Ch. 769: SCENE II. Another Part of the forest

SCENE II. Another Part of the forest****

Enter Jailer’s Daughter alone.

DAUGHTER.

He has mistook the brake I meant, is gone

After his fancy. ’Tis now well-nigh morning.

No matter; would it were perpetual night,

And darkness lord o’ th’ world. Hark, ’tis a wolf!

In me hath grief slain fear, and but for one thing,

I care for nothing, and that’s Palamon.

I reck not if the wolves would jaw me, so

He had this file. What if I hallowed for him?

I cannot hallow. If I whooped, what then?

If he not answered, I should call a wolf,

And do him but that service. I have heard

Strange howls this livelong night; why may ’t not be

They have made prey of him? He has no weapons;

He cannot run; the jingling of his gyves

Might call fell things to listen, who have in them

A sense to know a man unarmed and can

Smell where resistance is. I’ll set it down

He’s torn to pieces; they howled many together,

And then they fed on him. So much for that.

Be bold to ring the bell. How stand I then?

All’s chared when he is gone. No, no, I lie.

My father’s to be hanged for his escape;

Myself to beg, if I prized life so much

As to deny my act; but that I would not,

Should I try death by dozens. I am moped.

Food took I none these two days;

Sipped some water. I have not closed mine eyes

Save when my lids scoured off their brine. Alas,

Dissolve, my life! Let not my sense unsettle,

Lest I should drown, or stab, or hang myself.

O state of nature, fail together in me,

Since thy best props are warped! So, which way now?

The best way is the next way to a grave;

Each errant step beside is torment. Lo,

The moon is down, the crickets chirp, the screech owl

Calls in the dawn. All offices are done

Save what I fail in. But the point is this:

An end, and that is all.

[_Exit. _]