Please you Pilia. No, God-a-mercy. Shall I have these crowns? Pilia. O, if that be all, I can pick ope your locks. Bar. Or climb up to my counting-house window: you know my meaning. Pilia. I know enough, and therefore talk not to me of your counting-house. The gold! or know, Jew, it is in my power to hang thee. Bar. (aside). I am betrayed. 'Tis not five hundred crowns that I esteem, I am not moved at that: this angers me, That he, who knows I love him as myself, Pilia. Here's many words, but no crowns: the crowns! Bar. Commend me to him, sir, most humbly, And unto your good mistress, as unknown. Pilia. Speak, shall I have 'em, sir? Bar. Sir, here they are. 40 50 [Gives money. (Aside) O, that I should part with so much gold! Here, take 'em, fellow, with as good a will (Aside) As I would see thee hanged; O, love stops my breath: Never man servant loved as I do Ithamore! Pilia. I know it, sir. Bar. Pray, when, sir, shall I see you at my house? Pilia. Soon enough, to your cost, sir. Fare you well. [Exit. 60 Bar. Nay, to thine own cost, villain, if thou com'st! Was ever Jew tormented as I am? To have a shag-rag knave to come, force from me And presently; for in his villainy He will tell all he knows, and I shall die for't. I have it: I will in some disguise go see the slave, And how the villain revels with my gold. Enter BELLAMIRA, ITHAMORE, and PILIA-BORSA. [Exit. Bell. I'll pledge thee, love, and therefore drink it off. Itha. Say'st thou me so? have at it; and do you hear? Bell. Go to, it shall be so. Itha. Of1 that condition I will drink it up. Here's to thee! Bell. Nay, I'll have all or none. [Whispers. Itha. There, if thou lov'st me do not leave a drop. Bell. Love thee! fill me three glasses. Itha. Three and fifty dozen, I'll pledge thee. ΙΟ Itha. Ha! to the Jew, and send me money he were best. Pilia. What would'st thou do if he should send thee none? Itha. Do nothing; but I know what I know; he's a murderer. 1 On. 2 Familiar refrain in drinking-songs; origin doubtful. Bell. I had not thought he had been so brave a man. Itha. You knew Mathias and the governor's son; he and I killed 'em both, and yet never touched 'em. Pilia. O, bravely done. 20 Itha. I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns; and he and I, snickle hand too fast,' strangled a friar. Bell. You two alone? Itha. We two; and 'twas never known, nor never shall be for me. Pilia. (aside to BELL.). This shall with me unto the gov ernor. Bell. (aside to PILIA.). And fit it should: but first let's ha' more gold, Come, gentle Ithamore. Itha. Love me little, love me long.2 30 Enter BARABAS, disguised as a French musician, with a lute, and a nosegay in his hat. Bell. A French musician! come, let's hear your skill. Bar. Must tuna my lute for sound, twang, twang, first. Itha. Wilt drink, Frenchman? here's to thee with a plague on this drunken hiccup ! Bar. Gramercy, monsieur. Bell. Prythee, Pilia-Borsa, bid the fiddler give me the posy in his hat there. Pilia. Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy. 40 1 A corrupt passage: snickle is a noose, or slip-knot; commonly applied to the hangman's halter, and to snares for hares and rabbits. Cunningham suggests, "snickle hard and fast." 2 This expression is found in Heywood's Proverbs, 1546. Bell. How sweet, my Ithamore, the flowers smell! Itha. Like thy breath, sweetheart; no violet like 'em. Pilia. Foh! methinks they stink like a hollyhock. Bar. (aside). So, now I am revenged upon 'em all. The scent thereof was death; I poisoned it. Itha. Play, fiddler, or I'll cut your cat's guts into chitterlings. Bar. Pardonnez-moi, be no in tune yet; so now, now all be in. 50 Itha. Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine. gold! Pilia. Methinks he fingers very well. Bar. (aside). So did you when you stole my gold. Pilia. How swift he runs! [Plays. Bar. (aside). You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window. Bell. Musician, hast been in Malta long? Bar. Two, three, four month, madame. Itha. Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas? Bar. Very mush; monsieur, you no be his man? Pilia. His man? Itha. I scorn the peasant; tell him so. Bar. (aside). He knows it already. 60 Itha. 'Tis a strange thing of that Jew, he lives upon pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms. Bar. (aside). What a slave's this? the governor feeds not as I do. Itha. He never put on clean shirt since he was circumcised. Bar. (aside). O rascal! I change myself twice a day. 71 Itha. The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder1 when he hanged himself. Bar. (aside). 'Twas sent me as a present from the great Cham. Pilia. A musty slave he is; Whither now, fiddler? Bar. Pardonnez-moi, monsieur, me be no well. Pilia. Farewell, fiddler ! (Exit BARABAS.) One letter more to the Jew. 80 Bell. Prythee, sweet love, one more, and write it sharp. Itha. No, I'll send by word of mouth now - Bid him deliver thee a thousand crowns, by the same token, that the nuns loved rice, that Friar Barnardine slept in his own clothes; any of 'em will do it. Pilia. Let me alone to urge it, now I know the meaning. Itha. The meaning has a meaning. Come, let's in: To undo a Jew is charity, and not sin. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. The Council-house. Enter FERNEZE, Knights, MARTIN DEL BOSCO, and Officers. Fern. Now, gentlemen, betake you to your arms, And see that Malta be well fortified; And it behooves you to be resolute; For Calymath, having hovered here so long, Will win the town, or die before the walls. 1st Knight. And die he shall, for we will never yield. 1 Judas is said to have hanged himself on an elder-tree. When at Jerusalem in 1887, I saw in the field of Aceldama a blighted fig-tree, not above fifty years old, on which the natives say Judas hanged himself. |