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. Tomorrow 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 tomorrow 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 tomorrow 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 ABHORSON and POMPEY.
	Th' 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 tomorrow
	Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?

Claudio	As fast locked 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.
													[Knocking within.
										By and by.
	I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
	For the most gentle Claudio.

                      Enter DUKE as Friar Lodowick.

									Welcome, father.

Duke	The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night
	Envelop you, good Provost! Who called here of late?

Provost	None since the curfew rung.

Duke	Not Isabel?

Provost					No.

Duke							They will then, ere't be long.

Provost	What comfort is for Claudio?

Duke	There's some in hope.

Provost								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.
													[Knocking within.
													[Exit PROVOST.
									Now are they come.
	This is a gentle provost: seldom when
	The steeld gaoler is the friend of men.
													[Knocking within.

	How now, what noise! That spirit's possessed with haste
	That wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes.

                            Re-enter PROVOST.

Provost	[Calling.] There must he stay until the officer
	Arise to let him in. He is called up.

Duke	Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
	But he must die tomorrow?

Provost								None, sir, none.

Duke	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
	Professed the contrary.

                            Enter a MESSENGER.

								This is his lordship's man.

Duke	And here comes Claudio's pardon.

Messenger	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	[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 borne in high authority.
	When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended
	That for the fault's love is th' 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	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	What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the 
	afternoon?

Provost	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.

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	It is now apparent?

Provost	Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

Duke	Hath he borne 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	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	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	In the delaying death.

Provost	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.

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

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 know the 
	course is common. If anything 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	Were you sworn to the duke or to the deputy?

Provost	To him and to his substitutes.

Duke	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	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	The contents of this is the return of the duke; you shall 
	anon overread 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, th' 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.
