William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (391 page)

Read William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition Online

Authors: William Shakespeare

Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare

BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
9.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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.
PROVOST 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 anything 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.
PROVOST Pardon me, good father, it is against my oath.
DUKE Were you sworn to the Duke or to the deputy?
PROVOST To him and to his substitutes.
DUKE You will think you have made no offence if the Duke avouch the justice of your dealing?
PROVOST But what likelihood is in that?
DUKE Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you. (Showing a letter) Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the Duke. You know the character, I doubt not, and the signet is not strange to you?
PROVOST I know them both.
DUKE The contents of this is the return of the Duke. You shall anon over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find within these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not, for he this very day receives letters of strange tenor, perchance of the Duke’s death, perchance entering into some monastery; but by chance nothing of what is writ. Look, th’unfolding star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things should be. All difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine’s head. I will give him a present shrift, and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you. Come away, it is almost clear dawn.
Exeunt
4.3
Enter Pompey
 
POMPEY I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession. One would think it were Mistress Overdone’s own house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here’s young Master Rash; he’s in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, nine score and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks ready money. Marry, then ginger was not much in request, for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-coloured satin, which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here young Dizzy, and young Master Deepvow, and Master Copperspur and Master Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger man, and young Drop-hair that killed lusty Pudding, and Master Forthright the tilter, and brave Master Shoe-tie the great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabbed Pots, and I think forty more, all great doers in our trade, and are now ‘for the Lord’s sake’. Enter Abhorson
ABHORSON Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither. 19
POMPEY Master Barnardine! You must rise and be hanged, Master Barnardine!
ABHORSON What ho, Barnardine!
BARNARDINE (within) A pox o’ your throats! Who makes that noise there? What are you?
POMPEY Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so good, sir, to rise and be put to death.
BARNARDINE Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy.
ABHORSON Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.
POMPEY Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep afterwards.
ABHORSON Go in to him and fetch him out.
POMPEY He is coming, sir, he is coming. I hear his straw rustle.
ABHORSON Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?
POMPEY Very ready, sir.
Enter Barnardine
 
BARNARDINE How now, Abhorson, what’s the news with you?
ABHORSON Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers, for, look you, the warrant’s come.
BARNARDINE You rogue, I have been drinking all night. I am not fitted for’t.
POMPEY O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night, and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the sounder all the next day. Enter the Duke, disguised
as a
friar
ABHORSON (to Barnardine) Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father. Do we jest now, think you?
DUKE (to Barnardine) Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with you.
BARNARDINE Friar, not I. I have been drinking hard all night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets. I will not consent to die this day, that’s certain.
DUKE
O sir, you must; and therefore, I beseech you,
Look forward on the journey you shall go.
BARNARDINE I swear I will not die today, for any man’s persuasion.
DUKE But hear you—
BARNARDINE Not a word. If you have anything to say to me, come to my ward, for thence will not I today.
Exit
DUKE
Unfit to live or die. O gravel heart!
After him, fellows; bring him to the block.
Exeunt Abhorson
and
Pompey
Enter Provost
 
PROVOST
Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?
DUKE
A creature unprepared, unmeet for death;
And to transport him in the mind he is
Were damnable.
PROVOST
Here in the prison, father,
There died this morning of a cruel fever
One Ragusine, a most notorious pirate,
A man of Claudio’s years, his beard and head
Just of his colour. What if we do omit
This reprobate till he were well inclined,
And satisfy the deputy with the visage
Of Ragusine, more like to Claudio?
DUKE
O, ’tis an accident that heaven provides.
Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on
Prefixed by Angelo. See this be done,
And sent according to command, whiles I
Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.
PROVOST
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?
DUKE
Let this be done:
Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio.
Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting
To yonder generation, you shall find
Your safety manifested.
PROVOST
I am your free dependant.
DUKE
Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.
Exit Provost
Now will I write letters to Angelo—
The Provost, he shall bear them—whose contents
Shall witness to him I am near at home,
And that by great injunctions I am bound
To enter publicly. Him I’ll desire
To meet me at the consecrated fount
A league below the city, and from thence,
By cold gradation and well-balanced form,
We shall proceed with Angelo.
Enter the Provost, with Ragusine’s head
 
PROVOST
Here is the head; I’ll carry it myself.
DUKE
Convenient is it. Make a swift return,
For I would commune with you of such things
That want no ear but yours.
PROVOST I’ll make all speed.
Exit
ISABELLA (
within
) Peace, ho, be here!
DUKE
The tongue of Isabel. She’s come to know
If yet her brother’s pardon be come hither;
But I will keep her ignorant of her good,
To make her heavenly comforts of despair
When it is least expected.
ISABELLA ⌈
within
⌉ Ho, by your leave!
⌈
Enter Isabella
⌉
 
DUKE
Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.
ISABELLA
The better, given me by so holy a man.
Hath yet the deputy sent my brother’s pardon?
DUKE
He hath released him, Isabel, from the world.
His head is off and sent to Angelo.
ISABELLA
Nay, but it is not so.
DUKE
It is no other.
Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience.
ISABELLA
O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!
DUKE
You shall not be admitted to his sight.
ISABELLA (
weeping
)
Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! Most damned Angelo!
DUKE
This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot.
Forbear it, therefore; give your cause to heaven.
Mark what I say, which you shall find
By every syllable a faithful verity.
The Duke comes home tomorrow—nay, dry your
eyes—
One of our convent, and his confessor,
Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried
Notice to Escalus and Angelo,
Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,
There to give up their power. If you can pace your
wisdom
In that good path that I would wish it go,
And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,
Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart,
And general honour.
ISABELLA
I am directed by you.
DUKE
This letter, then, to Friar Peter give.
’Tis that he sent me of the Duke’s return.
Say by this token I desire his company
At Mariana’s house tonight. Her cause and yours
I’ll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you
Before the Duke, and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,
I am combined by a sacred vow,
And shall be absent. (
Giving the letter
) Wend you with
this letter.
Command these fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart. Trust not my holy order
If I pervert your course.
Enter Lucio
Who’s here?
 
LUCIO
Good even.
Friar, where’s the Provost?
DUKE
Not within, sir.
LUCIO O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes so red. Thou must be patient. I am fain to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set me to’t. But they say the Duke will be here tomorrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother. If the old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. ⌈
Exit Isabella
⌉
DUKE Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.
LUCIO Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do. He’s a better woodman than thou tak’st him for.
DUKE Well, you’ll answer this one day. Fare ye well.
LUCIO Nay, tarry, I’ll go along with thee. I can tell thee pretty tales of the Duke.
DUKE You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough.
LUCIO I was once before him for getting a wench with child.
DUKE Did you such a thing?
LUCIO Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it. They would else have married me to the rotten medlar.
DUKE Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.
LUCIO By my troth, I’ll go with thee to the lane’s end. If bawdy talk offend you, we’ll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.
Exeunt
4.4
Enter Angelo and Escalus
 
ESCALUS Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.
ANGELO In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness. Pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted. And why meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there?
ESCALUS I guess not.
ANGELO And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?
ESCALUS He shows his reason for that—to have a dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.

Other books

Dreamland Social Club by Tara Altebrando
The Law of Angels by Cassandra Clark
Harvest of Changelings by Warren Rochelle
This Way Out by Sheila Radley
Angel Train by Gilbert Morris
Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot