Measure for Measure

Many people have found this a difficult play. It has so many strands and, though there is
a range of main characters with extremes of behaviour and huge contrasts between the
low life and the high life, there is no clear hero or heroine. It’s about sex and power, high
flown principles, and utter corruptibility. When it was performed in its day, it was clear
that Shakespeare was challenging the whole moral edifice of society: of ruler and state,
the contract between man and wife, the bonds between lovers, siblings and friends, and
even of a true belief in God.

But to take on the play is to discover one of the most truly absorbing of all the plays, in
which one seems literally to enter Shakespeare’s mind and his own internal dialogue on
how to find an equal balance – a measure - between crime and punishment, law and
mercy, compassion and justice.

Jamila Gavin
2nd February 2009

1
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE

by

William Shakespeare

Abridged for the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival

by

Jamila Gavin

30 MINUTES

2
LIST OF CHARACTERS:

Vincentio the Duke of Vienna

Angelo the deputy
Escalus an ancient lord
Claudio a young gentleman
Isabella sister to Claudio
Mariana betrothed to Angelo
Juliet beloved of Claudio
Francisca a nun
Lucio a fantastic
Provost a judicial gentleman
Friar Thomas
Mistress Overdone a bawd1
First Gentleman
Second Gentleman
Attendant to the Duke
Servant to Angelo
Boy
Messenger from Angelo
Members of the constabulary
Townsfolk

1
Keeper of a brothel

3
SCENE ONE Vienna.

Front stage left stands ISABELLA, dressed in severe religious robes.

Front right is ANGELO, his dress is also severe. They have never met.

All other characters are dressed colourfully.

In mimed tableaux the townsfolk behave in a generally decadent manner.

THE DUKE observes this and shrugs with an air of one unable to exert authority.

LUCIO, a “fantastick” freewheels among everyone, interacting with various characters

like an impresario. Meets up with two gentlemen and jokes with them.

CLAUDIO, a young gentleman enters. He’s foppish, aware of his handsome sexuality,
and enjoys making an impression – especially on women – in love with JULIET, who
enters from diagonally opposite. They run towards each other and embrace.

Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE, a keeper of a brothel, soliciting clients.

The Duke summons ESCALUS, a wise old lord, and conveys that he has, at last, had
enough of letting things slip and has a plan. Escalus nods. The Duke summons an
attendant.

DUKE VINCENTIO
[To Attendant] Call hither,
I say, bid come before us Angelo.
Exit an Attendant

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.

Angelo moves across stage to the Duke and greets him with deep respect.

ANGELO
Always obedient to your grace's will,
I come to know your pleasure.

4
DUKE VINCENTIO
[handing over symbols of his power]
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.2

ANGELO
The heavens give safety to your purposes!

ESCALUS
Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!

Exit Duke one way and Escalus another.

Mistress Overdone solicits in the background.

Angelo oversees the enforcement of the law. Militias appear and start making arrests for
drunkenness etc.

Juliet clasps her hands over her belly. Claudio reassures her; strokes her belly and kisses
her. Angelo watches. His body language shows deep disapproval. He summons guards
and points at Claudio. Claudio is arrested. At first he thinks it’s a joke, and mimes
“Come on guys! It’s only me! Claudio – a gentleman! But then he sees they’re serious, as
they rough him up and drag him off – leaving Juliet, distressed, with outstretched arms.

Mistress Overdone observes this and approaches Lucio and gentlemen.

LUCIO
Behold, behold. where Madam Mitigation3 comes! I
have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to judge.

MISTRESS OVERDONE
There’s one yonder arrested and carried to prison.

FIRST GENTLEMAN
Who’s that, I prithee?

MISTRESS OVERDONE
Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.

SECOND GENTLEMAN

2
Whilst the Duke is away he wishes Angelo to take his place in all respects. Even the more senior Escalus
will take his orders from Angelo.
3
Mitigation meaning appeasement – because she runs a brothel she satisfies desire

5
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
Art thou sure of this?

MISTRESS 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 it.

Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen

Militias continue to drag people away.

MISTRESS OVERDONE
Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat4, what
with the gallows5 and what with poverty, I am
custom-shrunk.

Claudio is flanked by soldiers who parade him before the audience as an example . He
sees Lucio.

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

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

CLAUDIO
Upon a true contract
I got possession of Juliet's bed:
You know the lady; she is fast my wife.

LUCIO
With child, perhaps?

4
The plague
5
Referring to Claudio’s sentence to be hanged

6
CLAUDIO
Unhappily, even so.

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.
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy6; bid herself assay7 him:
I have great hope in that;

LUCIO
I'll to her.

Claudio is led away by officers.

SCENE TWO.

A nunnery.

Isabella and a nun, FRANCISCA.

ISABELLA
And have you nuns no farther privileges?

FRANCISCA
Are not these large enough?

ISABELLA
Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sisterhood8.

Hear the sound of a door bell rung.

6
Angelo
7
challenge
8
In this exchange with a nun, the novice Isabella is keen to follow the harshest rule. The implication is that
the sisters she plans to join may have taken a vow of poverty but that Isabella thinks they should be stricter
with themselves ie. perhaps they still eat potatoes when they should only eat gruel.

7
ISABELLA
Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?

Enter Lucio.

LUCIO
Hail virgin if you be! - Can you so stead me
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
A novice of this place and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Francisca withdraws slightly.

ISABELLA
Why 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask.
I am that Isabella and his sister.

LUCIO
Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:
Not to be weary with you9, he's in prison.

ISABELLA
Woe me! for what?

LUCIO
For that which, if myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

ISABELLA
Sir, make me not your story10.

LUCIO
It is true. Your brother and his lover have embraced11.

ISABELLA
Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet?
O, let him marry her.

LUCIO
This is the point.
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Upon his place,

9
to be blunt
10
She is disbelieving and this is not a suitable story for a nunnery
11
He chooses his word carefully to suit the nunnery

8
Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth12;
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: to make him an example13.

ISABELLA
[incredulous] Doth he so seek his life?

LUCIO
I hear, the Provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

ISABELLA
Alas! what poor ability's in me
To do him good?

LUCIO
Assay14 the power you have.

ISABELLA
My power? Alas, I doubt--

LUCIO
Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owe them15.

ISABELLA
I'll see what I can do.

Isabella kneels before the nun who gives her blessing, then she leaves with Lucio.

Exeunt

SCENE THREE.
12
Snow-broth is literally melted snow. Angelo is the most cold-hearted/blooded of men
13
Claudio will be executed as an example to the other immoral townsfolk
14
test
15
When young women beg something men usually give way. When young women cry, men are putty in
their hands.

9
A courtroom.

Enter PROVOST, ANGELO and ESCALUS.

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.16

ESCALUS
Ay, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
Than fall, and bruise to death17.

ANGELO
'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall.
See that Claudio
Be executed by nine to-morrow morning;
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared.

ESCALUS
[Aside] Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall18.

PROVOST:
Here is the sister of the man condemn'd
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 Isabella and Lucio
16
Nobody currently obeys the laws of the dukedom. He likens the law to a scarecrow that birds have got
used to and sit upon.
17
He disagrees with Angelo’s decision to execute Claudio – feels that he’s taken his desire to ensure that
people obey the law too far. Some punishment (bruising) is in order, not execution (death). The general
sense is ‘let us use the law as a pruning knife, not as an axe’
18
He criticises Angelo’s seeming virtue

10
You're welcome: what's your will?

ISABELLA
I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
Please but your honour hear me.

ANGELO
Well; what's your suit?

ISABELLA
I have a brother is condemn'd to die:
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother19.

PROVOST
[Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces!20

ANGELO
Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done.21

ISABELLA
O just but severe law!
I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!22

LUCIO
[Aside to Isabella] Give't not o'er so23: to him
again, entreat him;
Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:
You are too cold. To him, I say!

ISABELLA
Must he needs die?

ANGELO
He's sentenced; 'tis too late.

LUCIO
[Aside to Isabella] You are too cold.

19
She wants his fault to die not her brother.
20
The Provost hopes that Isabella will succeed in exacting mercy for her brother.
21
He disagrees with her argument. Her brother’s fault is already condemned in law. What he’s doing is
condemning the sinner,.
22
Isabella accepts Angelo’s reasoning. She thinks his ruling is severe but just. She accepts her brother’s
excecution.
23
He tells her not to give up.

11
ISABELLA
[with increased passion] Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word.
May call it back again. Well, believe this,
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs24,
Not the king's crown,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does25.

ANGELO
I show it most of all when I show justice;
Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

ISABELLA
To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!
He's not prepared for death.

ANGELO
Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not I condemn your brother:

ISABELLA
O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

LUCIO
[Aside to Isabella] That's well said.

ISABELLA
Go to your bosom;
Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confess
A natural guiltiness such as is his26,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.

ANGELO
[Aside] She speaks, and 'tis
Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.27
Fare you well.
24
belongs
25
No crown is more becoming than mercy.
26
She’s asking Angelo whether he’s ever had immoral desires like her brother; and if so she infers that he
should not pass judgment on him.

12
ISABELLA
Gentle my lord, turn back.

ANGELO
I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.
Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and Provost
What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
Not she: nor doth she tempt. O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? What, do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?

Exit

SCENE IV

A Friar’s cell.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO and FRIAR THOMAS

Duke Vincentio disguises himself in a monk’s habit under the alias of Friar Lodowick.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Why I desire thee
To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose28.

FRIAR THOMAS
May your grace speak of it?

DUKE VINCENTIO
I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,
A man of stricture and firm abstinence,
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,

27
Isabella’s point – asking whether Angelo has ever had immoral thoughts like her brother - has struck
home. Unknown to her, Angelo is consumed by sexual desire, and at this moment it is for her, a nun..
28
The Duke has his reasons for dressing up as a friar.

13
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland - 29
Enter Juliet
Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,
she is with child;
And he that got it, sentenced.
[to Juliet, acting the friar] Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

JULIET
I do repent me, as it is an evil,
And take the shame with joy30.

DUKE VINCENTIO
There rest.
Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him31.
Grace go with you, Benedicite32!
The Duke exits

JULIET
Must die to-morrow! O injurious love,
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror33!

Exeunt

29
The Duke was going to explain more but is interrupted by the arrival of Juliet, perhaps coming for
confession. In the original this encounter with Juliet is at the prison.
30
Juliet acknowledges that pregnancy outside marriage is sinful but is joyful to about the baby nonetheless.
31
The Duke claims that he, as a friar, is on his way to prepare Claudio spiritually for his death.
32
He blesses her.
33
An act of love by Claudio has saved Juliet’s life - she has been saved from execution on account of the
pregnancy – but will bring about his death.

14
SCENE V

Angelo’s House

Enter Angelo praying.

ANGELO
Heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention, anchors on Isabel34:
Enter a Servant
How now! who's there?

SERVANT
One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

ANGELO
Teach her the way.
Exit Servant
O heavens!
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart35,
Enter Isabella
How now, fair maid?

ISABELLA
I am come to know your pleasure.

ANGELO
[aside] That you might know it, would much better please me
Than to demand what 'tis36.
[to Isabella] Your brother cannot live.

ISABELLA
(attempting to remain charitable in the face of his harsh judgment)
Even so. Heaven keep your honour!

ANGELO
(coming up with a new thought)
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 uncleanness
As she that he hath stain'd37?

34
His prayers mean nothing. He is consumed by his desire for Isabella.
35
He wonders why she can cause his heart to race.
36
He wishes that she desired him and had come to satisfy him.
37
Angelo asks her whether she might save her brother by sleeping with him.

15
ISABELLA
How say you?

ANGELO
Answer to this:
Might there not be a charity in sin
To save your38 brother's life?

ISABELLA
Please you to do't,
I'll take it as a peril to my soul,
It is no sin at all, but charity39.

ANGELO
Admit no other way to save his life -
- that you, his sister,
must lay down the treasures of your body.
What would you do40?

ISABELLA
The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
Ere I'd yield my body up to shame41.

ANGELO
Then must your brother die.

ISABELLA
Better it were a brother died at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

ANGELO
I love you.

ISABELLA
My brother did love Juliet,
And you tell me that he shall die for it.

ANGELO
He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

38
this in the original –although your is used earlier in the speech
39
He has asked her to sin in order to save her brother. She remains confused as to how.
40
His statement is blunt - what she would do if the only way to save her brother’s life were to sleep with
someone
41
She’d rather be whipped until she bled than commit a shameful act.

16
ISABELLA
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud
What man thou art42.

ANGELO
(threateningly) Who will believe thee, Isabel?

Exit

ISABELLA
To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? I'll to my brother:
Yet hath 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 abhorr'd pollution43.
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
More than our brother is our chastity.

SCENE SIX.

A room in the prison.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before and PROVOST with CLAUDIO.

DUKE VINCENTIO
So then 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.

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

The Duke draws back

42
She threatens to tell everyone of his immoral offer,.
43
She decides to tell her brother. She believes that he would rather be executed twenty times over than see
her raped by Angelo.

17
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,
To-morrow you set on44.

CLAUDIO
If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.

ISABELLA
Yes, thou must die:
Thou art too noble to conserve a life
In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
is yet a devil45.

CLAUDIO
The prenzie46 Angelo?!

ISABELLA
If I would yield him my virginity,
Thou mightst be freed.

CLAUDIO
O heavens! It cannot be.

ISABELLA
Yes... This night's the time
That I should do what I abhor to name,
Or else thou diest to-morrow.

CLAUDIO
Thou shalt not do't.

ISABELLA
44
She’s determined to present his death sentence as something positive.
45
She confirms that Claudio must die because the alternative is too awful.
46
There are various interpretations of this word. Prenzie would mean Prince. He cannot believe that his
sister is describing the illustrious Angelo as a devil..

18
[relieved that Claudio is so honourable]
O, were it but my life,
I'd throw it down for your deliverance
As frankly as a pin.

CLAUDIO
[the chance of a reprieve is sinking in]
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;
'Tis too horrible!

ISABELLA
Alas, alas!

CLAUDIO
Sweet sister, let me live:

ISABELLA
O you beast!
O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
Die, perish!

CLAUDIO
Nay, hear me, Isabel.

ISABELLA
'Tis best thou diest quickly.

Isabella prepares to leave

CLAUDIO
O hear me, Isabella!

The Duke steps forward

19
DUKE VINCENTIO
Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.
The assault that Angelo hath made to you,
fortune hath conveyed to my understanding.

ISABELLA
I had rather my brother die by the law than my son should be
unlawfully born.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Have you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of
Frederick, the great soldier who miscarried47 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 affianced
to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between
which time of the contract and limit of the
solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea,
having in that perished vessel the dowry of his
sister. There she lost a noble and renowned brother,
with him her marriage-dowry
And this well-seeming Angelo48.

ISABELLA
But how out of this can she avail?

DUKE VINCENTIO
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.49

ISABELLA
Show me how, good father.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Go you to Angelo; answer his requiring with a
plausible obedience50; agree with his demands –

47
Whose ship was wrecked
48
When Mariana’s brother’s ship was wrecked her dowry was lost and Angelo (who pretends he’s so
honourable) dishonoured her by breaking off the marriage.
49
He has a plan that will put Angelo and Mariana together, save her brother’s life and save honour.
50
He recommends that she pretends that she will go through with the deal, but that Mariana takes her place
in his bed.

20
we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up
your appointment, go in your place.
What think you of it?

ISABELLA
The image of it gives me content already.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Haste you speedily to Angelo: if for this night
he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction.

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

Exits

SCENE SEVEN

A garden.

Enter MARIANA. –

Enter the Duke and Isabella. Mariana rises respectfully to greet them.

DUKE
I pray you, be acquainted with this maid;
She comes to do you good.

ISABELLA
I do desire the like.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?

MARIANA
Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Take, then, this your companion by the hand,
Who hath a story ready for your ear.
But make haste; the vaporous night approaches.

Isabella and Mariana exchange cloaks and veils as they exchange identities.

21
They go to different corners of the stage. Lighting darkens.

Isabella, in her corner, prays.

Enter Angelo, who removes some clothing. Dressed as Isabella, Mariana moves forward
to join him. He holds out his arms and pulls her into a dark corner with him. The sexual
act takes place.

SCENE EIGHT

A prison cell.

Enter the Duke disguised as before.

PROVOST
Welcome father.

DUKE VINCENTIO
The best and wholesomest spirts of the night
Envelope you, good Provost!
Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
But he must die to-morrow51?

PROVOST
None, sir, none.

DUKE VINCENTIO
As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
You shall hear more ere morning52.

PROVOST
Happily
You something know; yet I believe there comes
No countermand; no such example have we53.
Enter a Messenger
This is his lordship's man.

DUKE VINCENTIO
And here comes Claudio's pardon.

The Messenger hands a paper over to the Provost then exits.

51
He’s eager to find out whether the Provost has received word from Angelo pardoning Claudio
52
The Duke admits that he is confident that an order to pardon Claudio will come soon
53
The Provost is relieved to think that Claudio’s life may yet be saved, but he has had no prior example of
Angelo showing mercy.

22
PROVOST
[Reads]
'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let
Claudio be executed by four of the clock; for my better satisfaction,
let me have Claudio's head sent me by five.’54

DUKE VINCENTIO
Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is
no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath
sentenced him55. I crave but four days' respite;
for the which you are to do me both a present and a
dangerous courtesy.

PROVOST
Pray, sir, in what?

DUKE VINCENTIO
In the delaying death56.

PROVOST
Alack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,
and an express command, under penalty, to deliver
his head in the view of Angelo?
(new thought)
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.

DUKE VINCENTIO
O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides!
Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on.

PROVOST
This shall be done, good father, presently.

DUKE VINCENTIO
[Duke quickly writes letters while he speaks]
Now will I write letters to Angelo. I'll desire
To meet me at the consecrated fount
A league below the city; and from thence,

54
Angelo has moved Claudio’s execution forward from nine in the morning to five.
55
The Duke makes it plain that Angelo breaks the law as much as Claudio.
56
He begs the Provost to delay the execution by four days.

23
By cold gradation and well-balanced form,
We shall proceed with Angelo57.
[to the Provost] Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.

Exit Provost

Isabella approaches singing.

DUKE VINCENTIO
The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know
If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:
But I will keep her ignorant of her good,
To make her heavenly comforts of despair,
When it is least expected58.
Enter Isabella
Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.

ISABELLA
The better, given me by so holy a man.
Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

DUKE VINCENTIO
He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:
His head is off and sent to Angelo.

ISABELLA
Nay, but it is not so.

DUKE VINCENTIO
It is no other.

ISABELLA
O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!

DUKE VINCENTIO
You shall not be admitted to his sight.

ISABELLA
Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! most damned Angelo!

DUKE VINCENTIO

57
His plan is to summon Angelo to meet him at the gate to the city and there he will try him for his crimes.
58
He decides not to tell Isabella that her brother is in fact safe.

24
This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot;
Forbear it therefore;
The duke comes home to-morrow; nay, dry your eyes.

He exits.

Enter Lucio who has heard about the execution.

LUCIO
O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes
so red: thou must be patient. They say the duke will be here
to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother: if the old
fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived.

Exeunt.

SCENE NINE.

Enter Angelo and Escalus looking over the letters they’ve received from the Duke.

ANGELO
Why meet him at the gates, and
redeliver our authorities there?

ESCALUS
I guess not.

ANGELO
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 street59?
[Aside] This deed unshapes me quite. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
The law against it!
How might she tongue me!60

Exeunt

SCENE TEN

59
The Duke has asked them to issue a proclamation to the effect that anyone with a grievance can deliver it
at the gate to the city.
60
He meditates on the fact that he – the man enforcing the law against immorality – has raped a virgin. He
acknowledges that Isabella could ruin his reputation.

25
The city gate.

MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR THOMAS61, at their stand. Enter DUKE
VINCENTIO, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, PROVOST, officers, and citizens

DUKE VINCENTIO
[to Angelo] My very worthy cousin, fairly met!
[to Escalus] Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.

ANGELO/ESCALUS
Happy return be to your royal grace!

ESCALUS
[to Isabella] Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him.

ISABELLA
Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard
Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid62!

DUKE VINCENTIO
Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief.
Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice:
Reveal yourself to him.

ISABELLA
O worthy duke,
You bid me seek redemption of the devil:
Hear me yourself. Hear me, O hear me, here!

ANGELO
My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:
She hath 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

61
Friar Peter – in the original
62
She refers to the fact that she can no longer call herself a virgin. (Although Isabella was not in fact raped,
she is accusing him of what he thinks he did).

26
I am the sister of one Claudio,
Condemn'd upon the act of fornication
To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo.
Lucio nods
He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
To his concupiscible63 intemperate lust,
Release my brother;
And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes,
His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
For my poor brother's head.

DUKE VINCENTIO
[dismissive] By heaven, fond wretch, thou know’st not what thou speak'st.
Who knew of your intent and coming hither?

ISABELLA
One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.

DUKE VINCENTIO
A ghostly father, belike64. Who knows that Lodowick?

LUCIO
My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Let this friar be found.

FRIAR THOMAS
Well…at this instant he is sick my lord,
Of a strange fever.
Upon his mere request, came I hither,
To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
Is true and false. First, for this woman.
He brings forward Mariana, veiled.
[indicating Angelo] To justify this worthy nobleman,
So vulgarly and personally accused.65

DUKE VINCENTIO
Good friar, let's hear it.
63
vehemently desirous
64
He insinuates that this Friar Lodowick isn’t real – a figment of her imagination
65
Friar Thomas is in on the game and has been told by the Duke to introduce Mariana as a witness in
support of Angelo. She will testify to the fact that Angelo was making love to her at the very time that
Isabella claims he was with her thus giving Angelo an alibi.

27
Isabella is taken off guarded; Mariana comes forward.
Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?
O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!
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 VINCENTIO
What, are you married?

MARIANA
No, my lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Are you a maid66?

MARIANA
No, my lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO
A widow, then?

MARIANA
Neither, my lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?

MARIANA
My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married;
And I confess besides I am no maid:
I have known my husband; yet my husband
Knows not that ever he knew me67.

DUKE VINCENTIO
[despairing of the mad talk]This is no witness for Lord Angelo.

MARIANA

66
A virgin
67
She has slept with her husband but he is unaware of the fact.

28
[indicating Isabella] She that accuses him of fornication,
In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,
With such a time
When I'll depose I had him in mine arms.

DUKE VINCENTIO
You say your husband?

MARIANA
Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,
But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.

ANGELO
This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.

MARIANA
My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
[unveiling] This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on;
This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract,
Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,
And did supply thee68 at thy garden-house
In her imagined person.

ANGELO
I did but smile till now69:
Now, good my lord, let me have way,

DUKE VINCENTIO
Ay, with my heart
And punish them to your height of pleasure.
The friar that set them on70;
Let him be sent for.

FRIAR THOMAS
Your Provost71 knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Go do it instantly.
68
She satisfied Angelo’s lust in the garden at his house – when he thought she was Isabella
69
He’s suffered Isabella’s false accusations with patience for long enough, now he wishes to exact
punishment.
70
There is another friar – in the original
71
The Provost is in on the Duke’s plan

29
Exit the Provost
I for a while will leave you;
[to Angelo and Escalus] But stir not you till you have well determin’d
[indicating the friar and Mariana] Upon these slanderers.
Exit the Duke.

ESCALUS
My lord, we’ll do it thoroughly. Call that same Isabel here once again;
I would speak with her.

Exit an Attendant

Re-enter Officers with Isabella and Attendant, followed by the Provost with the Duke
disguised as Friar Lodowick. He shows no respect to anyone.

LUCIO
My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with
the Provost.

ESCALUS
Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander
Lord Angelo? They have confessed you did.

DUKE VINCENTIO
'Tis false.

ESCALUS
[irritated with the friar’s rudeness] How! Know you where you are?

DUKE VICENTIO
Respect to your great place! And let the devil
Be sometime honour’d for his burning throne!72

LUCIO
This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.

ESCALUS
Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with
him to prison!

The Provost steps forward as if to take the Duke away

DUKE VINCENTIO
[to Provost] Stay, sir; stay awhile.
72
He’s showing them no more respect than he would to the Devil.

30
ANGELO
What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.

LUCIO
Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you
bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must
you? Show your knave's visage, with a pox to you!
show your sheep-biting face73, and be hanged an hour74!
Will't not off?

Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers Duke Vincentio.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Thou art the first knave75 that e'er madest a duke76.
Sneak not away, sir; for the friar77 and you
Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.

LUCIO
This may prove worse than hanging.

ANGELO
[to the Duke] O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
good prince.
Immediate sentence then and sequent death
Is all the grace I beg.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Come hither, Mariana.
[to Angelo] Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?

ANGELO
I was, my lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO
Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.

Angelo, Mariana, Friar Thomas and the Provost withdraw and conduct a speedy
marriage and return to the Duke.

DUKE VINCENTIO
73
Common description for a rogue ie a dog that would bite a sheep
74
Dogs were hanged for attacking sheep
75
rogue
76
A play on the fact that Lucio has removed his disguise and therefore made him a duke
77
meaning himself – he plans to take Lucio to task for criticising him

31
[to Isabella indicating Angelo] For this new-married man
Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd
Your well defended honour78, you must pardon
For Mariana's sake: but as he adjudged your brother -
The very mercy of the law cries out
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.
Away with him!

MARIANA
O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part79.

ISABELLA
Most bounteous sir,
[kneeling] Look, if it please you, on this condemn’d
As if my brother lived: let him not die.
His act did not o’ertake his bad intent.
Thoughts are no subjects;
Intents but merely thoughts80.

MARIANA
Merely, my lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO
[indicating that Angelo must die] Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say.

The Duke makes it clear to the Provost that now is the time for them to play
their final card.

PROVOST
[ushering in another prisoner] This is another prisoner that I saved.
Enter Claudio muffled and Juliet
Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;
As like almost to Claudio as himself.

Unmuffles Claudio.

DUKE VINCENTIO
[to Isabella] If he be like your brother, for his sake
Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake,

78
Since Isabella was only assaulted in Angelo’s mind, and for Mariana’s sake the Duke is counselling
forgiveness. However, he goes on to remind her of the very real execution of her brother. Of course at this
stage Isabella still believes that her brother is dead.
79
She begs Isabella to save Angelo’s life for her sake.
80
She asks mercy for Angelo since he didn’t actually rape her; he shouldn’t be executed for his intentions.

32
Give me your hand and say you will be mine81.

[to Angelo] Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well:

Look that you love your wife;

[to Claudio] She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.

[to Mariana] Joy to you, Mariana! [to Angelo] Love her, Angelo:
[indicating the Provost] Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's:
The offence pardons itself. [to Isabella] Dear Isabel,
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.

[to his attendant] So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show
What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.

All exit: Claudio and Juliet, Angelo and Mariana, the Duke turns and beckons Isabella,
who remains in shock, alone on stage – her arms outstretched in desperation towards
Francisca, standing with hands clasped in prayer. Then she follows the Duke.

The End

81
The Duke is sincere in his offer to make Isabella his wife. What she, a woman who intended to follow the
religious life, thinks is another matter. There is a strong suggestion that one could not refuse the Duke.
Nonetheless Shakespeare leaves what happens next open.

33