Measure for measure

ACT IV

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

Enter MARIANA and a Boy

Boy sings

Take, O, take those lips away,

That so sweetly were forsworn,

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn:

But my kisses bring again, bring again,

Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.

MARIANA

Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away:

Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice

Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.

Exit Boy

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before

I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish

You had not found me here so musical:

Let me excuse me, and believe me so,

My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe.

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis good, though music oft hath such a charm

To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.

I pray, you, tell me, hath any body inquired

for me here to-day? much upon this time have

I promised here to meet.

MARIANA

You have not been inquired after:

I have sat here all day.

Enter ISABELLA

DUKE VINCENTIO

I do constantly believe you. The time is come even

now. I shall crave your forbearance a little: may

be I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.

MARIANA

I am always bound to you.

Exit

DUKE VINCENTIO

Very well met, and well come.

What is the news from this good deputy?

ISABELLA

He hath a garden circummured with brick,

Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd,

And to that vineyard is a planched gate,

That makes his opening with this bigger key:

This other doth command a little door

Which from the vineyard to the garden leads,

There have I made my promise

Upon the heavy middle of the night

To call upon him.

DUKE VINCENTIO

But shall you on your knowledge find this way?

ISABELLA

I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't:

With whispering and most guilty diligence,

In action all of precept, he did show me

The way twice o'er.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Are there no other tokens

Between you 'greed concerning her observance?

ISABELLA

No, none, but only a repair i' the dark,

And that I have possess'd him my most stay

Can be but brief, for I have made him know

I have a servant comes with me along,

That stays upon me, whose persuasion is

I come about my brother.

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis well borne up.

I have not yet made known to Mariana

A word of this. What, ho! within! come forth!

Re-enter MARIANA

I pray you, be acquainted with this maid,

She comes to do you good.

ISABELLA

I do desire the like.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?

MARIANA

Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Take, then, this your companion by the hand,

Who hath a story ready for your ear.

I shall attend your leisure: but make haste,

The vaporous night approaches.

MARIANA

Will't please you walk aside?

Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA

DUKE VINCENTIO

O place and greatness! millions of false eyes

Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report

Run with these false and most contrarious quests

Upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit

Make thee the father of their idle dreams

And rack thee in their fancies.

Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA

Welcome, how agreed?

ISABELLA

She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,

If you advise it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is not my consent,

But my entreaty too.

ISABELLA

Little have you to say

When you depart from him, but, soft and low,

'Remember now my brother.'

MARIANA

Fear me not.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.

He is your husband on a pre-contract:

To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin,

Sith that the justice of your title to him

Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go:

Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.

Exeunt

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

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.

POMPEY

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.

Provost

What, ho! Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there?

Enter ABHORSON

ABHORSON

Do you call, sir?

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.

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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] 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,

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

Pray you, let's hear.

Provost

[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 VINCENTIO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Come away, it is almost clear dawn.

Exeunt

SCENE III. Another room in the same.

Enter POMPEY

POMPEY

I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house

of profession: one would think it were Mistress

Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old

customers. First, here's young Master Rash, he's in

for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger,

ninescore and seventeen pounds, of which he made

five marks, ready money: marry, then ginger was not

much in request, for the old women were all dead.

Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of

Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of

peach-coloured satin, which now peaches him a

beggar. Then have we here young Dizy, and young

Master Deep-vow, and Master Copperspur, and Master

Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger man, and young

Drop-heir that killed lusty Pudding, and Master

Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shooty the

great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabbed

Pots, and, I think, forty more, all great doers in

our trade, and are now 'for the Lord's sake.'

Enter ABHORSON

ABHORSON

Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.

POMPEY

Master Barnardine! you must rise and be hanged.

Master Barnardine!

ABHORSON

What, ho, Barnardine!

BARNARDINE

[Within] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that

noise there? What are you?

POMPEY

Your friends, sir, the hangman. You must be so

good, sir, to rise and be put to death.

BARNARDINE

[Within] Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy.

ABHORSON

Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.

POMPEY

Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are

executed, and sleep afterwards.

ABHORSON

Go in to him, and fetch him out.

POMPEY

He is coming, sir, he is coming, I hear his straw rustle.

ABHORSON

Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?

POMPEY

Very ready, sir.

Enter BARNARDINE

BARNARDINE

How now, Abhorson? what's the news with you?

ABHORSON

Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your

prayers, for, look you, the warrant's come.

BARNARDINE

You rogue, I have been drinking all night, I am not

fitted for 't.

POMPEY

O, the better, sir, for he that drinks all night,

and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the

sounder all the next day.

ABHORSON

Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father: do

we jest now, think you?

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before

DUKE VINCENTIO

Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily

you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort

you and pray with you.

BARNARDINE

Friar, not I I have been drinking hard all night,

and I will have more time to prepare me, or they

shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not

consent to die this day, that's certain.

DUKE VINCENTIO

O, sir, you must: and therefore I beseech you

Look forward on the journey you shall go.

BARNARDINE

I swear I will not die to-day for any man's

persuasion.

DUKE VINCENTIO

But hear you.

BARNARDINE

Not a word: if you have any thing to say to me,

come to my ward, for thence will not I to-day.

Exit

DUKE VINCENTIO

Unfit to live or die: O gravel heart!

After him, fellows, bring him to the block.

Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY

Re-enter Provost

Provost

Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?

DUKE VINCENTIO

A creature unprepared, unmeet for death,

And to transport him in the mind he is

Were damnable.

Provost

Here in the prison, father,

There died this morning of a cruel fever

One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,

A man of Claudio's years, his beard and head

Just of his colour. What if we do omit

This reprobate till he were well inclined,

And satisfy the deputy with the visage

Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?

DUKE VINCENTIO

O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides!

Dispatch it presently, the hour draws on

Prefix'd by Angelo: see this be done,

And sent according to command, whiles I

Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.

Provost

This shall be done, good father, presently.

But Barnardine must die this afternoon:

And how shall we continue Claudio,

To save me from the danger that might come

If he were known alive?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Let this be done.

Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio:

Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting

To the under generation, you shall find

Your safety manifested.

Provost

I am your free dependant.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.

Exit Provost

Now will I write letters to Angelo,--

The provost, he shall bear them, whose contents

Shall witness to him I am near at home,

And that, by great injunctions, I am bound

To enter publicly: him I'll desire

To meet me at the consecrated fount

A league below the city, and from thence,

By cold gradation and well-balanced form,

We shall proceed with Angelo.

Re-enter Provost

Provost

Here is the head, I'll carry it myself.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Convenient is it. Make a swift return,

For I would commune with you of such things

That want no ear but yours.

Provost

I'll make all speed.

Exit

ISABELLA

[Within] Peace, ho, be here!

DUKE VINCENTIO

The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know

If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:

But I will keep her ignorant of her good,

To make her heavenly comforts of despair,

When it is least expected.

Enter ISABELLA

ISABELLA

Ho, by your leave!

DUKE VINCENTIO

Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.

ISABELLA

The better, given me by so holy a man.

Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

DUKE VINCENTIO

He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:

His head is off and sent to Angelo.

ISABELLA

Nay, but it is not so.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is no other: show your wisdom, daughter,

In your close patience.

ISABELLA

O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!

DUKE VINCENTIO

You shall not be admitted to his sight.

ISABELLA

Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!

Injurious world! most damned Angelo!

DUKE VINCENTIO

This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot,

Forbear it therefore, give your cause to heaven.

Mark what I say, which you shall find

By every syllable a faithful verity:

The duke comes home to-morrow, nay, dry your eyes,

One of our convent, and his confessor,

Gives me this instance: already he hath carried

Notice to Escalus and Angelo,

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,

There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom

In that good path that I would wish it go,

And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,

Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,

And general honour.

ISABELLA

I am directed by you.

DUKE VINCENTIO

This letter, then, to Friar Peter give,

'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return:

Say, by this token, I desire his company

At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours

I'll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you

Before the duke, and to the head of Angelo

Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,

I am combined by a sacred vow

And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter:

Command these fretting waters from your eyes

With a light heart, trust not my holy order,

If I pervert your course. Who's here?

Enter LUCIO

LUCIO

Good even. Friar, where's the provost?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Not within, sir.

LUCIO

O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see

thine eyes so red: thou must be patient. I am fain

to dine and sup with water and bran, I dare not for

my head fill my belly, one fruitful meal would set

me to 't. But they say the duke will be here

to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother:

if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been

at home, he had lived.

Exit ISABELLA

DUKE VINCENTIO

Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholding to your

reports, but the best is, he lives not in them.

LUCIO

Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do:

he's a better woodman than thou takest him for.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.

LUCIO

Nay, tarry, I'll go along with thee

I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.

DUKE VINCENTIO

You have told me too many of him already, sir, if

they be true, if not true, none were enough.

LUCIO

I was once before him for getting a wench with child.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Did you such a thing?

LUCIO

Yes, marry, did I but I was fain to forswear it,

they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.

LUCIO

By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end:

if bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of

it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr, I shall stick.

Exeunt

SCENE IV. A room in ANGELO's house.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS

ESCALUS

Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.

ANGELO

In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions

show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be

not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and

redeliver our authorities there

ESCALUS

I guess not.

ANGELO

And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his

entering, that if any crave redress of injustice,

they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

ESCALUS

He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of

complaints, and to deliver us from devices

hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand

against us.

ANGELO

Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes

i' the morn, I'll call you at your house: give

notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet

him.

ESCALUS

I shall, sir. Fare you well.

ANGELO

Good night.

Exit ESCALUS

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant

And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!

And by an eminent body that enforced

The law against it! But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no,

For my authority bears of a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal once can touch

But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,

Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,

Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,

By so receiving a dishonour'd life

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!

A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,

Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.

Exit

SCENE V. Fields without the town.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO in his own habit, and FRIAR PETER

DUKE VINCENTIO

These letters at fit time deliver me

Giving letters

The provost knows our purpose and our plot.

The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,

And hold you ever to our special drift,

Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,

As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavius' house,

And tell him where I stay: give the like notice

To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,

And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate,

But send me Flavius first.

FRIAR PETER

It shall be speeded well.

Exit

Enter VARRIUS

DUKE VINCENTIO

I thank thee, Varrius, thou hast made good haste:

Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends

Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.

Exeunt

SCENE VI. Street near the city gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA

ISABELLA

To speak so indirectly I am loath:

I would say the truth, but to accuse him so,

That is your part: yet I am advised to do it,

He says, to veil full purpose.

MARIANA

Be ruled by him.

ISABELLA

Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure

He speak against me on the adverse side,

I should not think it strange, for 'tis a physic

That's bitter to sweet end.

MARIANA

I would Friar Peter--

ISABELLA

O, peace! the friar is come.

Enter FRIAR PETER

FRIAR PETER

Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,

Where you may have such vantage on the duke,

He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded,

The generous and gravest citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon

The duke is entering: therefore, hence, away!

Exeunt