Herod (to Joab).
Well then?
Joab.
Your words were followed to the letter,
But it has helped to no success. The headsman
Plied him with almost every pang, and more,
Grimmed into spite by such unwincing front,
Which he misread as scorn, he dealt him wounds.
But ’tis as though he’d given a tree a flogging,
As though ’twere nerveless wood that took his slashing.