Scene + 

II + 

Another part of the forest. + 

Enter Gaoler’s Daughter. + 

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 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. + 