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Measure for Measure: Act III, Scene 2

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Measure for Measure
Act III, Scene 2

The street before the prison.

Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to the prison, Pompey.

Joseph Kenny Meadows, mid 19th century

  1. Enter Elbow, Clown Pompey, and Officers to the Duke.

Elbow

1 - 3
  1. Nay, if there be no remedy for it but that you will needs
  2. buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all
  3. the world drink brown and white bastard.

Duke

4
  1. O heavens, what stuff is here?

Pompey

5 - 9
  1. ’Twas never merry world since of two usuries the merriest
  2. was put down, and the worser allow’d by order of law; a
  3. furr’d gown to keep him warm; and furr’d with fox and
  4. lambskins too, to signify that craft, being richer than
  5. innocency, stands for the facing.

Elbow

10
  1. Come your way, sir. Bless you, good father friar.

Duke

11 - 12
  1. And you, good brother father. What offense hath this man
  2. made you, sir?

Elbow

13 - 15
  1. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him
  2. to be a thief too, sir, for we have found upon him, sir, a
  3. strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy.

Duke

16 - 24
  1. Fie, sirrah, a bawd, a wicked bawd!
  2. The evil that thou causest to be done,
  3. That is thy means to live. Do thou but think
  4. What ’tis to cram a maw or clothe a back
  5. From such a filthy vice; say to thyself,
  6. From their abominable and beastly touches
  7. I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.
  8. Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
  9. So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.

Pompey

25 - 26
  1. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I
  2. would prove—

Duke

27 - 30
  1. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,
  2. Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer.
  3. Correction and instruction must both work
  4. Ere this rude beast will profit.

Elbow

31 - 34
  1. He must before the deputy, sir, he has given him warning.
  2. The deputy cannot abide a whore-master. If he be a
  3. whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile
  4. on his errand.

Duke

35 - 36
  1. That we were all, as some would seem to be,
  2. From our faults, as faults from seeming, free!
  1. Enter Lucio.

Elbow

37
  1. His neck will come to your waist—a cord, sir.

Pompey

38 - 39
  1. I spy comfort, I cry bail. Here’s a gentleman, and a friend
  2. of mine.

Lucio

40 - 47
  1. How now, noble Pompey? What, at the wheels of Caesar? Art
  2. thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion’s
  3. images newly made woman to be had now, for putting the hand
  4. in the pocket and extracting it clutch’d? What reply? Ha?
  5. What say’st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is’t not
  6. drown’d i’ th’ last rain? Ha? What say’st thou, Trot? Is the
  7. world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few
  8. words? Or how? The trick of it?

Duke

48
  1. Still thus, and thus; still worse!

Lucio

49 - 50
  1. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still?
  2. Ha?

Pompey

51 - 52
  1. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is
  2. herself in the tub.

Lucio

53 - 55
  1. Why, ’tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so. Ever
  2. your fresh whore and your powder’d bawd, an unshunn’d
  3. consequence; it must be so. Art going to prison, Pompey?

Pompey

56
  1. Yes, faith, sir.

Lucio

57 - 58
  1. Why, ’tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell. Go say I sent thee
  2. thither. For debt, Pompey? Or how?

Elbow

59
  1. For being a bawd, for being a bawd.

Lucio

60 - 64
  1. Well, then imprison him. If imprisonment be the due of a
  2. bawd, why, ’tis his right. Bawd is he doubtless, and of
  3. antiquity too; bawd-born. Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me
  4. to the prison, Pompey. You will turn good husband now,
  5. Pompey, you will keep the house.

Pompey

65
  1. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.

Lucio

66 - 69
  1. No indeed will I not, Pompey, it is not the wear. I will
  2. pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage. If you take it not
  3. patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu, trusty
  4. Pompey. Bless you, friar.

Duke

70
  1. And you.

Lucio

71
  1. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey? Ha?

Elbow

72
  1. Come your ways, sir, come.

Pompey

73
  1. You will not bail me then, sir?

Lucio

74
  1. Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar? What news?

Elbow

75
  1. Come your ways, sir, come.

Lucio

76 - 77
  1. Go to kennel, Pompey, go.
  2. Exeunt Elbow, Pompey, and Officers.
  3. What news, friar, of the Duke?

Duke

78
  1. I know none. Can you tell me of any?

Lucio

79 - 80
  1. Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other some, he is
  2. in Rome; but where is he, think you?

Duke

81
  1. I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.

Lucio

82 - 85
  1. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from the
  2. state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord
  3. Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression
  4. to’t.

Duke

86
  1. He does well in’t.

Lucio

87 - 88
  1. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him.
  2. Something too crabbed that way, friar.

Duke

89
  1. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.

Lucio

90 - 94
  1. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is
  2. well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar,
  3. till eating and drinking be put down. They say this Angelo
  4. was not made by man and woman after this downright way of
  5. creation. Is it true, think you?

Duke

95
  1. How should he be made then?

Lucio

96 - 99
  1. Some report a sea-maid spawn’d him; some, that he was begot
  2. between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that when he
  3. makes water his urine is congeal’d ice, that I know to be
  4. true; and he is a motion generative, that’s infallible.

Duke

100
  1. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.

Lucio

101 - 107
  1. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion
  2. of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the Duke
  3. that is absent have done this? Ere he would have hang’d a
  4. man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid
  5. for the nursing a thousand. He had some feeling of the
  6. sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to
  7. mercy.

Duke

108 - 109
  1. I never heard the absent Duke much detected for women, he
  2. was not inclin’d that way.

Lucio

110
  1. O, sir, you are deceiv’d.

Duke

111
  1. ’Tis not possible.

Lucio

112 - 114
  1. Who? Not the Duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use
  2. was to put a ducat in her clack-dish. The Duke had crotchets
  3. in him. He would be drunk too, that let me inform you.

Duke

115
  1. You do him wrong, surely.

Lucio

116 - 117
  1. Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the Duke, and
  2. I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing.

Duke

118
  1. What, I prithee, might be the cause?

Lucio

119 - 121
  1. No, pardon; ’tis a secret must be lock’d within the teeth
  2. and the lips. But this I can let you understand, the greater
  3. file of the subject held the Duke to be wise.

Duke

122
  1. Wise? Why, no question but he was.

Lucio

123
  1. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.

Duke

124 - 130
  1. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking. The very
  2. stream of his life, and the business he hath helm’d, must,
  3. upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let
  4. him be but testimonied in his own bringings-forth, and he
  5. shall appear to the envious a scholar, a statesman, and a
  6. soldier. Therefore you speak unskillfully; or, if your
  7. knowledge be more, it is much dark’ned in your malice.

The street before the prison

Charles Knight, 1851

Lucio

131
  1. Sir, I know him, and I love him.

Duke

132 - 133
  1. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer
  2. love.

Lucio

134
  1. Come, sir, I know what I know.

Duke

135 - 139
  1. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you
  2. speak. But if ever the Duke return (as our prayers are he
  3. may), let me desire you to make your answer before him. If
  4. it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain
  5. it. I am bound to call upon you, and I pray you your name?

Lucio

140
  1. Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the Duke.

Duke

141
  1. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you.

Lucio

142
  1. I fear you not.

Duke

143 - 145
  1. O, you hope the Duke will return no more; or you imagine me
  2. too unhurtful an opposite. But indeed I can do you little
  3. harm; you’ll forswear this again.

Lucio

146 - 148
  1. I’ll be hang’d first; thou art deceiv’d in me, friar. But no
  2. more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die tomorrow, or
  3. no?

Duke

149
  1. Why should he die, sir?

Lucio

150 - 160
  1. Why? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would the Duke
  2. we talk of were return’d again. This ungenitur’d agent will
  3. unpeople the province with continency. Sparrows must not
  4. build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The
  5. Duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answer’d, he would
  6. never bring them to light. Would he were return’d! Marry,
  7. this Claudio is condemn’d for untrussing. Farewell, good
  8. friar, I prithee pray for me. The Duke (I say to thee again)
  9. would eat mutton on Fridays. He’s now past it, yet (and I
  10. say to thee) he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt
  11. brown bread and garlic. Say that I said so. Farewell.
  1. Exit.

Duke

161 - 165
  1. No might nor greatness in mortality
  2. Can censure scape; back-wounding calumny
  3. The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong
  4. Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
  5. But who comes here?
  1. Enter Escalus, Provost, and Officers with Bawd Mistress
  2. Overdone.

Escalus

166
  1. Go, away with her to prison.

Mistress Overdone

167 - 168
  1. Good my lord, be good to me, your honor is accounted a
  2. merciful man. Good my lord.

Escalus

169 - 170
  1. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the same
  2. kind! This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant.

Provost

171 - 172
  1. A bawd of eleven years’ continuance, may it please your
  2. honor.

Mistress Overdone

173 - 177
  1. My lord, this is one Lucio’s information against me.
  2. Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the Duke’s
  3. time; he promis’d her marriage. His child is a year and a
  4. quarter old come Philip and Jacob. I have kept it myself;
  5. and see how he goes about to abuse me!

Escalus

178 - 183
  1. That fellow is a fellow of much license; let him be call’d
  2. before us. Away with her to prison! Go to, no more words.
  3. Exeunt Officers with Mistress Overdone.
  4. Provost, my brother Angelo will not be alter’d, Claudio must
  5. die tomorrow. Let him be furnish’d with divines, and have
  6. all charitable preparation. If my brother wrought by my
  7. pity, it should not be so with him.

Provost

184 - 185
  1. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advis’d
  2. him for th’ entertainment of death.

Escalus

186
  1. Good even, good father.

Duke

187
  1. Bliss and goodness on you!

Escalus

188
  1. Of whence are you?

Duke

189 - 192
  1. Not of this country, though my chance is now
  2. To use it for my time. I am a brother
  3. Of gracious order, late come from the See,
  4. In special business from his Holiness.

Escalus

193
  1. What news abroad i’ th’ world?

Duke

194 - 202
  1. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, that
  2. the dissolution of it must cure it. Novelty is only in
  3. request, and, as it is, as dangerous to be ag’d in any kind
  4. of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any
  5. undertaking. There is scarce truth enough alive to make
  6. societies secure, but security enough to make fellowships
  7. accurs’d. Much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the
  8. world. This news is old enough, yet it is every day’s news.
  9. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the Duke?

Escalus

203 - 204
  1. One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to
  2. know himself.

Duke

205
  1. What pleasure was he given to?

Escalus

206 - 211
  1. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any
  2. thing which profess’d to make him rejoice; a gentleman of
  3. all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a
  4. prayer they may prove prosperous, and let me desire to know
  5. how you find Claudio prepar’d. I am made to understand that
  6. you have lent him visitation.

Duke

212 - 217
  1. He professes to have receiv’d no sinister measure from his
  2. judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the
  3. determination of justice; yet had he fram’d to himself (by
  4. the instruction of his frailty) many deceiving promises of
  5. life, which I (by my good leisure) have discredited to him,
  6. and now is he resolv’d to die.

Escalus

218 - 222
  1. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner
  2. the very debt of your calling. I have labor’d for the poor
  3. gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty, but my
  4. brother-justice have I found so severe, that he hath forc’d
  5. me to tell him he is indeed Justice.

Duke

223 - 225
  1. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it
  2. shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath
  3. sentenc’d himself.

Escalus

226
  1. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.

Duke

227 - 249
  1. Peace be with you!
  2. Exeunt Escalus and Provost.
  3. He who the sword of heaven will bear
  4. Should be as holy as severe;
  5. Pattern in himself to know,
  6. Grace to stand, and virtue go;
  7. More nor less to others paying
  8. Than by self-offenses weighing.
  9. Shame to him whose cruel striking
  10. Kills for faults of his own liking!
  11. Twice treble shame on Angelo,
  12. To weed my vice, and let his grow!
  13. O, what may man within him hide,
  14. Though angel on the outward side!
  15. How may likeness made in crimes,
  16. Making practice on the times,
  17. To draw with idle spiders’ strings
  18. Most ponderous and substantial things!
  19. Craft against vice I must apply.
  20. With Angelo tonight shall lie
  21. His old betrothed (but despised);
  22. So disguise shall by th’ disguised
  23. Pay with falsehood false exacting,
  24. And perform an old contracting.
  1. Exit.
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