Measure Quotes Act 2

Question 1

2.1 Summary:

Answer 1

The sub-plot and main plot combine: Angelo tells Escalus that they must be harsh, and asks Angelo if he would pardon him/to consider whether he could have made a mistake like Claudio, Angelo somewhat admits to being tempted, adding that he is not exempt from the law.

Elbow enters - brings Pompey and Froth as criminals - Pompey tells an elaborate story, Elbow misuses words, so Angelo leaves. Escalus deals with them and lets them go free, then asks for Elbow and his coworkers to enforce the laws.

Mourns Claudio’s upcoming execution.

Question 2

2.2 Summary:

Answer 2

The Provost goes to see Angelo, mentioning Juliet in hopes he will pardon Claudio, but Angelo is cold.

Isabella arrives, and she begins to condemn Claudio’s fault, but Angelo rejects her pleas. Lucio tells her to not give up.

Isabella continues to plead with him, and argues her case with greater force, talking about how he misuses his power. Lucio comments that Angelo is wavering.

Angelo tells her to come back tomorrow, and he’ll think in the meantime, ending with a soliloquy about his temptation: “the tempter or the tempted, who sins most ha?”

Question 3

2.3 Summary:

Answer 3

The Duke, disguised as the Friar, says he wants to visit the prisoners - and goes to see Juliet. He asks if she regrets her sin, she says yes, and he says that we shouldn’t regret sin because of fear of God. He asks if she loves Claudio, and tells her that Claudio will die tomorrow, and goes to visit him.

Question 4

2.4 Summary:

Answer 4

Angelo begins lamenting his situation, and Isabella arrives. He tells her that Claudio must die; poses a hypothetical question, but Isabella doesn’t catch onto his insinuation. Isabella asks him again to pardon Claudio, and Angelo tries to communicate more directly with her. She says that it’s better for Claudio to die than her soul; Angelo blackmails her, “Who will believe thee?”, telling her he loves her.

Ends with Isabella’s soliloquy.

Question 5

“We must not make a scarecrow of the law / setting it up to fear the birds of prey” (2.1)

Question 6

“Let us be keen, and rather cut a little / than fall and bruise to death” -Escalus (2.1)

Question 7

“‘Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus / another thing to fall” (2.1)

Question 8

“Let mine own judgement pattern out my death / And nothing come in partial” (2.1)

Question 9

Aside: “some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall” / “some run from brakes of vice, and answer none / and some condemned for a fault alone” - Escalus (2.1)

Question 10

Malapropisms: “malefactor”, “benefactor”, “detest” / “respected” / “Do you hear how he misplaces?” (2.1)

Question 11

“stewed prunes / “a dish of some three pence” / “as I said…” (2.1)

Question 12

“Hoping you’ll find good cause to whip them all” (2.1)

Question 13

“Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity? Is this true?” (2.1)

Question 14

“he hath some offences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou know’st what they are” (2.1)

Question 15

“Nine, sir: Overdone by the last.” (2.1)

Question 16

“How would you live, Pompey? By being a bawd? Is it a lawful trade?” (2.1)

Question 17

“Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the city?” / “I’ll rent the fairest house in it after three pence a bay” (2.1)

Question 18

“but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine” - Pompey (2.1)

Question 19

“Lord Angelo is severe” !!!! - JUSTICE (2.1)

Question 20

“Judgement hath repented o’er his doom” / “Go to, let that be mine” (2.2)

Question 21

“Dispose of her” (2.2)

Question 22

“O just but severe law!” (2.2)

Question 23

“a vice that most I do abhor / for which I would not plead, but I must” (2.2)

Question 24

“Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? (2.2)

Question 25

"Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown" (2.2)

Question 26

"And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy" (2.2)

Question 27

"If he had been as you, and you as he, you would have slipped like him / but he like you Would not have been so stern" (2.2)

Question 28

"Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword" (2.2) - what makes a just and good ruler.

Question 29

"And mercy then will breathe within your lips / Like man new made" (2.2)

Question 30

"It is the law, not I, condemn your brother" (2.2)

Question 31

"The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept" / "like a prophet looks in a glass that shows what future evils" (2.2)

Question 32

"I show it most of all when I show justice / For then I pity those I do not know" (2.2)

Question 33

"O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant" (2.2)

Question 34

"For every pelting, petty officer / Would use his heaven for thunder, nothing but thunder!" "As makes the angels weep, who with our spleens would all themselves laugh mortal" (2.2)

Question 35

"proud man dressed in a little brief authority" (2.2)

Question 36

"Art advised o' that? More on't" (2.2) - Lucio's encouragement (Adam and Eve?)

Question 37

"If it confesses a natural guiltiness / let it not sound a thought upon your tongue against my brother's life" (heart, 2.2)

Question 38

"Such sense that my sense breeds with it" (2.2) / "How? Bribe me?"

Question 39

(2.2) Angelo's soliloquy: "the tempter or the tempted who sins most, ha?" / "Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal themselves" "Is that temptation that doth goad us on / To sin in loving virtue" / "When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how"

Question 40

"Do me the common right to let me see them" (2.3, Duke)

Question 41

"I do, and bear the shame most patiently" / "repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?" (2.3)

Question 42

"Love you the man that wronged you?" / "Yes, as I love the woman that wronged him". (2.3, chiamus)

Question 43

"Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven / Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it, But as we stand in fear" (2.3)

Question 44

"O injurious law!" (2.3)

Question 45

"Heaven hath my empty words" / "When I would pray and think, I think and pray" (2.4)

Question 46

"Let's write 'good angel' on the devil's horn" (2.4)

Question 47

"Why does my blood thus muster to my heart / making it both it unable for itself and dispossessing all my other parts?" (2.4)

Question 48

"I had rather give my body than my soul" (2.4)

Question 49

"Our compelled sins stand more for number than for account" (2.4)

Question 50

"Might there not be charity in sin / To save this brother's life?" (2.4)

Question 51

"As these black masks proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder than beauty could displayed" (2.4)

Question 52

"ere I'd yield My body up to shame" / "I under the terms of death the impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies" (2.4)

Question 53

"Than that a sister by redeeming him / Should die for ever" / "Were not you then as cruel as the sentence that you have slandered so?" (2.4)

Question 54

"You seemed of late to make the law a tyrant" / "a merriment than a vice" (2.4)

Question 55

"I something do excuse the thing I hate / For his advantage that I dearly love" (2.4)

Question 56

"We are all frail". (2.4)

Question 57

"My brother did love Juliet / and you tell me that he shall die for it" (2.4)

Question 58

"Ha! little honour to be much believed" (2.4)

Question 59

Monologue: "Who will believe thee, Isabel?" / "My unsoiled name" / "fit thy consent to my sharp appetite" / "by yielding thy body up to my will" / "but thy unkindness shall his death draw out" (2.4)

Question 60

"My false o'erweighs your true" (2.4)

Question 61

"More than our brother is our chastity" (2.4)

Question 62

"Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour that had he twenty heads to tender down / On twenty bloody blocks / he'd yield them up before his sister should her body stoop to such abhorred pollution" (2.4)