Scene V A Room in the Manor
Enter Sir Francis Acton, Susan, Sir Charles Mountford, Cranwell, and Malby; Jenkin and Cicely following them.
Jenkin.
O my mistress, my mistress, my poor mistress.
Cicely.
Alas that ever I was born! what shall I do for my poor mistress?
Sir Charles Mountford.
Why, what of her?
Jenkin.
O Lord, sir, she no sooner heard that her brother and his friends were come to see how she did, but she, for very shame of her guilty conscience, fell into such a swoon, that we had much ado to get life into her.
Susan.
Alas that she should bear so hard a fate!
Pity it is repentance comes too late.
Sir Francis Acton.
Is she so weak in body?
Jenkin.
O sir, I can assure you there’s no hope of life in her, for she will take no sustenance: she hath plainly starved herself, and now she is as lean as a lath. She ever looks for the good hour. Many gentlemen and gentlewomen of the country are come to comfort her.
[Exeunt.