We will not jar about the price: come to my house, And I will give❜t your honour-with a vengeance.

LOD. No, Barabas, I will deserve it first.
BARA. Good sir,

[Aside.

Your father has deserv'd it at my hands,
Who, of mere charity and Christian ruth,
To bring me to religious purity,
And, as it were, in catechising sort,
To make me mindful of my mortal sins,
Against my will, and whether I would or no,
Seiz'd all I had, and thrust me out a-doors,
And made my house a place for nuns most chaste.
LOD. No doubt your soul shall reap the fruit of it.
BARA. Ay, but, my lord, the harvest is far off:
And yet I know the prayers of those nuns
And holy friars, having money for their pains,
Are wondrous;-and indeed do no man good ;-
[Aside.

And, seeing they are not idle, but still doing,
'Tis likely they in time may reap some fruit,
I mean, in fulness of perfection.

LOD. Good Barabas, glance not at our holy nuns. BARA. No, but I do it through a burning zeal,Hoping ere long to set the house a-fire;

For, though they do a while increase and multiply, I'll have a saying to that nunnery.*

[Aside.

*I'll have a saying to that nunnery] Compare Barnaby

VOL. I.

As for the diamond, sir, I told you of,

Come home, and there's no price shall make us part, Even for your honourable father's sake,

It shall go hard but I will see your death.- [Aside. But now I must be gone to buy a slave.

LOD. And, Barabas, I'll bear thee company.

BARA. Come, then; here's the market-place.What's the price of this slave? two hundred crowns! do the Turks weigh so much?

FIRST OFF. Sir, that's his price.

BARA. What, can he steal, that you demand so much?

Belike he has some new trick for a purse;

And if he has, he is worth three hundred plates,* So that, being bought, the town-seal might be got To keep him for his life-time from the gallows : The sessions-day is critical to thieves,

And few or none scape but by being purg'd.

Barnes's Divils Charter, 1607;

"Before I do this seruice, lie there, peece;

For I must have a saying to those bottels. He drinketh.
True stingo; stingo, by mine honour.

*

I must have a saying to you, sir, I must, though you be prouided for his Holines owne mouth; I will be bould to be the Popes taster by his leaue." Sig. K 3.

* plates] "i. e. pieces of silver money." Dodsley's O. P.).—Old ed. “ plats."

STEEVENS (apud

LOD. Rat'st thou this Moor but at two hundred

plates?

FIRST OFF. No more, my lord.

BARA. Why should this Turk be dearer than that Moor?

FIRST OFF. Because he is young, and has more qualities.

BARA. What, hast the philosopher's stone? an thou hast, break my head with it, I'll forgive thee. SLAVE*. No, sir; I can cut and shave.

BARA. Let me see, sirrah; are you not an old shaver?

SLAVE. Alas, sir, I am a very youth!

BARA. A youth! I'll buy you, and marry you to Lady Vanity+, if you do well.

SLAVE. I will serve you, sir.

BARA. Some wicked trick or other: it may be, under colour of shaving, thou'lt cut my throat for my goods. Tell me, hast thou thy health well?

SLAVE. Ay, passing well.

BARA. So much the worse: I must have one that's sickly, an't be but for sparing victuals: 'tis not a stone of beef a-day will maintain you in these chops. -Let me see one that's somewhat leaner.

FIRST OFF. Here's a leaner; how like you him? BARA. Where was thou born?

* Slave] To the speeches of this Slave, the old ed. prefixes "Itha." and " Ith.", confounding him with Ithamore.

Lady Vanity] An allusion to the character so named in some of the early Moralities or Moral-Plays.

ITHA. In Thrace; brought up in Arabia. BARA. So much the better; thou art for my turn. An hundred crowns? I'll have him; there's the coin. [Gives money.

FIRST OFF. Then mark him, sir, and take him hence.

BARA. Ay, mark him, you were best; for this is he That by my help shall do much villany. [Aside. My lord, farewell.-Come, sirrah; you are mine.— As for the diamond, it shall be yours:

I pray, sir, be no stranger at my house;
All that I have shall be at your command.

Enter MATHIAS and KATHERINE*.

MATH. What makes the Jew and Lodowick so

private?

I fear me 'tis about fair Abigail.

[Aside.

BARA. Yonder comes Don Mathias; let us stay+: He loves my daughter, and she holds him dear; But I have sworn to frustrate both their hopes, And be reveng'd upon the-governor.

[Aside. [Exit Lodowick.

KATH. This Moor is comeliest, is he not? speak,

sou.

MATH. No, this is the better, mother, view this

well.

*Katherine] Old ed. " Mater.”—The name of Mathias's mother was, as we afterwards learn, Katherine.

+ stay] i. e. forbear, break off our conversation.

BARA. Seem not to know me here before your

mother,

Lest she mistrust the match that is in hand:

When you have brought her home, come to my house; Think of me as thy father: son, farewell.

MATH. But wherefore talk'd Don Lodowick with

you?

BARA. Tush, man! we talk'd of diamonds, not of
Abigail.

KATH. Tell me, Mathias, is not that the Jew?
BARA. As for the comment on the Maccabees,

I have it, sir, and 'tis at your command.

MATH. Yes, madam, and my talk with him was About the borrowing of a book or two.

KATH. Converse not with him; he is cast off from Heaven.

Thou hast thy crowns, fellow.-Come, let's away. MATH. Sirrah Jew, remember the book.

BARA. Marry, will I, sir.

[Exeunt Katherine and Mathias. FIRST OFF. Come, I have made a reasonable mar

ket; let's away. [Exeunt Officers with Slaves.

BARA. Now let me know thy name, and therewithal Thy birth, condition, and profession.

ITHA. Faith, sir, my birth is but mean; my name's Ithamore; my profession what you please.

BARA. Hast thou no trade? then listen to my words, And I will teach [thee] that shall stick by thee: