ACT 1
Scene 1

...is Lord Angelo.
Enter Angelo.

...where he comes.
Always obedient to your Grace’s will,
I come to know your pleasure.

...Take thy commission.
He hands Angelo a paper.
Now, good my lord,
Let there be some more test made of my mettle
Before so noble and so great a figure
Be stamped upon it.

...Of your commissions.
Yet give leave, my lord,
That we may bring you something on the way.

...fare you well.
The heavens give safety to your purposes.

...not yet instructed.
’Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,
And we may soon our satisfaction have
Touching that point.

...upon your Honor.
They exit.

ACT 2
Scene 1

...Good sir, adieu.
Enter Angelo, Escalus, Servants, and a Justice.
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.

...law upon you.
’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny
The jury passing on the prisoner’s life
May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try. What’s open made to justice,
That justice seizes. What knows the laws
That thieves do pass on thieves? ’Tis very pregnant,
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take ’t
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offense
For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
When I that censure him do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.

...your wisdom will.
Where is the Provost?

...like your Honor.
See that Claudio
Be executed by nine tomorrow morning.
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared,
For that’s the utmost of his pilgrimage.

...Bring them away.
How now, sir, what’s your name? And what’s
the matter?

...two notorious benefactors.
Benefactors? Well, what benefactors are they?
Are they not malefactors?

...a wise officer.
to Elbow
Go to. What quality are they of?
Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak,
Elbow?

...out at elbow.
What are you, sir?

...here be truths.
to Escalus
This will last out a night in Russia
When nights are longest there. I’ll take my leave,
And leave you to the hearing of the cause,
Hoping you’ll find good cause to whip them all.

...to your Lordship
Angelo exits.

Scene 2

...die for ’t?
Enter Angelo.
Now, what’s the matter, provost?

...shall die tomorrow?
Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order?
Why dost thou ask again?

...o’er his doom.
Go to. Let that be mine.
Do you your office, or give up your place
And you shall well be spared.

...near her hour.
Dispose of her
To some more fitter place, and that with speed.

...access to you.
Hath he a sister?

...If not already.
to Servant
Well, let her be admitted.
See you the fornicatress be removed.
Let her have needful but not lavish means.
There shall be order for ’t.

...exitSave your Honor.
Stay a little while. To Isabella.
You’re welcome.
What’s your will?

...Honor hear me.
Well, what’s your suit?

...and will not.
Well, the matter?

...moving graces.
Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault’s condemned ere it be done.
Mine were the very cipher of a function
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record
And let go by the actor.

...he needs die?
Maiden, no remedy.

...at the mercy.
I will not do ’t.

...if you would?
Look what I will not, that I cannot do.

...is to him?
He’s sentenced. ’Tis too late.

...been so stern.
Pray you begone.

...the vein.
Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words.

...Like man new-made.
Be you content, fair maid.
It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow.

...Ay, well said.
The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
Those many had not dared to do that evil
If the first that did th’ edict infringe
Had answered for his deed. Now ’tis awake,
Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass that shows what future evils—
Either now, or by remissness new-conceived,
And so in progress to be hatched and born—
Are now to have no successive degrees
But, ere they live, to end.

...show some pity.
I show it most of all when I show justice,
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismissed offense would after gall,
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
Your brother dies tomorrow; be content.

...More on ’t.
Why do you put these sayings upon me?

...my brother’s life.
aside
She speaks, and ’tis such sense
That my sense breeds with it.He begins to exit.
Fare you well.

...lord, turn back.
I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow.

...lord, turn back.
How? Bribe me?

...To nothing temporal.
Well, come to me tomorrow.

...your Honor safe.
aside
Amen.
For I am that way going to temptation
Where prayers cross.

...attend your Lordship?
At any time ’fore noon.

...Save your Honor.
From thee, even from thy virtue.
What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha?
Not she, nor doth she tempt; but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost 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 ’t I dream on?
O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook. Most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet
With all her double vigor, art and nature,
Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Ever till now
When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how.
He exits.

Scene 4

...pity of him.
Enter Angelo.
When I would pray and think, I think and pray
To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words,
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel. God in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew His name,
And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception. The state whereon I studied
Is, like a good thing being often read,
Grown sere and tedious. Yea, my gravity,
Wherein—let no man hear me—I take pride,
Could I with boot change for an idle plume
Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood.
Let’s write “good angel” on the devil’s horn.
’Tis not the devil’s crest.

Knock within.
How now, who’s there?

...access to you.
Teach her the way. O heavens,
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,
Making both it unable for itself
And dispossessing all my other parts
Of necessary fitness?
So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons,
Come all to help him, and so stop the air
By which he should revive. And even so
The general subject to a well-wished king
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offense.

Enter Isabella.
How now, fair maid?

...know your pleasure.
That you might know it would much better please me
Than to demand what ’tis. Your brother cannot live.

...keep your Honor.
Yet may he live a while. And it may be
As long as you or I. Yet he must die.

...Under your sentence?
Yea.

...soul sicken not.
Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit
Their saucy sweetness that do coin God’s image
In stamps that are forbid. ’Tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made
As to put metal in restrainèd means
To make a false one.

...not in Earth.
Say you so? 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 uncleanness
As she that he hath stained?

...than my soul.
I talk not of your soul. Our compelled sins
Stand more for number than for accompt.

...How say you?
Nay, I’ll not warrant that, for I can speak
Against the thing I say. 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?

...all, but charity.
Pleased you to do ’t, at peril of your soul,
Were equal poise of sin and charity.

...of your answer.
Nay, but hear me.
Your sense pursues not mine. Either you are ignorant,
Or seem so, crafty, and that’s not good.

...am no better.
Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright
When it doth tax itself, as these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could, displayed. But mark me.
To be receivèd plain, I’ll speak more gross:
Your brother is to die.

... So.
And his offense is so, as it appears,
Accountant to the law upon that pain.

... True.
Admit no other way to save his life—
As I subscribe not that, nor any other—
But, in the loss of question, that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desired of such a person
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the law, and that there were
No earthly mean to save him but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else to let him suffer,
What would you do?

...up to shame.
Then must your brother die.

...Should die forever.
Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
That you have slandered so?

...to foul redemption.
You seemed of late to make the law a tyrant,
And rather proved the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

...I dearly love.
We are all frail.

...succeed thy weakness.
Nay, women are frail too.

...to false prints.
I think it well.
And from this testimony of your own sex,
Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames, let me be bold.
I do arrest your words. Be that you are—
That is, a woman. If you be more, you’re none.
If you be one, as you are well expressed
By all external warrants, show it now
By putting on the destined livery.

...the former language.
Plainly conceive I love you.

...die for ’t.
He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

...pluck on others.
Believe me, on mine honor,
My words express my purpose.

...man thou art.
Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoiled name, th’ austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i’ th’ state
Will so your accusation overweigh
That you shall stifle in your own report
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race the rein.
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
That banish what they sue for. Redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will,
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To ling’ring sufferance. Answer me tomorrow,
Or by the affection that now guides me most,
I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.
He exits.

ACT 4
Scene 4

...I shall stick.
Enter Angelo and Escalus.

...hath disvouched other.
In most uneven and distracted manner. His
actions show much like to madness. Pray heaven his
wisdom be not tainted. And why meet him at the
gates and deliver our authorities there?

...I guess not.
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?

...stand against us.
Well, I beseech you let it be proclaimed.
Betimes i’ th’ morn, I’ll call you at your house. Give
notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet
him.

...Fare you well.
Good night.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. 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,
For my authority bears of a credent bulk
That no particular scandal once can touch
But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
Save that his riotous youth with dangerous sense
Might in the times to come have ta’en revenge
By so receiving a dishonored life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived.
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right. We would, and we would not.
He exits.

ACT 5
Scene 1

...Therefore hence, away.
Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Escalus, Lucio, Provost, Officers, and Citizens at several doors.

...to see you.
Happy return be to your royal Grace.

...Forerunning more requital.
You make my bonds still greater.

...me, here.
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.

...course of justice!
And she will speak most bitterly and strange.

...your own cause.
Duke and Angelo are seated.

...effect of love.
Charges she more than me?

...he knows Isabel’s.
This is a strange abuse. Let’s see thy face.

...Enough, my lord.
My lord, I must confess I know this woman,
And five years since there was some speech of marriage
Betwixt myself and her, which was broke off,
Partly for that her promisèd proportions
Came short of composition, but in chief
For that her reputation was disvalued
In levity. Since which time of five years
I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
Upon my faith and honor.

...A marble monument.
I did but smile till 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
That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.

...him to prison.
to Lucio
What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
Is this the man that you did tell us of?

...I love myself.
Hark how the villain would close now, after
his treasonable abuses!

...sir, stay awhile.
What, resists he?—Help him, Lucio.

...reveals the Duke.
Angelo and Escalus stand.

...no longer out.
O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your Grace, like power divine,
Hath looked upon my passes. Then, good prince,
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession.
Immediate sentence then and sequent death
Is all the grace I beg.

...this woman?
I was, my lord.

...with him, provost.
Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost exit.

...do, my lord.
Enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost.

...tempered judgment afterward.
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.

...all should know.
They exit.