payment page
Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live. (2.1.231)
Pompey addresses these words to the judge Escalus, who has been interrogating him about his criminal activities. After making a rude joke related to Pompey’s name, Escalus encourages the man to admit to being a pimp: “Come, tell me true. It shall be better for you” (2.1.229–30). In response, Pompey, who usually acts the part of the wise-cracking clown, speaks with disarming sobriety, telling the judge, “I am a poor fellow that would live.” Although Pompey isn’t under direct threat of a death sentence, it’s hard not to relate his words to Claudio’s fate. Under conditions where the state would kill a man for having sex outside of wedlock, Pompey’s expresses a profoundly human desire to have sufficient liberty to live his life as he sees fit.
Sweet sister, let me live.
What sin you do to save a brother’s life,
Nature dispenses with the deed so far
That it becomes a virtue. (3.1.149–52)
Claudio speaks these words to Isabella, asking her to sacrifice her chastity to save his life. Prior to this moment in the scene, the Duke has spent a great deal of time encouraging Claudio to embrace his fate. The Duke’s encouragement seems to work, and when Isabella arrives to tell him what happened when she met with Angelo, Claudio is initially horrified by the proposition he’s made to his sister. But upon further consideration, Claudio grows increasingly terrified by death: “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, / To lie in cold obstruction and to rot, . . . ’tis too horrible” (3.1.133–34, 143). He therefore changes his mind and asks Isabella to let him live. We may be critical of Claudio’s awful request, but his is an expression of a primal desire to stay alive. Regardless of Isabella’s faith in eternal life for the morally pure, Claudio is attached to this world and to this life.
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. (4.3.56–59)
Barnardine speaks these words when the Duke summons him for his execution. In a humorous and absurd refusal, however, Barnardine declines to be executed. Though his refusal provides a moment of comedy, it also offers an important recognition of the sanctity of human life. In a previous scene, the Duke got the idea to defer Claudio’s execution by hastening Barnardine’s. This idea arose when the Provost informed him that Barnardine “apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep” and is “insensible of mortality” (4.2.154–57). But as it turns out, Barnardine has as much of an attachment to life as anyone else—a fact that the Duke will later honor by granting Barnardine a full pardon.
