Act 4, Scene 2

A Room in the prison.

[Enter PROVOST and CLOWN.]
Provost
1721 Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?
Pompey
1722 If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can: but if he be a married man,
1723 he's his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head.
Provost
1724 Come, sir, leave me your snatches and yield me a direct answer.
1725 To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here is in
1726 our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper;
1727 if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from
1728 your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment,
1729 and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping; for you have been
1730 a notorious bawd.
Pompey
1731 Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind; but yet I
1732 will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive
1733 some instruction from my fellow-partner.
Provost
1734 What ho, Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there?
[Enter ABHORSON.]
Abhorson
1735 Do you call, sir?
Provost
1736 Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in your
1737 execution. If you think it meet, compound with him by the year,
1738 and let him abide here with you; if not, use him for the
1739 present, and dismiss him. He cannot plead his estimation with
1740 you; he hath been a bawd.
Abhorson
1741 A bawd, sir? Fie upon him; he will discredit our mystery.
Provost
1742 Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale.
[Exit.]
Pompey
1743 Pray, sir, by your good favour,—for, surely, sir, a good favour
1744 you have, but that you have a hanging look,—do you call, sir,
1745 your occupation a mystery?
Abhorson
1746 Ay, sir; a mystery.
Pompey
1747 Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and your whores,
1748 sir, being members of my occupation, using painting, do prove
1749 my occupation a mystery: but what mystery there should be in
1750 hanging, if I should be hanged, I cannot imagine.
Abhorson
1751 Sir, it is a mystery.
Pompey
1752 Proof.
Abhorson
1753 Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be too little for
1754 your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it be too big
1755 for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; so every true
1756 man's apparel fits your thief.
[Re-enter PROVOST.]
Provost
1757 Are you agreed?
Pompey
1758 Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is a more
1759 penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftener ask forgiveness.
Provost
1760 You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe to-morrow four
1761 o'clock.
Abhorson
1762 Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.
Pompey
1763 I do desire to learn, sir; and I hope, if you have occasion to
1764 use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare; for truly,
1765 sir, for your kindness I owe you a good turn.
Provost
1766 Call hither Barnardine and Claudio.
[Exeunt CLOWN and ABHORSON.]
Provost
1767 One has my pity; not a jot the other,
1768 Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
[Enter CLAUDIO.]
Provost
1769 Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:
1770 'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow
1771 Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?
Claudio
1772 As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
1773 When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:
1774 He will not wake.
Provost
1775 Who can do good on him?
1776 Well, go, prepare yourself. But hark, what noise?
[Knocking within.]
Provost
1777 Heaven give your spirits comfort!
[Exit CLAUDIO.]
Provost
1778 By and by!—
1779 I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
1780 For the most gentle Claudio.—Welcome, father.
[Enter DUKE.]
Duke Vincentio
1781 The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night
1782 Envelop you, good provost! Who call'd here of late?
Provost
1783 None, since the curfew rung.
Duke Vincentio
1784 Not Isabel?
Provost
1785 No.
Duke Vincentio
1786 They will then, ere't be long.
Provost
1787 What comfort is for Claudio?
Duke Vincentio
1788 There's some in hope.
Provost
1789 It is a bitter deputy.
Duke Vincentio
1790 Not so, not so: his life is parallel'd
1791 Even with the stroke and line of his great justice;
1792 He doth with holy abstinence subdue
1793 That in himself which he spurs on his power
1794 To qualify in others: were he meal'd
1795 With that which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;
1796 But this being so, he's just.—Now are they come.
[Knocking within--PROVOST goes out.]
Duke Vincentio
1797 This is a gentle provost: seldom when
1798 The steeled gaoler is the friend of men.—
1799 How now? what noise? That spirit's possess'd with haste
1800 That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes.
[PROVOST returns, speaking to one at the door.]
Provost
1801 There he must stay until the officer
1802 Arise to let him in; he is call'd up.
Duke Vincentio
1803 Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
1804 But he must die to-morrow?
Provost
1805 None, sir, none.
Duke Vincentio
1806 As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
1807 You shall hear more ere morning.
Provost
1808 Happily
1809 You something know; yet I believe there comes
1810 No countermand; no such example have we:
1811 Besides, upon the very siege of justice,
1812 Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
1813 Profess'd the contrary.
[Enter a Messenger.]
Duke Vincentio
1814 This is his lordship's man.
Duke Vincentio
1815 And here comes Claudio's pardon.
Messenger
1816 My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further charge,
1817 that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in
1818 time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for as I take
1819 it, it is almost day.
Provost
1820 I shall obey him.
[Exit Messenger.]
[Aside.]
Duke Vincentio
1821 This is his pardon, purchas'd by such sin,
1822 For which the pardoner himself is in:
1823 Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
1824 When it is borne in high authority:
1825 When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended
1826 That for the fault's love is the offender friended.—
1827 Now, sir, what news?
Provost
1828 I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine
1829 office, awakens me with this unwonted putting-on; methinks
1830 strangely, for he hath not used it before.
Duke Vincentio
1831 Pray you, let's hear.
[Reads.]
Provost
1832 'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let Claudio be
1833 executed by four of the clock; and, in the afternoon, Barnardine:
1834 for my better satisfaction, let me have Claudio's head sent me by
1835 five. Let this be duly performed; with a thought that more
1836 depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not to do your
1837 office, as you will answer it at your peril.'
1838 What say you to this, sir?
Duke Vincentio
1839 What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the afternoon?
Provost
1840 A Bohemian born; but here nursed up and bred: one that is a
1841 prisoner nine years old.
Duke Vincentio
1842 How came it that the absent duke had not either delivered him to
1843 his liberty or executed him? I have heard it was ever his manner
1844 to do so.
Provost
1845 His friends still wrought reprieves for him; and, indeed, his
1846 fact, till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to an
1847 undoubtful proof.
Duke Vincentio
1848 It is now apparent?
Provost
1849 Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
Duke Vincentio
1850 Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to be
1851 touched?
Provost
1852 A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken
1853 sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless, of what's past, present,
1854 or to come; insensible of mortality and desperately mortal.
Duke Vincentio
1855 He wants advice.
Provost
1856 He will hear none; he hath evermore had the liberty of the
1857 prison; give him leave to escape hence, he would not: drunk many
1858 times a-day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very oft
1859 awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and showed him a
1860 seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.
Duke Vincentio
1861 More of him anon. There is written in your brow, Provost, honesty
1862 and constancy: if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me;
1863 but in the boldness of my cunning I will lay myself in hazard.
1864 Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is no greater
1865 forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath sentenced him. To make you
1866 understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days'
1867 respite; for the which you are to do me both a present and a
1868 dangerous courtesy.
Provost
1869 Pray, sir, in what?
Duke Vincentio
1870 In the delaying death.
Provost
1871 Alack! How may I do it? having the hour limited; and an express
1872 command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view of Angelo?
1873 I may make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest.
Duke Vincentio
1874 By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my instructions may
1875 be your guide. Let this Barnardine be this morning executed,
1876 and his head borne to Angelo.
Provost
1877 Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.
Duke Vincentio
1878 O, death's a great disguiser: and you may add to it. Shave the
1879 head and tie the beard; and say it was the desire of the penitent
1880 to be so bared before his death. You know the course is common.
1881 If anything fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good
1882 fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against it with
1883 my life.
Provost
1884 Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.
Duke Vincentio
1885 Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?
Provost
1886 To him and to his substitutes.
Duke Vincentio
1887 You will think you have made no offence if the duke avouch the
1888 justice of your dealing?
Provost
1889 But what likelihood is in that?
Duke Vincentio
1890 Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you fearful,
1891 that neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion, can with ease
1892 attempt you, I will go further than I meant, to pluck all fears
1893 out of you. Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the duke.
1894 You know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not
1895 strange to you.
Provost
1896 I know them both.
Duke Vincentio
1897 The contents of this is the return of the duke; you shall anon
1898 over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find within these
1899 two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not:
1900 for he this very day receives letters of strange tenour: perchance
1901 of the duke's death; perchance entering into some monastery; but,
1902 by chance, nothing of what is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls
1903 up the shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things
1904 should be: all difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call
1905 your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head: I will give him
1906 a present shrift, and advise him for a better place. Yet you are
1907 amazed: but this shall absolutely resolve you. Come away; it is
1908 almost clear dawn.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1722wordplay
“if he be a married man, he's his wife's head”
Pompey twists 'cut off a man's head' into a pun on the legal-theological doctrine that a husband is his wife's 'head' (ruler, superior). If the man is married, Pompey argues, his head belongs to his wife — so cutting it off would be cutting off a woman's head, which he claims he cannot do. The real joke is a dodge: he uses sophistry to avoid admitting he has no executioner's skills.
TLN 1724archaic vocab
“leave me your snatches”
'Snatches' means snatched-up witticisms or hasty quibbles — short, clever jibes grabbed from nowhere to avoid the point. The Provost is telling Pompey to drop the wordplay and give a straight answer.
TLN 1727archaic vocab
“redeem you from your gyves”
'Gyves' are shackles or leg-irons — the iron fetters used to restrain prisoners. The Provost is offering Pompey early release from his chains if he agrees to assist the executioner.
TLN 1741archaic vocab
“he will discredit our mystery”
'Mystery' here means a skilled trade or craft — the same word as in the 'mystery plays' performed by craft guilds. Abhorson objects that allowing a bawd to assist him will dishonour the professional dignity of the executioner's trade. Pompey picks up the word and argues that prostitution, too, is a 'mystery' because its practitioners use face-painting, a recognized art.
TLN 1744wordplay
“you have, but that you have a hanging look”
Pompey begins flattering Abhorson ('you have a good favour' = a handsome face), then punctures it with 'a hanging look' — a pun meaning both a gloomy, threatening expression and the look of a man whose job is to hang people. The two senses collide: Abhorson's 'favour' (appearance) is good except that it looks like a hangman's.
TLN 1753archaic vocab
“Every true man's apparel fits your thief”
Abhorson's circular 'proof' that hanging is a mystery turns on a real custom: the executioner's perquisite was the condemned man's clothing. A 'true man' is an honest man (opposite of a thief). The argument, dressed up as logical, says only that any dead man's clothes fit the next man who wears them — which proves nothing about the trade's skill or dignity. It is a parody of guild-craft reasoning.
TLN 1764archaic vocab
“you shall find me yare”
'Yare' means ready, nimble, or quick — a word common in nautical contexts (a 'yare' ship responds quickly to the helm). Pompey promises to be a capable, prompt assistant to the hangman. The word also carries a faint irony: he uses a sailor's term for agility to describe his new career executing prisoners.
TLN 1772syntax grammar
“as guiltless labour / When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones”
Claudio compares Barnardine's deep sleep to the sleep of an exhausted but innocent labourer, lying 'starkly' — rigidly, utterly limp — in the bones of a weary traveller. 'Starkly' means stiffly or completely (as in 'stark naked'), evoking a sleep so deep the body looks almost dead. The image quietly shadows the death Claudio himself is meant to die at dawn.
TLN 1781cultural context
“The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night / Envelop you”
The Duke, disguised as Friar Lodowick, enters with a formal blessing invoking the 'best and wholesomest spirits of the night.' In early-modern thought, night was populated by spirits of varying quality — some harmful, some protective. A friar wishing 'wholesome' spirits is invoking the benign angelic or celestial intelligences, not demons or ghosts, marking him as a holy man whose greeting carries spiritual weight.
historical The disguised ruler
TLN 1800archaic vocab
“wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes”
A 'postern' is a small back gate or private side door — not the main entrance, but a secondary one. 'Unsisting' (a Shakespearean coinage, probably from 'un-' + 'sist,' to stand firm) means unresisting, yielding. The Duke imagines that the urgent knocking is so violent it almost injures the passive little gate. The image captures the haste of Angelo's messenger arriving before dawn.
TLN 1811archaic vocab
“upon the very siege of justice”
'Siege' here means 'seat' — from Old French siege, Latin sedis. The Provost means that Angelo, sitting in the very seat of justice (i.e. as judge), has publicly declared Claudio will die. It is not 'siege' in the military sense but an archaic form for a throne, bench, or chair of authority.
TLN 1852cultural context
“apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless”
The Provost describes Barnardine as someone who treats death with complete contempt — not as a Stoic philosopher but simply because he is too drunk and reckless to care. 'Insensible of mortality' means unable to feel or understand the fact that he will die. 'Desperately mortal' means both utterly given over to death and willfully, recklessly mortal — careless of saving his own soul. This makes him a darkly comic figure: the one man in the play who genuinely does not fear the death sentence.
TLN 1861cultural context
“in your brow, Provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me”
The Duke claims he can read the Provost's moral character from his face — 'honesty and constancy' written in his brow. This is physiognomy, the Renaissance belief that a person's character is legible in their facial features. He then puts this 'ancient skill' at stake ('if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me') to persuade the Provost to trust him. The Duke is essentially asking the Provost to risk his career on a stranger's flattering face-reading.
historical The disguised ruler
TLN 1874cultural context
“By the vow of mine order, I warrant you”
The Duke, still in his friar's disguise, swears 'by the vow of mine order' to guarantee the Provost's safety. A friar's vows — poverty, chastity, and obedience — were the most solemn pledges in Catholic religious life. The Duke is using a sacred oath from a role he has borrowed under false pretences. His willingness to invoke holy vows for a deception is one of the play's quieter ethical provocations.
historical Shrift: the sacrament of confessionhistorical The disguised ruler
TLN 1878rhetorical device
“O, death's a great disguiser”
The Duke's aphorism justifies disguising Barnardine's severed head as Claudio's: death transforms faces beyond recognition, so Angelo will not be able to tell the two men apart. But 'death's a great disguiser' also resonates beyond the plot: disguise is the play's pervasive action (the Duke himself is disguised; Isabella is Mariana's double in the bed-trick), and death is the ultimate erasure of identity. The Duke's cynical practicality sits uneasily beside the depth of the phrase.
TLN 1893cultural context
“here is the hand and seal of the duke. You know the character, I doubt not”
The Duke produces a letter bearing his 'hand' (handwriting, signature) and 'seal' (wax seal impressed with his signet ring). In Elizabethan England these two things together were the standard authentication of an official document; a seal alone could be forged, but handwriting ('character' = style of writing) plus seal together established authorship. The Duke has been carrying the Duke's own documents — a detail that raises the question of how long he has been preparing this endgame.
TLN 1902cultural context
“the unfolding star calls up the shepherd”
The 'unfolding star' is the morning star (Venus), whose appearance just before dawn was the shepherd's signal to 'unfold' — open — the sheepfold and let the flock out to pasture. The Duke uses it as a metaphor for the coming dawn: it is almost time. The rural image is quietly ironic in a prison scene, evoking a world of pastoral labour and open sky far from the closed cells around them.
TLN 1905cultural context
“I will give him a present shrift, and advise him for a better place”
'Present shrift' means immediate confession — to be 'shrived' on the spot, before execution, so the prisoner dies with his sins absolved. 'A better place' means heaven, or at least a better afterlife than his drunken, unrepentant state would otherwise earn. The Duke, in his friar-role, is offering Barnardine the last rites of the Catholic Church. It is one of several moments where his clerical disguise provides genuine pastoral care even as it serves his plot.
historical Shrift: the sacrament of confession