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Speeches (Lines) for Angelo
in "Measure for Measure"

Total: 83

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# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

I,1,31

Always obedient to your grace's will,
I come to know your pleasure.

2

I,1,55

Now, good my lord,
Let there be some more test made of my metal,
Before so noble and so great a figure
Be stamp'd upon it.

3

I,1,70

Yet give leave, my lord,
That we may bring you something on the way.

4

I,1,83

The heavens give safety to your purposes!

5

I,1,92

'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,
And we may soon our satisfaction have
Touching that point.

6

II,1,453

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.

7

II,1,470

'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
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,
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.

8

II,1,486

Where is the provost?

9

II,1,488

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.

10

II,1,501

How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?

11

II,1,506

Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are
they not malefactors?

12

II,1,513

Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your
name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow?

13

II,1,516

What are you, sir?

14

II,1,584

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.

15

II,2,743

Now, what's the matter. Provost?

16

II,2,745

Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?
Why dost thou ask again?

17

II,2,751

Go to; let that be mine:
Do you your office, or give up your place,
And you shall well be spared.

18

II,2,757

Dispose of her
To some more fitter place, and that with speed.

19

II,2,762

Hath he a sister?

20

II,2,766

Well, let her be admitted.
[Exit Servant]
See you the fornicatress be removed:
Let have needful, but not lavish, means;
There shall be order for't.

21

II,2,773

Stay a little while.
[To ISABELLA]
You're welcome: what's your will?

22

II,2,778

Well; what's your suit?

23

II,2,784

Well; the matter?

24

II,2,789

Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done:
Mine were the very cipher of a function,
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.

25

II,2,803

Maiden, no remedy.

26

II,2,806

I will not do't.

27

II,2,808

Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

28

II,2,812

He's sentenced; 'tis too late.

29

II,2,824

Pray you, be gone.

30

II,2,831

Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
And you but waste your words.

31

II,2,841

Be you content, fair maid;
It is the law, not I condemn your brother:
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
It should be thus with him: he must die tomorrow.

32

II,2,853

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:
Those many had not dared to do that evil,
If the first that did the edict infringe
Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake
Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,
Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
Either new, or by remissness new-conceived,
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,
Are now to have no successive degrees,
But, ere they live, to end.

33

II,2,864

I show it most of all when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

34

II,2,900

Why do you put these sayings upon me?

35

II,2,909

[Aside] She speaks, and 'tis
Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare you well.

36

II,2,912

I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.

37

II,2,914

How! bribe me?

38

II,2,924

Well; come to me to-morrow.

39

II,2,927

[Aside]. Amen:
For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.

40

II,2,932

At any time 'fore noon.

41

II,2,935

From thee, even from thy virtue!
What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
Ha!
Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live!
Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Even till now,
When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.

42

II,4,1017

When I would pray and think, I think and pray
To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words;
Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,
As if I did but only chew his name;
And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
Of my conception. The state, whereon I studied
Is like a good thing, being often read,
Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,
Wherein—let no man hear me—I take pride,
Could I with boot change for an idle plume,
Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood:
Let's write good angel on the devil's horn:
'Tis not the devil's crest.
[Enter a Servant]
How now! who's there?

43

II,4,1037

Teach her the way.
[Exit Servant]
O heavens!
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,
Making both it unable for itself,
And dispossessing all my other parts
Of necessary fitness?
So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;
Come all to help him, and so stop the air
By which he should revive: and even so
The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
Must needs appear offence.
[Enter ISABELLA]
How now, fair maid?

44

II,4,1054

That you might know it, would much better please me
Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.

45

II,4,1057

Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be,
As long as you or I. yet he must die.

46

II,4,1060

Yea.

47

II,4,1064

Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit
Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image
In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy
Falsely to take away a life true made
As to put metal in restrained means
To make a false one.

48

II,4,1073

Say you so? then I shall pose you quickly.
Which had you rather, that the most just law
Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
As she that he hath stain'd?

49

II,4,1080

I talk not of your soul: our compell'd sins
Stand more for number than for accompt.

50

II,4,1083

Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak
Against the thing I say. Answer to this:
I, now the voice of the recorded law,
Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:
Might there not be a charity in sin
To save this brother's life?

51

II,4,1092

Pleased you to do't at peril of your soul,
Were equal poise of sin and charity.

52

II,4,1099

Nay, but hear me.
Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,
Or seem so craftily; and that's not good.

53

II,4,1104

Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright
When it doth tax itself; as these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me;
To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:
Your brother is to die.

54

II,4,1111

And his offence is so, as it appears,
Accountant to the law upon that pain.

55

II,4,1114

Admit no other way to save his life,—
As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question,—that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desired of such a person,
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-building law; and that there were
No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;
What would you do?

56

II,4,1131

Then must your brother die.

57

II,4,1136

Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
That you have slander'd so?

58

II,4,1141

You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;
And rather proved the sliding of your brother
A merriment than a vice.

59

II,4,1148

We are all frail.

60

II,4,1152

Nay, women are frail too.

61

II,4,1159

I think it well:
And from this testimony of your own sex,—
Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames,—let me be bold;
I do arrest your words. Be that you are,
That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;
If you be one, as you are well express'd
By all external warrants, show it now,
By putting on the destined livery.

62

II,4,1170

Plainly conceive, I love you.

63

II,4,1173

He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

64

II,4,1177

Believe me, on mine honour,
My words express my purpose.

65

II,4,1185

Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

66

IV,4,2309

In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions
show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be
not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and
redeliver our authorities there

67

IV,4,2314

And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his
entering, that if any crave redress of injustice,
they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

68

IV,4,2321

Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes
i' the morn; I'll call you at your house: give
notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet
him.

69

IV,4,2326

Good night.
[Exit ESCALUS]
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
The law against it! But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;
For my authority bears of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch
But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!
A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.

70

V,1,2389

[with Escalus] Happy return be to your royal grace!

71

V,1,2395

You make my bonds still greater.

72

V,1,2422

My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:
She hath been a suitor to me for her brother
Cut off by course of justice,—

73

V,1,2426

And she will speak most bitterly and strange.

74

V,1,2604

Charges she more than me?

75

V,1,2610

This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.

76

V,1,2624

My lord, I must confess I know this woman:
And five years since there was some speech of marriage
Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,
Partly for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition, but in chief
For that her reputation was disvalued
In levity: since which time of five years
I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
Upon my faith and honour.

77

V,1,2643

I did but smile till now:
Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice
My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive
These poor informal women are no more
But instruments of some more mightier member
That sets them on: let me have way, my lord,
To find this practise out.

78

V,1,2741

What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
Is this the man that you did tell us of?

79

V,1,2757

Hark, how the villain would close now, after his
treasonable abuses!

80

V,1,2765

What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.

81

V,1,2786

O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your grace, like power divine,. Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince,
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession:
Immediate sentence then and sequent death
Is all the grace I beg.

82

V,1,2796

I was, my lord.

83

V,1,2915

I am sorry that such sorrow I procure:
And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart
That I crave death more willingly than mercy;
'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.
[Re-enter Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled,]
and JULIET]

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