Entreat the abbess to be entertained.

Abig. How, as a nun?

Bar. Ay, daughter, for religion

Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

Abig. Ay, but, father, they will suspect me there.
Bar. Let 'em suspect; but be thou so precise
As they may think it done of holiness.
Entreat 'em fair, and give them friendly speech,
And seem to them as if thy sins were great,
Till thou hast gotten to be entertained.

Abig. Thus, father, shall I much dissemble.
Bar. Tush!

As good dissemble that thou never mean'st,

As first mean truth and then dissemble it,

A counterfeit profession is better

Than unseen hypocrisy.1

Abig. Well, father, say that I be entertained, What then shall follow?

Bar. This shall follow then;

There have I hid, close underneath the plank
That runs along the upper-chamber floor,
The gold and jewels which I kept for thee.
But here they come; be cunning, Abigail.
Abig. Then, father, go with me.

Bar. No, Abigail, in this

It is not necessary I be seen:

For I will seem offended with thee for't:

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300

Be close, my girl, for this must fetch my gold. [They retire. Enter Friar JACOMO, Friar BARNARDINE, Abbess, and a Nun.

1

F. Jac. Sisters, we now are almost at the new-made

nunnery.

1 This passage is corrupt.

Abb. The better; for we love not to be seen:

'Tis thirty winters long since some of us

Did stray so far amongst the multitude.

F. Jac. But, madam, this house

And waters of this new-made nunnery

Will much delight you.

Abb. It may be so; but who comes here?

310

[ABIGAIL comes forward.

Abig. Grave abbess, and you, happy virgins' guide, Pity the state of a distressèd maid.

Abb. What art thou, daughter?

Abig. The hopeless daughter of a hapless Jew,
The Jew of Malta, wretched Barabas ;
Sometime the owner of a goodly house,

Which they have now turned to a nunnery.

Abb. Well, daughter, say, what is thy suit with us?

Abig. Fearing the afflictions which my father feels Proceed from sin, or want of faith in us,

I'd pass away my life in penitence,

And be a novice in your nunnery,

To make atonement for my labouring soul.

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F. Jac. No doubt, brother, but this proceedeth of the spirit.

F. Barn. Ay, and of a moving spirit too, brother; but

come,

Let us entreat she may be entertained.

Abb. Well, daughter, we admit you for a nun.

Abig. First let me as a novice learn to frame

My solitary life to your strait laws,

And let me lodge where I was wont to lie,
I do not doubt, by your divine precepts

1 Bullen suggests cloisters.

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And mine own industry, but to profit much.

Bar. (aside). As much, I hope, as all I hid is worth.
Abb. Come, daughter, follow us.

Bar. (coming forward). Why, how now, Abigail,
What makest thou amongst these hateful Christians?
F. Jac. Hinder her not, thou man of little faith,
For she has mortified herself.

Bar. How! mortified?

F. Jac. And is admitted to the sisterhood.

Bar. Child of perdition, and thy father's shame!
What wilt thou do among these hateful fiends?
I charge thee on my blessing that thou leave
These devils, and their damnèd heresy.

Abig. Father, give me

Bar. Nay, back, Abigail.

(And think upon the jewels and the gold;

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[She goes to him.

[Aside to ABIGAIL in a whisper.

The board is markèd thus that covers it.)
Away, accursed from thy father's sight.

F. Jac. Barabas, although thou art in mischief,
And wilt not see thine own afflictions,
Yet let thy daughter be no longer blind.

Bar. Blind friar, I reck not thy persuasions, (The board is markèd thus1 that covers it.)

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[Aside to ABIGAIL in a whisper.

For I had rather die than see her thus.
Wilt thou forsake me too in my distress,
Seduced daughter? (Aside in a whisper) (Go, forget not,)
Becomes it Jews to be so credulous?

(To-morrow early I'll be at the door.) [Aside in a whisper.

1 The original edition has † inserted here, to indicate the sign Barabas was to make.

No, come not at me; if thou wilt be damned,
Forget me, see me not, and so be gone.
(Farewell, remember to-morrow morning.)

Out, out, thou wretch !

360

[Aside in a whisper.

[Exeunt, on one side BARABAS, on the other side Friars, Abbess, Nun, and ABIGAIL; as they are going out,

Enter MATHIAS.

Math. Who's this? fair Abigail, the rich Jew's daughter, Become a nun! her father's sudden fall

Has humbled her and brought her down to this:

Tut, she were fitter for a tale of love,

Than to be tired out with orisons.

Enter LODOWICK.

Lod. Why, how now, Don Mathias! in a dump?
Math. Believe me, noble Lodowick, I have seen

The strangest sight, in my opinion,

That ever I beheld.

Lod. What was't, I prithee?

Math. A fair young maid, scarce fourteen years of age,

The sweetest flower in Cytherea's field,

Cropt from the pleasures of the fruitful earth,

And strangely metamorphosed nun.

Lod. But say, what was she?

Math. Why, the rich Jew's daughter.

Lod. What, Barabas, whose goods were lately seized? Is she so fair?

Math. And matchless beautiful;

As, had you seen her, 'twould have moved your heart,

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Though countermined with walls of brass, to love,

Or at the least to pity.

Lod. And if she be so fair as you report, "Twere time well spent to go and visit her : How say you, shall we?

Math. I must and will, sir; there's no remedy.

Lod. And so will I too, or it shall go hard.

Farewell, Mathias.

Math. Farewell, Lodowick.

380

[Exeunt severally.

ACT II.

SCENE I.- Before BARABAS'S House, now a Nunnery.

Enter BARABAS with a light.

Bar. Thus, like the sad presaging raven that tolls

The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,

And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings;
Vexed and tormented runs poor Barabas
With fatal curses towards these Christians.
The uncertain pleasures of swift-footed time
Have ta'en their flight, and left me in despair;
And of my former riches rests no more
But bare remembrance, like a soldier's scar,
That has no further comfort for his maim.

O thou, that with a fiery pillar led'st

The sons of Israel through the dismal shades,
Light Abraham's offspring; and direct the hand
Of Abigail this night; or let the day
Turn to eternal darkness after this!

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