Act 2, Scene 1

A hall in ANGELO'S house.

[Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a JUSTICE, PROVOST, Officers, and other Attendants.]
Angelo
420 We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
421 Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
422 And let it keep one shape till custom make it
423 Their perch, and not their terror.
Escalus
424 Ay, but yet
425 Let us be keen, and rather cut a little
426 Than fall and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman,
427 Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
428 Let but your honour know,—
429 Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,—
430 That, in the working of your own affections,
431 Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
432 Or that the resolute acting of your blood
433 Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
434 Whether you had not sometime in your life
435 Err'd in this point which now you censure him,
436 And pull'd the law upon you.
Angelo
437 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
438 Another thing to fall. I not deny
439 The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
440 May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two
441 Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,
442 That justice seizes. What knows the laws
443 That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,
444 The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
445 Because we see it; but what we do not see
446 We tread upon, and never think of it.
447 You may not so extenuate his offence
448 For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
449 When I, that censure him, do so offend,
450 Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
451 And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Escalus
452 Be it as your wisdom will.
Angelo
453 Where is the provost?
Provost
454 Here, if it like your honour.
Angelo
455 See that Claudio
456 Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
457 Bring him his confessor; let him be prepard;
458 For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.
[Exit PROVOST.]
Escalus
459 Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
460 Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
461 Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none,
462 And some condemned for a fault alone.
[Enter ELBOW, FROTH, CLOWN, Officers, &c.]
Elbow
463 Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal
464 that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know
465 no law; bring them away.
Angelo
466 How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?
Elbow
467 If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's constable, and my
468 name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here
469 before your good honour two notorious benefactors.
Angelo
470 Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they? are they not
471 malefactors?
Elbow
472 If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but
473 precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all
474 profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have.
Escalus
475 This comes off well; here's a wise officer.
Angelo
476 Go to;—what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost
477 thou not speak, Elbow?
Pompey
478 He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.
Angelo
479 What are you, sir?
Elbow
480 He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad
481 woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the
482 suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is
483 a very ill house too.
Escalus
484 How know you that?
Elbow
485 My wfe, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,—
Escalus
486 How! thy wife!
Elbow
487 Ay, sir; who, I thank heaven, is an honest woman,—
Escalus
488 Dost thou detest her therefore?
Elbow
489 I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this
490 house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for
491 it is a naughty house.
Escalus
492 How dost thou know that, constable?
Elbow
493 Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally
494 given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all
495 uncleanliness there.
Escalus
496 By the woman's means?
Elbow
497 Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she spit in his
498 face, so she defied him.
Pompey
499 Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.
Elbow
500 Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove
501 it.
[To ANGELO.]
Escalus
502 Do you hear how he misplaces?
Pompey
503 Sir, she came in great with child; and longing,—saving your
504 honour's reverence—for stew'd prunes; sir, we had but two in
505 the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were,
506 in a fruit dish, a dish of some threepence; your honours have
507 seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good
508 dishes.
Escalus
509 Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir.
Pompey
510 No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right; but
511 to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as I say,
512 with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for
513 prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said, Master Froth
514 here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I
515 say, paying for them very honestly;—for, as you know, Master
516 Froth, I could not give you threepence again,—
Froth
517 No, indeed.
Pompey
518 Very well; you being then, if you be remember'd, cracking the
519 stones of the foresaid prunes,—
Froth
520 Ay, so I did indeed.
Pompey
521 Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remember'd, that
522 such a one and such a one were past cure of the thing you wot of,
523 unless they kept very good diet, as I told you,—
Froth
524 All this is true.
Pompey
525 Why, very well then.
Escalus
526 Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What was done to
527 Elbow's wife that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what
528 was done to her.
Pompey
529 Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
Escalus
530 No, sir, nor I mean it not.
Pompey
531 Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave. And, I
532 beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir, a man of fourscore
533 pound a-year; whose father died at Hallowmas:—was't not at
534 Hallowmas, Master Froth?
Froth
535 All-hallond eve.
Pompey
536 Why, very well; I hope here be truths: He, sir, sitting, as I
537 say, in a lower chair, sir;—'twas in the 'Bunch of Grapes',
538 where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not?—
Froth
539 I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter.
Pompey
540 Why, very well then;—I hope here be truths.
Angelo
541 This will last out a night in Russia,
542 When nights are longest there: I'll take my leave,
543 And leave you to the hearing of the cause;
544 Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all.
Escalus
545 I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.
[Exit ANGELO.]
Escalus
546 Now, sir, come on; what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?
Pompey
547 Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.
Elbow
548 I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.
Pompey
549 I beseech your honour, ask me.
Escalus
550 Well, sir: what did this gentleman to her?
Pompey
551 I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.—Good Master
552 Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose.—Doth your
553 honour mark his face?
Escalus
554 Ay, sir, very well.
Pompey
555 Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
Escalus
556 Well, I do so.
Pompey
557 Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
Escalus
558 Why, no.
Pompey
559 I'll be supposed upon a book his face is the worst thing about
560 him. Good then; if his face be the worst thing about him, how
561 could Master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would
562 know that of your honour.
Escalus
563 He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it?
Elbow
564 First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this
565 is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected woman.
Pompey
566 By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any
567 of us all.
Elbow
568 Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet: the time is yet to
569 come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child.
Pompey
570 Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.
Escalus
571 Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity?—is this true?
Elbow
572 O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I
573 respected with her before I was married to her? If ever I was
574 respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think
575 me the poor duke's officer.—Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal,
576 or I'll have mine action of battery on thee.
Escalus
577 If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your action of
578 slander too.
Elbow
579 Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't your worship's
580 pleasure I should do with this wicked caitiff?
Escalus
581 Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou
582 wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses
583 till thou knowest what they are.
Elbow
584 Marry, I thank your worship for it.—Thou seest, thou wicked
585 varlet, now, what's come upon thee; thou art to continue now, thou
586 varlet; thou art to continue.
[To FROTH.]
Escalus
587 Where were you born, friend?
Froth
588 Here in Vienna, sir.
Escalus
589 Are you of fourscore pounds a-year?
Froth
590 Yes, an't please you, sir.
Escalus
591 So.—
[To the CLOWN.]
Escalus
592 What trade are you of, sir?
Pompey
593 A tapster; a poor widow's tapster.
Escalus
594 Your mistress' name?
Pompey
595 Mistress Overdone.
Escalus
596 Hath she had any more than one husband?
Pompey
597 Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.
Escalus
598 Nine!—Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master Froth, I would not
599 have you acquainted with tapsters: they will draw you, Master
600 Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no
601 more of you.
Froth
602 I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into any
603 room in a taphouse but I am drawn in.
Escalus
604 Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell.
[Exit FROTH.]
Escalus
605 —Come you hither to me, master tapster; what's your name, master
606 tapster?
Pompey
607 Pompey.
Escalus
608 What else?
Pompey
609 Bum, sir.
Escalus
610 'Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in
611 the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great. Pompey, you are
612 partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a tapster.
613 Are you not? come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you.
Pompey
614 Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
Escalus
615 How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of
616 the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?
Pompey
617 If the law would allow it, sir.
Escalus
618 But the law will not allow it, Pompey: nor it shall not be
619 allowed in Vienna.
Pompey
620 Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the
621 city?
Escalus
622 No, Pompey.
Pompey
623 Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then. If your
624 worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you need
625 not to fear the bawds.
Escalus
626 There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you. It is but
627 heading and hanging.
Pompey
628 If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year
629 together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads.
630 If this law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house
631 in it, after threepence a bay. If you live to see this come to
632 pass, say Pompey told you so.
Escalus
633 Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy, hark
634 you,—I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any
635 complaint whatsoever, no, not for dwelling where you do; if I do,
636 Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar
637 to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt: so for
638 this time, Pompey, fare you well.
Pompey
639 I thank your worship for your good counsel; but I shall follow it
640 as the flesh and fortune shall better determine.
641 Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade;
642 The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade.
[Exit.]
Escalus
643 Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master Constable.
644 How long have you been in this place of constable?
Elbow
645 Seven year and a half, sir.
Escalus
646 I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had continued in
647 it some time.
648 You say seven years together?
Elbow
649 And a half, sir.
Escalus
650 Alas, it hath been great pains to you!—They do you wrong to put
651 you so oft upon't. Are there not men in your ward sufficient to
652 serve it?
Elbow
653 Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen,
654 they are glad to choose me for them; I do it for some piece of
655 money, and go through with all.
Escalus
656 Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven, the most
657 sufficient of your parish.
Elbow
658 To your worship's house, sir?
Escalus
659 To my house. Fare you well.
[Exit ELBOW.]
Escalus
660 What's o'clock, think you?
Justice
661 Eleven, sir.
Escalus
662 I pray you home to dinner with me.
Justice
663 I humbly thank you.
Escalus
664 It grieves me for the death of Claudio;
665 But there's no remedy.
Justice
666 Lord Angelo is severe.
Escalus
667 It is but needful:
668 Mercy is not itself that oft looks so;
669 Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:
670 But yet,—Poor Claudio!—There's no remedy.
671 Come, sir.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 420rhetorical device
“make a scarecrow of the law”
Angelo uses a scarecrow as a figure for a law that stands idle without enforcing fear: a fake that frightens at first, then becomes a roost ('their perch, and not their terror'). He is arguing that unused laws invite contempt, just as birds that get used to a scarecrow ignore it.
TLN 425rhetorical device
“keen, and rather cut a little Than fall and bruise to death”
Escalus counters Angelo's hard line with a surgical image: a sharp, careful cut (a lesser punishment) is better than a blunt fall that bruises and kills. He is arguing for mercy toward Claudio rather than execution, using the image of a surgeon who makes a precise incision rather than a brutal blow.
TLN 429archaic vocab
“most strait in virtue”
'Strait' here means 'strict' or 'narrow' in moral conduct, not the modern spelling 'straight' (meaning direct or honest). Escalus is acknowledging Angelo's famously tight, uncompromising virtue. The word carries no geographic sense here; it belongs to the same family as 'straitlaced.'
TLN 437biblical allusion
“'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall”
Angelo distinguishes between feeling temptation and actually giving in to it. The language echoes standard Protestant theology: temptation itself is not sin, only the yielding is. The audience, who knows Angelo will shortly yield to his own temptation for Isabella, hears the irony at once.
biblical 'With what measure ye mete': the title from the Sermon on the Mount
TLN 439historical topical
“jury, passing on the prisoner's life, May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two”
Angelo argues that a jury of twelve judging a prisoner's life might itself include a guilty man among its number — yet the law works with what is public and proven, not with hidden guilt. 'Passing on' means giving a verdict on. This is standard Elizabethan trial procedure: twelve sworn jurors decided capital cases.
TLN 443archaic vocab
“'Tis very pregnant”
'Pregnant' here means 'obvious' or 'clear-cut' — full of meaning, as a swollen case is full. Angelo is saying: 'this is perfectly evident.' The modern sense of 'with child' was common too, but here the word means 'convincingly full' or 'manifestly plain.'
TLN 457historical topical
“Bring him his confessor; let him be prepard”
Angelo orders that a priest be brought to hear Claudio's confession before execution — a standard practice in Catholic and early Protestant England, ensuring the condemned died spiritually prepared. The confessor (a 'shrift-father') would hear the prisoner's sins, grant absolution, and administer last rites.
historical Shrift: the sacrament of confession
TLN 458archaic vocab
“that's the utmost of his pilgrimage”
Angelo means this is the furthest point Claudio's life will reach — tomorrow morning's execution is the end of his journey. 'Pilgrimage' was a common metaphor for a human life: the soul journeys from birth to death as a pilgrim. 'Utmost' means 'farthest' or 'outermost limit.'
TLN 464archaic vocab
“use their abuses in common houses”
Elbow means 'who commit their offences in brothels' — 'common houses' is Elizabethan legal and colloquial shorthand for brothels, houses of ill repute open to the public ('common' as in 'commonly available'). He characteristically mangles his meaning: he intends to condemn them, but his phrasing almost sounds like a legal definition.
historical The bawdy-houses of Vienna (and the London stews)
TLN 469wordplay
“two notorious benefactors”
Elbow means 'malefactors' (wrongdoers) but says 'benefactors' (well-doers, patrons). This is his first malapropism — the comic substitution of a word for its near-opposite — and Angelo immediately corrects it: 'Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors?' Elbow's blundering anti-language defines his character throughout the scene.
historical The constable and the night watch
TLN 478wordplay
“he's out at elbow”
Pompey puns on the constable's name: 'out at elbow' was a proverbial phrase meaning wearing threadbare clothes with holes at the elbows — the mark of poverty and low status. But it also means 'at a loss, unable to continue.' Pompey uses both senses at once: Elbow the man is literally (perhaps) poor and cheaply dressed, and Elbow the constable is stuck, unable to answer Angelo's questions.
TLN 480archaic vocab
“parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman”
'Parcel-bawd' means 'part-time bawd' or 'semi-bawd' — someone who is a pimp as a sideline alongside another trade ('tapster,' a drawer of ale). The prefix 'parcel-' (from French 'parcelle,' a part) means 'partly' or 'by the half.' Elbow is describing Pompey, who works a bar and also acts as a procurer for Mistress Overdone's brothel.
historical The bawdy-houses of Vienna (and the London stews)
TLN 481historical topical
“house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house”
Elbow describes Angelo's crackdown: Mistress Overdone's suburban brothel has been demolished ('plucked down'), and she has reopened under the cover of a 'hot-house' — a bath-house or bagnio, which was itself often a brothel in disguise. The order to pull down the suburban stews was real London policy in 1603-04.
historical The bawdy-houses of Vienna (and the London stews)
TLN 485wordplay
“My wfe, sir, whom I detest before heaven”
Elbow means 'attest' or 'protest' (to declare solemnly), but says 'detest' (to hate). Escalus immediately presses the absurdity: 'How! thy wife!' and then 'Dost thou detest her therefore?' — turning Elbow's malapropism into a miniature comic scene. Elbow continues blundering, adding 'I will detest myself also' to mean 'I will attest for myself too.'
historical The constable and the night watch
TLN 493wordplay
“if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication”
Elbow says 'cardinally' but means 'carnally' (according to the flesh, sexually). The malapropism is comic: he confuses 'carnal' (bodily, sexual) with 'cardinal' (the church rank, or in another sense 'chief'). Escalus and the audience register the blunder at once. Elbow's sentence means his wife could have been accused of fornication — but wasn't, because she resisted.
TLN 533archaic vocab
“whose father died at Hallowmas:—was't not at Hallowmas, Master Froth?”
Hallowmas (All Saints' Day, 1 November) and the more precise 'All-hallond eve' (All Hallows' Eve, 31 October — our Halloween) are the feast days that Pompey and Froth are trying to pin down as the date Froth's father died. The mention of the date is pure padding in Pompey's digressive testimony, delaying the point Escalus keeps asking for.
TLN 541cultural context
“This will last out a night in Russia, When nights are longest there”
Angelo impatiently notes that Pompey's endless digression could fill the longest of Russia's proverbially interminable winter nights. Russia, far to the north, was known to Elizabethans chiefly as a place of extreme cold and darkness in winter — Muscovite ambassadors had appeared at the English court in the 1550s, opening trade contacts. The image is elegant mockery: this testimony is as long as a Russian night.
TLN 572wordplay
“O thou wicked Hannibal!”
Elbow means 'cannibal' (a man-eater, a monster) but says 'Hannibal' — the famous Carthaginian general who fought Rome. It is another malapropism: Hannibal was notorious in English schoolbooks as a ruthless enemy, so the confusion between 'cannibal' and 'Hannibal' comes naturally, especially since both sound similar. Elbow wants to call Pompey a savage, devouring monster.
TLN 610wordplay
“in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the great”
Escalus mocks Pompey's surname 'Bum' by saying his backside is the greatest thing about him, so 'in the beastliest sense' he is like 'Pompey the Great' — the famous Roman general, a byword for greatness. The joke deflates both Pompey Bum (the bawd) and Pompey the Great (the military hero) simultaneously: true greatness is only in the bottom.
historical Pompey the Great
TLN 626archaic vocab
“It is but heading and hanging”
'Heading' means beheading — cutting off the head, the punishment for treason and serious felonies among the nobility. 'Hanging' was the standard execution for common criminals. Escalus is grimly joking that the punishments are simple enough: the new law just needs to put its penalties into effect. Pompey's deadpan response turns the joke back: it would require decapitating and hanging the entire city.
TLN 641cultural context
“let carman whip his jade; The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade”
Pompey exits with a defiant couplet: let the carter ('carman') whip his worn-out horse ('jade') — that is the kind of person who can be controlled by a whip. A courageous man, Pompey implies, cannot be flogged out of his livelihood. 'Carman' is a carrier or carter; 'jade' is a worn-out, inferior horse. Pompey is comparing himself to a valiant heart who will not be stopped by the threat of whipping.
TLN 650historical topical
“Alas, it hath been great pains to you!—They do you wrong to put you so oft upon't”
Escalus sympathizes that the parish has repeatedly drafted Elbow as constable and suggests others in his ward should take a turn. The constable's office was an unpaid civic duty rotated among householders; the more literate and competent residents were apt to avoid or buy their way out of it, leaving the least qualified to serve again and again. Elbow confirms: he does it 'for some piece of money' (TLN 654), suggesting he accepts payment to substitute for others.
historical The constable and the night watch