I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession. One would think it were Mistress Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old c

POM. I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession. One would think it were Mistress Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here's young Master Rash, he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, ninescore and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks ready money. Marry, then ginger was not much in request, for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-color'd satin, which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here young Dizzy, and young Master Deep-vow, and Master Copper-spur, and Master Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger man, and young Drop-heir that kill'd lusty Pudding, and Master Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shoe-tie the great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabb'd Pots, and I think forty more, all great doers in our trade, and are now 'for the Lord's sake.'

This speech is given by Pompey the Clown during Act IV, scene III of “Measure for Measure.” It occurs shortly after Pompey has switched occupation, converting himself from bawd to undertaker's assistant. In the most literal sense, the passage describes how Pompey is comfortable in his new profession because all the men he saw at the whorehouse as a bawd are present on death row. A closer reading of the passage reveals that this is not merely a list of Pompey's friends, but is also a catalog of the play-world's sexual deviants and their multitude of varying sexual desires. Shakespeare uses this sexual catalog as a symbol, aiding him in his depiction of the play world as one in which lustful wants are openly expressed, and nearly impossible to hide. No matter where Pompey is, sexual desire will follow.
The fact that Pompey sees these men on death row suggests that the only way that Shakespeare's play world can eliminate lustful desire is by literally killing it off. By doing so, the play asserts its absolute authority over its characters (expressed through the characters Duke and Angelo). This absolute authority realizes that complete control is only gained by controlling all desires, sexual or otherwise, and that the only way to accomplish this goal is by destroying it. Consequently, the absolutism in the play is not only trying to control actions, but also abstract ideas.
Ultimately, this passage, as well as others in the play, are demonstrating how far a ruler has to go in order to gain complete dominion over their subjects IE the destruction of abstract ideas such as sexual desire. Shakespeare is questioning this absolutism, essentially wondering if the elimination of ideas is within the scope of any ruling power.

Thomas Marren
Amanda Waldo
Section 1A