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I'll swear I am a maid, and he knows not.

Great King, I am no strumpet, by my life;

I am either maid, or else this old man's wife.

[Pointing to LAFEU]

KING.

She does abuse our ears; to prison with her.

DIANA.

Good mother, fetch my bail. Stay, royal sir;

Exit WIDOW

The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for,

And he shall surety me. But for this lord

Who hath abus'd me as he knows himself,

Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him.

He knows himself my bed he hath defil'd;

And at that time he got his wife with child.

Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick;

So there's my riddle: one that's dead is quick-

And now behold the meaning.

Re-enter WIDOW with HELENA

KING.

Is there no exorcist

Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?

Is't real that I see?

HELENA.

No, my good lord;

'Tis but the shadow of a wife you see,

The name and not the thing.

BERTRAM.

Both, both; o, pardon!

HELENA.

O, my good lord, when I was like this maid,

I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring,

And, look you, here's your letter. This it says:

'When from my finger you can get this ring,

And are by me with child,' etc. This is done.

Will you be mine now you are doubly won?

BERTRAM.

If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly,

I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.

HELENA.

If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,

Deadly divorce step between me and you!

O my dear mother, do I see you living?

LAFEU.

Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon. [To PAROLLES]

Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher. So, I

thank thee. Wait on me home, I'll make sport with thee;

let thy curtsies alone, they are scurvy ones.

KING.

Let us from point to point this story know,

To make the even truth in pleasure flow.

[To DIANA] If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower,

Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower;

For I can guess that by thy honest aid

Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.-

Of that and all the progress, more and less,

Resolvedly more leisure shall express.

All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,

The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. [Flourish]

EPILOGUE.

KING.

The King's a beggar, now the play is done.

All is well ended if this suit be won,

That you express content; which we will pay

With strife to please you, day exceeding day.

Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts;

Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.

Exeunt omnes

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

This problem comedy is believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. The play deals with issues of mercy, justice, and truth and their relationship to pride and humility. A virtuous maiden is given the ultimatum of surrendering her chastity in return for saving her brother’s life, thus revealing the play’s controversial and problematic dilemma. The plot deals with Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, who makes it known that he intends to leave the city on a diplomatic mission. He leaves the government in the hands of a strict judge, Angelo.

The play draws on two distinct sources. The original is The Story of Epitia, a story from Cinthio's Hecatommithi, first published in 1565. Shakespeare was familiar with this book as it contains the original source for Othello. Cinthio also published the same story in a play version with some small differences, which Shakespeare may have been aware of.

Shakespeare's main source text for this play is available via this link.

The First Folio, published in 1623

Claudio and Isabella by William Holman Hunt, 1850

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I. SCENE I. The DUKE'S palace

SCENE II. A street

SCENE III. A monastery

SCENE IV. A nunnery

ACT II. Scene I. A hall in ANGELO'S house

SCENE II. Another room in ANGELO'S house

SCENE III. A prison

SCENE IV. ANGELO'S house

ACT III. SCENE I. The prison

Scene II. The street before the prison

Act IV. Scene I. The moated grange at Saint Duke's

SCENE II. The prison

SCENE III. The prison

SCENE IV. ANGELO'S house

SCENE V. Fields without the town

SCENE VI. A street near the city gate