Measure for Measure

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ACT II SCENE I	A hall In ANGELO's house.
	Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, and a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants, behind.
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,	5
	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 cohered with place or place with wishing,
	Or that the resolute acting of your blood	12
	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 know the laws	22
	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 offence
	For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,	28
	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 prepared;
	For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.
	Exit Provost.
ESCALUS	Aside. Well, heaven forgive him, and forgive us all!
	Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
	Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none:	39
	And some condemned for a fault alone.
	Enter ELBOW, and Officers with FROTH and POMPEY.
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: bring them away.
ANGELO	How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?
ELBOW	If it Please your honour, I am the poor duke's
	constable, and my name is Elbow: I do lean upon	47
	justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good
	honour two notorious benefactors.
ANGELO	Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are
	they not malefactors?
ELBOW	If it? please your honour, I know not well what they
	are: but precise villains they are, that I am sure	54
	of; and void of all profanation in the world that
	good Christians ought to have.
ESCALUS	This comes off well; here's a wise officer.
ANGELO	Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your
	name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow?
POMPEY	He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.	60
ANGELO	What are you, sir?
ELBOW	He, sir! a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that
	serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they
	say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she
	professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too.
ESCALUS	How know you that?
ELBOW	My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,--
ESCALUS	How? thy wife?
ELBOW	Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman,--
ESCALUS	Dost thou detest her therefore?
ELBOW	I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as
	she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house,
	it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.
ESCALUS	How dost thou know that, constable?
ELBOW	Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman
	cardinally given, might have been accused in
	fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.
ESCALUS	By the woman's means?
ELBOW	Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she
	spit in his face, so she defied him.
POMPEY	Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.
ELBOW	Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable
	man; prove it.
ESCALUS	Do you hear how he misplaces?
POMPEY	Sir, she came in great with child; and longing,
	saving your honour's reverence, for stewed prunes;
	sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very
	distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a
	dish of some three-pence; your honours have seen
	such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very	91
	good dishes,--
ESCALUS	Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir.
POMPEY	No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in
	the right: but to the point. As I say, this
	Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and
	being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for
	prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said,
	Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the
	rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very
	honestly; for, as you know, Master Froth, I could
	not give you three-pence again.
FROTH	No, indeed.
POMPEY	Very well: you being then, if you be remembered,
	cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes,--
FROTH	Ay, so I did indeed.
POMPEY	Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be
	remembered, that such a one and such a one were past
	cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very	108
	good diet, as I told you,--
FROTH	All this is true.
POMPEY	Why, very well, then,--
ESCALUS	Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What
	was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to
	complain of? Come me to what was done to her.	115
POMPEY	Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
ESCALUS	No, sir, nor I mean it not.
POMPEY	Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's
	leave. And, I beseech you, look into Master Froth
	here, sir; a man of four-score pound a year; whose
	father died at Hallowmas: was't not at Hallowmas,
	Master Froth?
FROTH	All-hallond eve.
POMPEY	Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir,
	sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir; 'twas in	123
	the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you have a delight
	to sit, have you not?
FROTH	I have so; because it is an open room and good for winter.
POMPEY	Why, very well, then; I hope here be truths.
ANGELO	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.
ESCALUS	I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.
	Exit ANGELO
	Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?
POMPEY	Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.
ELBOW	I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.
POMPEY	I beseech your honour, ask me.
ESCALUS	Well, sir; what did this gentleman to her?
POMPEY	I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.
	Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a
	good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?
ESCALUS	Ay, sir, very well.
POMPEY	Nay; I beseech you, mark it well.
ESCALUS	Well, I do so.
POMPEY	Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
ESCALUS	Why, no.
POMPEY	I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst	149
	thing about him. Good, then; if his face be the
	worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the
	constable's wife any harm? I would know that of
	your honour.
ESCALUS	He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it?
ELBOW	First, an it like you, the house is a respected
	house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his
	mistress is a respected woman.
POMPEY	By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected
	person than any of us all.
ELBOW	Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet! the
	time has yet to come that she was ever respected
	with man, woman, or child.
POMPEY	Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.
ESCALUS	Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is	165
	this true?
ELBOW	O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked
	Hannibal! I respected with her before I was married
	to her! If ever I was respected with her, or she
	with me, let not your worship think me the poor
	duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or
	I'll have mine action of battery on thee.
ESCALUS	If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your
	action of slander too.
ELBOW	Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't
	your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?
ESCALUS	Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him	175
	that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him
	continue in his courses till thou knowest what they
	are.
ELBOW	Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou
	wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art
	to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue.	182
ESCALUS	Where were you born, friend?
FROTH	Here in Vienna, sir.
ESCALUS	Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
FROTH	Yes, an't please you, sir.
ESCALUS	So. What trade are you of, sir?
POMPHEY	Tapster; a poor widow's tapster.
ESCALUS	Your mistress' name?
POMPHEY	Mistress Overdone.
ESCALUS	Hath she had any more than one husband?
POMPEY	Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.
ESCALUS	Nine! Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master
	Froth, I would not have you acquainted with
	tapsters: they will draw you, Master Froth, and you	196
	will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no
	more of you.
FROTH	I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never
	come into any room in a tap-house, but I am drawn
	in.
ESCALUS	Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell.
	Exit FROTH.
	Come you hither to me, Master tapster. What's your
	name, Master tapster?
POMPEY	Pompey.	203
ESCALUS	What else?
POMPEY	Bum, sir.
ESCALUS	Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;
	so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the
	Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,	203
	howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you
	not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.
POMPEY	Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
ESCALUS	How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What
	do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?
POMPEY	If the law would allow it, sir.
ESCALUS	But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall
	not be allowed in Vienna.
POMPEY	Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the	218
	youth of the city?
ESCALUS	No, Pompey.
POMPEY	Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then.
	If your worship will take order for the drabs and
	the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.
ESCALUS	There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you:
	it is but heading and hanging.
POMPEY	If you head and hang all that offend that way but
	for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a
	commission for more heads: if this law hold in
	Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it
	after three-pence a bay: if you live to see this	229
	come to pass, say Pompey told you so.
ESCALUS	Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your
	prophecy, hark you: I advise you, let me not find
	you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever;
	no, not for dwelling where you do: if I do, Pompey,
	I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd
	Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall
	have you whipt: so, for this time, Pompey, fare you well.
POMPEY	I thank your worship for your good counsel.
	Aside.
	but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall
	better determine.
	Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade:
	The valiant heart is not whipt out of his trade.
	Exit.
ESCALUS	Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master
	constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?
ELBOW	Seven year and a half, sir.
ESCALUS	I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had	247
	continued in it some time. You say, seven years together?
ELBOW	And a half, sir.
ESCALUS	Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you
	wrong to put you so oft upon 't: are there not men
	in your ward sufficient to serve it?
ELBOW	Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they
	are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I
	do it for some piece of money, and go through with
	all.
ESCALUS	Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven,
	the most sufficient of your parish.
ELBOW	To your worship's house, sir?
ESCALUS	To my house. Fare you well.
	Exit ELBOW.
	What's o'clock, think you?
Justice	Eleven, sir.	262
ESCALUS	I pray you home to dinner with me.
Justice	I humbly thank you.
ESCALUS	It grieves me for the death of Claudio;
	But there's no remedy.
Justice	Lord Angelo is severe.
ESCALUS	It is but needful:
	Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
	Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:
	But yet,--poor Claudio! There is no remedy.
	Come, sir.
	Exeunt.

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Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 1

From Measure for Measure. Ed. William J. Rolfe. New York: Harper & Brothers., 1899.

2. Fear. Affright; as in T. of S. i. 2. 211: "Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs." Cf. K, John, p. 147.
6. F'all. Generally explained as transitive; as in A, Y. L, iii. 5. 5:

"The common executioner,
Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard
Falls not the axe," etc.

It may, however, be intransitive, as J. H. makes it: "Escalus desires that Angelo and he should act as keen instruments and cut a little, rather than fall as heavy weights on an offender and crush him to death."
8. Know. Reflect, consider.
12. Blood. Animal passion; as in ii. 4. 15, 178, and v. i. 468 below. Cf. also Much Ado, p. 131, note on Faith melteth into blood.
15. Which. In which. See on i. 4. 27 above. Hanmer reads "point you censure now in him," Capell "censure him for," and W. "where now."
18. I not deny. The transposition of not is common. Cf. Temp, ii. I. 121, V. 1. 38, 1 13, 303, etc Gr. 305.
22. What knows the law, etc. The folio reads "What knowes the Lawes," and some modern eds. give "What know the laws." Malone paraphrases the passage thus: "How can the administrators of the laws take cognizance of what I have just mentioned? How can they know whether the jurymen, who decide on the life or death of thieves, be themselves as criminal as those whom they try?" Pass on is of course used in the same sense as in 19 just above.
23. Pregnant. Full of probability, evident. Cf. Cymb, p. 209, and see also Lear p. 198.
28. For I have had. Because I have had, on the ground that I have had. See M. of V. p. 134, note on For he is a Christian, Gr. 150, 151.
29. Censure. Judge, sentence. See on i. 4. 72 above.
31. And nothing come in partial. And no partiality be urged or allowed.
39. Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none. The folio reads: "Some run from brakes of Ice, and answere none." Rowe gave "through brakes of vice;" and Malone, followed by most of the more recent editors, adopted the vice. This seems on the whole the simplest and best emendation, where none is quite satisfactory. Brakes of vice, if it be what S. wrote, must mean thickets of vice, with perhaps the double idea of a complication of vices — many vices, as opposed to the single fault of the next line — and that of thorny entanglements out of which escape would seem difficult. Steevens at first was inclined to read "breaks of ice," and explain the passage "some run away from danger, and stay to answer none of their faults;" but afterwards adopted brakes of vice, taking brakes to mean "engines of torture," as in Holinshed and other writers of the time. See also Dr. Ingleby's Shakes. Hermeneutics, p. 145.
47. The poor duke's constable. Cf, Much Ado, iii. 5. 22 (Dogberry's speech): "the poor duke's officers."
54. Precise villains. He means of course that they are precisely or literally villains; but, as Clarke notes, the word gives the impression of "strict, severely moral," as in i. 3. 50 above: "Lord Angelo is precise."
55. Profanation. A blunder for profession.
57. This comes off well. Johnson makes this = "this is nimbly spoken, this is volubly uttered;" but it seems rather to mean (ironically, of course) this is well told. Cf. T. of A. i.I. 29: "this comes off well and excellent" (=this is well done).
60. Out at elbow. "A hit at the constable's threadbare coat, and at his being startled and put out by Angelo's peremptory repetition of his name" (Clarke). Cf. A. Y. L. iv. i. 76: "Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit," etc.
62. Parcel-bawd. Part bawd. Cf. parcel-gilt in 2 Hen, IV. ii. I. 94, and see our ed. p. 161.
64. Hot-house. Bagnio, or bathing-house.
67. Detest. Mrs. Quickly makes the same blunder in M. W. i. 4. 160: "but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread."
88. Stewed prunes. A favourite dish in such houses. Cf. M. W. i. I. 296, I Hen. IV. iii. 3. 128, and 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 159.
91. China dishes. These, though not rare in the poet's day, were so costly that it was superfluous to say that they would not be found in common use in a house like Mistress Overdone's.
103. If you be remembered. If you recollect. Cf. A. Y. L. p. 184.
108. Wot. Know; used only in the present tense and the participle, for which see W. T. iii. 2. 77.
114. Come me. The me is probably the "dativus ethicus," as in i. 2. 156 above and iv. 2. 6 below; but W. prefers to read "Come we."
123. A lower chair. That is, an easy-chair.
The Bunch of Grapes. It was the custom in the time of S., and long after, to give names to particular rooms in taverns. See i Hen, IV. p. 164, note on The Half-Moon.
126. An open room and good for winter. The confusion of ideas is sufficiently characteristic of the speaker, but some of the critics have tried to make the passage logical. Talbot makes the preposterous suggestion that open is "perhaps from the same root as oven, a warm room;" and the Coll. MS. substitutes "windows" for winter.
129. Russia. Metrically a trisyllable.
149. Supposed. "He means deposed" (Malone).
155. An it like you. If it please you. Cf. Hen. V. iii. prol. 32: "The offer likes not," etc. Gr. 297.
165. Justice or Iniquity. "That is, the constable or the fool. Escalus calls the latter Iniquity in allusion to the old Vice a familiar character in the ancient moralities and dumb-shows" (Ritson). Cf. i Hen, IV. ii. 4. 499: "that reverend vice, that grey iniquity ;" Rich. III. iii. i. 82: "like the formal Vice, Iniquity," etc. See also T. N, p. 159.
168. Hannibal. "Mistaken by the constable for cannibal" (Johnson). Cf. 2 Hen. IV. u. 4. 180 (Pistol's speech): "Compare with Caesars and with Cannibals."
182. Thou art to continue. Elbow evidently takes the "continue" of Escalus to refer to some penalty or other.
196. Draw you. "Draw has here a cluster of senses. As it refers to the tapster, it signifies to drain, to empty; as it is related to hang it means to be conveyed to execution on a hurdle. In Froth's answer, it is the same as to bring along by some motive or power" (Johnson). For the play upon drawing and hangings cf Much Ado, iii. 2. 22 and K. John ii. i. 504.
199. Drawn in. That is, taken in, swindled.
203. Pompey. As he is called Thomas in i. 2. 104, Clarke suggests that Pompey was a name given him by waggish customers and adopted by himself; but it is quite as likely that the Thomas was the nickname. See on i. 2. 104 above.
206. The greatest thing about you. Probably an allusion to the enormous breeches then worn.
218. Spay. The folios have "splay," which some take to be an old form of the word.
229. Day. The folios have "bay;" corrected by Pope. Some retain "bay" because it was an architectural term for a division of a building; but, as W. asks, "threepence a bay for how long?" After = at the rate of.
235. Shrewd. Mischievous, evil. See J. C, p. 145, or Hen. VIII. p. 202.
239. But I shall follow it, etc. St. was the first to mark this as Aside.
241. Jade. A common term for a worthless nag. See Hen. V. p. 170.
247. Your readiness. The folios have "the" for your (doubtless from confounding y(r) and y(e) in the MS.); corrected by Pope.
Though Elbow says seven year and Escalus seven years, it must not be supposed that the former is a vulgarism. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 53: "Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since," etc. See Matzner, Eng. Gram. vol. j. pp. 230, 240.
262. Eleven, sir. Harrison, in his Description of England (p. 166 of Mr. Furnivall's ed.), says: "With vs the nobilitie, gentrie, and students, doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleuen before noone, and to supper at fine, or betweene fine and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelue at noone, and six at night especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noone as they call it, and sup at seuen or eight: but out of the tearme in our vniuersities the scholers dine at ten."

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2

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