2025 - M/J - 9695/11 | Q2

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Either (a) Discuss Shakespeare's dramatic presentation of...

Question (2/8)

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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Measure for Measure

(a) Discuss Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of different attitudes to the law in Measure for Measure.

(b) Paying close attention to Shakespeare’s dramatic methods, discuss Claudio’s response to his situation in the following extract from Measure for Measure.

DUKE:

Thou hast nor youth nor age,
But, as it were, an after-dinner’s sleep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What’s yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

CLAUDIO:

I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find I seek to die;
And, seeking death, find life. Let it come on.

ISABELLA:

[Within] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

PROVOST:

Who’s there? Come in; the wish deserves a welcome.

DUKE:

Dear sir, ere long I’ll visit you again.

CLAUDIO:

Most holy sir, I thank you.

[Enter ISABELLA.]

ISABELLA:

My business is a word or two with Claudio.

PROVOST:

And very welcome. Look, signior, here’s your sister.

DUKE:

Provost, a word with you.

PROVOST:

As many as you please.

DUKE:

Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal’d.

[Exeunt DUKE and PROVOST.]

CLAUDIO:

Now, sister, what’s the comfort?

ISABELLA:

Why,
As all comforts are; most good, most good, indeed.
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.
Therefore, your best appointment make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.

CLAUDIO:

Is there no remedy?

ISABELLA:

None, but such remedy as, to save a head,
To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUDIO:

But is there any?

ISABELLA:

Yes, brother, you may live:
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you’ll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

CLAUDIO:

Perpetual durance?

ISABELLA:

Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint,
Though all the world’s vastidity you had,
To a determin’d scope.

CLAUDIO:

But in what nature?

ISABELLA:

In such a one as, you consenting to’t,
Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
And leave you naked.

CLAUDIO:

Let me know the point.

ISABELLA:

O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,
Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
And six or seven winters more respect
Than a perpetual honour. Dar’st thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

CLAUDIO:

Why give you me this shame?
Think you I can a resolution fetch
From flow’ry tenderness? If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride
And hug it in mine arms.

ISABELLA:

There spake my brother; there my father’s grave
Did utter forth a voice.

(from Act 3, Scene 1)