Page 1176 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

DUKE

But hear you −

BARNARDINE
Not a word. If you have anything to say to me, come to my ward: for thence
will not I today. [60]
Exit.

Enter Provost.

DUKE

Unfit to live or die! O gravel heart!

PROVOST

After him, fellows, bring him to the block!
[Exeunt Abhorson and Pompey.]
Now sir, how do you find the prisoner?

DUKE
A creature unprepar’d, unmeet for death;

And to transport him in the mind he is [65]
Were damnable.

PROVOST
Here in the prison, father,
There died this morning of a cruel fever
One Ragozine, a most notorius pirate,

A man of Claudio’s years; his beard and head
Just of his colour. What if we do omit [70]
This reprobate till he were well inclin’d,

And satisfy the deputy with the visage
Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?

DUKE
O, ’tis an accident that heaven provides.
Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on [75]
Prefix’d by Angelo. See this be done,

And sent according to command, whiles I