Act 4, Scene 3

Another Room in the same.

[Enter CLOWN.]
Pompey
1909 I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession:
1910 one would think it were Mistress Overdone's own house, for here
1911 be many of her old customers. First, here's young Master Rash;
1912 he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, nine score
1913 and seventeen pounds; of which he made five marks ready money:
1914 marry, then ginger was not much in request, for the old women
1915 were all dead. Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit
1916 of Master Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-
1917 coloured satin, which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here
1918 young Dizy, and young Master Deepvow, and Master Copperspur, and
1919 Master Starvelackey, the rapier and dagger man, and young
1920 Dropheir that killed lusty Pudding, and Master Forthlight the
1921 tilter, and brave Master Shoetie the great traveller, and wild
1922 Halfcan that stabbed Pots, and, I think, forty more; all great
1923 doers in our trade, and are now 'for the Lord's sake.'
[Enter ABHORSON.]
Abhorson
1924 Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.
Pompey
1925 Master Barnardine! You must rise and be hanged, Master
1926 Barnardine!
Abhorson
1927 What ho, Barnardine!
[Within.]
Barnardine
1928 A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise there? What
1929 are you?
Pompey
1930 Your friend, sir; the hangman. You must be so good, sir, to rise
1931 and be put to death.
[Within.]
Barnardine
1932 Away, you rogue, away; I am sleepy.
Abhorson
1933 Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.
Pompey
1934 Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep
1935 afterwards.
Abhorson
1936 Go in to him, and fetch him out.
Pompey
1937 He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.
[Enter BARNARDINE.]
Abhorson
1938 Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?
Pompey
1939 Very ready, sir.
Barnardine
1940 How now, Abhorson? what's the news with you?
Abhorson
1941 Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for,
1942 look you, the warrant's come.
Barnardine
1943 You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not fitted for't.
Pompey
1944 O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night and is hanged
1945 betimes in the morning may sleep the sounder all the next day.
[Enter DUKE.]
Abhorson
1946 Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father. Do we jest now,
1947 think you?
Duke Vincentio
1948 Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily you are to
1949 depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with you.
Barnardine
1950 Friar, not I; I have been drinking hard all night, and I will
1951 have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains
1952 with billets: I will not consent to die this day, that's certain.
Duke Vincentio
1953 O, Sir, you must; and therefore I beseech you,
1954 Look forward on the journey you shall go.
Barnardine
1955 I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion.
Duke Vincentio
1956 But hear you,—
Barnardine
1957 Not a word; if you have anything to say to me, come to my ward;
1958 for thence will not I to-day.
[Exit.]
Duke Vincentio
1959 Unfit to live or die. O gravel heart!—
1960 After him, fellows; bring him to the block.
[Exeunt ABHORSON and CLOWN.]
[Enter PROVOST.]
Provost
1961 Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?
Duke Vincentio
1962 A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death;
1963 And to transport him in the mind he is
1964 Were damnable.
Provost
1965 Here in the prison, father,
1966 There died this morning of a cruel fever
1967 One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,
1968 A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head
1969 Just of his colour. What if we do omit
1970 This reprobate till he were well inclined;
1971 And satisfy the deputy with the visage
1972 Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?
Duke Vincentio
1973 O, 'tis an accident that Heaven provides!
1974 Despatch it presently; the hour draws on
1975 Prefix'd by Angelo: see this be done,
1976 And sent according to command; whiles I
1977 Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.
Provost
1978 This shall be done, good father, presently.
1979 But Barnardine must die this afternoon:
1980 And how shall we continue Claudio,
1981 To save me from the danger that might come
1982 If he were known alive?
Duke Vincentio
1983 Let this be done;—
1984 Put them in secret holds; both Barnardine and Claudio.
1985 Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting
1986 To the under generation, you shall find
1987 Your safety manifested.
Provost
1988 I am your free dependant.
Duke Vincentio
1989 Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.
[Exit PROVOST.]
Duke Vincentio
1990 Now will I write letters to Angelo,—
1991 The provost, he shall bear them,—whose contents
1992 Shall witness to him I am near at home,
1993 And that, by great injunctions, I am bound
1994 To enter publicly: him I'll desire
1995 To meet me at the consecrated fount,
1996 A league below the city; and from thence,
1997 By cold gradation and well-balanced form.
1998 We shall proceed with Angelo.
[Re-enter PROVOST.]
Provost
1999 Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.
Duke Vincentio
2000 Convenient is it. Make a swift return;
2001 For I would commune with you of such things
2002 That want no ear but yours.
Provost
2003 I'll make all speed.
[Exit.]
[Within.]
Isabella
2004 Peace, ho, be here!
Duke Vincentio
2005 The tongue of Isabel.—She's come to know
2006 If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:
2007 But I will keep her ignorant of her good,
2008 To make her heavenly comforts of despair
2009 When it is least expected.
[Enter ISABELLA.]
Isabella
2010 Ho, by your leave!
Duke Vincentio
2011 Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.
Isabella
2012 The better, given me by so holy a man.
2013 Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?
Duke Vincentio
2014 He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:
2015 His head is off and sent to Angelo.
Isabella
2016 Nay, but it is not so.
Duke Vincentio
2017 It is no other:
2018 Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience.
Isabella
2019 O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!
Duke Vincentio
2020 You shall not be admitted to his sight.
Isabella
2021 Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel!
2022 Injurious world! Most damned Angelo!
Duke Vincentio
2023 This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot:
2024 Forbear it, therefore; give your cause to Heaven.
2025 Mark what I say; which you shall find
2026 By every syllable a faithful verity:
2027 The duke comes home to-morrow;—nay, dry your eyes;
2028 One of our convent, and his confessor,
2029 Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried
2030 Notice to Escalus and Angelo,
2031 Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,
2032 There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom
2033 In that good path that I would wish it go,
2034 And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,
2035 Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,
2036 And general honour.
Isabella
2037 I am directed by you.
Duke Vincentio
2038 This letter, then, to Friar Peter give;
2039 'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return.
2040 Say, by this token, I desire his company
2041 At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours
2042 I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you
2043 Before the duke; and to the head of Angelo
2044 Accuse him home, and home. For my poor self,
2045 I am combined by a sacred vow,
2046 And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter:
2047 Command these fretting waters from your eyes
2048 With a light heart; trust not my holy order,
2049 If I pervert your course.—Who's here?
[Enter LUCIO.]
Lucio
2050 Good even. Friar, where is the provost?
Duke Vincentio
2051 Not within, sir.
Lucio
2052 O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes so
2053 red; thou must be patient: I am fain to dine and sup with water
2054 and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal
2055 would set me to't. But they say the duke will be here to-morrow.
2056 By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother. If the old fantastical
2057 duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived.
[Exit ISABELLA.]
Duke Vincentio
2058 Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholding to your reports; but
2059 the best is, he lives not in them.
Lucio
2060 Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better
2061 woodman than thou takest him for.
Duke Vincentio
2062 Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.
Lucio
2063 Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty tales
2064 of the duke.
Duke Vincentio
2065 You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true:
2066 if not true, none were enough.
Lucio
2067 I was once before him for getting a wench with child.
Duke Vincentio
2068 Did you such a thing?
Lucio
2069 Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would else
2070 have married me to the rotten medlar.
Duke Vincentio
2071 Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.
Lucio
2072 By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If bawdy talk
2073 offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind
2074 of burr; I shall stick.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1909archaic vocab
“as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession”
'House of profession' is a euphemism for a brothel — a house where prostitution is the 'profession' or trade. Pompey, now working in the prison as the hangman's assistant, cheerfully notes that he recognises the prison population from his previous career as a bawd: the prison is full of his old clients from Mistress Overdone's brothel.
TLN 1912historical topical
“in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, nine score and seventeen pounds”
Master Rash is imprisoned for debt arising from a 'commodity' loan — a notorious Elizabethan lending fraud. Usurers could not legally charge more than 10% interest, so they lent money in the form of goods (here, brown paper and old ginger) which the borrower had to sell at a loss. Rash borrowed equivalent to 197 pounds' worth of such commodities but received only five marks (about £3 6s 8d) in actual cash — the rest being the usurer's profit disguised as goods.
TLN 1915wordplay
“Master Caper, at the suit of Master Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-coloured satin, which now peaches him a beggar”
This sentence packs three puns. 'Caper' names the character but also means a prank or a skip (a dance step). 'At the suit of' means being sued by, but 'suit' also means a set of clothes. 'Master Threepile' is a mercer (cloth merchant) whose name means three-pile velvet — the richest, most expensive grade of velvet. 'Peach-coloured satin' sounds luxurious. 'Peaches him a beggar' means 'impeaches him' (exposes/accuses him legally) as bankrupt — but 'peaches' also echoes the satin's peach-colour, landing a triple pun: the fabric that was peach-coloured now peaches (betrays) him into beggary.
TLN 1919cultural context
“Master Starvelackey, the rapier and dagger man”
A 'rapier and dagger man' is a brawler who fights with the fashionable continental style — rapier in the right hand, main-gauche (left-hand dagger) in the left. The rapier-and-dagger combination was the mark of a gallant who styled himself a master of the new Italian fencing art. 'Starvelackey' is a name implying he starves his own servants (lackeys) — a spendthrift who lives so extravagantly that those dependent on him go hungry.
TLN 1923historical topical
“now 'for the Lord's sake.'”
'For the Lord's sake' was the stock cry of prisoners in the debtors' prisons (especially the Counter prisons in London), who were allowed to beg from passers-by through a grate. Unable to work to pay their debts, prisoners were dependent on charity and cried out 'for the Lord's sake' to solicit alms from people in the street. Pompey's sardonic use of the phrase is the punchline of his list: all the grand 'doers in our trade' are now reduced to this beggarly cry.
TLN 1932cultural context
“Away, you rogue, away; I am sleepy.”
Barnardine's refusal to come out and be hanged because he is sleepy is the scene's central comic set-piece. It is grotesque comedy: the condemned man treats his execution as an inconvenient interruption of sleep, with no fear and no religious concern — the precise opposite of the penitential deathbed the Duke's friar-persona is supposed to provide. His utter indifference satirises the machinery of state punishment: the scaffold cannot function without the condemned man's cooperation.
TLN 1941archaic vocab
“I would desire you to clap into your prayers”
'Clap into' means to start briskly or plunge straight into — the same expression as 'clap to' in the sense of closing a door with a snap. Abhorson is telling Barnardine to get straight to his prayers without delay, since the warrant has arrived and the execution is imminent. The word choice is matter-of-fact and businesslike, appropriate for a professional hangman treating execution as routine.
TLN 1959archaic vocab
“O gravel heart!”
The Duke calls Barnardine a 'gravel heart' — hard, coarse, and impenetrable, like gravel. Gravel is rough stone that cannot be shaped; the image expresses total moral obtuseness. Barnardine is literally unfit for death in the theological sense: no contrition, no prayer, no preparation of the soul. The Duke's exclamation is also somewhat self-exculpatory: he would gladly administer last rites, but the man refuses to cooperate.
TLN 1962cultural context
“A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death; And to transport him in the mind he is Were damnable.”
The Duke says executing Barnardine while he is unrepentant ('unprepar'd') and spiritually unfit ('unmeet') would be 'damnable' — would damn not just Barnardine but those responsible for sending an unconfessed soul to death. This reflects Catholic theology: to execute a man without allowing him to confess and receive absolution would endanger his soul, and to be complicit in that would be a serious spiritual crime. The Duke's scruple is theologically coherent within his friar-persona.
historical Shrift: the sacrament of confession
TLN 1966cultural context
“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”
The timely death of Ragozine is the plot's providential escape hatch: a convicted pirate of the same age and colouring as Claudio has just died in the prison of natural causes. The Provost proposes using Ragozine's severed head to satisfy Angelo's demand for Claudio's head. The name 'Ragozine' is likely Venetian/Ragusan in flavour (Ragusa = modern Dubrovnik, a major maritime city), fitting a pirate in Vienna's cosmopolitan underworld.
TLN 1985archaic vocab
“Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting / To the under generation”
'Journal' here is an archaic adjective meaning daily (from Latin diurnalis). 'The sun's journal greeting' is the sun's daily circuit — its daily arrival. 'The under generation' means the people who live beneath the sky, i.e. ordinary humans on the earth below. The Duke is saying: within two days (two daily sunrises), the Provost's safety will be secured.
TLN 1995cultural context
“meet me at the consecrated fount, / A league below the city”
The Duke arranges to meet Angelo at a 'consecrated fount' a league outside the city — a sacred spring or fountain blessed by the Church, used as a ritual boundary point for the formal re-entry of a ruler. The ceremony of the civic welcome was typically staged at the city gates, but here a sacred landmark outside the city serves as the official entry-point, lending the Duke's return a solemn, almost ceremonial religious character.
historical The disguised ruler
TLN 1997archaic vocab
“By cold gradation and well-balanced form”
'Cold gradation' means cool, deliberate step-by-step process — measured, unimpassioned stages rather than hot-tempered or impulsive action. 'Well-balanced form' reinforces this: a methodical, even-handed procedure. The Duke promises the Provost that Angelo's reckoning will come through proper, orderly process, not arbitrary revenge or precipitate action.
TLN 2014rhetorical device
“He hath released him, Isabel, from the world: / His head is off and sent to Angelo.”
The Duke (as Friar) delivers the false news of Claudio's execution as bluntly as possible. 'Released him from the world' is a pious euphemism — released from earthly life — followed immediately by the brutal plain statement 'His head is off.' The juxtaposition of the spiritual softening and the physical bluntness is characteristically Shakespearean: the audience, knowing Claudio is alive, watches the Duke make Isabella undergo genuine anguish for his own purposes.
TLN 2019cultural context
“O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!”
Isabella's impulse to 'pluck out' Angelo's eyes is a visceral act of revenge — putting out the eyes of someone who has wronged you. It draws on a tradition of blinding as punishment for betrayal and treachery, with echoes of biblical talion ('an eye for an eye') and classical precedent (Gloucester's blinding in King Lear, Tiresias blinded for seeing too much). The specific choice of eyes connects to Angelo's looking on Isabella with lust — punishing the organ that sinned.
biblical 'With what measure ye mete': the title from the Sermon on the Mount
TLN 2034archaic vocab
“you shall have your bosom on this wretch, / Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart”
'Your bosom' here means your heart's desire — what is deepest in your heart. 'You shall have your bosom on this wretch' means you shall have exactly what your heart demands against Angelo. 'Grace of the duke' means the duke's favour and authority brought to bear for you. 'Revenges to your heart' = satisfaction of your desire for redress, as full as your heart wishes. The Duke is promising Isabella complete vindication.
TLN 2045archaic vocab
“I am combined by a sacred vow”
'Combined' here means bound or constrained — the Duke (as Friar Lodowick) claims he is bound by a sacred vow from his religious order that prevents him from appearing before the Duke publicly. He therefore directs Isabella and Mariana to accuse Angelo themselves, with Friar Peter acting as their sponsor. The claim is part of his disguise: he cannot be present as himself (the Duke) and 'Friar Lodowick' as well.
TLN 2056wordplay
“the old fantastical duke of dark corners”
Lucio's mocking nickname for the Duke — 'the fantastical duke of dark corners' — combines two accusations: 'fantastical' means eccentric, bizarre, addicted to whims; and 'dark corners' means secret, hidden places, suggesting the Duke operates clandestinely, in the shadows. Lucio claims the Duke is a man who prowls in private, hidden from public life. Ironically, he says this directly to the Duke himself in disguise — the man standing before him is literally the duke operating in a 'dark corner.'
historical The disguised ruler
TLN 2071wordplay
“your company is fairer than honest”
The Duke's dismissal of Lucio — 'your company is fairer than honest' — is a polite but cutting paradox: Lucio is pleasanter to be with than he is morally sound. 'Fair' means pleasant, attractive, agreeable; 'honest' means upright, morally respectable. The contrast inverts the usual praise: normally one would say a person is 'honest and fair.' Here the Duke says Lucio's company is enjoyable but he lacks integrity. It is an urbane rebuke that Lucio entirely fails to register.
TLN 2073archaic vocab
“I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.”
Lucio compares himself to a 'burr' — the rough, clinging seed-head of plants like burdock, which stick to clothing and are almost impossible to remove. It is Lucio's self-aware but cheerful admission that he is a persistent nuisance: he will cling to the Friar ('stick') whether wanted or not. The image ironically foreshadows the last act, where Lucio quite literally cannot escape from the Duke's judgment.