Here is the line-by-line paraphrase of the Duke’s monologue from Measure for Measure (Act 3, Scene 2):

Original: He who the sword of heaven will bear
Modern: Anyone who carries out God’s justice and wields power over others

Original: Should be as holy as severe;
Modern: Must be just as personally righteous as they are harsh in judgment.

Original: Pattern in himself to know,
Modern: They must look inward and know their own character and flaws,

Original: Grace to stand, and virtue go;
Modern: Having the strength to resist temptation and the goodness to act on it.

Original: More nor less to others paying
Modern: They should hold others to no stricter or looser a standard

Original: Than by self-offences weighing.
Modern: Than they would hold themselves accountable for their own sins.

Original: Shame to him whose cruel striking
Modern: Shame on any judge whose harsh punishments

Original: Kills for faults of his own liking!
Modern: Condemns others for the very same sins he himself secretly enjoys!

Original: Twice treble shame on Angelo,
Modern: And triple that shame — multiplied twice over — falls on Angelo,

Original: To weed my vice and let his grow!
Modern: Who came here to root out sin in my city while letting his own sin flourish!

Original: O, what may man within him hide,
Modern: Oh, what dark secrets a man can conceal inside himself,

Original: Though angel on the outward side!
Modern: Even while appearing to be a perfect, angelic figure on the outside!

Original: How may likeness made in crimes,
Modern: How easily a shared guilt or hidden corruption

Original: Making practise on the times,
Modern: Can be used to work against and manipulate the world around us,

Original: To draw with idle spiders’ strings
Modern: Using nothing more than thin, flimsy threads — like a spider’s web —

Original: Most ponderous and substantial things!
Modern: To pull down and trap even the most powerful and important people!

Original: Craft against vice I must apply:
Modern: I must use my own cleverness and strategy to fight back against this corruption:

Original: With Angelo to-night shall lie
Modern: Tonight, lying with Angelo will be

Original: His old betrothed but despised;
Modern: The woman he was once engaged to and then cruelly abandoned — Mariana.

Original: So disguise shall, by the disguised,
Modern: And so this deception will be carried out by someone working in disguise,

Original: Pay with falsehood false exacting,
Modern: Using a trick to repay Angelo’s own false and corrupt demands,

Original: And perform an old contracting.
Modern: While also honoring and completing the original marriage promise he broke.

In Act III, Scene 2 of “Measure for Measure,” the Duke, disguised as Friar Lodowick, encounters Elbow and Pompey on a Vienna street. Elbow is escorting the arrested Pompey to prison, and the disguised Duke inquires about the nature of Pompey’s crimes. Pompey, maintaining his characteristic wit despite his circumstances, engages in wordplay about his profession and the reasons for his arrest. The Duke learns more about the moral corruption that has been flourishing in Vienna during his supposed absence, as Pompey represents the world of brothels and bawdy houses that Angelo’s strict enforcement of the law is attempting to eliminate.

The scene continues as Lucio arrives and begins speaking freely to the disguised Duke about Duke Vincentio himself, not recognizing that he is speaking to the very man he discusses. Lucio makes irreverent and often slanderous comments about the Duke’s character, suggesting that the Duke was too lenient in his rule and implying various moral failings. The Duke, forced to listen to these criticisms of himself while maintaining his disguise, responds with measured comments that neither fully defend nor condemn the absent Duke. This encounter provides the Duke with direct insight into how his subjects, particularly the more dissolute citizens like Lucio, perceive his leadership and the current state of affairs under Angelo’s rule.

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.