Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene 1
DUKE:
Of government the properties to unfold
Would seem in me t'affect speech and discourse,
Since I am put to know that your own science
Exceeds in that the lists of all advice
My strength can give you. Then no more remains
But this: to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work. The nature of our people,
Our city's institutions and the terms
For common justice, you're as pregnant in
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember.
He gives Escalus papers.
There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp.
(To a lord)
Call hither,
I say bid come before us Angelo.
(To Escalus)
What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply,
Lent him our terror, dressed him with our love,
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power. What think you of it?
ESCALUS:
If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honour
It is Lord Angelo.
Enter Angelo
DUKE:
Look where he comes.
ANGELO:
Always obedient to your grace's will,
I come to know your pleasure.
DUKE:
Angelo,
There is a kind of character in thy life
That to th'observer doth thy history
Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched
But to fine issues, nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advertise.
Hold therefore, Angelo.
In our remove be thou at full ourself:
Mortality and mercy in Vienna
Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary.
Take thy commission.