Measure for Measure

by: William Shakespeare

Act 3 Scene 2

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Original Text	Modern Text
The street before the prison.	The street outside the prison.
Enter, on one side, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before; on the other, ELBOW, and Officers with POMPEY	DUKE VINCENTIO, disguised as before, enters on one side. ELBOW and officers with POMPEY enter on the other.
ELBOW Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard a pun referring both to types of sweet Spanish wines and to illegitimate children brown and white bastard.	ELBOW No, but if you go on buying and selling men and women like beasts, everyone in the world will end up spawning bastards.
DUKE VINCENTIO O heavens! what stuff is here	DUKE VINCENTIO Oh, heavens! What nonsense is this?
POMPEY 5’Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.	POMPEY Life’s become a lot less fun since the law took two crimes—prostitution and moneylending—and suppressed the one that was the most fun, while condoning the worse of the two. The thriving moneylender wraps himself in a warm fur coat, made of skins from the innocent lamb and trimmed in fur from the crafty fox, proving that craftiness is worth more than innocence.
ELBOW 10Come your way, sir. ’Bless you, good father friar.	ELBOW Come along, sir. Bless you, good father friar this greeting makes no sense since friar means brother, hence the Duke’s mocking response father friar.
DUKE VINCENTIO And you, good brother father. What offence hath this man made you, sir?	DUKE VINCENTIO And you, good brother father. How has this man offended you, sir?
ELBOW Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found 15upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy.	ELBOW Actually, sir, he has offended the law. And, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir, because we found on him, sir, a strange device for picking locks presumably for picking the locks on chastity belts picking locks, which we have sent to the deputy.
DUKE VINCENTIO Fie, sirrah! a bawd, a wicked bawd! The evil that thou causest to be done, That is thy means to live. Do thou but think 20What ’tis to cram a maw or clothe a back From such a filthy vice: say to thyself, From their abominable and beastly touches I drink, I eat, array myself, and live. Canst thou believe thy living is a life, 25So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.	DUKE VINCENTIO (to POMPEY) Shame, sirrah a title used to address a male inferior sirrah! A pimp, a wicked pimp! You support yourself by doing evil. Do you ever stop to think what it is to stuff your mouth or clothe your back from such a filthy vice? Say to yourself, I eat, dress myself, and live off abominable, beastly sex. Can you believe your way of life is a life, when it’s dependent on such stinking acts? Change your ways, change your ways.

Read the Summary of Act III, Scene ii

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