“… Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman’s lightness?”
(Measure For Measure, act 2, sc. 3)
Tips for use. Here we have in verse the unassailable truth that modesty or elegant reserve are more enticing than explicit sexual messages. Regrettably many if not most of us have become inured to the awesome badness of TV sit-com, serials etc.. To the point that nothing else may be even imaginable. This is the complete triumph of free-market theory applied to the stultification of the brain and with brain, taste. Free-market suggests – or rather imposes – that appeal be made to the most common denominator of taste, to avoid saying bestiality. And the caveat has nothing to do with bestiality, but to the unassailable evidence that many animals have better taste than many men.
Here are the complete lines of the monolog.
“What’s this, what’s this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
Ha!
Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?”
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In the play. The virtue of Isabel tempts the hypocrite Angelo.
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