Pompey (Measure for Measure)

Play

Measure for Measure

Summary

A tapster and procurer who serves as the comic voice of Vienna's underworld. His bawdy wit and cheerful amorality provide satirical commentary on the city's sexual economy, and his scenes before Escalus in court are brilliant comic set-pieces. He eventually becomes a prison executioner's assistant, navigating every situation with irrepressible good humor.

Notable Quotations

"Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the city?" *(II.i)*

Cross-references

• Measure for Measure — the play
• Comedies
• character_escalus_mm — the justice before whom he is arraigned
• character_lucio_mm — a fellow denizen of the Viennese underworld