MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT I. SCENE I. An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants. ESCALUS, Escal. My lord. Duke. Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know 1, Exceeds, in that, the lists My strength can give you: that your own science of all advice Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency 3, as your worth is able, And let them work. The nature of our people, Our city's institutions, and the terms For common justice, you are as pregnant in, 1 i. e. since I am so placed as to know. Mr. Stevens says it may mean, I am compelled to acknowledge. And instances from Henry VI. Pt. ii. Sc. 1. — had I first been put to speak my mind.' 2 Lists are bounds. 3 Some words seem to be lost here. The sense of which may have been Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency you join A zeal as willing, as your worth is able, And let them work. Sufficiency is skill in government; ability to execute his office. 4 i. e. ready in. As art and practice hath enriched any That we remember: There is our commission, From which we would not have you warp.-Call I hither, say, bid come before us Angelo.— [Exit an Attendant. What figure of us think you he will bear? For you must know, we have with special soul Lent him our terror, drest him with our love; To undergo such ample grace and honour, Duke. Enter ANGElo. Look, where he comes. Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure. Angelo, Duke. As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd, The smallest scruple of her excellence, 5 So much thy own property. 6 í. e. high purposes. 7 Two negatives, not employed to make an affirmative, are common in Shakspeare's writings, so in Julius Cæsar: 'Nor to no Roman else.' But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech To one that can my part in him advértise9; Hold therefore.-Angelo; In our remove, be thou at full ourself; Mortality and Mercy in Vienna Live in thy tongue and heart 10: Old Escalus, Ang. Now, good my lord, Let there be some more test made of my metal, Be stamp'd upon it. Duke. No more evasion: We have with a leaven'd11 and prepared choice Of Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord, That we may bring you something on the way. 8 i.e. Nature requires and allots to herself the same advantages that creditors usually enjoy—thanks for the endowments she has bestowed, and extraordinary exertions in those whom she has favoured; by way of use (i. e. interest) for what she has lent. 9 i. e. to one who is already sufficiently conversant with the nature and duties of my office;-of that office which I have now delegated to him. 10 i.e. I delegate to thy tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy heart the privilege of exercising mercy. 11 A choice mature, concocted, fermented; i. e. not hasty, but considerate. Duke. My haste may not admit it; Nor need you on mine honour have to do With any scruple: your scope12 is as mine own; So to enforce or qualify the laws, As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand; But do not like to stage me to their eyes: Nor do I think the man of safe discretion, Duke. I thank you: Fare you well. [Exit. Escal. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave To have free speech with you; and it concerns me To look into the bottom of my place: A power I have; but of what strength and nature I am not yet instructed. Ang. 'Tis so with me:-Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have Touching that point. Escal. I'll wait upon your honour. SCENE II. A Street. [Exeunt. Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen. Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why, then all the dukes fall upon the king. 1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the king of Hungary's! 2 Gent. Amen. Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious 12 Scope is extent of power. 13 Aves are hailings. pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal? Lucio. Ay, that he razed. 1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal: There's not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace. 2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for, I think, thou never wast where grace was said. 2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least. 1 Gent. What? in metre? Lucio. In any proportion1, or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion. Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: As for example; Thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace. 1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us2. Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: Thou art the list. 1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet3. Do I speak feelingly now? Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine 1 i. e. measure. 2 We are both of the same piece.. 3 Pil'd, for a French velvet.'-Velvet was esteemed according to the richness of the pile; three-pil'd was the richest. But Pil'd also means bald. The jest alludes to the loss of hair in the French disease. Lucio, finding the Gentleman understands the distemper so well, and mentions it so feelingly, promises to remember to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him. In old times the cup of an infected person was thought to be contagious. |