Act 4 Key events Flashcards
Act 4, Scene 1
In a moated grange?, a boy sings to the love-sick Mariana but she sends him away when the disguised duke arrives. He speaks privately with Isabella who tells him that Angelo has given her two keys and told her to meet him in a locked garden in ‘the heavy middle of the night’. She has told him they must stay in the dark and she can’t be long. The duke tells Isabella to explain everything to Mariana. Mariana, who still loves Angelo, agrees to everything if the ‘friar’ wishes it. The duke tells her that Angelo is still her husband ‘on a precontract?’ so to sleep with him is ‘no sin’.
Act 4, Scene 2
It is the next morning and Mariana has slept with Angelo. In the prison, the Provost asks Pompey to be the executioner’s assistant as they are a man short. Pompey accepts, glad to be out of chains. Claudio and a drunkard called Barnadine are called for. Claudio appears, saying Barnadine is asleep. The Provost tells Claudio to prepare for death. The duke arrives in disguise, asking if anyone has come with a pardon? for Claudio but hears that the ‘bitter deputy’ has ordered Claudio’s head be sent to him that afternoon. Realising Angelo has broken his word, the duke arranges for Barnadine’s head to be sent to Angelo instead, trusting that Angelo won’t realise as ‘death’s a great disguiser’. He gives the Provost a letter with the duke’s seal? saying the duke will be returning in two days.
Act 4, Scene 3
Pompey says in a soliloquy that he knows everyone in the prison because it’s full of customers from Mistress Overdone’s brothel. Adding more comedy to the scene, Barnadine refuses to be executed, saying he’s been drinking all night and isn’t ready. The Provost suggests they send Angelo the head of a pirate who has died of ‘a cruel fever’. Left alone, the duke says he intends to write to Angelo to say he’s returning ‘publicly’ to Vienna. Isabella arrives, hoping to hear about Claudio’s pardon. The duke decides to tell her he’s been executed so the truth will bring her ‘heavenly comforts’ when she ‘least’ expects it. Isabella is distraught and curses the ‘Most damned Angelo!’ The duke tells her that she and Mariana must accuse Angelo publicly at the city gates tomorrow. Lucio enters and sympathises with Isabella. He criticises the duke, unaware that he is talking to him.
Act 4, Scene 4
Angelo and Escalus discuss the duke’s instructions and make arrangements to meet him at the gate with various city VIPs. They reveal that the duke has ordered ‘that if any crave redress of injustice?, they should exhibit their petitions? in the street’. Left alone, Angelo says in a soliloquy? that he is relying on Isabella’s ‘tender shame’ to stop her speaking out and that he executed Claudio because he was afraid he would revenge his sister’s honour.
Act 4, Scene 5
The duke, no longer in his disguise, makes arrangements for his return with Friar Peter. He orders for various important men to meet him at the city gates, along with trumpeters to herald? his arrival.
Act 4, Scene 6
Isabella is nervous, but Mariana tells her that she must obey the ‘Friar’, who has said that she must continue the pretence that Angelo has taken her virginity. Friar Peter arrives to take them to meet the duke.
What do we learn?
The duke has planned for Mariana to be the first to accuse Angelo.
Isabella wants no delay in the truth being told.
