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_ ACT IV - SCENE II
[Enter BARABAS and ITHAMORE.]
BARABAS.
Ithamore, tell me, is the friar asleep?
ITHAMORE.
Yes; and I know not what the reason is,
Do what I can, he will not strip himself,
Nor go to bed, but sleeps in his own clothes:
I fear me he mistrusts what we intend.
BARABAS.
No; 'tis an order which the friars use:
Yet, if he knew our meanings, could he scape?
ITHAMORE.
No, none can hear him, cry he ne'er so loud.
BARABAS.
Why, true; therefore did I place him there:
The other chambers open towards the street.
ITHAMORE.
You loiter, master; wherefore stay we thus?
O, how I long to see him shake his heels!
BARABAS.
Come on, sirrah:
Off with your girdle; make a handsome noose.--
[ITHAMORE takes off his girdle, and ties a noose on it.]
Friar, awake! [139]
[They put the noose round the FRIAR'S neck.]
[Footnote 139: Friar, awake: Here, most probably, Barabas drew a curtain, and discovered the sleeping Friar.]
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
What, do you mean to strangle me?
ITHAMORE.
Yes, 'cause you use to confess.
BARABAS.
Blame not us, but the proverb,--Confess and be
hanged.--Pull hard.
FRIAR BARNARDINE.
What, will you have [140] my life?
[Footnote 140: have: Old ed. "saue."]
BARABAS.
Pull hard, I say.--You would have had my goods.
ITHAMORE.
Ay, and our lives too:--therefore pull amain.
[They strangle the FRIAR.]
'Tis neatly done, sir; here's no print at all.
BARABAS.
Then is it as it should be. Take him up.
ITHAMORE.
Nay, master, be ruled by me a little.
[Takes the body, sets it upright against the wall,
and puts a staff in its hand.]
So, let him lean upon his staff; excellent!
he stands as if he were begging of bacon.
BARABAS.
Who would not think but that this friar liv'd?
What time o' night is't now, sweet Ithamore?
ITHAMORE.
Towards one. [141]
[Footnote 141: What time o' night is't now, sweet Ithamore?
ITHAMORE. Towards one: Might be adduced, among other
passages, to shew that the modern editors are right when they
print in Shakespeare's KING JOHN. act iii. sc. 3,
"If the midnight bell
Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,
Sound ONE into the drowsy ear of NIGHT," &c.]
BARABAS.
Then will not Jacomo be long from hence.
[Exeunt.] _
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