Now, sir, what news?

Prov. I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted puttingon; 14 methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before. Duke. Pray you, let's hear.

Prov. [Reads.] 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?

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

Prov. A Bohemian born, but here nursed up and bred; one that is a prisoner nine years old.15

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

:

Prov. His friends still wrought reprieves for him and indeed his fact, 16 till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.

Duke. It is now apparent?

Prov. Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

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

Prov. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully

14 Putting-on is prompting, instigation, or setting on. 15 One that had been in prison nine years.

Often so.

16 Fact, like the Latin factum, is, properly, deed; but here means crime. So in the next Act: "Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, her brother's ghost his paved bed would break," &c.

but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal.

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 awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and show'd him a seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.

Duke. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, Provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the boldness of my cunning,17 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 sentenced him. To make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite; for the which you are to do me both a present and a dangerous courtesy.

Prov. Pray, sir, in what?

Duke. In the delaying death.

Prov. Alack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,18 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.

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.

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

17" In the confidence of my sagacity," is the meaning. So both boldness and cunning were not unfrequently used.

18 Limited, here, is appointed. The Poet repeatedly uses it thus. So, before, in iii. I: "between which time of the contract and limit of the solemnity;" where limit means appointed time.

Duke. O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it. Shave the head, and trim 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 any thing 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.

Prov. Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath. Duke. Were you sworn to the Duke, or to the deputy? Prov. To him, and to his substitutes.

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

Prov. 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. 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.

Prov. 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 tenour; perchance of the Duke's death; perchance of his entering into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what is here writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd.19 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,20 and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed; but this shall

19 The star that bids the shepherd fold

Now the top of heaven doth hold. — COMUS.
20 Shrift is the old word for confession and absolution.

Pom. 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,2 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 Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-colour'd satin, which now peaches 3 him a beggar. Then have we here young Dizzy, and young Master Deep

21 Resolve is assure or satisfy. See page 187, note 26.

1 This and the following names are all meant to be characteristic. Rash was a silken fabric formerly worn in coats.

2 Lenders of money were wont to advance part of a given sum in cash, and the rest in goods of little value, such as they could hardly get rid of otherwise. It appears that brown paper and ginger were often among the articles so put off upon borrowers. So in Greene's Defence of Coneycatching, 1592: "If he borrow a hundred pound, he shall have forty in silver, and threescore in wares; as lute-strings, hobby-horses, or brown paper." Also in Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier: "For the merchant delivered the iron, tin, lead, hops, sugars, spices, oils, brown paper, or whatsoever else, from six months to six months; which when the poor gentleman came to sell again, he could not make threescore and ten in the hundred besides the usury." Staunton notes upon the matter thus: "The practice, no doubt, originated in a desire to evade the penalties for usury, and must have reached an alarming height, as the old writers make it a perpetual mark for satire."

3 To peach is to accuse, inform against, or impeach. So, when Falstaff says, "I'll peach for this," he means "I'll turn State's evidence"; that is, testify against his accomplices.

vow, and Master Copper-spur, and Master Starve-lacquey the rapier-and-dagger-man, and young Drop-heir that kill'd lusty Pudding, and Master Forthright the tilter, and brave Master Shoe-tie the great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabb'd Pots, and, I think, forty more; all great doers in our trade, and are now for the Lord's sake.a

Enter ABHORSON.

Abhor. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.

Pom. Master Barnardine! you must rise and be hang'd, Master Barnardine !

Abhor. What, ho, Barnardine !

Bar. [Within.] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise there? What are you?

Pom. Your friend, sir; the hangman. You must be so good, sir, to rise and be put to death.

Bar. [Within.] Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy. Abhor. Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too. Pom. Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep afterwards.

Abhor. Go in to him, and fetch him out.

Pom. He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.

Abhor. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?

Pom. Very ready, sir.

Enter BARNARDINE.

Bar. How now, Abhorson! what's the news with you?

4 This appears to have been the language in which prisoners confined for debt addressed passers-by. So in Nash's Pierce Penniless, 1593: “At that time that thy joys were in the fleeting, and thus crying for the Lord's sake out of an iron window." And in Davies' Epigrams, 1611: "Good gentle writers, for the Lord's sake, for the Lord's sake, like Ludgate prisoners, lo, I, begging, make my mone."- Fleeting refers to the Fleet prison.