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man is a more penitent trade than your bawd; he
doth oftener ask forgiveness.

Prov. You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe
to-morrow four o'clock.

Abhor. Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.

Pom. 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 60 owe you a good turn.

Prov. 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?

Claud. As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones :

Prov.

He will not wake.

Who can do good on him?

Well, go, prepare yourself. [Knocking within.] But, hark, what noise ?

Heaven give your spirits comfort!

By and by.

I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
For the most gentle Claudio.

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[Exit Claudio.]

Enter Duke disguised as before.

Welcome, father.

Duke. The best and wholesomest spirits of the night

Envelop you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?

Prov. None, since the curfew rung.

Duke. Not Isabel?

Prov.

No.

Duke.

They will, then, ere't be long.

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Prov. What comfort is for Claudio.

Duke. There's some in hope.

Prov. It is a bitter deputy.

Duke. 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.

[blocks in formation]

Prov. There he must stay until the officer

Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.

Duke. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,

Prov.

But he must die to-morrow ?

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
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.

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This is his lordship's man.

Duke. And here comes Claudio's pardon.
Mes. [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.

Prov. I shall obey him.

[Exit Messenger. IIO

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 the offender friended.
Now, sir, what news?

Prov. I told you. Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted putting-on; methinks strangely, for he 120 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.

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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: 140 and, indeed, his fact, till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.

Duke. It is 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; 150 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 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 160
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 my self
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.

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 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 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.

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