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_ ACT III - SCENE VI
[Enter FRIAR JACOMO [120] and FRIAR BARNARDINE.]
[Footnote 120: Enter FRIAR JACOMO, &c.: Scene, the interior of the Nunnery.]
FRIAR JACOMO.
O brother, brother, all the nuns are sick,
And physic will not help them! they must die.
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
The abbess sent for me to be confess'd:
O, what a sad confession will there be!
FRIAR JACOMO.
And so did fair Maria send for me:
I'll to her lodging; hereabouts she lies.
[Exit.]
[Enter ABIGAIL.]
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
What, all dead, save only Abigail!
ABIGAIL.
And I shall die too, for I feel death coming.
Where is the friar that convers'd with me? [121]
[Footnote 121: convers'd with me: She alludes to her conversation with Jacomo, p. 162, sec. col.
(p. 162, second column, this play:
"ABIGAIL. Welcome, grave friar.--Ithamore, be gone.
Exit ITHAMORE.
Know, holy sir, I am bold to solicit thee.
FRIAR JACOMO. Wherein?")]
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
O, he is gone to see the other nuns.
ABIGAIL.
I sent for him; but, seeing you are come,
Be you my ghostly father: and first know,
That in this house I liv'd religiously,
Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins;
But, ere I came--
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
What then?
ABIGAIL.
I did offend high heaven so grievously
As I am almost desperate for my sins;
And one offense torments me more than all.
You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick?
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
Yes; what of them?
ABIGAIL.
My father did contract me to 'em both;
First to Don Lodowick: him I never lov'd;
Mathias was the man that I held dear,
And for his sake did I become a nun.
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
So: say how was their end?
ABIGAIL.
Both, jealous of my love, envied [122] each other;
And by my father's practice, [123] which is there
[Gives writing.]
Set down at large, the gallants were both slain.
[Footnote 122: envied: i.e. hated.]
[Footnote 123: practice: i.e. artful contrivance, stratagem.]
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
O, monstrous villany!
ABIGAIL.
To work my peace, this I confess to thee:
Reveal it not; for then my father dies.
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
Know that confession must not be reveal'd;
The canon-law forbids it, and the priest
That makes it known, being degraded first,
Shall be condemn'd, and then sent to the fire.
ABIGAIL.
So I have heard; pray, therefore, keep it close.
Death seizeth on my heart: ah, gentle friar,
Convert my father that he may be sav'd,
And witness that I die a Christian!
[Dies.]
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
Ay, and a virgin too; that grieves me most.
But I must to the Jew, and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.
[Re-enter FRIAR JACOMO.]
FRIAR JACOMO.
O brother, all the nuns are dead! let's bury them.
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
First help to bury this; then go with me,
And help me to exclaim against the Jew.
FRIAR JACOMO.
Why, what has he done?
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.
FRIAR JACOMO.
What, has he crucified a child? [124]
[Footnote 124: crucified a child: A crime with which the Jews were often charged. "Tovey, in his ANGLIA JUDAICA, has given the several instances which are upon record of these charges against the Jews; which he observes they were never accused of, but at such times as the king was manifestly in great want of money." REED (apud Dodsley's O. P.).]
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
No, but a worse thing: 'twas told me in shrift;
Thou know'st 'tis death, an if it be reveal'd.
Come, let's away.
[Exeunt.] _
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