Act 3 — [Scene VI.][544]
Reading edition
[Scene VI.][544]
Enter Friar [Jacomo] and Friar [Barnardine].
F. [Jac.] O, brother, brother, all the nuns are sick, And physic will not help them; they must die. F. [Barn.] The abbess sent for me to be confess’d: O, what a sad confession will there be! F. Jac. And so did fair Maria send for me.5 I’ll to her lodging; hereabouts she lies. Exit.
Enter Abigail.
F. Barn. What, all dead, save only Abigail? Abig. And I shall die too, for I feel death coming. Where is the friar that convers’d with me?9 F. Barn. O, he is gone to see the other nuns. Abig. 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——15 F. Barn. What then? Abig. I did offend high Heaven so grievously, As I am almost desperate for my sins; And one offence torments me more than all. You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick?20 F. Barn. Yes, what of them? Abig. 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.25 F. Barn. So, say how was their end? Abig. Both jealous of my love, envied[545] each other, And by my father’s practice,[546] which is there Set down at large, the gallants were both slain. [Gives a written paper.] F. Barn. O monstrous villainy!30 Abig. To work my peace, this I confess to thee; Reveal it not, for then my father dies. F. Barn. Know that confession must not be reveal’d, The canon law forbids it, and the priest That makes it known, being degraded first,35 Shall be condemn’d, and then sent to the fire. Abig. So I have heard; pray, therefore keep it close.[547] Death seizeth on my heart: ah, gentle friar, Convert my father that he may be sav’d, And witness that I die a Christian. 40 [Dies.] F. Barn. 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].
F. Jac. O brother, all the nuns are dead, let’s bury them. F. Barn. First help to bury this, then go with me45 And help me to exclaim against the Jew. F. Jac. Why, what has he done? F. Barn. A thing that makes me tremble to unfold. F. Jac. What, has he crucified a child? F. Barn. No, but a worse thing, ’t was told me in shrift,50 Thou know’st ’tis death an if it be reveal’d. Come, let’s away. Exeunt.