The Jew of Malta · Act III · Scene VI

Scene VI
Enter Friar Jacomo and Friar Barnadine.57
Friar Jacomo O, brother, brother, all the nuns are sick, And physic will not help them: they must die.
Friar Barnadine The abbess sent for me to be confessed: 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 Barnadine What, all dead, save only Abigail?
Abigail And I shall die too, for I feel death coming. Where is the friar that conversed with me?
Friar Barnadine 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 lived religiously, Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins; But, ere I came⁠—
Friar Barnadine What then?
Abigail 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?
Friar Barnadine Yes; what of them?
Abigail My father did contract me to ’em both: First to Don Lodowick: him I never loved; Mathias was the man that I held dear, And for his sake did I become a nun.
Friar Barnadine So, say how was their end?
Abigail Both, jealous of my love, envied58 each other, And by my father’s practice,59 which is there Set down at large, the gallants were both slain. Gives a written paper.
Friar Barnadine O monstrous villany!
Abigail To work my peace, this I confess to thee; Reveal it not, for then my father dies.
Friar Barnadine Know that confession must not be revealed, The canon law forbids it, and the priest That makes it known, being degraded first, Shall be condemned, 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 saved, And witness that I die a Christian! Dies.
Friar Barnadine 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.
Reenter Friar Jacomo.
Friar Jacomo O brother, all the nuns are dead, let’s bury them.
Friar Barnadine 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 Barnadine A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.
Friar Jacomo What, has he crucified a child?60
Friar Barnadine No, but a worse thing: ’twas told me in shrift, Thou know’st ’tis death, an if it be revealed. Come, let’s away.
Exeunt.