Measure for Measure

by William Shakespeare

ESCALUS.
Call that same Isabel here once again. I would speak with her.

[Exit an Attendant.]

Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I’ll handle her.

LUCIO.
Not better than he, by her own report.

ESCALUS.
Say you?

LUCIO.
Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would sooner confess; perchance, publicly, she’ll be ashamed.

Enter at several doors Duke as a friar, Provost and Isabella with Officers.

ESCALUS.
I will go darkly to work with her.

LUCIO.
That’s the way; for women are light at midnight.

ESCALUS.
[To Isabella.] Come on, mistress, here’s a gentlewoman denies all that you have said.