MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Act 4 Scene 2

(Enter the Provost and Pompey)
l1l	Provost	 Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man’s
l2l		head?
l3l	Pompey	If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can# but if he be
l4l		a married man, he’s his wife’s head, and I can never
l5l		cut off a woman’s head.
l6l	Provost	Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me
l7l		a direct answer. Tomorrow morning are to die Claudio
l8l		and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common
l9l		executioner, who in his office lacks a helper. If you will
l10l		take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from
l11l		your gyves# if not, you shall have your full time of
l12l		imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied
l13l		whipping# for you have been a notorious bawd.
l14l	Pompey	Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of
l15l		mind, but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman.
l16l		I would be glad to receive some instruction from my
l17l		fellow partner.
l18l	Provost	What ho, Abhorson! Where’s Abhorson there?
		(Enter Abhorson)
l19l	Abhorson	 Do you call, sir?
l20l	Provost	Sirrah, here’s a fellow will help you tomorrow
l21l		in your execution. If you think it meet, compound with
l22l		him by the year, and let him abide here with you# if
l23l		not, use him for the present, and dismiss him. He
l24l		cannot plead his estimation with you# he hath been a
l25l		bawd.
l26l	Abhorson	A bawd, sir? Fie upon him, he will discredit
l27l		our mystery.
l28l	Provost	Go to, sir, you weigh equally# a feather will turn
l29l		the scale.
		(Exit)
l30l	Pompey	 Pray, sir, by your good favour—for surely, sir, a
l31l		good favour you have, but that you have a hanging
l32l		look—do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery?
l33l	Abhorson	Ay, sir, a mystery.
l34l	Pompey	Painting, sir, I have heard say is a mystery# and
l35l		your whores, sir, being members of my occupation,
l36l		using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery. But
l37l		what mystery there should be in hanging, if I should
l38l		be hanged I cannot imagine.
l39l	Abhorson	Sir, it is a mystery.
l40l	Pompey	Proof.
l41l	Abhorson	Every true man’s apparel fits your thief—
l42l	Pompey	If it be too little for your thief, your true man
l43l		thinks it big enough. If it be too big for your thief, your
l44l		thief thinks it little enough. So every true man’s apparel
l45l		fits your thief.
		(Enter Provost)
l46l	Provost	 Are you agreed?
l47l	Pompey	Sir, I will serve him, for I do find your hangman
l48l		is a more penitent trade than your bawd—he doth
l49l		oftener ask forgiveness.
l50l	Provost	(to Abhorson)
		 You, sirrah, provide your block and
l51l		your axe tomorrow, four o’clock.
l52l	Abhorson	(to Pompey)
		 Come on, bawd, I will instruct thee
l53l		in my trade. Follow.
l54l	Pompey	I do desire to learn, sir, and I hope, if you have
l55l		occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find
l56l		me yare. For truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you a
l57l		good turn.
l58l	Provost	 Call hither Barnardine and Claudio.
		( 58 Exeunt Abhorson and Pompey)
l59l		Th’ one has my pity# not a jot the other,
l60l		Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
		(Enter Claudio)
l61l		Look, here’s the warrant, Claudio, for thy death.
l62l		’Tis now dead midnight, and by eight tomorrow
l63l		Thou must be made immortal. Where’s Barnardine?
l64l	Claudio	As fast locked up in sleep as guiltless labour
l65l		When it lies starkly in the travailer’s bones.
l66l		He will not wake.
	Provost	Who can do good on him?
l67l		Well, go prepare yourself.
		(Knocking within)
		 But hark, what noise?
l68l		Heaven give your spirits comfort!
		(Exit Claudio)
		
		( 68B Knocking again)
		 By and by!
l69l		I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
l70l		For the most gentle Claudio.
		(Enter the Duke, disguised as a friar)
		 Welcome, father.
l71l	Duke	The best and wholesom’st spirits of the night
l72l		Envelop you, good Provost! Who called here of late?
l73l	Provost	None since the curfew rung.
l74l	Duke	Not Isabel?
l75l	Provost	No.
l76l	Duke	They will then, ere ’t be long.
l77l	Provost	What comfort is for Claudio?
l78l	Duke	There’s some in hope.
l79l	Provost	It is a bitter deputy.
l80l	Duke	Not so, not so# his life is paralleled
l81l		Even with the stroke and line of his great justice.
l82l		He doth with holy abstinence subdue
l83l		That in himself which he spurs on his power
l84l		To qualify in others. Were he mealed with that
l85l		Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous#
l86l		But this being so, he’s just.
		(Knocking within)
		 Now are they come.
		(The Provost goes to a door)
l87l		This is a gentle Provost. Seldom when
l88l		The steelèd jailer is the friend of men.
		(Knocking within)
l89l		(To Provost)
		 How now, what noise? That spirit’s possessed with haste
l90l		That wounds th’ unlisting postern with these strokes.
l91l	Provost	There he must stay until the officer
l92l		Arise to let him in. He is called up.
l93l	Duke	Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
l94l		But he must die tomorrow?
	Provost	None, sir, none.
l95l	Duke	As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
l96l		You shall hear more ere morning.
	Provost	Happily
l97l		You something know, yet I believe there comes
l98l		No countermand. No such example have we#
l99l		Besides, upon the very siege of justice
l100l		Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
l101l		Professed the contrary.
		(Enter a Messenger)
l102l		This is his lordship’s man.
l103l	[Duke]	And here comes Claudio’s pardon.
l104l	Messenger	(giving a paper to Provost)
		 My lord hath sent
l105l		you this note, and by me this further charge: that you
l106l		swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in
l107l		time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow#
l108l		for, as I take it, it is almost day.
l109l	Provost	I shall obey him.
		(Exit Messenger)
l110l	Duke	(aside)
		 This is his pardon, purchased by such sin
l111l		For which the pardoner himself is in.
l112l		Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
l113l		When it is borne in high authority.
l114l		When vice makes mercy, mercy’s so extended
l115l		That for the fault’s love is th’ offender friended.—
l116l		Now sir, what news?
l117l	Provost	 I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me
l118l		remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted
l119l		putting-on# methinks strangely, for he hath not used
l120l		it before.
l121l	Duke	Pray you let’s hear.
l122l	[Provost]	(reading the letter)
		 “Whatsoever you may hear
l123l		to the contrary, let Claudio be executed by four of the
l124l		clock, and in the afternoon Barnardine. For my better
l125l		satisfaction, let me have Claudio’s head sent me by five.
l126l		Let this be duly performed, with a thought that more
l127l		depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not
l128l		to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.”
l129l		What say you to this, sir?
l130l	Duke	 What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed in
l131l		th’ afternoon?
l132l	Provost	A Bohemian born, but here nursed up and bred#
l133l		one that is a prisoner nine years old.
l134l	Duke	How came it that the absent Duke had not either
l135l		delivered him to his liberty or executed him? I have
l136l		heard it was ever his manner to do so.
l137l	Provost	His friends still wrought reprieves for him# and
l138l		indeed his fact, till now in the government of Lord
l139l		Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.
l140l	Duke	It is now apparent?
l141l	Provost	Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
l142l	Duke	Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How
l143l		seems he to be touched?
l144l	Provost	A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully
l145l		but as a drunken sleep# careless, reckless, and fearless
l146l		of what’s past, present, or to come# insensible of
l147l		mortality, and desperately mortal.
l148l	Duke	He wants advice.
l149l	Provost	He will hear none. He hath evermore had the
l150l		liberty of the prison. Give him leave to escape hence,
l151l		he would not. Drunk many times a day, if not many
l152l		days entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him as
l153l		if to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming
l154l		warrant for it# it hath not moved him at all.
l155l	Duke	More of him anon. There is written in your brow,
l156l		Provost, honesty and constancy. If I read it not truly,
l157l		my ancient skill beguiles me. But in the boldness of my
l158l		cunning, I will lay myself in hazard. Claudio, whom
l159l		here you have warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit
l160l		to the law than Angelo who hath sentenced him. To
l161l		make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave
l162l		but four days’ respite, for the which you are to do me
l163l		both a present and a dangerous courtesy.
l164l	Provost	Pray sir, in what?
l165l	Duke	In the delaying death.
l166l	Provost	Alack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,
l167l		and an express command under penalty to deliver his
l168l		head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case as
l169l		Claudio’s to cross this in the smallest.
l170l	Duke	By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my
l171l		instructions may be your guide, let this Barnardine be
l172l		this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo.
l173l	Provost	Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover
l174l		the favour.
l175l	Duke	O, death’s a great disguiser, and you may add to
l176l		it. Shave the head and tie the beard, and say it was
l177l		the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his
l178l		death# you know the course is common. If anything
l179l		fall to you upon this more than thanks and good
l180l		fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against
l181l		it with my life.
l182l	Provost	Pardon me, good father, it is against my oath.
l183l	Duke	Were you sworn to the Duke or to the deputy?
l184l	Provost	To him and to his substitutes.
l185l	Duke	You will think you have made no offence if the
l186l		Duke avouch the justice of your dealing?
l187l	Provost	But what likelihood is in that?
l188l	Duke	Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see
l189l		you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor
l190l		persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go further
l191l		than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.
		(Showing a)
l192l		letter) Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the
l193l		Duke. You know the character, I doubt not, and the
l194l		signet is not strange to you?
l195l	Provost	I know them both.
l196l	Duke	The contents of this is the return of the Duke. You
l197l		shall anon over-read it at your pleasure, where you
l198l		shall find within these two days he will be here. This
l199l		is a thing that Angelo knows not, for he this very day
l200l		receives letters of strange tenor, perchance of the Duke’s
l201l		death, perchance entering into some monastery# but
l202l		by chance nothing of what is writ. Look, th’ unfolding
l203l		star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into
l204l		amazement how these things should be. All difficulties
l205l		are but easy when they are known. Call your
l206l		executioner, and off with Barnardine’s head. I will give
l207l		him a present shrift, and advise him for a better place.
l208l		Yet you are amazed# but this shall absolutely resolve
l209l		you. Come away, it is almost clear dawn.
		(Exeunt)