ACT III.

Enter BELLAMIRA †.

BELL. Since this town was besieg'd, my gain grows
cold:

The time has been, that but for one bare night
A hundred ducats have been freely given;
But now against my will I must be chaste:
And yet I know my beauty doth not fail.
From Venice merchants, and from Padua
Were wont to come rare-witted gentlemen,
Scholars I mean, learnèd and liberal;
And now, save Pilia-Borza, comes there none,
And he is very seldom from my house;

And here he comes.

Enter PILIA-BORZA.

PILIA. Hold thee, wench, there's something for

thee to spend.

[Shewing a bag of silver.

BELL. 'Tis silver; I disdain it.

PILIA. Ay, but the Jew has gold,

And I will have it, or it shall go hard.

BELL. Tell me, how cam'st thou by this?

PILIA. Faith, walking the back-lanes, through the gardens, I chanced to cast mine eye up to the

+ Enter Bellamira] She appears, we may suppose, in a veranda or open portico of her house (that the scene is not the interior of the house, is proved by what follows).

Jew's counting-house, where I saw some bags of money, and in the night I clambered up with my hooks; and, as I was taking my choice, I heard a rumbling in the house; so I took only this, and run my way. But here's the Jew's man.

BELL. Hide the bag.

Enter ITHAMORE.

PILIA. Look not towards him, let's away. Zoons, what a looking thou keepest! thou'lt betray's anon. [Exeunt Bellamira and Pilia-Borza.

ITHA. Oh, the sweetest face that ever I beheld! I know she is a courtezan by her attire: now would I give a hundred of the Jew's crowns that I had such a concubine.

Well, I have deliver'd the challenge in such sort, As meet they will, and fighting die,-brave sport! [Exit.

Enter MATHIAS.

MATH. This is the place*: now Abigail shall see Whether Mathias holds her dear or no.

Enter LODOWICK.

What, dares the villain write in such base terms?

[Looking at a letter.

LOD. I did it; and revenge it, if thou dar'st!

[They fight.

Enter Mathias.

Math. This is the place, &c.] The scene is some part of the

1

Enter BARABAS above.

BARA. Oh, bravely fought! and yet they thrust

not home.

Now, Lodovico*! now, Mathias !-So; [Both fall. So, now they have shew'd themselves to be tallt fellows.

town, as Barabas appears " above,"-in the balcony of a house. (He stood, of course, on what was termed the upper-stage.) Old ed. thus;

"Enter Mathias.

Math. This is the place, now Abigall shall see
Whether Mathias holds her deare or no.

Enter Lodow. reading.

Math. What, dares the villain write in such base terms?
Lod. I did it, and reuenge it if thou dar'st."

Mr. Collier (apud Dodsley's O. P.) remarks; "The challenge was from Lodowick to Mathias; Mathias ought therefore to enter reading, and the line,

What, dares the villain write in such base terms?'

is consistent with this regulation". At p. 285, indeed, Bara-
bas delivers to Ithamore a letter for Mathias-" a challenge
feign'd from Lodowick": but, according to Ithamore's account
in the next scene, p. 291, it appears that he carried a challenge
to both parties; "Why, the devil invented a challenge, my
master writ it, and I carried it, first to Lodowick, and im-
primis to Mathias."—I have deviated from the old copy only
in giving the stage-direction "reading” [“ Looking at a letter ”] ‹
to Mathias.

* Lodovico] Old ed. " Lodowicke."-See note, p. 279.
tstall] i. e. bold, brave.

BARA. Ay, part 'em now they are dead. Farewell,
farewell!
[Exit above.

Enter FERNEZE, KATHERINE, and Attendants.

FERN. What sight is this? my Lodovico slain ! These arms of mine shall be thy sepulchre +..

KATH. Who is this? my son Mathias slain !
FERN. Oh, Lodowick, hadst thou perish'd by the

Turk,

Wretched Ferneze might have 'veng'd thy death! KATH. Thy son slew mine, and I'll revenge his

death.

FERN. Look, Katherine, look! thy son gave mine these wounds.

KATH. Oh, leave to grieve me! I am griev'd enough.

FERN. Oh, that my sighs could turn to lively

breath,

And these my tears to blood, that he might live!
KATH. Who made them enemies?

FERN. I know not; and that grieves me most of all.

*Lodovico] Old ed. " Lodowicke ".-See note, p. 279.

These arms of mine shall be thy sepulchre] So in Shakespeare's Third Part of King Henry VI., act ii. sc. 5, the Father says to the dead son whom he had killed in battle,

"These arms of mine shall be thy winding-sheet;
My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre,"

lines, be it observed, which are not found in The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke.

KATH. My son lov'd thine.

FERN. And so did Lodowick him.

KATH. Lend me that weapon that did kill my son, And it shall murder me.

FERN. Nay, madam, stay; that weapon was my

son's,

And on that rather should Ferneze die.

KATH. Hold; let's inquire the causers of their
deaths,

That we may 'venge their blood upon their heads.
FERN. Then take them up, and let them be interr'd
Within one sacred monument of stone;
Upon which altar I will offer up

My daily sacrifice of sighs and tears,

And with my prayers pierce impartial Heavens,
Till they [reveal] the causers of our smarts,
Which forc'd their hands divide united hearts.
Come, Katherine*; our losses equal are;
Then of true grief let us take equal share.

[Exeunt with the bodies.

Enter ITHAMORE†.

ITHA. Why, was there ever seen such villany,
So neatly plotted, and so well perform'd?
Both held in hand †, and flatly both beguil❜d?

*Katherine] Old ed. " Katherina."

+ Enter Ithamore] The scene a room in the house of Barabas. held in hand] i. e. kept in expectation, having their hopes flattered.