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And wares of Barabas, which being valued,
Amount to more than all the wealth of Malta.
And of the other we have seized half.

Fern. Then we'll take order for the residue.

Bar. Well then, my lord, say, are you satisfied?
You have my goods, my money, and my wealth,
My ships, my store, and all that I enjoyed;
And, having all, you can request no more;
Unless your unrelenting flinty hearts
Suppress all pity in your stony breasts,

And now shall move you to bereave my life.

Fern. No, Barabas, to stain our hands with blood Is far from us and our profession.

Bar. Why, I esteem the injury far less

To take the lives of miserable men

Than be the causers of their misery.

You have my wealth, the labour of my life,
The comfort of mine age, my children's hope,

And therefore ne'er distinguish of the wrong.

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Fern. Content thee, Barabas, thou hast naught but right. Bar. Your extreme right does me exceeding wrong:

But take it to you, i' the devil's name.

Fern. Come, let us in, and gather of these goods

The money for this tribute of the Turk.

1st Knight. 'Tis necessary that be looked unto : For if we break our day, we break the league, And that will prove but simple1 policy.

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[Exeunt all except BARABAS and the Jews.

Bar. Ay, policy! that's their profession,

And not simplicity, as they suggest.

The plagues of Egypt, and the curse of Heaven,

1 Foolish.

Earth's barrenness, and all men's hatred
Inflict upon them, thou great Primus Motor!
And here upon my knees, striking the earth,
I ban their souls to everlasting pains
And extreme tortures of the fiery deep,
That thus have dealt with me in my distress.
1st Jew. O yet be patient, gentle Barabas.
Bar. O silly brethren, born to see this day;
Why stand you thus unmoved with my laments?
Why weep you not to think upon my wrongs?
Why pine not I, and die in this distress?

1st Jew. Why, Barabas, as hardly can we brook The cruel handling of ourselves in this ;

Thou seest they have taken half our goods.

Bar. Why did you yield to their extortion? You were a multitude, and I but one:

And of me only have they taken all.

1st Jew. Yet, brother Barabas, remember Job.
Bar. What tell you me of Job? I wot his wealth
Was written thus: he had seven thousand sheep,
Three thousand camels, and two hundred yoke
Of labouring oxen, and five hundred

She-asses: but for every one of those,

Had they been valued at indifferent rate,

I had at home, and in mine argosy,

And other ships that came from Egypt last,

As much as would have bought his beasts and him,
And yet have kept enough to live upon :

So that not he, but I may curse the day,
Thy fatal birth-day, forlorn Barabas;
And henceforth wish for an eternal night,
That clouds of darkness may inclose my flesh,

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And hide these extreme sorrows from mine eyes:

For only I have toiled to inherit here

The months of vanity and loss of time,

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And painful nights, have been appointed me.

2d Jew. Good Barabas, be patient.

Bar. Ay, I pray, leave me in my patience. You,

Were ne'er possessed of wealth, are pleased with want;
But give him liberty at least to mourn,

That in a field amidst his enemies

Doth see his soldiers slain, himself disarmed,
And knows no means of his recovery :

Ay, let me sorrow for this sudden chance;
'Tis in the trouble of my spirit I speak ;
Great injuries are not so soon forgot.

1st Jew. Come, let us leave him; in his ireful mood

Our words will but increase his ecstasy.1

2d Jew. On, then; but trust me 'tis a misery

To see a man in such affliction.

Farewell, Barabas !

Bar. Ay, fare you

well.

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[Exeunt the three Jews.2

See the simplicity of these base slaves,
Who, for the villains have no wit themselves,
Think me to be a senseless lump of clay
That will with every water wash to dirt:
No, Barabas is born to better chance,
And framed of finer mould than common men,
That measure naught but by the present time.
A .eaching thought will search his deepest wits,
And cast with cunning for the time to come :
For evils are apt to happen every day. -

1 Violent emotion.

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2 Dyce suggests that the scene is now shifted to a street near Barabas' house.

Enter ABIGAIL.

But whither wends my beauteous Abigail?
O! what has made my lovely daughter sad?
What, woman! moan not for a little loss:
Thy father hath enough in store for thee.

Abig. Not for myself, but agèd Barabas :
Father, for thee lamenteth Abigail :
But I will learn to leave these fruitless tears,
And, urged thereto with my afflictions,
With fierce exclaims run to the senate-house,
And in the senate reprehend them all,

And rend their hearts with tearing of my hair,

Till they reduce1 the wrongs done to my father.
Bar. No, Abigail, things past recovery

Are hardly cured with exclamations.

Be silent, daughter, sufferance breeds ease,
And time may yield us an occasion

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Which on the sudden cannot serve the turn.
Besides, my girl, think me not all so fond
As negligently to forego so much
Without provision for thyself and me:

Ten thousand portagues, besides great pearls,
Rich costly jewels, and stones infinite,

Fearing the worst of this before it fell,

I closely hid.

Abig. Where, father?

Bar. In my house, my girl.

Abig. Then shall they ne'er be seen of Barabas :

For they have seized upon thy house and wares.

1 Lessen, diminish. Dyce suggests redress.

2 Portuguese gold coins.

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Bar. But they will give me leave once more,

Το go into my house.

Abig. That may they not:

For there I left the governor placing nuns,

Displacing me; and of thy house they mean

I trow,

To make a nunnery, where none but their own sect'
Must enter in; men generally barred.

Bar. My gold! my gold! and all my wealth is gone!
You partial heavens, have I deserved this plague?

What, will you thus oppose me, luckless stars,
To make me desperate in my poverty?
And knowing me impatient in distress,
Think me so mad as I will hang myself,
That I may vanish o'er the earth in air,
And leave no memory that e'er I was?
No, I will live; nor loathe I this my life:
And, since you leave me in the ocean thus
To sink or swim, and put me to my shifts,
I'll rouse my senses and awake myself.
Daughter! I have it: thou perceiv'st the plight
Wherein these Christians have oppressed me :
Be ruled by me, for in extremity

We ought to make bar of no policy.

Abig. Father, whate'er it be to injure them

That have so manifestly wrongèd us,

What will not Abigail attempt?

Bar. Why, so ;

Then thus, thou told'st me they have turned my house

Into a nunnery, and some nuns are there?

Abig. I did.

Bar. Then, Abigail, there must my girl

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1 Sex.

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