Measure for Measure

William Shakespeare, c. 1604

Shakespeare’s play set in Vienna, where the strict deputy Angelo condemns a young man to death for getting his betrothed with child, and then offers to spare him if the man’s sister, a novice nun, will give herself to him.

Start reading17 scenes, about 23,000 words

Famous quotes

Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
Act I, Scene IV, spoken by LucioIn context
- Fear
- Motivation & Goals
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
Act II, Scene I, spoken by EscalusIn context
- Good & Evil
- Virtue
No ceremony that to great ones longs,
Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Act II, Scene II, spoken by IsabellaIn context
- Forgiveness
- Power
O, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
Act II, Scene II, spoken by IsabellaIn context
- Power
But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep
Act II, Scene II, spoken by IsabellaIn context
- Power
- Pride
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope.
Act III, Scene I, spoken by ClaudioIn context
- Hope
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.
Act III, Scene I, spoken by IsabellaIn context
- Fear
- Life & Death
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
Act III, Scene I, spoken by ClaudioIn context
- Fear
- Life & Death

Act I

Scene IAn apartment in the Duke’s palace
Scene IIA street
Scene IIIA monastery
Scene IVA nunnery

Act II

Scene IA hall in Angelo’s house
Scene IIAnother room in the same
Scene IIIA room in a prison
Scene IVA room in Angelo’s house

Act III

Scene IA room in the prison
Scene IIThe street before the prison

Act IV

Scene IA room in Mariana’s house
Scene IIA room in the prison
Scene IIIAnother room in the same
Scene IVA room in Angelo’s house
Scene VFields without the town
Scene VIStreet near the city gate

Act V

Scene IA public place near the city gate