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and let him abide here with you; if not, ufe him for the prefent, and difmifs him. He cannot plead his eftimation with you; he hath been a bawd.

Abhor. A bawd, fir; fie upon him, he will discredit our mystery.

Prov. Go to, fir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale.

[Exit.

Clown. Pray, fir, by your good favour, (for, furely, fir, a good favour you have, but that you have a hanging look) do fir, your occupation a mystery?

Abbor. Ay, fir, a mystery.

you call,

Clown. Painting, fir, I have heard fay, is a mystery; and your whores, fir, being members of my occupation, ufing painting, do prove my occupation a mystery: but what mystery there fhould be in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine. *Abbor. *

Clown.

Sir, it is a mystery.

Abhor. Proof.

Clown. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be too little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough. If it be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's apparel fits thief.. your

Re-enter Provost.

Prov. Are you agreed?

Clown. Sir, I will ferve him: for I do find, your hangman is a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftner afk forgiveness.

Prov. You, firrah, provide your block and your axe to-morrow, four o'clock.

Abhor. Come on, bawd; I will inftru&t thee in my trade; follow. Clown. I do defire to learn, fir; and, I hope, if you have

a The text here is plainly maimed and deficient; the words by which Abhorfon should prove the hangman's trade a mystery are loft. But from what follows the argument may be conjectured to have been this, that every man's apparel fitted the hangman: to which we may fuppofe the Clown reply'd, that for the fame reafon the fame thing might be faid of the thief's trade. Yes, fir, It is a mystery. &c. and this connects the rest that follows.

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occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare:

for, truly, fir, for your kindness I owe you a good turn.

[Exit.

Prov. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:

One has my pity; not a jot the other,

Being a murth'rer, though he were my brother.

SCENE VI.

Enter Claudio.

Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death;
'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow
Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?
Claud. As faft lock'd up in fleep, as guiltless labour
When it lyes ftarkly in the traveller's bones:

He'll not awake.

Prov. Who can do good on him?

Well, go, prepare yourself. [Ex. Claud.] But, hark! what noise?

[Knock within.

Heav'n give your spirits comfort! — by and by, —

I hope, it is fome pardon, or reprieve

For the most gentle Claudio. Welcome, father.

Enter Duke.

Duke. The best and wholesom'ft spirits of the night Envelop you, good Provoft! who call'd here of late? Prov. None fince the curfew rung.

Duke. Not Ifabel?

Prov. No.

Duke. They will then, ere't be long.

Prov. What comfort is for Claudio?

Duke. There's fome in hope.

Prov. It is a bitter deputy.

Duke. Not fo, not fo; his life is parallel'd

Ev'n with the stroke and line of his great juftice;

He doth with holy abftinence fubdue

That in himself which he spurs on his pow'r

Το

.

To qualify in others. Were he meal'd

With that which he corrects, then were he tyrannous ;
But this being so, he's juft. Now are they come. [Knock again.

This is a gentle provost; feldom, when
The steeled jailer is the friend of men.

[Exit Provoft.

How now? what noise? that spirit's poffefs'd with haste
That wounds th' unresting postern with these strokes.

Prov. There he must stay until the officer

Arife to let him in; he is call'd up.

[Provost returns.

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

Prov. None, fir, none.

Duke. As near the dawning, provost, as it is, You fhall hear more ere morning.

Prov. Happily

You fomething know; yet, I believe, there comes
No countermand; no fuch example have we :

Befides, upon the very fiege of justice,

Lord Angelo hath to the publick ear
Profefs'd the contrary.

SCENE VII.

Enter a Messenger.

Duke. This is his lordship's man.

Prov. And here comes Claudio's pardon.

Mess. My lord hath fent you this note; and by me this further charge, that you fwerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or other circumftance. Good-morrow; for, as I take it, it is almost day.

Prov. I fhall obey him.

Duke. This is his pardon, purchas'd by such fin

For which the pardoner himself is in:

Hence hath offence his quick celerity,

[Exit Meffen.

When

When it is born in high authority;

When vice makes mercy, mercy's fo extended,

That for the fault's love, is th' offender friended.
Now, fir, what news?

Prov. I told you: lord Angelo, belike, thinking me remifs in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted putting on, methinks, ftrangely, for he hath not us'd it before. Duke. Pray you, let's hear.

Provoft 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 fatisfaction, let me have Claudio's head fent 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 fay you to this, fir?

Duke. What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed in the afternoon?

Prov. A Bohemian born, but here nurs'd up and bred; one that is a prisoner nine years old.

Duke. How came it, that the abfent duke had not either deliver'd him to his liberty, or executed him? I have heard, it was ever his manner to do fo.

Prov. 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.

Duke. Is it now apparent?

Prov. Moft manifeft, and not deny'd by himself.

Duke. Hath he born himself penitently in prison? how seems he to be touch'd?

Prov. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully, but as a drunken fleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's pafs'd, prefent, or to come; infenfible of mortality, and mortally defperate.

Duke.

Duke. He wants advice.

Prov. 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 awak'd him, as if to carry him to execution, and show'd him a feeming warrant for it; it hath not mov'd him at all.

Duke. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, provost, honesty and conftancy; if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard. Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo, who hath sentenc'd him. To make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days refpite, for the which you are to do me both a prefent and a dangerous courtesy.

Prov. Pray, fir, in what?

Duke. In the delaying death.

Prov. 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 cafe as Claudio's, to cross this in the fmalleft.

Duke. By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my inftructions may be your guide: let this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.

Prov. Angelo hath feen 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 fay, it was the defire of the penitent to be barb'd before his death; you know, the course is common. If any thing fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good fortune; by the faint whom I profess, I will plead against it with my life.

Prov. Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.
Duke. Were you fworn to the duke, or to the deputy?

Prov. To him, and to his fubftitutes.

Duke. You will think you have made no offence, if the duke avouch the juftice of your dealing?

Prov. But what likelihood is in that?

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