Chapter: SCENE IV. 

_A nunnery._

  _Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA._

_Isab._ And have you nuns no farther privileges?

_Fran._ Are not these large enough?

_Isab._ Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.                   5

_Lucio_ [_within_]. Ho! Peace be in this place!

_Isab._                                 Who's that which calls?

_Fran._ It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,
Turn you the key, and know his business of him;
You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.
When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men                    10
But in the presence of the prioress:
Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you, answer him.    [_Exit._

_Isab._ Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?                  15

  _Enter LUCIO._

_Lucio._ Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses
Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?                                     20

_Isab._ Why, 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella and his sister.

_Lucio._ Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:
Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.                           25

_Isab._ Woe me! for what?

_Lucio._ For that which, if myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

_Isab._ Sir, make me not your story.

_Lucio._                           It is true.                      30
I would not--though 'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart--play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;                           35
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,
As with a saint.

_Isab._ You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.

_Lucio._ Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:--
Your brother and his lover have embraced:                           40
As those that feed grow full,--as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison,--even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

_Isab._ Some one with child by him?--My cousin Juliet?              45

_Lucio._ Is she your cousin?

_Isab._ Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names
By vain, though apt, affection.

_Lucio._                      She it is.

_Isab._ O, let him marry her.

_Lucio._                    This is the point.
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;                         50
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,                         55
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge                          60
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He--to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions--hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life                         65
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example. All hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business                    70
'Twixt you and your poor brother.

_Isab._ Doth he so seek his life?

_Lucio._                        Has censured him
Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

_Isab._ Alas! what poor ability's in me                             75
To do him good?

_Lucio._      Assay the power you have.

_Isab._ My power? Alas, I doubt,--

_Lucio._                         Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,                        80
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owe them.

_Isab._ I'll see what I can do.

_Lucio._                      But speedily.

_Isab._ I will about it straight;                                   85
No longer staying but to give the Mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.

_Lucio._ I take my leave of you.

_Isab._                        Good sir, adieu.                     90

    [_Exeunt._


  NOTES: I, 4.

  SCENE IV.] SCENA QUINTA Ff. SCENE VIII. Pope.
  5: _sisterhood, the votarists_] _sister votarists_ Pope.
  27: _For that which_] _That for which_ Malone conj.
  30: _make me not your story_] _mock me not:--your story_ Malone.
    _make me not your scorn_ Collier MS. (after Davenant).
    _make ... sport_ Singer.
  _It is true_] Steevens. _'Tis true_ Ff. om. Pope.
    _Nay, tis true_ Capell.
  31: _I would not_] Malone puts a full stop here.
  40: _have_] _having_ Rowe.
  42: _That ... brings_] _Doth ... bring_ Hanmer.
  _seedness_] _seeding_ Collier MS.
  44: _his_] _its_ Hanmer.
  49: _O, let him_] F1. _Let him_ F2 F3 F4. _Let him then_ Pope.
  50: _is_] _who's_ Collier MS.
  52: _and_] _with_ Johnson conj.
  _do_] om. Pope.
  54: _givings-out_] Rowe. _giving-out_ Ff.
  60: _his_] _it's_ Capell.
  63: _for long_] _long time_ Pope.
  68: _hope is_] _hope's_ Pope.
  70: _pith of business 'Twixt_] _pith Of business betwixt_ Hanmer.
    See note (VI).
  _pith of_] om. Pope.
  72: _so seek_] _so, Seeke_ Ff. _so? seek_ Edd. conj.
  _Has_] _H'as_ Theobald.
  71-75: Ff end the lines thus:-- _so,--already--warrant--poor--good._
    Capell first gave the arrangement in the text.
  73: _as_] om. Hanmer.
  74: _A warrant for his_] _a warrant For's_ Ff.
  78: _make_] Pope. _makes_ Ff.
  82: _freely_] F1. _truely_ F2 F3 F4.
    Enter _Provost_ inserted by Capell.

 At a strict and disciplined convent, Isabella and Francesca discuss all the "privileges" Isabella is about to give up by becoming a nun. Isabella says she sure does wish they were stricter at St. Clare's. We interrupt this program for a history snack: In 1538 Henry VIII began the dissolution of all the monasteries and convents in England. By the time Shakespeare wrote Measure for Measure around 1604, there weren't any left. There were, however, plenty of them in Vienna , which is the setting of Shakespeare's play. Lucio comes knocking at the door and Sister Francesca high tails it out of the room. We learn that nuns at St. Clare's aren't allowed to talk to a man and show their faces at the same time. They can do one or the other but not both. Also, any speaking or showing of faces to men must be done in the presence of the prioress . Since Isabella is still a "novice" , she's can talk to Lucio face-to-face without breaking any rules. Lucio enters and says "Hail, virgin!" Isabella blushes. Lucio says he's looking for Isabella. Isabella reveals that she, in fact, is the girl he's seeking. Lucio says he hates to bother her, but he's got bad news--Claudio, her brother, has been thrown in slammer because he got a "friend" of his "with child" . Isabella doesn't believe him and tells him to stop lying. Lucio confesses that he often lies to women in order to get them into bed but, in this case, he's telling the truth. Plus, he would never lie to Isabella because he has a lot of respect for virgins--as far as Lucio's concerned, Isabella's practically a "saint." Lucio continues on and describes how Claudio and "his lover embraced" and now the woman's womb has grown "plenteous," like a field that's been plowed and planted with seed. Brain Snack: Shakespeare sure does like this metaphor. In Sonnet 2, he reverses the typical "woman's body as a field plowed and seeded by a man" metaphor by saying a man's body is a field that is "plowed" by Time. Isabella guesses that the mystery girl with the plowed womb is Juliet and suggests that the couple solve the problem by getting hitched. Lucio explains that the Duke has mysteriously vanished and Angelo has taken his place as Vienna's head honcho. Since Angelo doesn't have a sexual appetite, he's enforcing the maximum punishment. Claudio is a goner for sure...unless Isabella can use her super virgin powers to persuade Angelo that Claudio's life should be spared. According to Lucio, men are suckers for "maidens." Isabella agrees to talk to Angelo on her brother's behalf.

