# Pompey — Measure for Measure character guide

> Pompey in Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Pompey Sir, Pompey Troth, good Pompey, trusty Pompey, noble Pompey, Pompey Bum, Pompey O, Pompey Master Barnardine

**First appearance:** 0003-act-i-scene-ii

## Snapshot

A bawd's tapster turned apprentice hangman, he jokes his way from brothel to gallows with the same cheerful, unbothered pragmatism.

## Who they are

Pompey serves Mistress Overdone in the suburbs until the morality crackdown shuts the brothels, then talks his way into Abhorson's trade to escape a whipping. His running argument that bawdry and hanging are both 'mysteries' is the play's funniest and sharpest joke about how Vienna's respectable and disreputable trades mirror each other. He matters because his comic descent tracks the city's tightening vice laws from below, and because his survival instinct keeps the low-life plot humming while the high-minded characters agonize.

## Relationships

### [Duke Vincentio](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/characters/duke_vincentio)

_professional_

The Duke, disguised as a friar, interacts with Pompey as a lowlife informant and subject of justice.

### [Duke Vincentio](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/characters/duke_vincentio)

_professional_

The Duke, disguised as a friar, interacts with Pompey as a lowlife informant and subject of justice.

### [Duke Vincentio](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/characters/duke_vincentio)

_professional_

The Duke, disguised as a friar, interacts with Pompey as a lowlife informant and subject of justice.

## In the story

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/chapters/act-i-scene-ii)

Brings news of the proclamation and reassures Mistress Overdone that her trade will continue despite the closures.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-i)

A tapster and part-time bawd, he defends his trade and is warned by Escalus to avoid further complaints.

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-ii)

A former bawd who agrees to become the hangman's assistant to avoid a whipping, engaging in banter with Abhorson about the 'mystery' of hanging.

### [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-iii)

Lists the prisoners in the jail and assists Abhorson in summoning Barnardine for execution.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/characters/pompey
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/measure_for_measure_se/characters