Open Source Shakespeare

Speeches (Lines) for Provost
in "Measure for Measure"

Total: 65

# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

I,2,208

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

2

I,2,232

Away, sir! you must go.

3

II,1,487

Here, if it like your honour.

4

II,2,735

Pray you, do.
[Exit Servant]
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!

5

II,2,744

Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?

6

II,2,747

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

7

II,2,754

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

8

II,2,763

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

9

II,2,772

God save your honour!

10

II,2,788

[Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces!

11

II,2,892

[Aside] Pray heaven she win him!

12

II,3,966

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

13

II,3,973

I would do more than that, if more were needful.
[Enter JULIET]
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.

14

II,3,982

As I do think, to-morrow.
I have provided for you: stay awhile,
[To JULIET]
And you shall be conducted.

15

II,3,1014

'Tis pity of him.

16

III,1,1268

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

17

III,1,1273

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

18

III,1,1275

As many as you please.

19

III,1,1417

What's your will, father

20

III,1,1421

In good time.

21

III,2,1705

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

22

III,2,1721

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

23

IV,2,1886

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

24

IV,2,1890

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.

25

IV,2,1903

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

26

IV,2,1906

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.

27

IV,2,1912

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

28

IV,2,1932

Are you agreed?

29

IV,2,1936

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

30

IV,2,1943

Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:
[Exeunt POMPEY and ABHORSON]
The one has my pity; not a jot the other,
Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
[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?

31

IV,2,1954

Who can do good on him?
Well, go, prepare yourself.
[Knocking within]
But, hark, what noise?
Heaven give your spirits comfort!
[Exit CLAUDIO]
By and by.
I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
For the most gentle Claudio.
[Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before]
Welcome father.

32

IV,2,1967

None, since the curfew rung.

33

IV,2,1969

No.

34

IV,2,1971

What comfort is for Claudio?

35

IV,2,1973

It is a bitter deputy.

36

IV,2,1990

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

37

IV,2,1994

None, sir, none.

38

IV,2,1997

Happily
You something know; yet I believe there comes
No countermand; no such example have we:
Besides, upon the very siege of justice
Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
Profess'd the contrary.
[Enter a Messenger]
This is his lordship's man.

39

IV,2,2012

I shall obey him.

40

IV,2,2021

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.

41

IV,2,2025

[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?

42

IV,2,2036

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

43

IV,2,2041

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.

44

IV,2,2045

Most manifest, and not denied by himself.

45

IV,2,2048

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.

46

IV,2,2053

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 showed him a seeming
warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.

47

IV,2,2069

Pray, sir, in what?

48

IV,2,2071

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.

49

IV,2,2078

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

50

IV,2,2086

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

51

IV,2,2088

To him, and to his substitutes.

52

IV,2,2091

But what likelihood is in that?

53

IV,2,2099

I know them both.

54

IV,3,2184

Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?

55

IV,3,2188

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?

56

IV,3,2201

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?

57

IV,3,2211

I am your free dependant.

58

IV,3,2224

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

59

IV,3,2228

I'll make all speed.

60

V,1,2895

It was commanded so.

61

V,1,2897

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

62

V,1,2900

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.

63

V,1,2907

His name is Barnardine.

64

V,1,2922

This, my lord.

65

V,1,2931

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