Provost's lines in Measure for Measure

Provost. I do it not in evil disposition, But from Lord Angelo by special charge.

Provost. ...way, sir! you must go.

Provost. Here, if it like your honour.

Provost. Pray you, do.

I'll know His pleasure; may be 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!

Provost. Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?

Provost. Lest I might be too rash: Under your good correction, I have seen, When, after execution, judgment hath Repented o'er his doom.

Provost. I crave your honour's pardon. What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? She's very near her hour.

Provost. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, And to be shortly of a sisterhood, If not already.

Provost. God save your honour!

Provost. ([Aside]) Heaven give thee moving graces!

Provost. I am the provost. What's your will, good friar?

Provost. I would do more than that, if more were needful.

Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine, Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth, Hath blister'd her report: she is with child; And he that got it, sentenced; a young man More fit to do another such offence Than die for this.

Provost. 'Tis pity of him.

Provost. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.

Provost. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.

Provost. As many as you please.

Provost. What's your will, father

Provost. In good time.

Provost. A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please your honour.

Provost. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advised him for the entertainment of death.

Provost. Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?

Provost. Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a direct answer. To-morrow 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.

Provost. What, ho! Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there?

Provost. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow 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.

Provost. Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale.

Provost. Are you agreed?

Provost. You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe to-morrow four o'clock.

Provost. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:

The one has my pity; not a jot the other, Being a murderer, though he were my brother.

...ook, 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?

Provost. Who can do good on him? Well, go, prepare yourself.

But, hark, what noise? Heaven give your spirits comfort!

By and by. I hope it is some pardon or reprieve For the most gentle Claudio.

Welcome father.

Provost. None, since the curfew rung.

Provost. No.

Provost. What comfort is for Claudio?

Provost. It is a bitter deputy.

Provost. There he must stay until the officer Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.

Provost. None, sir, none.

Provost. Happily You something know; yet I believe there comes No countermand; no such example have we: ...esides, upon the very siege of justice ...ord Angelo hath to the public ear ...Profess'd the contrary.

This is his lordship's man.

Provost. I shall obey him.

Provost. 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.

Provost. ([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 ot to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.' What say you to this, sir?

Provost. A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one that is a prisoner nine years old.

Provost. 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.

Provost. Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

Provost. 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.

Provost. 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 o carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.

Provost. Pray, sir, in what?

Provost. A lack, 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.

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

Provost. Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.

Provost. To him, and to his substitutes.

Provost. But what likelihood is in that?

Provost. I know them both.

Provost. Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?

Provost. 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 colour. 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?

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?

Provost. I am your free dependant.

Provost. Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.

Provost. I'll make all speed.

Provost. It was commanded so.

Provost. No, my good lord; it was by private message.

Provost. 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.

Provost. His name is Barnardine.

Provost. This, my lord.

Provost. This is another prisoner that I saved. Who should have died when Claudio lost his head; As like almost to Claudio as himself.