Measure for Measure: Act II, Scene iv

Measure for Measure.         Act 2, Scene 4.      Angelo

(This text is featured in our interview with Terry Knickerbocker)

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168.  Who will believe thee, Isabel?
169.  My unsoiled name, th’ austereness of my life,
170.  My vouch against you, and my place i’ th’ state
171.  Will so your accusation overweigh
172.  That you shall stifle in your own report
173.  And smell of calumny. I have begun,
174.  And now I give my sensual race the rein.
175.  Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
176.  Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
177.  That banish what they sue for. Redeem thy brother
178.  By yielding up thy body to my will,
179.  Or else he must not only die the death,
180.  But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
181.  To ling’ring sufferance. Answer me tomorrow,
182.  Or by the affection that now guides me most,
183.  I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
184.  Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.