MOSES
Old Hebrew
I am crazed with whips. . . . I hear a Messiah.
Young Hebrew
The venerable man will question this.
Abinoah
[Overhearing.] Ill beat you more, and he'll question
The scratchiness of your whining; or, may be,
Thence may be born deep argument
With reasons from philosophy,
That this blow, taking longer, yet was but one,
Or perhaps two; or that you felt this one—
Arguing from the difference in your whine—
Exactly, or not, like the other.
Minstrel
You labour hard to give pain.
Abinoah
[Still beating.] My pain is. . . not. . . to labour so.
Minstrel
What is this greybeard worth to you now,
All his dried-up blood crumbled to dust?
71
