Duke. Do you persuade yourself that I respect you? Mari. Good friar, I know you do; and have found it. Duke. Take then this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leisure; but make haste; Mari. Will't please you walk aside? Run with these false and most contrarious quests Make thee the father of their idle dream, And rack thee in their fancies!-Welcome!-How agreed? Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA. Isab. She'll take the enterprise upon her, father, you advise it. If Duke. It is not my consent, Little have you to say, But my entreaty too. Isab. When you depart from him, but, soft and low, Mari. Fear me not. Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all: SCENE II. A Room in the Prison. Enter Provost and Clown. [Exeunt. Prov. Come hither, sirrah: can you cut off a man's head? Clo. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can: but if he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head. Prov. 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 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. Clo. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time out of mind; but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive some instruction from my fellow partner. Prov. What ho, Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there? Enter ABHORSON. Abhor. Do you call, sir? Prov. 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. Abhor. A bawd, sir? Fie upon him! he will discredit our mystery. Prov. Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale. [Exit. Clo. Pray, sir, by your good favor, (for, surely, sir, a good favor you have, but that you have a hanging look,) do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery? Abhor. Ay, sir, a mystery. Clo. 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: but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I should be hanged, I cannot imagine. Abhor. Sir, it is a mystery. Clo. Proof. Abhor. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be 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. Prov. Are you agreed? Clo. Sir, I will serve him; for I do find, your hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd: he doth oftener ask forgiveness. Prov. You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe, tomorrow four o'clock. Abhor. Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade: follow. Clo. 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. Prov. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio: [Exeunt Clown and ABHORSON. 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; He will not wake. Prov. Who can do good on him? Heaven give your spirits comfort! By and by: I hope it is some pardon, or reprieve, [Knocking within. [Exit CLAUDIO. For the most gentle Claudio.-Welcome, father. Enter Duke. Duke. The best and wholesomest spirits of the night Envelop you, good provost! Who called here of late? Prov. None, since the curfew rung. Prov. It is a bitter deputy. Duke. Not so, not so; his life is paralleled 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 To qualify in others: were he mealed With that which he corrects, then were he tyrannous; But this being so, he's just. Now are they come.— [Knocking within.-Provost goes out. This is a gentle provost: seldom when The steeled gaoler is the friend of men. How now? What noise? That spirit's possessed with haste. That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes. Provost returns, speaking to one at the door. Duke. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet, Prov. None, sir, none. Duke. As near the dawning, provost, as it is You shall hear more ere morning. Prov. Happily, You something know; yet, I believe, there comes Lord Angelo hath to the public ear Professed the contrary. Enter a Messenger. Duke. This is his lordship's man. Prov. And here comes Claudio's pardon. Mess. My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this 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. Prov. I shall obey him. [Exit Messenger. Duke. This is his pardon, purchased by such sin; For which the pardoner himself is in: [Aside. When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended, Prov. 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. Pray you, let's hear. Prov. [Reads.] 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, 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. What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed in the afternoon? Prov. A Bohemian born; but here nursed up and bred; one that is a prisoner nine years old. Duke. 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. Prov. 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. Is it now apparent? Prov. Most manifest, and not denied by himself. Duke. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to be touched? Prov. 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. Duke. He wants advice. Prov. 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 often 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. 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 a 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; for the which you are to do me both a present and a dangerous courtesy. Prov. Pray, sir, in what? Duke. In the delaying_death. Prov. Alack! 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 as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest. Duke. 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 borne to Angelo. Prov. Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favor. Duke. 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 |