1    Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?

2    If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a
3    married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never
4    cut off a woman's head.

5    Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a
6    direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio
7    and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common
8    executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if
9    you will take it on you to assist him, it shall
10   redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have
11   your full time of imprisonment and your deliverance
12   with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a
13   notorious bawd.

14   Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind;
15   but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I
16   would be glad to receive some instruction from my
17   fellow partner.

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

19   Do you call, sir?

20   Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in
21   your execution. If you think it meet, compound with
22   him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if
23   not, use him for the present and dismiss him. He
24   cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd.

25   A bawd, sir? fie upon him! he will discredit our mystery.

26   Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn
27   the scale.

28   Pray, sir, by your good favour,--for surely, sir, a
29   good favour you have, but that you have a hanging
30   look,--do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery?

31   Ay, sir; a mystery

32   Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and
33   your whores, sir, being members of my occupation,
34   using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery:
35   but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I
36   should be hanged, I cannot imagine.

37   Sir, it is a mystery.

38   Proof?

39   Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be
40   too little for your thief, your true man thinks it
41   big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your
42   thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's
43   apparel fits your thief.

44   Are you agreed?

45   Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is
46   a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth
47   oftener ask forgiveness.

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

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

51   I do desire to learn, sir: and I hope, if you have
52   occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find
53   me yare; for truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you
54   a good turn.

55   Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:
Exeunt POMPEY and ABHORSON
56   The one has my pity; not a jot the other,
57   Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
Enter CLAUDIO
58   Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:
59   'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow
60   Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?

61   As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
62   When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:
63   He will not wake.

64   Who can do good on him?
65   Well, go, prepare yourself.
Knocking within
66   But, hark, what noise?
67   Heaven give your spirits comfort!
Exit CLAUDIO
68   By and by.
69   I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
70   For the most gentle Claudio.
Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before
71   Welcome father.

72   The best and wholesomest spirts of the night
73   Envelope you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?

74   None, since the curfew rung.

75   Not Isabel?

76   No.

77   They will, then, ere't be long.

78   What comfort is for Claudio?

79   There's some in hope.

80   It is a bitter deputy.

81   Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd
82   Even with the stroke and line of his great justice:
83   He doth with holy abstinence subdue
84   That in himself which he spurs on his power
85   To qualify in others: were he meal'd with that
86   Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;
87   But this being so, he's just.
Knocking within
88   Now are they come.
Exit Provost
89   This is a gentle provost: seldom when
90   The steeled gaoler is the friend of men.
Knocking within
91   How now! what noise? That spirit's possessed with haste
92   That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes.

93   There he must stay until the officer
94   Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.

95   Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
96   But he must die to-morrow?

97   None, sir, none.

98   As near the dawning, provost, as it is,
99   You shall hear more ere morning.

100  Happily
101  You something know; yet I believe there comes
102  No countermand; no such example have we:
103  Besides, upon the very siege of justice
104  Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
105  Profess'd the contrary.
Enter a Messenger
106  This is his lordship's man.

107  And here comes Claudio's pardon.

Giving a paper
108  My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this
109  further charge, that you swerve not from the
110  smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or
111  other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it,
112  it is almost day.

113  I shall obey him.

Aside
114   This is his pardon, purchased by such sin
115  For which the pardoner himself is in.
116  Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
117  When it is born in high authority:
118  When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,
119  That for the fault's love is the offender friended.
120  Now, sir, what news?

121  I told you. Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss
122  in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted
123  putting-on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before.

124  Pray you, let's hear.

Reads
125  'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let
126  Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the
127  afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,
128  let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let
129  this be duly performed; with a thought that more
130  depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail
131  not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'
132  What say you to this, sir?

133  What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the
134  afternoon?

135  A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one
136  that is a prisoner nine years old.

137  How came it that the absent duke had not either
138  delivered him to his liberty or executed him? I
139  have heard it was ever his manner to do so.

140  His friends still wrought reprieves for him: and,
141  indeed, his fact, till now in the government of Lord
142  Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.

143  It is now apparent?

144  Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

145  Hath he born himself penitently in prison? how
146  seems he to be touched?

147  A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but
148  as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless
149  of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of
150  mortality, and desperately mortal.

151  He wants advice.

152  He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty
153  of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he
154  would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days
155  entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if
156  to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming
157  warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.

158  More of him anon. There is written in your brow,
159  provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not
160  truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the
161  boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard.
162  Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is
163  no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath
164  sentenced him. To make you understand this in a
165  manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite;
166  for the which you are to do me both a present and a
167  dangerous courtesy.

168  Pray, sir, in what?

169  In the delaying death.

170  A lack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,
171  and an express command, under penalty, to deliver
172  his head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case
173  as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest.

174  By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if my
175  instructions may be your guide. Let this Barnardine
176  be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.

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

178  O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it.
179  Shave the head, and tie the beard; and say it was
180  the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his
181  death: you know the course is common. If any thing
182  fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good
183  fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead
184  against it with my life.

185  Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.

186  Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?

187  To him, and to his substitutes.

188  You will think you have made no offence, if the duke
189  avouch the justice of your dealing?

190  But what likelihood is in that?

191  Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see
192  you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor
193  persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go
194  further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.
195  Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the
196  duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the
197  signet is not strange to you.

198  I know them both.

199  The contents of this is the return of the duke: you
200  shall anon over-read it at your pleasure; where you
201  shall find, within these two days he will be here.
202  This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this
203  very day receives letters of strange tenor;
204  perchance of the duke's death; perchance entering
205  into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what
206  is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the
207  shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these
208  things should be: all difficulties are but easy
209  when they are known. Call your executioner, and off
210  with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present
211  shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you
212  are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you.
213  Come away; it is almost clear dawn.