in Measure for Measure — Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas, rev.
Metadata
Play
Measure for Measure
Author
Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas, rev.
Year (catalogued)
1623
First performance
1604
Decade
1620s
Genre
Tragicomedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Speech prefix(es)
Mar.
Words
482
Characters
2401
Typicality
0.41 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11954.4
BritDrama no.
1413
Cluster
Cluster 12 — Wooers, gallants & courtly love-talk
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away, Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often stilled my brawling discontent. I cry you mercy, Sir, and well could wish You had not found me here so musical. Let me excuse me, and believe me so, My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe. You have not been inquired after: I have sat here all day. I am always bound to you. Good Friar, I know you do, and have found it. Wilt please you walk aside. Fear me not. Be ruled by him. I would Friar Peter Pardon my Lord, I will not show my face Until my husband bid me. No my Lord. No my Lord. Neither, my Lord. My Lord, I do confess I never was married, And I confess beside, I am no Maid, I have known my husband, yet my husband Knows not, that ever he knew me. Now I come to't, my Lord. She that accuses him of Fornication, In selfsame manner, does accuse my husband, And charges him, my Lord, with such a time, When I'll depose I had him mine Arms With all the effect of Love. Not that I know. Why joust, my Lord, and that is Angelo, Who thinks he knows, that he never knew my body, But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabels. My husband bids me, now I will unmask. This is that face, thou cruel Angelo Which once thou sworst, was worth the looking on: This is the hand, which with a vowed contract Was fast belockt in thine: This is the body That took away the match from Isabel, And did supply thee at thy garden-house In her Imagined person. Noble Prince, As there comes light from heaven, and words from ̄ breath, As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue, I am affianced this men wife, as strongly As words could make up vows: And my good Lord, But Tuesday night last gone, in's garden house, He knew me as a wife. As this is true, Let me in safety raise me from my knees, Or else for ever be confixed here A Marble Monument. O my most gracious Lord, I hope you will not mock me with a husband? O my deer Lord, I crave no other, nor no better man. Gentle my Liege. O my good Lord, sweet Isabel, take my partly, Lend me your knees, and all my life to come, I'll lend you all my life to do you service. Isabel: Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me, Hold up your hands, say nothing: I'll speak all. They say best men are moulded out of faults, And for the most, become much more the better For being a little bade: So may my husband. O Isabel : will you not lend a knee? Merely my Lord.
Plot summary
Plot — Measure for Measure
Duke Vincentio appoints Angelo as his deputy during his absence from Vienna, but arranges to remain in the city disguised as a friar. He explains to Friar Thomas, who helps with the disguise, that his objective is the restoration of the strict penal laws against sexual immorality which he has allowed to slip; Angelo, famous for his rectitude, will be able to effect this without risk of personal censure. But the Duke is also interested in how Angelo himself will respond to the challenges and temptations of power. Angelo does as expected, enforcing the laws which make begetting a child out of wedlock a capital crime. Claudio is arrested: he has made his fiancée Julietta pregnant, having been unable to have their marriage publicly solemnized because her family disapproves and would withhold her dowry. Claudio asks his friend Lucio to get his sister Isabella, who is about to enter a nunnery, to intercede with Angelo on his behalf. Isabella goes to see Angelo, who initially rejects her pleas, but then defers a decision and asks to see her again. At the second meeting, he offers her a bargain: Claudio’s life will be spared in exchange for sex with her. When he learns of the proposal, Claudio is torn between honour and fear, but finally urges Isabella to accept; she is chastely unwilling to do so. The Duke overhears their conversation, enjoins Claudio to prepare himself for death, and offers Isabella an option. Angelo was engaged to marry Mariana, but jilted her after her dowry was lost at sea. As the Duke suggests, Isabella consents to sex with Angelo, but briefly and in darkness; Mariana then takes her place for the act itself, preserving Isabella’s chastity. Angelo, however, sends a message to the prison reinforcing the execution order and demanding that Claudio’s head be sent by way of proof. There is another prisoner under sentence of death, Barnardine, so the Duke proposes beheading him in Claudio’s place; but Barnardine is drunk and would therefore be damned if executed now. Luckily a third prisoner has just died of a fever, and his head is sent to Angelo as Claudio’s; Claudio himself is hidden in the prison pending the Duke’s return, and Isabella told that he has been executed. The Duke sends Angelo orders concerning his return: Angelo is to meet him at the city gates to give up his commission, and any grievances against him will be dealt with there. Isabella duly sues for justice, but the Duke refuses to believe her story, citing Angelo’s reputation for…