Measure for Measure: ACT IV , SCENE II. A room in the prison.

Measure for Measure: ACT IV


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

	ACT III

	ACT IV

		SCENE I. The moated grange at ST. LUKE's.

		SCENE II. A room in the prison.

		SCENE III. Another room in the same.

		SCENE IV. A room in ANGELO's house.

		SCENE V. Fields without the town.

		SCENE VI. Street near the city gate.

	ACT V

	About the Play

	Feedback



	Search:
	for:

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.

Provost

5     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?

Provost

20    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.

ABHORSON

25 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?

POMPEY

45    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.

ABHORSON

50 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.

Provost

55 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.

DUKE VINCENTIO

75 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.

Provost

80 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.

DUKE VINCENTIO

95 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.

Provost

100   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

      My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this
110   further charge, that you swerve not from the
      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

115   (Aside) This is his pardon, purchased by such sin
      For which the pardoner himself is in.
      Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
      When it is born in high authority:
      When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,
120   That for the fault's love is the offender friended.
      Now, sir, what news?

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

125 Pray you, let's hear.

Provost

      'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let
      Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the
      afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,
130   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
      not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'
      What say you to this, sir?

DUKE VINCENTIO

135 What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the
afternoon?

Provost

A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one
that is a prisoner nine years old.

DUKE VINCENTIO

      How came it that the absent duke had not either
140   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,
      indeed, his fact, till now in the government of Lord
      Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.

DUKE VINCENTIO

145 It is now apparent?

Provost

Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Hath he born himself penitently in prison? how
seems he to be touched?

Provost

      A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but
150   as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless
      of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of
      mortality, and desperately mortal.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He wants advice.

Provost

      He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty
155   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
      to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming
      warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.

DUKE VINCENTIO

160   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
      boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard.
      Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is
165   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;
      for the which you are to do me both a present and a
      dangerous courtesy.

Provost

170 Pray, sir, in what?

DUKE VINCENTIO

In the delaying death.

Provost

      A lack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,
      and an express command, under penalty, to deliver
      his head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case
175   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
      be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.

Provost

Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.

DUKE VINCENTIO

180   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
      death: you know the course is common. If any thing
      fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good
185   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.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?

Provost

To him, and to his substitutes.

DUKE VINCENTIO

190 You will think you have made no offence, if the duke
avouch the justice of your dealing?

Provost

But what likelihood is in that?

DUKE VINCENTIO

      Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see
      you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor
195   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
      duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the
      signet is not strange to you.

Provost

200 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
      shall find, within these two days he will be here.
      This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this
205   very day receives letters of strange tenor;
      perchance of the duke's death; perchance entering
      into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what
      is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the
      shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these
210   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
      shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you
      are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you.
215   Come away; it is almost clear dawn.

Exeunt

Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene