ACT 1
Scene 2
...will be considered.
Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and Officers.
...I am committed.
I do it not in evil disposition,
But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
...Call it so.
Away, sir. You must go.
...Come, officer, away.
They exit.
ACT 2
Scene 1
...he must die.
Enter Provost.
...is the Provost?
Here, if it like your Honor.
...of his pilgrimage.
Provost exits.
Scene 2
...remedy. Come, sir.
Enter Provost and a Servant.
...him of you.
Pray you do. I’ll know
His pleasure. Maybe he will relent. Alas,
He hath but as offended in a dream.
All sects, all ages smack of this vice, and he
To die for ’t?
...the matter, provost?
Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?
...thou ask again?
Lest I might be too rash.
Under your good correction, I have seen
When, after execution, judgment hath
Repented o’er his doom.
...well be spared.
I crave your Honor’s pardon.
What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
She’s very near her hour.
...he a sister?
Ay, my good lord, a very virtuous maid,
And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
If not already.
...Lucio and Isabella.
beginning to exit
Save your Honor.
...not my brother.
aside
Heaven give thee moving graces.
...I perceive ’t.
aside
Pray heaven she win him.
...Save your Honor.
She exits, with Lucio and Provost.
Scene 3
...and wondered how.
Enter Duke, disguised as a Friar, and Provost.
...think you are.
I am the Provost. What’s your will, good friar?
...To them accordingly.
I would do more than that if more were needful.
Enter Juliet.
Look, here comes one, a gentlewoman of mine,
Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
Hath blistered her report. She is with child,
And he that got it, sentenced—a young man,
More fit to do another such offense
Than die for this.
...must he die?
As I do think, tomorrow.
To Juliet.
I have provided for you. Stay awhile
And you shall be conducted.
...a dying horror.
’Tis pity of him.
They exit.
ACT 3
Scene 1
...his soul’s rest.
Enter Duke as a Friar, Claudio, and Provost.
...and good company.
Who’s there? Come in. The wish deserves a welcome.
...two with Claudio.
And very welcome.—Look, signior, here’s your sister.
...word with you.
As many as you please.
...be concealed.
Duke and Provost exit.
...word with you.
Enter Provost.
What’s your will, father?
...by my company.
In good time.
He exits, with Claudio.
Scene 2
...who comes here?
Enter Escalus, Provost, Officers, and Mistress Overdone, a Bawd.
...play the tyrant.
A bawd of eleven years’ continuance, may it
please your Honor.
...so with him.
So please you, this friar hath been with him,
and advised him for th’ entertainment of death.
...be with you.
Escalus and Provost exit.
ACT 4
Scene 2
...tithe’s to sow.
Enter Provost, Pompey, and Officer.
Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man’s
head?
...a woman’s head.
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.
...my fellow partner.
What ho, Abhorson!—Where’s Abhorson
there?
...you call, sir?
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.
...discredit our mystery.
Go to, sir; you weigh equally. A feather will
turn the scale.
He exits.
...fits your thief.
Enter Provost.
Are you agreed?
...oftener ask forgiveness.
to Abhorson
You, sirrah, provide your block
and your axe tomorrow, four o’clock.
...a good turn.
to Officer
Call hither Barnardine and Claudio.
Th’ one has my pity; not a jot the other,
Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
Enter Claudio, with Officer.
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?
...will not wake.
Who can do good on him?
Well, go, prepare yourself.
Knock within.
But hark, what noise?—
Heaven give your spirits comfort.
Knock within.
By and by!—
I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
For the most gentle Claudio.
Enter Duke, as a Friar.
Welcome, father.
...here of late?
None since the curfew rung.
... Not Isabel?
No.
...’t be long.
What comfort is for Claudio?
...some in hope.
It is a bitter deputy.
... they come.
Provost exits.
...friend of men.
Enter Provost. Knocking continues.
...with these strokes.
There he must stay until the officer
Arise to let him in. He is called up.
...must die tomorrow?
None, sir, none.
...more ere morning.
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.
...comes Claudio’s pardon.
MESSENGER, giving Provost a paper
...is almost day.
I shall obey him.
Provost reads message.
...sir, what news?
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.
...you let’s hear.
reads the letter.
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?
...in th’ afternoon?
A Bohemian born, but here nursed up and
bred; one that is a prisoner nine years old.
...to do so.
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.
...is now apparent?
Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
...to be touched?
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.
...He wants advice.
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.
...a dangerous courtesy.
Pray, sir, in what?
...the delaying death.
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.
...borne to Angelo.
Angelo hath seen them both and will discover
the favor.
...with my life.
Pardon me, good father, it is against my oath.
...to the Deputy?
To him and to his substitutes.
...of your dealing?
But what likelihood is in that?
...of the Duke.
He shows the Provost a paper.
...strange to you.
I know them both.
...absolutely resolve you.
He gives the Provost the paper.
...almost clear dawn.
They exit.
Scene 3
...to the block.
Enter Provost.
Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?
...is Were damnable.
Here in the prison, father,
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 color. What if we do omit
This reprobate till he were well inclined,
And satisfy the Deputy with the visage
Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?
...willingly to die.
This shall be done, good father, presently.
But Barnardine must die this afternoon,
And how shall we continue Claudio,
To save me from the danger that might come
If he were known alive?
...Your safety manifested.
I am your free dependent.
...head to Angelo.
Provost exits.
...proceed with Angelo.
Enter Provost, carrying a head.
Here is the head. I’ll carry it myself.
...ear but yours.
I’ll make all speed.
He exits.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...Therefore hence, away.
Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Escalus, Lucio, Provost, Officers, and Citizens at several doors.
...do it instantly.
Provost exits.
...light at midnight.
Enter Duke as a Friar, Provost, and Isabella, with Officers.
...is the Provost?
Provost comes forward.
...other confederate companion.
Provost seizes the disguised Duke.
...with him, provost.
Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost exit.
...do, my lord.
Enter Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and Provost.
...an unusual hour?
It was commanded so.
...for the deed?
No, my good lord, it was by private message.
...up your keys.
Pardon me, noble lord.
I thought it was a fault, but knew it not,
Yet did repent me after more advice,
For testimony whereof, one in the prison
That should by private order else have died,
I have reserved alive.
... What’s he?
His name is Barnardine.
...look upon him.
Provost exits.
...do entreat it.
Enter Barnardine and Provost, Claudio, muffled, and Juliet.
...is that Barnardine?
This, my lord.
...fellow’s that?
This is another prisoner that I saved
Who should have died when Claudio lost his head,
As like almost to Claudio as himself.
He unmuffles Claudio.
...all should know.
They exit.