er to Claudio.
MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo.
JULIET, beloved of Claudio.
FRANCISCA, a nun.
MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd.

Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendants[2].

SCENE--_Vienna_.

FOOTNOTES:

1: DRAMATIS PERSONAE] THE NAMES OF ALL THE ACTORS Ff
(added at the end of the play).
2: Omitted in Ff.
3: Clowne. Ff.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. _An apartment in the DUKE'S palace._

_Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, _Lords_ and _Attendants_._

_Duke._ Escalus.

_Escal._ My lord.

_Duke._ Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know that your own science 5
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you: then no more remains,
But that to your sufficiency . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as your worth is able,
And let them work. The nature of our people, 10
Our city's institutions, and the terms
For common justice, you're as pregnant in
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember. There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp. Call hither, 15
I 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
Elected him our absence to supply;
Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love, 20
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: what think you of it?

_Escal._ If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is Lord Angelo.

_Duke._ Look where he comes. 25

_Enter ANGELO._

_Ang._ Always obedient to your Grace's will,
I come to know your pleasure.

_Duke._ Angelo,
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to th' observer doth thy history
Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings 30
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 35
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd
But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,