

> send for certain of my creditors: and yet, to say

> the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom

> as the morality of imprisonment. What's thy

> offence, Claudio?

CLAUDIO

> What but to speak of would offend again.

LUCIO

> What, is't murder?

CLAUDIO

> No.

LUCIO

> Lechery?

CLAUDIO

> Call it so.

Provost

> Away, sir! you must go.

CLAUDIO

> One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you.

LUCIO

> A hundred, if they'll do you any good.

> Is lechery so look'd after?

CLAUDIO

> Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract

> I got possession of Julietta's bed:

> You know the lady; she is fast my wife,

> Save that we do the denunciation lack

> Of outward order: this we came not to,

> Only for propagation of a dower

> Remaining in the coffer of her friends,

> From whom we thought it meet to hide our love

> Till time had made them for us. But it chances

> The stealth of our most mutual entertainment

> With character too gross is writ on Juliet.

LUCIO

> With child, perhaps?

CLAUDIO

> Unhappily, even so.

> And the new deputy now for the duke—

> Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,

> Or whether that the body public be

> A horse whereon the governor doth ride,

> Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

> He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;

> Whether the tyranny be in his place,

> Or in his emmence that fills it up,

> I stagger in:—but this new governor

> Awakes me all the enrolled penalties

> Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall

> So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round

> And none of them been worn; and, for a name,

> Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

> Freshly on me: 'tis surely for a name.

LUCIO

> I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle on

> thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love,

> may sigh it off. 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

> And there receive her approbation:

> Acquaint her with the danger of my state: