Measure for Measure

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Classic Books Library
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781528785594
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

Classic Books Library presents this new beautiful edition of William Shakespeare's play, "Measure for Measure". Featuring a specially commissioned new biography of William Shakespeare, it is a must for Shakespeare enthusiasts and newcomers alike. This story's main themes are the conflicts between corruption and virtue, hypocrisy and justice. The Duke of Vienna leaves to resolve the town's troubles disguised as a friar. Left in charge, his trusted deputy Angelo reinstates the criminalising of sex before marriage, condemning Claudio, who has impregnated the girl he intends to marry, to death. When Claudio's sister, Isabella, a novice nun, asks Angelo to spare her brother, he propositions her, revealing his true nature. Though she refuses, the characters are swept into a world of trickery, secrets and disguise. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is considered to be the greatest writer in the English language and is celebrated as the world's most famous dramatist.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A Hall in Angelo's House.

[Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a JUSTICE, PROVOST,
Officers, and other Attendants.]

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.

ESCALUS.
Ay, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little
Than fall and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
Let but your honour know,—
Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,—
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood
Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Err'd in this point which now you censure him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

ANGELO.
'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 it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence
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.

ESCALUS.
Be it as your wisdom will.

ANGELO.
Where is the provost?

PROVOST.
Here, if it like your honour.

ANGELO.
See that Claudio
Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
Bring him his confessor; let him be prepard;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit PROVOST.]

ESCALUS.
Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none,
And some condemned for a fault alone.

[Enter ELBOW, FROTH, CLOWN, Officers, &c.]

ELBOW.
Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law; br...