Joab.
Your servant! I’ll hold talk with none i’ the palace.
Herod.
That’s credible! Who hankers for the cross
Now of all times when figs begin to ripe?
My Mute must have the axe, and should he question
The why, he’s answered—“Just that you can question.”
(Aside.) So now I see through whom the Ancient Serpent
So often learned what I—A wicked wench!
(To Joab.) See to’t! When done I must behold the head.