Measure For Measure

1 Enter Provost and Pompey.
2 PROVOST.
3 Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man’s head?
4 POMPEY.
5 If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a married man, he’s
6 his wife’s head, and I can never cut off a woman’s head.
7 PROVOST.
8 Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a direct answer.
9 Tomorrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here is in our
10 prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper; if you
11 will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from your gyves;
12 if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your
13 deliverance with an unpitied whipping; for you have been a notorious
14 bawd.
15 POMPEY.
16 Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind, but yet I will be
17 content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive some
18 instruction from my fellow-partner.
19 PROVOST.
20 What ho, Abhorson! Where’s Abhorson, there?
21 Enter Abhorson.
22 ABHORSON.
23 Do you call, sir?
24 PROVOST.
25 Sirrah, here’s a fellow will help you tomorrow in your execution. If
26 you think it meet, compound with him by the year, and let him abide
27 here with you; if not, use him for the present, and dismiss him. He
28 cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd.
29 ABHORSON.
30 A bawd, sir? Fie upon him, he will discredit our mystery.
31 PROVOST.
32 Go to, sir; you weigh equally. A feather will turn the scale.
33 [_Exit._]
34 POMPEY.
35 Pray, sir, by your good favour—for surely, sir, a good favour you have,
36 but that you have a hanging look—do you call, sir, your occupation a
37 mystery?
38 ABHORSON.
39 Ay, sir, a mystery.
40 POMPEY.
41 Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and your whores, sir,
42 being members of my occupation, using painting, do prove my occupation
43 a mystery. But what mystery there should be in hanging, if I should be
44 hanged, I cannot imagine.
45 ABHORSON.
46 Sir, it is a mystery.
47 POMPEY.
48 Proof.
49 ABHORSON.
50 Every true man’s apparel fits your thief. If it be too little for your
51 thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it be too big for your
52 thief, your thief thinks it little enough. So every true man’s apparel
53 fits your thief.
54 Enter Provost.
55 PROVOST.
56 Are you agreed?
57 POMPEY.
58 Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is a more penitent
59 trade than your bawd. He doth oftener ask forgiveness.
60 PROVOST.
61 You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe tomorrow four o’clock.
62 ABHORSON.
63 Come on, bawd. I will instruct thee in my trade. Follow.
64 POMPEY.
65 I do desire to learn, sir; and I hope, if you have occasion to use me
66 for your own turn, you shall find me yare. For truly, sir, for your
67 kindness I owe you a good turn.
68 PROVOST.
69 Call hither Barnardine and Claudio.
70 [_Exeunt Abhorson and Pompey._]
71 Th’ one has my pity; not a jot the other,
72 Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
73 Enter Claudio.
74 Look, here’s the warrant, Claudio, for thy death.
75 ’Tis now dead midnight, and by eight tomorrow
76 Thou must be made immortal. Where’s Barnardine?
77 CLAUDIO.
78 As fast locked up in sleep as guiltless labour
79 When it lies starkly in the traveller’s bones.
80 He will not wake.
81 PROVOST.
82 Who can do good on him?
83 Well, go, prepare yourself. [_Knocking within_.] But hark, what noise?
84 Heaven give your spirits comfort!
85 [_Exit Claudio. Knock within._]
86 By and by!—
87 I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
88 For the most gentle Claudio.
89 Enter Duke.
90 Welcome, father.
91 DUKE.
92 The best and wholesom’st spirits of the night
93 Envelop you, good Provost! Who called here of late?
94 PROVOST.
95 None, since the curfew rung.
96 DUKE.
97 Not Isabel?
98 PROVOST.
99 No.
100 DUKE.
101 They will then, ere’t be long.
102 PROVOST.
103 What comfort is for Claudio?
104 DUKE.
105 There’s some in hope.
106 PROVOST.
107 It is a bitter deputy.
108 DUKE.
109 Not so, not so. His life is paralleled
110 Even with the stroke and line of his great justice.
111 He doth with holy abstinence subdue
112 That in himself which he spurs on his power
113 To qualify in others. Were he mealed with that
114 Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;
115 But this being so, he’s just.
116 [_Knocking within. Provost goes to the door._]
117 Now are they come.
118 This is a gentle provost. Seldom when
119 The steeled gaoler is the friend of men.
120 [_Knocking within_.]
121 How now? What noise? That spirit’s possessed with haste
122 That wounds th’ unsisting postern with these strokes.
123 Provost returns.
124 PROVOST.
125 There he must stay until the officer
126 Arise to let him in. He is called up.
127 DUKE.
128 Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
129 But he must die tomorrow?
130 PROVOST.
131 None, sir, none.
132 DUKE.
133 As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
134 You shall hear more ere morning.
135 PROVOST.
136 Happily
137 You something know, yet I believe there comes
138 No countermand. No such example have we.
139 Besides, upon the very siege of justice
140 Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
141 Professed the contrary.
142 Enter a Messenger.
143 This is his Lordship’s man.
144 DUKE.
145 And here comes Claudio’s pardon.
146 MESSENGER.
147 My lord hath sent you this note, and by me this further charge: that
148 you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time,
149 matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it, it is
150 almost day.
151 PROVOST.
152 I shall obey him.
153 [_Exit Messenger._]
154 DUKE.
155 [_Aside_.] This is his pardon, purchased by such sin
156 For which the pardoner himself is in.
157 Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
158 When it is borne in high authority.
159 When vice makes mercy, mercy’s so extended
160 That for the fault’s love is th’ offender friended.
161 Now, sir, what news?
162 PROVOST.
163 I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine office,
164 awakens me with this unwonted putting-on; methinks strangely, for he
165 hath not used it before.
166 DUKE.
167 Pray you, let’s hear.
168 PROVOST.
169 [_Reads_.] _Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let Claudio be
170 executed by four of the clock, and in the afternoon, Barnardine. For my
171 better satisfaction, let me have Claudio’s head sent me by five. Let
172 this be duly performed, with a thought that more depends on it than we
173 must yet deliver. Thus fail not to do your office, as you will answer
174 it at your peril._
175 What say you to this, sir?
176 DUKE.
177 What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in th’ afternoon?
178 PROVOST.
179 A Bohemian born, but here nursed up and bred; one that is a prisoner
180 nine years old.
181 DUKE.
182 How came it that the absent Duke had not either delivered him to his
183 liberty, or executed him? I have heard it was ever his manner to do so.
184 PROVOST.
185 His friends still wrought reprieves for him; and indeed, his fact till
186 now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.
187 DUKE.
188 It is now apparent?
189 PROVOST.
190 Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
191 DUKE.
192 Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to be touched?
193 PROVOST.
194 A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep;
195 careless, reckless, and fearless of what’s past, present, or to come;
196 insensible of mortality and desperately mortal.
197 DUKE.
198 He wants advice.
199 PROVOST.
200 He will hear none. He hath evermore had the liberty of the prison; give
201 him leave to escape hence, he would not. Drunk many times a day, if not
202 many days entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if to carry
203 him to execution, and showed him a seeming warrant for it. It hath not
204 moved him at all.
205 DUKE.
206 More of him anon. There is written in your brow, Provost, honesty and
207 constancy; if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me. But in
208 the boldness of my cunning I will lay myself in hazard. Claudio, whom
209 here you have warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law than
210 Angelo who hath sentenced him. To make you understand this in a
211 manifested effect, I crave but four days’ respite, for the which you
212 are to do me both a present and a dangerous courtesy.
213 PROVOST.
214 Pray, sir, in what?
215 DUKE.
216 In the delaying death.
217 PROVOST.
218 Alack, how may I do it? Having the hour limited, and an express
219 command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view of Angelo? I
220 may make my case as Claudio’s, to cross this in the smallest.
221 DUKE.
222 By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my instructions may be your
223 guide. Let this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head borne
224 to Angelo.
225 PROVOST.
226 Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.
227 DUKE.
228 O, death’s a great disguiser, and you may add to it. Shave the head and
229 tie the beard, and say it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared
230 before his death. You know the course is common. If anything fall to
231 you upon this, more than thanks and good fortune, by the saint whom I
232 profess, I will plead against it with my life.
233 PROVOST.
234 Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.
235 DUKE.
236 Were you sworn to the Duke, or to the Deputy?
237 PROVOST.
238 To him and to his substitutes.
239 DUKE.
240 You will think you have made no offence if the Duke avouch the justice
241 of your dealing?
242 PROVOST.
243 But what likelihood is in that?
244 DUKE.
245 Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you fearful, that
246 neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion, can with ease attempt you,
247 I will go further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you. Look
248 you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the Duke. You know the
249 character, I doubt not, and the signet is not strange to you.
250 PROVOST.
251 I know them both.
252 DUKE.
253 The contents of this is the return of the Duke; you shall anon
254 over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find within these two
255 days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he
256 this very day receives letters of strange tenour, perchance of the
257 Duke’s death, perchance entering into some monastery; but, by chance,
258 nothing of what is writ. Look, th’ unfolding star calls up the
259 shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things should be.
260 All difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call your
261 executioner, and off with Barnardine’s head. I will give him a present
262 shrift, and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed; but this
263 shall absolutely resolve you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn.
264 [_Exeunt._]