THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN

Act 3 Scene 2

(Enter the Jailer's Daughter, with a file)
l1l	Jailer'S Daughter	 He has mistook the brake I meant, is gone
l2l		After his fancy. ’Tis now wellnigh morning.
l3l		No matter—would it were perpetual night,
l4l		And darkness lord o’ th’ world. Hark, ’tis a wolf!
l5l		In me hath grief slain fear, and, but for one thing,
l6l		I care for nothing—and that’s Palamon.
l7l		I reck not if the wolves would jaw me, so
l8l		He had this file. What if I hollered for him?
l9l		I cannot holler. If I whooped, what then?
l10l		If he not answered, I should call a wolf
l11l		And do him but that service. I have heard
l12l		Strange howls this livelong night—why may ’t not be
l13l		They have made prey of him? He has no weapons#
l14l		He cannot run# the jangling of his gyves
l15l		Might call fell things to listen, who have in them
l16l		A sense to know a man unarmed, and can
l17l		Smell where resistance is. I’ll set it down
l18l		He’s torn to pieces: they howled many together
l19l		And then they fed on him. So much for that.
l20l		Be bold to ring the bell. How stand I then?
l21l		All’s chared when he is gone. No, no, I lie:
l22l		My father’s to be hanged for his escape,
l23l		Myself to beg, if I prized life so much
l24l		As to deny my act—but that I would not,
l25l		Should I try death by dozens. I am moped—
l26l		Food took I none these two days,
l27l		Sipped some water. I have not closed mine eyes
l28l		Save when my lids scoured off their brine. Alas,
l29l		Dissolve, my life# let not my sense unsettle,
l30l		Lest I should drown or stab or hang myself.
l31l		O state of nature, fail together in me,
l32l		Since thy best props are warped. So which way now?
l33l		The best way is the next way to a grave,
l34l		Each errant step beside is torment. Lo,
l35l		The moon is down, the crickets chirp, the screech-owl
l36l		Calls in the dawn. All offices are done
l37l		Save what I fail in: but the point is this,
l38l		An end, and that is all.
		(Exit)
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