# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

Measure for Measure
[I, 3]

Vincentio

297

My holy sir, none better knows than you
How I have ever loved the life removed
And held in idle price to haunt assemblies
Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,
A man of stricture and firm abstinence,
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is received. Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me why I do this?

2

Measure for Measure
[II, 1]

Escalus

662

Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;
so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the
Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,
howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you
not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.

3

Measure for Measure
[II, 1]

Pompey

694

I thank your worship for your good counsel:
[Aside]
but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall
better determine.
Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade:
The valiant heart is not whipt out of his trade.

4

Measure for Measure
[II, 4]

Angelo

1054

That you might know it, would much better please me
Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.

5

Measure for Measure
[II, 4]

Isabella

1102

Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,
But graciously to know I am no better.

6

Measure for Measure
[II, 4]

Isabella

1132

And 'twere the cheaper way:
Better it were a brother died at once,
Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
Should die for ever.

7

Measure for Measure
[III, 2]

Vincentio

1650

Either this is the envy in you, folly, or mistaking:
the very stream of his life and the business he hath
helmed must upon a warranted need give him a better
proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own
bringings-forth, and he shall appear to the
envious a scholar, a statesman and a soldier.
Therefore you speak unskilfully: or if your
knowledge be more it is much darkened in your malice.

8

Measure for Measure
[III, 2]

Vincentio

1659

Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with
dearer love.

9

Measure for Measure
[III, 2]

Vincentio

1669

He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to
report you.

10

Measure for Measure
[IV, 2]

Provost

2025

[Reads]
'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let
Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the
afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,
let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let
this be duly performed; with a thought that more
depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail
not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'
What say you to this, sir?

11

Measure for Measure
[IV, 2]

Vincentio

2100

The contents of this is the return of the duke: you
shall anon over-read it at your pleasure; where you
shall find, within these two days he will be here.
This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this
very day receives letters of strange tenor;
perchance of the duke's death; perchance entering
into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what
is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the
shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these
things should be: all difficulties are but easy
when they are known. Call your executioner, and off
with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present
shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you
are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you.
Come away; it is almost clear dawn.

12

Measure for Measure
[IV, 3]

Pompey

2159

O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night,
and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the
sounder all the next day.

13

Measure for Measure
[IV, 3]

Isabella

2239

The better, given me by so holy a man.
Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

14

Measure for Measure
[IV, 3]

Lucio

2291

Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do:
he's a better woodman than thou takest him for.

15

Measure for Measure
[V, 1]

Lucio

2594

He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better.

16

Measure for Measure
[V, 1]

Lucio

2688

Not better than he, by her own report.

17

Measure for Measure
[V, 1]

Vincentio

2811

You are pardon'd, Isabel:
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart;
And you may marvel why I obscured myself,
Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power
Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with him!
That life is better life, past fearing death,
Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort,
So happy is your brother.

18

Measure for Measure
[V, 1]

Vincentio

2845

It is your husband mock'd you with a husband.
Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,
For that he knew you, might reproach your life
And choke your good to come; for his possessions,
Although by confiscation they are ours,
We do instate and widow you withal,
To buy you a better husband.

19

Measure for Measure
[V, 1]

Mariana

2853

O my dear lord,
I crave no other, nor no better man.

20

Measure for Measure
[V, 1]

Mariana

2869

Isabel,
Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;
Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all.
They say, best men are moulded out of faults;
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad: so may my husband.
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?