Agnes and Mary are by Judith’s bedside as her condition worsens. Mary, who already lost three daughters of her own, braces herself for the worst. She permits Eliza to write to the child’s father that he should return from London, as Judith likely does not have many hours to live.

Hamnet awakes feeling sore and achy all over. He rushes to Judith’s bedside, where everyone is asleep. He sees that Judith is looking at him and that she appears far worse. He implores her to get better and wishes that he could die in her place. Given that they look so similar, he considers it “possible to hoodwink Death, to pull off the trick he and Judith have been playing on people since they were young: to exchange places and clothes, leading people to think that each was the other” (168). He vows that Death will take him in Judith’s place, and that she should be the one to live, and he to die. 

Mary is furious that her son is going to London. She is convinced that some harm with come to him because he is so absent-minded.