The song that opens this scene is too precise to be accidental. Its subject: lips that made beautiful promises that were broken. Lights (eyes) that misled. Kisses that were pledges 'sealed in vain.'
This is Mariana's entire history with Angelo compressed into twelve lines of song. He made beautiful promises. His vows were false. The morning (the break of day) misled her. What she thought was a seal of love was sealed in vain.
The song doesn't name Angelo. It doesn't need to. And because it's sung by a boy — not by Mariana herself — it preserves a kind of distance. Mariana is listening to her own grief sung back to her by someone who doesn't know her story. That doubling is devastating.
Shakespeare placed this song in one other location: it reappears, slightly altered, in 'The Two Noble Kinsmen.' That repetition says something about how much he trusted it — it was too good to use only once. But in 'Measure for Measure' it has a specific, irreplaceable function: it introduces a character we've never met by giving us the inside of her emotional life before she speaks a word.
Speaks sparingly and with complete self-possession — she asks no unnecessary questions, expresses no complaint about what she's being asked to do, and her brevity makes her consent more, not less, significant. Watch for how much she communicates with very few words.
Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away;
Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
Hath often stilled my brawling discontent.
Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away; Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often stilled my brawling discontent.
Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away; Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often stilled my brawling discontent.
Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away; Here comes a man of comfort, whos
’Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm
To make bad good and good provoke to harm.
I pray you tell me, hath anybody inquired for me here today? Much upon
this time have I promised here to meet.
’Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm To make bad good and good provoke to harm. I pray you tell me, hath anybody inquired for me here today? Much upon this time have I promised here to meet.
’Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm To make bad good and good provoke to harm. I pray you tell me, hath anybody inquired for me here today? Much upon this time have I promised here to meet.
’Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm To make bad good and good provoke
The most uncomfortable question in this scene isn't asked. Mariana agrees to the bed-trick — 'Fear me not' — but the audience never hears Isabella explain to Mariana exactly what the plan requires.
We see them walk offstage together; we hear that Mariana has agreed when they return. But the consent happens in a gap in the text. We don't get to watch Isabella explain that Mariana will be going to Angelo's house in the dark, pretending to be Isabella, and having sex with the man who publicly abandoned her five years ago.
Mariana's 'Fear me not' suggests she is at peace with whatever she's been told. But the question of whether what she's been told is complete — whether she knows the full picture, including that Angelo thinks she's someone else — is left deliberately open.
The Duke's theological argument ('he is your husband on a pre-contract') gives the plan a legal frame, but it also papers over the strangeness of the encounter. Angelo doesn't consent to being with Mariana. Mariana doesn't get to be with Angelo as herself. Two people are about to be intimate in conditions of mutual deception.
That the play labels this a 'remedy' rather than a transgression says something important about what it thinks justice looks like — and something important about who gets to define it.
You have not been inquired after. I have sat here all day.
You have not been inquired after. I have sat here all day.
You have not been inquired after. I have sat here all day.
You have not been inquired after. I have sat here all day.
I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I shall crave
your forbearance a little. Maybe I will call upon you anon for some
advantage to yourself.
I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I shall crave your forbearance a little. Maybe I will call upon you anon for some advantage to yourself.
I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I shall crave your forbearance a little. Maybe I will call upon you anon for some advantage to yourself.
I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I shall crave your forbe
I am always bound to you.
I am always bound to you.
I am always bound to you.
I am always bound to you.
Very well met, and welcome.
What is the news from this good deputy?
Very well met, and welcome. What is the news from this good deputy?
Very well met, and welcome. What is the news from this good deputy?
Very well met, and welcome. What is the news from this good deputy?
He hath a garden circummured with brick,
Whose western side is with a vineyard backed;
And to that vineyard is a planched gate
That makes his opening with this bigger key.
This other doth command a little door
Which from the vineyard to the garden leads;
There have I made my promise, upon the
Heavy middle of the night to call on him.
He hath a garden circummured with brick, Whose western side is with a vineyard backed; And to that vineyard is a planched gate That makes his opening with this bigger key. This other doth command a little door Which from the vineyard to the garden leads; There have I made my promise, upon the Heavy middle of the night to call on him.
He hath a garden circummured with brick, Whose western side is with a vineyard backed; And to that vineyard is a planched gate That makes his opening with this bigger key. This other doth command a little door Which from the vineyard to the garden leads; There have I made my promise, upon the Heavy middle of the night to call on him.
He hath a garden circummured with brick, Whose western side is with a vineyard b
But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
I have ta’en a due and wary note upon’t;
With whispering and most guilty diligence,
In action all of precept, he did show me
The way twice o’er.
I have ta’en a due and wary note upon’t; With whispering and most guilty diligence, In action all of precept, he did show me The way twice o’er.
I have ta’en a due and wary note upon’t; With whispering and most guilty diligence, In action all of precept, he did show me The way twice o’er.
I have ta’en a due and wary note upon’t; With whispering and most guilty diligen
Shakespeare gives Mariana a very specific location: the moated grange at Saint Luke's. A grange was a farmhouse, often attached to a monastery. The moat — a defensive ring of water — turns it into an island.
The image is psychologically precise. Mariana has been living in a structure designed for defense — cut off from the surrounding world by water. She can be reached, but only by intention. She is not simply lonely; she is secured against further damage by her own isolation.
The moat also carries a history. Medieval siege warfare relied on moats to protect against attack. Mariana's grange is a siege position — she has survived Angelo's abandonment by making herself inaccessible. The friar who counsels her is the one person who has found the crossing.
When Isabella arrives with the plan, the moated grange briefly becomes something else: a staging point for an operation rather than a place of retreat. Mariana steps out of her defensive position and into the action. 'Fear me not' is the moment the drawbridge comes down.
Are there no other tokens
Between you ’greed concerning her observance?
Are there no other tokens Between you ’greed concerning her observance?
Are there no other tokens Between you ’greed concerning her observance?
Are there no other tokens Between you ’greed concerning her observance?
No, none, but only a repair i’ th’ dark,
And that I have possessed him my most stay
Can be but brief, for I have made him know
I have a servant comes with me along,
That stays upon me; whose persuasion is
I come about my brother.
No, none, but only a repair i’ th’ dark, And that I have possessed him my most stay Can be but brief, for I have made him know I have a servant comes with me along, That stays upon me; whose persuasion is I come about my brother.
No, none, but only a repair i’ th’ dark, And that I have possessed him my most stay Can be but brief, for I have made him know I have a servant comes with me along, That stays upon me; whose persuasion is I come about my brother.
No, none, but only a repair i’ th’ dark, And that I have possessed him my most s
’Tis well borne up.
I have not yet made known to Mariana
A word of this.—What ho, within! Come forth.
’Tis well borne up. I have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this.—What ho, within! Come forth.
’Tis well borne up. I have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this.—What ho, within! Come forth.
’Tis well borne up. I have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this.—What ho
I do desire the like.
I do desire the like.
I do desire the like.
I do desire the like.
Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?
Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?
Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?
Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?
Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.
Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.
Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.
Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.
While Mariana and Isabella are offstage discussing the bed-trick, the Duke delivers a brief soliloquy about the impossibility of public life — 'O place and greatness, millions of false eyes / Are stuck upon thee.'
This is an odd choice of moment. Why, when the plot is at its most active, does Shakespeare pause for a meditation on celebrity and slander?
The most likely answer: Lucio. The slanders of Scene 3-2 are still running through the Duke's mind. He watched Lucio construct a fictional version of himself — drunk, lecherous, foolish — and was unable to respond. Now, alone, he broods on the impossibility of controlling your own public image.
But there's another reading. The Duke is about to introduce Mariana to a plan that involves deception, darkness, and the manipulation of her most private life — and he spends the intermission thinking about how much public figures are misunderstood. There is, somewhere in that juxtaposition, a hint of self-awareness: the man who schemes in darkness is also the man who complains that others construct false stories about him.
Shakespeare gives us the soliloquy without commentary. The irony is available; the Duke doesn't see it.
Take, then, this your companion by the hand,
Who hath a story ready for your ear.
I shall attend your leisure; but make haste.
The vaporous night approaches.
Take, then, this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear. I shall attend your leisure; but make haste. The vaporous night approaches.
Take, then, this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear. I shall attend your leisure; but make haste. The vaporous night approaches.
Take, then, this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear
Will’t please you walk aside?
Will’t please you walk aside?
Will’t please you walk aside?
Will’t please you walk aside?
O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
Are stuck upon thee; volumes of report
Run with these false, and most contrarious quest
Upon thy doings; thousand escapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dream
And rack thee in their fancies.
O place and greatness, millions of false eyes Are stuck upon thee; volumes of report Run with these false, and most contrarious quest Upon thy doings; thousand escapes of wit Make thee the father of their idle dream And rack thee in their fancies.
O place and greatness, millions of false eyes Are stuck upon thee; volumes of report Run with these false, and most contrarious quest Upon thy doings; thousand escapes of wit Make thee the father of their idle dream And rack thee in their fancies.
O place and greatness, millions of false eyes Are stuck upon thee; volumes of re
She’ll take the enterprise upon her, father,
If you advise it.
She’ll take the enterprise upon her, father, If you advise it.
She’ll take the enterprise upon her, father, If you advise it.
She’ll take the enterprise upon her, father, If you advise it.
It is not my consent,
But my entreaty too.
It is not my consent, But my entreaty too.
It is not my consent, But my entreaty too.
It is not my consent, But my entreaty too.
Little have you to say
When you depart from him, but, soft and low,
“Remember now my brother.”
Little have you to say When you depart from him, but, soft and low, “Remember now my brother.”
Little have you to say When you depart from him, but, soft and low, “Remember now my brother.”
Little have you to say When you depart from him, but, soft and low, “Remember no
Fear me not.
Fear me not.
Fear me not.
Fear me not.
Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.
He is your husband on a pre-contract.
To bring you thus together ’tis no sin,
Sith that the justice of your title to him
Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go;
Our corn’s to reap, for yet our tithe’s to sow.
Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. He is your husband on a pre-contract. To bring you thus together ’tis no sin, Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go; Our corn’s to reap, for yet our tithe’s to sow.
Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. He is your husband on a pre-contract. To bring you thus together ’tis no sin, Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go; Our corn’s to reap, for yet our tithe’s to sow.
Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. He is your husband on a pre-contract.
The Reckoning
This is the play's preparation scene — the briefing before the operation — but it opens with a song of devastating emotional precision, sung by a boy to a woman who is still in love with the man who abandoned her. Mariana's 'Fear me not' is the bravest and saddest line in the scene: two words that contain a lifetime of waiting.
If this happened today…
Imagine a woman who's been quietly living in her house for five years since her ex-fiancé broke the engagement the moment her brother died and the money disappeared. Her Spotify Discover Weekly has been nothing but breakup songs the whole time. Then a mutual friend shows up with her ex's new target, and together they ask her: 'So — would you be willing to secretly take her place in a dark room tonight?' She says 'Fear me not' and means it.