Measure for Measure quotes

Question 1

“My Lord” - Escalus (1:1)

Answer 1

mode of address, suggests the Dukes importance and how he is respected by others

Question 2

“Of government” - Duke (1:1)

Answer 2

begins long turn of phrase with it, unusual syntax

Question 3

“city’s institutions” “common justice” “art and practice” “commission” - Duke (1:1)

Answer 3

focuses on abstract notions, not practical applications and the effect on people

Question 4

“lent him our terror, drest him with our love” - Duke (1:1)

Answer 4

Antithesis between “terror” and “love” highlights that the Duke has full scope of Vienna but also “lent” shows that Angelo’s position in power is temporary which is enhanced by the clothing metaphor “drest” which shows like clothes, his true character will be revealed, and the clothing imagery signifies pretence. Right at the start of the play it is revealed that the Duke has an ulterior motive for his actions and that his trust in Angelo is limited

Question 5

“What think you of it?” - Duke (1:1)

Answer 5

asking what they think but it is almost rhetorical, disapproval wont change his mind

Question 6

“Let there be some more test made of my metal” - Angelo (1:1)

Answer 6

hesitant, believes he must be tested more before being handed such authority

Question 7

“no more evasion” - Duke (1:1)

Answer 7

shared line, interrupting Angelo, refuses to listen to his hesitancy

Question 8

“I love the people, but do not like to stage me in their eyes” - Duke (1:1)

Answer 8

cares for the people not the perception and appearance of being a ruler, humble leader
OR, he fears being overthrown or disliked, so avoids their presence
he is a distant ruler

Question 9

“Thou art the list” - Lucio (1:2)

Answer 9

metaphors comparing the to gentlemen to fabric, they are what is cut off
joking between friends, contrasts the previous scene where there is an established hierarchy

Question 10

“French velvet” - 1st gentleman (1:2)

Answer 10

an expensive cloth from France/French disease
euphemism for syphilis
about Lucio

Question 11

“Madame Mitigation” - Lucio (1:2)

Answer 11

satisfaction of sexual desires
she is a brothel owner

Question 12

“Which of your hips have the most profound sciatica?” - 1st Gentleman (1:2)

Answer 12

the men are making fun of Mistress Overdone, suggesting her lower status
but she is able to banter back

Question 13

“Signior Claudio” - Mistress Overdone (1:2)

Answer 13

refers to him by a mode of address which conveys respect
she knows Claudio, suggesting he has visited her brothels and thereby visiting brothels has been considered ‘acceptable’ behaviour

Question 14

“Groping for trouts in a peculiar river” - Pompey (1:2)

Answer 14

Claudio’s offence
metaphor, word play

Question 15

“maid” - Pompey (1:2)

Answer 15

unmarried, virgin

Question 16

“All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down” - Pompey (1:2)

Answer 16

the brothels are to be closed and the people running them to be arrested

Question 17

“Good counsellors lack no clients” - Pompey (1:2)

Answer 17

there will always be people going to brothels, just move it elsewhere

Question 18

“from Lord Angelo by special charge” - Provost (1:2)

Answer 18

Angelo specifically wants to make an example out of Claudio,
public shaming asserts his authority

Question 19

“We have strict statutes and most biting laws, the needful bits and curbs to headstrong jades, which for this fourteen years we have let slip” - Duke (1:3)

Answer 19

“headstrong jades” - badly trained and worthless horses
comparing to the current law being worthless and badly enforced

Question 20

“like an o’er-grown lion in a cave that goes not out to prey” - Duke (1:3)

Answer 20

simile
comparing himself to a lion - brave, strong and powerful
o’er-grown suggests that he is lazy, fat and old
cannot solve his own problems, runs away from them, ironic

Question 21

“Liberty plucks Justice by the nose, the baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart goes all decorum” - Duke (1:3)

Answer 21

metaphors for the state of Vienna and how too much freedom affects Justice - personification
reverse subject and object changes the meaning

Question 22

“in you more dreadful it would have seemed than in Lord Angelo” - Friar (1:3)

Answer 22

agreeing with the Duke, wont criticise him
Duke can maintain his reputation
Friars speech starts and ends with a shared line - fits around the Duke, not his own person

Question 23

“Lord Angelo is precise: stands at guard with Envy; scarce confesses that his blood flows:or that his appetite is more to bread than stone” - Duke (1:3)

Answer 23

Angelo is less than human in his emotions/sympathies
Dukes opinion of Angelo - puritan traits

Question 24

“I speak not as desiring more, but rather wishing a more strict restraint” - Isabella (1:4)

Answer 24

emphasises her principles
sounds almost comical/sarcastic to a modern audience

Question 25

“if you speak, you must not show your face; or if you show your face, you must not speak” - Nunnery (1:4)

Answer 25

syntactic parallelism
almost mocking the rules
Shakespeare’s way of writing her, potentially his opinion being shown through her

Question 26

“Gentle and fair” - Lucio (1:4)

Answer 26

respectful but still notes she is attractive, sleezy
often has embellished, flirtatious language

Question 27

“he’s in prison” - Lucio (1:4)

Answer 27

suddenly blunt, comedic value
contrasts his previously embellished and overdone lexis

Question 28

“Woe me! For what?” - Isabella (1:4)

Answer 28

shorter lengths of turn
interrogatives which are focused, exact, precise

Question 29

“O, let him marry her!” - Isabella (1:4)

Answer 29

very principled character who is indifferent to the fact her brother had sex out of wedlock
just believes they should marry to almost cancel it out

Question 30

“Lord Angelo; a man whose blood is very snow-broth; one who never feels the wanton strings and motions of the sense; but doth rebate and blunt his natural edge with profits of the mind, study and fast”- Lucio (1:4)

Answer 30

imagery
similar to Dukes language

Question 31

“hath picked out an act under whose heavy sense your brother’s life falls into forfeit” - Lucio (1:4)

Answer 31

picked out - phrasal verb
seems arbitrary
pot luck that it was Claudio

Question 32

“Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo” - Lucio (1:4)

Answer 32

only hope left is for Isabella to save Claudio by using her virtue and religious/moral goodness

Question 33

“Our doubts are traitors” - Lucio (1:4)

Answer 33

doubts stop you doing something you may be good at

Question 34

“Men give like gods” - Lucio (1:4)

Answer 34

all a woman has to do is exploit her femininity and virginity and a man will do whatever she asks
these are important qualities