Measure for Measure

He’s listening to a case. He’ll come at once, when I tell him you’re here.

Please do.

I’ll ask him his intentions; maybe he’ll relent. Claudio didn’t consciously commit a crime. People of every class and age indulge in this vice—and he’s going to die for it!

Now, what’s the matter, Provost?

Do you want Claudio to die tomorrow?

Did I not tell you yes? Don’t you have your orders? Why do you ask again?

In case I might be too rash. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve seen judges regret imposing the death sentence after the execution.

Enough—that’s my problem. Do your job, or resign your position. We can easily do without you.

I beg your honor’s pardon. What should we do, sir, with Juliet? She’s in labor, very close to giving birth.

Make arrangements to get her to a more appropriate place, and do it quickly.

The condemned man’s sister is here and wants to speak to you.

He has a sister?

Yes, my good lord—a very virtuous girl who’s entering a convent, if she hasn’t already.

Well, bring her in.

See that the tramp Juliet is moved, and provide her with everything she needs, but nothing extravagant. I’ll authorize it.

(departing) God save your honor!

Don’t leave yet.

Welcome. What do you want?

I sadly beg a request of your honor. Please hear me, your honor.

Well, what’s your request?

There’s a certain vice that I hate, and would love to see struck down by law. I’d rather not plead for it, but I must. I shouldn’t plead for it, but I’m torn between wanting and not wanting to.

Well, what’s the matter?

I have a brother who’s condemned to death. I beg you, condemn his crime but not him.

(to himself) Heaven give you the power to persuade him!

Condemn the crime and not the person who commits it? Why, by definition every crime is condemned before it’s committed. I would have a meaningless role if I just punished the crimes whose penalties were in the law books and let the criminal go.

Oh, fair but harsh law! Then I had a brother but don’t anymore. (departing) Heaven protect your honor!

(aside to ISABELLA) Don’t give up so fast. Go to him again, beg him, kneel down before him, cling to his gown. You’re too cold. You couldn’t be more casual if you were asking him for a pin. Go to him.

Does he have to die?

Miss, there’s no way out.

Yes, there is. I think that you could pardon him, and no one on heaven or earth would be sorry.

I won’t do it.

But could you, if you wanted to?

Look, what I won’t do, I can’t do.

But might you do it, without harming the world, if your heart felt as compassionate toward him as mine does?

He’s sentenced; it’s too late.

(aside to ISABELLA) You’re too cold.

Too late? why, no—I can speak a word and then take it back. Believe this: no symbol of authority—not the king’s crown, or the deputy’s sword, or the military officer’s baton, or the judge’s robe—makes a person great as much as mercy does. If he’d been you and you’d been him, you would have slipped like he did; but he, in your place, wouldn’t have been so stern.

Please leave.

I wish to heaven I had your power, and you were Isabel! Would things be like this? No, I’d decide what it is to be a judge, and to be a prisoner.

(aside to ISABELLA) Yes, that’s the way to talk.

Your brother is doomed for breaking the law. You’re wasting your breath.

How sad! Why, all the souls on earth were doomed once upon a time. And God, who might have seized the chance to condemn us, instead found a way to redeem our sins. What would happen to you, if he who is the highest judge of all should judge you as you are now? Oh, think about that, and then merciful speech will flow out your mouth, as if you had been reborn.

Accept it, lovely lady. It’s the law, not I, that condemns your brother. Were he my cousin, brother, or my son, it’d be the same. He must die tomorrow.

Tomorrow! Oh, that’s so sudden! Spare him, spare him! He’s not prepared for death. We only kill fowl in season, when they’re in the best shape for eating. Should we serve him up to heaven with less respect than we show toward our inferior mortal bodies? My good, good lord, consider: who else has died for this crime? Many people have committed it.

(aside to ISABELLA) Yes, well said.

The law wasn’t dead, but it was asleep. All those people wouldn’t have dared to commit that crime if the first lawbreaker had been punished. Now the law’s awake, notes what’s going on, and, like a fortuneteller, looks in a crystal ball to see what future evils, either newly conceived or just being contemplated, will someday hatch. Now, they won’t develop any further but will die before they’re born.

Show some pity.

I show it most of all when I show justice, for then I pity all those people I don’t know who’d be harmed by an unpunished crime. I do right to the man who, by paying for one wrong act, doesn’t live to commit another one. Be satisfied with this. Your brother dies tomorrow. Accept it.

So you must be the first one to impose this sentence, and he the first one to suffer it. Oh, it’s excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it’s tyranny to use it like a giant.

(aside to ISABELLA) That’s well said.

If men of power could thunder and wield lightning as the god Jove himself does, Jove would never have any peace, for every puny, petty official would use his heaven for thunder, nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven, you use your sharp, sulfur-scented lightning bolts to split the hard gnarled oak tree, rather than the soft myrtle bush. But give a proud man a little bit of temporary authority and he forgets what it means to be made in God’s image. Instead, like an angry ape that mimics people’s behavior, he does such incredibly grotesque things before high heaven that the angels, if they were human, would either weep or die laughing.

(aside to ISABELLA) Oh, keep at him, keep at him, girl! He’s going to relent. He’s coming around, I can tell.

(to himself) Pray heaven she wins him over!

We can’t use ourselves as a standard to judge others. Great men may joke about the saints; that’s good fun. But if an ordinary person does it, it’s profane.

You’re right, girl. Keep talking like that.

When a captain curses, it’s just angry words. When a private does it, it’s blasphemy.

(aside to ISABELLA) You know about that sort of stuff? Tell us more.

Why are you attacking me with these sayings?

Because people in authority, even though they sin like everyone else, apply a sort of bandage to cover—but not cure—their sinful sores. Look in your heart and ask yourself if you’ve ever experienced anything like my brother’s crime. If your heart admits to being guilty of the same natural impulses, don’t say a word to condemn my brother.

(to himself) She speaks with such sense, she’s got my senses and desire stirred up. Goodbye.

My gracious lord, come back.

I’ll consider the matter. Come again tomorrow.

I’ll bribe you—come back, my good lord.

What? Bribe me?

Yes, with gifts from heaven.

(aside to ISABELLA) You nearly blew it.

Not with silly coins of real gold, or jewels whose value rises and falls, depending on fashion; but with constant prayers that will rise up and enter heaven before dawn—the prayers of protected souls, nuns whose minds are dedicated only to spiritual things.

Well, come see me tomorrow.

(aside to ISABELLA) Great, that’s enough. Let’s go!

Heaven keep your honor safe!

(to himself) Amen—for I’m falling into temptation, where desires and prayers work against each other.

What time tomorrow should I come to your lordship?

Anytime before noon.

God save your honor!

From you, and from your virtue, too! What’s happening? Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the tempted, who sins the most? Ha! It’s not her, she’s not trying to be a tempter. It’s me. It’s like I’m lying in a field of violets, only instead of blossoming and smelling like a flower, I’m rotting and stinking like a corpse from the same sun that makes the flowers grow. Is it possible that a modest woman can arouse desire more than a seductive one? Having destroyed enough land already, should a person want to tear down a holy place and establish evil there as well? Oh, damn, damn, damn! Angelo, what are you doing, who are you? Do you sinfully desire her for the things that make her good? Oh, I should let her brother live! Thieves are justified in robbing when the judges themselves are thieves. Can it be I’m in love with her, when I want to hear her speak again, and gaze into her eyes? What am I dreaming of? Oh, the devil’s a cunning enemy—to catch a saint, he baits the hook with saints! The most dangerous temptation is the one that uses our love of goodness to draw us into sin. A prostitute could never attract me, even with her two powers: her seductive skills and her natural endowments. But this virtuous girl totally overwhelms me. Whenever I saw men who were infatuated like idiots, I smiled and didn’t understand—up until now.