Measure for Measure — Act 3, Scene 1 · Shakespeare for Bharat

DUKE VINCENTIO

So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?

CLAUDIO

The miserable have no other medicineBut only hope:I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Be absolute for death; either death or lifeShall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:If I do lose thee, I do lose a thingThat none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,Servile to all the skyey influences,That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shunAnd yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;For all the accommodations that thou bear'stAre nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant;For thou dost fear the soft and tender forkOf a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'stThy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;For thou exist'st on many a thousand grainsThat issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get,And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,The mere effusion of thy proper loins,Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youthBecomes as aged, and doth beg the almsOf palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in thisThat bears the name of life? Yet in this lifeLie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,That makes these odds all even.

CLAUDIO

I humbly thank you.To sue to live, I find I seek to die;And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.

ISABELLA

[Within] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

Provost

Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.

CLAUDIO

Most holy sir, I thank you.

ISABELLA

My business is a word or two with Claudio.

Provost

And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Provost, a word with you.

Provost

As many as you please.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.

CLAUDIO

Now, sister, what's the comfort?

ISABELLA

Why,As all comforts are; most good, most good indeed.Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,Intends you for his swift ambassador,Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:Therefore your best appointment make with speed;To-morrow you set on.

CLAUDIO

Is there no remedy?

ISABELLA

None, but such remedy as, 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,But fetter you till death.

CLAUDIO

Perpetual durance?

ISABELLA

Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint,Though all the world's vastidity you had,To a determined scope.

CLAUDIO

But in what nature?

ISABELLA

In such a one as, you consenting to't,Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,And leave you naked.

CLAUDIO

Let me know the point.

ISABELLA

O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,And six or seven winters more respectThan a perpetual honour. Darest thou die?The sense of death is most in apprehension;And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,In corporal sufferance finds a pang as greatAs when a giant dies.

CLAUDIO

Why give you me this shame?Think you I can a resolution fetchFrom flowery tenderness? If I must die,I will encounter darkness as a bride,And hug it in mine arms.

ISABELLA

There spake my brother; there my father's graveDid utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:Thou art too noble to conserve a lifeIn base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,Whose settled visage and deliberate wordNips youth i' the head and follies doth emmewAs falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devilHis filth within being cast, he would appearA pond as deep as hell.

CLAUDIO

The prenzie Angelo!

ISABELLA

O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,The damned'st body to invest and coverIn prenzie guards! Dost thou think, Claudio?If I would yield him my virginity,Thou mightst be freed.

CLAUDIO

O heavens! it cannot be.

ISABELLA

Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,So to offend him still. This night's the timeThat I should do what I abhor to name,Or else thou diest to-morrow.

CLAUDIO

Thou shalt not do't.

ISABELLA

O, were it but my life,I'ld throw it down for your deliveranceAs frankly as a pin.

CLAUDIO

Thanks, dear Isabel.

ISABELLA

Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.

CLAUDIO

Yes. Has he affections in him,That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,When he would force it? Sure, it is no sin,Or of the deadly seven, it is the least.

ISABELLA

Which is the least?

CLAUDIO

If it were damnable, he being so wise,Why would he for the momentary trickBe perdurably fined? O Isabel!

ISABELLA

What says my brother?

CLAUDIO

Death is a fearful thing.

ISABELLA

And shamed life a hateful.

CLAUDIO

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;This sensible warm motion to becomeA kneaded clod; and the delighted spiritTo bathe in fiery floods, or to resideIn thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,And blown with restless violence round aboutThe pendent world; or to be worse than worstOf those that lawless and incertain thoughtImagine howling: 'tis too horrible!The weariest and most loathed worldly lifeThat age, ache, penury and imprisonmentCan lay on nature is a paradiseTo what we fear of death.

ISABELLA

Alas, alas!

CLAUDIO

Sweet sister, let me live:What sin you do to save a brother's life,Nature dispenses with the deed so farThat it becomes a virtue.

ISABELLA

O you beast!O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?Is't not a kind of incest, to take lifeFrom thine own sister's shame? What should I think?Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!For such a warped slip of wildernessNe'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance!Die, perish! Might but my bending downReprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,No word to save thee.

CLAUDIO

Nay, hear me, Isabel.

ISABELLA

O, fie, fie, fie!Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:'Tis best thou diest quickly.

CLAUDIO

O hear me, Isabella!

DUKE VINCENTIO

Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.

ISABELLA

What is your will?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by andby have some speech with you: the satisfaction Iwould require is likewise your own benefit.

ISABELLA

I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must bestolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Son, I have overheard what hath passed between youand your sister. Angelo had never the purpose tocorrupt her; only he hath made an essay of hervirtue to practise his judgment with the dispositionof natures: she, having the truth of honour in her,hath made him that gracious denial which he is mostglad to receive. I am confessor to Angelo, and Iknow this to be true; therefore prepare yourself todeath: do not satisfy your resolution with hopesthat are fallible: tomorrow you must die; go toyour knees and make ready.

CLAUDIO

Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of lovewith life that I will sue to be rid of it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Hold you there: farewell.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Provost, a word with you!

Provost

What's your will, father

DUKE VINCENTIO

That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave meawhile with the maid: my mind promises with myhabit no loss shall touch her by my company.

Provost

In good time.

DUKE VINCENTIO

The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good:the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beautybrief in goodness; but grace, being the soul ofyour complexion, shall keep the body of it everfair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you,fortune hath conveyed to my understanding; and, butthat frailty hath examples for his falling, I shouldwonder at Angelo. How will you do to content thissubstitute, and to save your brother?

ISABELLA

I am now going to resolve him: I had rather mybrother die by the law than my son should beunlawfully born. But, O, how much is the good dukedeceived in Angelo! If ever he return and I canspeak to him, I will open my lips in vain, ordiscover his government.

DUKE VINCENTIO

That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matternow stands, he will avoid your accusation; he madetrial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on myadvisings: to the love I have in doing good aremedy presents itself. I do make myself believethat you may most uprighteously do a poor wrongedlady a merited benefit; redeem your brother fromthe angry law; do no stain to your own graciousperson; and much please the absent duke, ifperadventure he shall ever return to have hearing ofthis business.

ISABELLA

Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to doanything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Haveyou not heard speak of Mariana, the sister ofFrederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea?

ISABELLA

I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

DUKE VINCENTIO

She should this Angelo have married; was affiancedto her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: betweenwhich time of the contract and limit of thesolemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea,having in that perished vessel the dowry of hissister. But mark how heavily this befell to thepoor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble andrenowned brother, in his love toward her ever mostkind and natural; with him, the portion and sinew ofher fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, hercombinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.

ISABELLA

Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Left her in her tears, and dried not one of themwith his comfort; swallowed his vows whole,pretending in her discoveries of dishonour: in few,bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yetwears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears,is washed with them, but relents not.

ISABELLA

What a merit were it in death to take this poor maidfrom the world! What corruption in this life, thatit will let this man live! But how out of this can she avail?

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and thecure of it not only saves your brother, but keepsyou from dishonour in doing it.

ISABELLA

Show me how, good father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuanceof her first affection: his unjust unkindness, thatin all reason should have quenched her love, hath,like an impediment in the current, made it moreviolent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer hisrequiring with a plausible obedience; agree withhis demands to the point; only refer yourself tothis advantage, first, that your stay with him maynot be long; that the time may have all shadow andsilence in it; and the place answer to convenience.This being granted in course,--and now followsall,--we shall advise this wronged maid to stead upyour appointment, go in your place; if the encounteracknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him toher recompense: and here, by this, is your brothersaved, your honour untainted, the poor Marianaadvantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maidwill I frame and make fit for his attempt. If youthink well to carry this as you may, the doublenessof the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.What think you of it?

ISABELLA

The image of it gives me content already; and Itrust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedilyto Angelo: if for this night he entreat you to hisbed, give him promise of satisfaction. I willpresently to Saint Luke's: there, at the moatedgrange, resides this dejected Mariana. At thatplace call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, thatit may be quickly.

ISABELLA

I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.