SCENE III.- Another Room in the same. Enter Clown. Clo. 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, ninescore 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 one Master Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-colored satin, which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here young Dizy, and young Master Deepvow, and Master Copperspur, and Master Starvelackey the rapier-and-dagger man, and young Dropheir that killed lusty Pudding, and Master Forthright the tilter, and brave Master Shoetie the great traveler, and wild Halfean that stabbed Pots, and I think forty more; all great doers in our trade, and are now in for the Lord's sake. Enter ABHORSON. Abhor. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither. Clo. Master Barnardine! you must rise and be hanged, Master Barnardine. Abhor. What, ho, Barnardine! Barnar. [within.] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise there? what are you? Clo. Your friends, sir; the hangman: You must be so good, sir, to rise, and be put to death. Barnar. [within.] Away, you rogue, away; I am sleepy. Abhor. Tell him he must awake, and that quickly, too. Clo. Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep afterwards. Abhor. Go in to him, and fetch him out. Clo. He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle. Abhor. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah? Enter BARNARDINE. Abhor. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come. Barnar. You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not fitted for 't. Clo. 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 DUKE. Abhor. Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father. Barnar. 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 be- Look forward on the journey you shall go. Duke. But hear you Barnar. Not a word: if you have anything to say to me, come to my ward; for thence will not I to-day. [Exit. Enter Provost. Duke. Unfit to live or die: O, gravel heart!· After him, fellows; bring him to the block. [Exeunt ABHORSON and Clown. Prov. Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner? Duke. A creature unprepared, unmeet for death; And to transport him in the mind he is Prov. Barnar. How now, Abhorson? what's the And satisfy the deputy with the visage news with you? Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio? I'll make all speed. Isab. [within.] Peace, ho, be here! [Exit. I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you Duke. The tongue of Isabel; she's come to Before the Duke; and to the head of Angelo 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 to-morrow. 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 marvelous little beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in in them. Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do: he's a better woodman than thou takest him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid! ye well. And by an eminent body that enforced Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I The law against it! But that her tender shame can tell thee pretty tales of the Duke. Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, How might she tongue me? Yet reason dares Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true: if not true, none were enough. her: no: For my authority bears a credent bulk, Lucio. I was once before him for getting a That no particular scandal once can touch, wench with child. Duke. Did you such a thing? Lucio. Yes, marry, did I but was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar. But it confounds the breather. He should have lived, Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense, Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge, By so receiving a dishonored life, Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: With ransom of such shame. 'Would yet he had Rest you well. lived! Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right; we would and we would not. [Exit. And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. Enter VARRIUS. Isab. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for 't is a physic Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made That 's bitter to sweet end. Must either punish me, not being believed, Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: Isab. By course of justice! Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would Isab. I am the sister of one Claudio, Ang. And she will speak most bitterly and Was then the messenger; strange. Lucio. That's I, an 't like your grace: Isab. Most strange, but yet most truly, will II came to her from Claudio, and desired her That I am touched with madness: make not im- To speak before your time. - Proceed. |