Original: No, holy father; throw away that thought;
Modern: No, holy father; forget about that idea;

Original: Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Modern: Don’t believe that love’s weak arrow

Original: Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee
Modern: Can wound a strong heart. The reason I want you

Original: To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose
Modern: To give me secret shelter has a purpose

Original: More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Modern: More serious and complex than the goals

Original: Of burning youth.
Modern: Of passionate young people.

Original: My holy sir, none better knows than you
Modern: My holy sir, no one knows better than you

Original: How I have ever loved the life removed
Modern: How I have always loved the withdrawn life

Original: And held in idle price to haunt assemblies
Modern: And considered it worthless to attend gatherings

Original: Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.
Modern: Where young people show off with money and foolish displays.

Original: I have deliver’d to Lord Angelo,
Modern: I have given to Lord Angelo,

Original: A man of stricture and firm abstinence,
Modern: A man of discipline and strong self-control,

Original: My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
Modern: My complete authority and position here in Vienna,

Original: And he supposes me travell’d to Poland;
Modern: And he believes I have traveled to Poland;

Original: For so I have strew’d it in the common ear,
Modern: Because that’s what I’ve spread as a rumor,

Original: And so it is received. Now, pious sir,
Modern: And that’s what people believe. Now, holy sir,

Original: You will demand of me why I do this?
Modern: You will ask me why I’m doing this?

Original: We have strict statutes and most biting laws.
Modern: We have harsh laws and very severe punishments.

Original: The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,
Modern: The necessary restraints to control stubborn wrongdoers,

Original: Which for this nineteen years we have let slip;
Modern: Which for these nineteen years we have let slide;

Original: Even like an o’ergrown lion in a cave,
Modern: Just like an overfed lion in a cave,

Original: That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,
Modern: That doesn’t go out to hunt. Now, like foolish fathers,

Original: Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,
Modern: Having tied up the threatening birch rods,

Original: Only to stick it in their children’s sight
Modern: Only to place them where their children can see them

Original: For terror, not to use, in time the rod
Modern: To scare them, not to actually use them, eventually the rod

Original: Becomes more mock’d than fear’d; so our decrees,
Modern: Becomes more laughed at than feared; so our laws,

Original: Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
Modern: Never enforced, have become powerless;

Original: And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
Modern: And lawlessness makes a mockery of justice;

Original: The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Modern: The child hits the caretaker, and completely backwards

Original: Goes all decorum.
Modern: Goes all proper order.

In Act I, Scene 3 of “Measure for Measure,” the Duke of Vienna meets with Friar Thomas at a monastery and reveals his true intentions for leaving the city. The Duke explains that he has not actually departed Vienna, but rather has disguised himself in order to observe how his deputy, Angelo, will enforce the laws that the Duke himself has allowed to grow lax during his fourteen years of lenient rule. He confesses that he gave Angelo strict power deliberately, knowing that the people would accept harsh justice more readily from a deputy than from the Duke himself, who has been too permissive for too long.

The Duke further explains to Friar Thomas that he suspects Angelo’s virtues may be more show than substance, and he wishes to test whether Angelo’s outward severity matches his private character. He asks the Friar to provide him with the disguise and instruction of a friar so that he may move freely through Vienna and witness Angelo’s actions firsthand. The Duke wants to see whether Angelo will truly be as strict and virtuous in practice as he appears in reputation, and whether his seeming righteousness will hold up under the weight of actual power and temptation.

Measure for Measure opens in Vienna, where Duke Vincentio announces he must leave the city on urgent business and appoints his deputy Angelo to govern in his absence, with the elder lord Escalus as Angelo’s advisor. The Duke actually remains in Vienna disguised as a friar to observe how Angelo will rule. Angelo immediately begins strictly enforcing long-neglected laws against sexual immorality, ordering the demolition of brothels and condemning Claudio to death for getting his betrothed Juliet pregnant before their official marriage ceremony.

Claudio’s sister Isabella, a novice nun, pleads with Angelo for her brother’s life. Angelo, struck by Isabella’s beauty and virtue, propositions her: he will spare Claudio’s life if she will sleep with him. Isabella refuses and tells her brother of Angelo’s corrupt bargain. When Claudio, desperate to live, begs Isabella to sacrifice her chastity for his life, she angrily rejects the idea. The disguised Duke, who has been counseling prisoners, overhears this conversation and devises a plan.

The Duke arranges for Mariana, Angelo’s former betrothed whom he abandoned when her dowry was lost, to take Isabella’s place in a secret nighttime encounter with Angelo - a “bed trick” that Angelo believes is with Isabella. Despite this fulfillment of the bargain, Angelo still orders Claudio’s execution. The Duke, still disguised, arranges for another prisoner’s head to be sent to Angelo instead of Claudio’s, saving Claudio’s life while letting Angelo believe his order was carried out.

In the final act, the Duke returns publicly to Vienna, and Isabella openly accuses Angelo of corruption before the Duke (not knowing he already knows everything). The Duke pretends to disbelieve her until he reveals his true identity and Angelo’s crimes. Angelo confesses and is sentenced to marry Mariana and then be executed, though Mariana and Isabella both plead for his life. The Duke pardons Angelo, reveals that Claudio is alive, and proposes marriage to Isabella, leaving her response ambiguous in the text.