Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure

ACT IV SCENE II	A room in the prison.
	Enter Provost and POMPEY
Provost	Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?
POMPEY	If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a
	married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never
	cut off a woman's head.	5
Provost	Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a
	direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio
	and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common
	executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if
	you will take it on you to assist him, it shall	10
	redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have
	your full time of imprisonment and your deliverance
	with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a
	notorious bawd.
POMPEY	Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind;	15
	but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I
	would be glad to receive some instruction from my
	fellow partner.
Provost	What, ho! Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there?
	Enter ABHORSON
ABHORSON	Do you call, sir?	20
Provost	Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in
	your execution. If you think it meet, compound with
	him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if
	not, use him for the present and dismiss him. He
	cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd.	25
ABHORSON	A bawd, sir? fie upon him! he will discredit our mystery.
Provost	Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn
	the scale.
	Exit
POMPEY	Pray, sir, by your good favour,--for surely, sir, a
	good favour you have, but that you have a hanging	30
	look,--do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery?
ABHORSON	Ay, sir; a mystery
POMPEY	Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and
	your whores, sir, being members of my occupation,
	using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery:	35
	but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I
	should be hanged, I cannot imagine.
ABHORSON	Sir, it is a mystery.
POMPEY	Proof?
ABHORSON	Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be	40
	too little for your thief, your true man thinks it
	big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your
	thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's
	apparel fits your thief.
	Re-enter Provost
Provost	Are you agreed?	45
POMPEY	Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is
	a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth
	oftener ask forgiveness.
Provost	You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe
	to-morrow four o'clock.	50
ABHORSON	Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.
POMPEY	I do desire to learn, sir: and I hope, if you have
	occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find
	me yare; for truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you
	a good turn.	55
Provost	Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:
	Exeunt POMPEY and ABHORSON
	The one has my pity; not a jot the other,
	Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
	Enter CLAUDIO
	Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:
	'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow	60
	Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?
CLAUDIO	As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
	When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:
	He will not wake.
Provost	Who can do good on him?	65
	Well, go, prepare yourself.
	Knocking within
	But, hark, what noise?
	Heaven give your spirits comfort!
	Exit CLAUDIO
	By and by.
	I hope it is some pardon or reprieve	70
	For the most gentle Claudio.
	Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before
	Welcome father.
DUKE VINCENTIO	The best and wholesomest spirts of the night
	Envelope you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?
Provost	None, since the curfew rung.	75
DUKE VINCENTIO	Not Isabel?
Provost	No.
DUKE VINCENTIO	They will, then, ere't be long.
Provost	What comfort is for Claudio?
DUKE VINCENTIO	There's some in hope.	80
Provost	It is a bitter deputy.
DUKE VINCENTIO	Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd
	Even with the stroke and line of his great justice:
	He doth with holy abstinence subdue
	That in himself which he spurs on his power	85
	To qualify in others: were he meal'd with that
	Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;
	But this being so, he's just.
	Knocking within
	Now are they come.
	Exit Provost
	This is a gentle provost: seldom when	90
	The steeled gaoler is the friend of men.
	Knocking within
	How now! what noise? That spirit's possessed with haste
	That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes.
	Re-enter Provost
Provost	There he must stay until the officer
	Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.	95
DUKE VINCENTIO	Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
	But he must die to-morrow?
Provost	None, sir, none.
DUKE VINCENTIO	As near the dawning, provost, as it is,
	You shall hear more ere morning.	100
Provost	Happily
	You something know; yet I believe there comes
	No countermand; no such example have we:
	Besides, upon the very siege of justice
	Lord Angelo hath to the public ear	105
	Profess'd the contrary.
	Enter a Messenger
	This is his lordship's man.
DUKE VINCENTIO	And here comes Claudio's pardon.
Messenger	Giving a paper
	My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this
	further charge, that you swerve not from the	110
	smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or
	other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it,
	it is almost day.
Provost	I shall obey him.
	Exit Messenger
DUKE VINCENTIO	Aside
	For which the pardoner himself is in.	115
	Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
	When it is born in high authority:
	When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,
	That for the fault's love is the offender friended.
	Now, sir, what news?	120
Provost	I told you. Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss
	in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted
	putting-on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before.
DUKE VINCENTIO	Pray you, let's hear.
Provost	Reads
	'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let	125
	Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the
	afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,
	let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let
	this be duly performed; with a thought that more
	depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail	130
	not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'
	What say you to this, sir?
DUKE VINCENTIO	What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the
	afternoon?
Provost	A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one	135
	that is a prisoner nine years old.
DUKE VINCENTIO	How came it that the absent duke had not either
	delivered him to his liberty or executed him? I
	have heard it was ever his manner to do so.
Provost	His friends still wrought reprieves for him: and,	140
	indeed, his fact, till now in the government of Lord
	Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.
DUKE VINCENTIO	It is now apparent?
Provost	Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
DUKE VINCENTIO	Hath he born himself penitently in prison? how	145
	seems he to be touched?
Provost	A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but
	as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless
	of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of
	mortality, and desperately mortal.	150
DUKE VINCENTIO	He wants advice.
Provost	He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty
	of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he
	would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days
	entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if	155
	to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming
	warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.
DUKE VINCENTIO	More of him anon. There is written in your brow,
	provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not
	truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the	160
	boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard.
	Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is
	no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath
	sentenced him. To make you understand this in a
	manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite;	165
	for the which you are to do me both a present and a
	dangerous courtesy.
Provost	Pray, sir, in what?
DUKE VINCENTIO	In the delaying death.
Provost	A lack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,	170
	and an express command, under penalty, to deliver
	his head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case
	as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest.
DUKE VINCENTIO	By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if my
	instructions may be your guide. Let this Barnardine	175
	be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.
Provost	Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.
DUKE VINCENTIO	O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it.
	Shave the head, and tie the beard; and say it was
	the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his	180
	death: you know the course is common. If any thing
	fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good
	fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead
	against it with my life.
Provost	Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.	185
DUKE VINCENTIO	Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?
Provost	To him, and to his substitutes.
DUKE VINCENTIO	You will think you have made no offence, if the duke
	avouch the justice of your dealing?
Provost	But what likelihood is in that?	190
DUKE VINCENTIO	Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see
	you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor
	persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go
	further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.
	Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the	195
	duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the
	signet is not strange to you.
Provost	I know them both.
DUKE VINCENTIO	The contents of this is the return of the duke: you
	shall anon over-read it at your pleasure; where you	200
	shall find, within these two days he will be here.
	This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this
	very day receives letters of strange tenor;
	perchance of the duke's death; perchance entering
	into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what	205
	is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the
	shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these
	things should be: all difficulties are but easy
	when they are known. Call your executioner, and off
	with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present	210
	shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you
	are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you.
	Come away; it is almost clear dawn.
	Exeunt