The Two Noble Kinsmen 13

³DaughterHe has mistook the brake I meant; is gone
After his fancy. ’Tis now well-nigh morning;
No matter: would it were perpetual night,
And darkeness lord o’ the 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 holla’d for him?
I cannot holla: if I whooped, what then?
If he not answer’d, I should call a wolf,
And do him but that service. I have heard
Strange howls this live-long 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 unarm’d, and can
Smell where resistance is. I’ll set it down
He’s torn to pieces; they howl’d many together,
And then they fed on him: so much for that!
Be bold to ring the bell; how stand I, then?
All’s charr’d when he is gone. No, no, I lie;
My father’s to be hang’d for his escape;
Myself to beg, if I priz’d life so much
As to deny my act; but that I would not,
Should I try death by dozens.⁠—I am mop’d:
Food took I none these two days⁠—
Sipp’d some water; I’ve not clos’d mine eyes,
Save when my lids scour’d 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 warp’d!⁠—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 screeching 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.