Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (1979 TV)-Act II, scene 2

Act II, scene 2, from line 18 - Angelo's "Dispose of her/To some more fitter place; and that with speed" to end of scene (Arden edition) Kate Nelligan ... Isabella Tim Pigott-Smith ... Angelo Alun Armstrong ... Provost John McEnery ... Lucio directed by Desmond Davis Matthew 7:2: "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again, measure still for measure." "For which I must not plead", etc.-- Malone paraphrases the passage thus: "for which I must not plead, but that there is a conflict in my breast betwixt my affection for my brother, which induces me to plead for him, and my regard to virtue, which forbids me to intercede for one guilty of such a crime; and I find the former more powerful than the latter." Clarke writes: You are too cold. "It is noteworthy that Lucio twice reproaches Isabella with coldness; and this is the impression that more than one critic has received and given of her character. But the restraint that sways her throughout this scene is just the powerful one which deceives imperfectly judging lookers-on into believing a woman of reticence to be a woman wanting in warmth. See how her upright soul — clear in virtuous perception, honest in righteous avowal — allows the justice of the case against her brother,though pleading against its severity: 'O just but severe law!' Then, again, consider the natural timidity and reluctance with which a young girl — a modest, pure girl, a girl who has voluntarily commenced her novitiate for the cloistered life of a nun — would enter upon such a subject as she has undertaken to plead for; a subject hard even to speak of, most hard to advocate" Mrs. Jameson remarks here (line 59): "It is a curious coincidence that Isabella, exhorting Angelo to mercy, avails herself of precisely the same arguments and insists on the self-same topics which Portia addresses to Shylock in her celebrated speech; but how beautifully and how truly is the distinction marked! how like, and yet how unlike! Portia's eulogy on mercy is a piece of heavenly rhetoric; it falls on the ear with a solemn measured harmony; it is the voice of a descended angel addressing an inferior nature: if not premeditated, it is at least part of a preconcerted scheme; while Isabella's pleadings are poured from the abundance of her heart in broken sentences, and with the artless vehemence of one who feels that life and death hang upon her appeal."