Off with your girdle; make a handsome noose.[Ithamore takes off his girdle, and ties a noose on it.

Friar, awake*!

[They put the noose round the Friar's neck. FRIAR BARN. What, do you mean to strangle me? ITHA. Yes, 'cause you use to confess.

BARA. Blame not us, but the proverb,-Confess and be hanged.-Pull hard.

FRIAR BARN. What, will you have† my

life?

BARA. Pull hard, I say.—You would have had my

goods.

ITHA. Ay, and our lives too:-therefore pull amain. [They strangle the Friar. 'Tis neatly done, sir; here's no print at all. BARA. Then is it as it should be. Take him up. ITHA. Nay, master, be ruled by me a little. [Takes the body, sets it upright against the wall, and puts a staff in its hand.] So, let him lean upon his staff; excellent! he stands as if he were begging of bacon.

BARA. Who would not think but that this friar

liv'd?

What time o' night is't now, sweet Ithamore?

ITHA. Towards one.

BARA. Then will not Jacomo be long from hence.

[Exeunt.

* Friar, awake] Here, most probably, Barabas drew a curtain, and discovered the sleeping Friar.

Enter FRIAR JACOMO*.

FRIAR JAC. This is the hour wherein I shall proceed +;

Oh, happy hour, wherein I shall convert

An infidel, and bring his gold into our treasury!
But soft; is not this Barnardine? it is;

And, understanding I should come this way,
Stands here a' purpose, meaning me some wrong,
And intercept my going to the Jew.-

Barnardine!

Wilt thou not speak? thou think'st I see thee not;
Away, I'd wish thee, and let me go by:

No, wilt thou not? nay, then, I'll force my way;
And, see, a staff stands ready for the purpose.
As thou lik'st that, stop me another time!

[Takes the staff, and strikes down the body.

Enter BARABAS and ITHAMore.

BARA. Why, how now, Jacomo! what hast thou done?

FRIAR JAC. Why, stricken him that would have stroke at me.

* Enter Friar Jacomo] The scene is now before Barabas's house, the audience having had to suppose that the body of Barnardine, which Ithamore had set upright, was standing outside the door.

+ proceed] Seems to be used here as equivalent to-succeed. stroke] i. e. struck.

BARA. Who is it? Barnardine! now, out, alas, he

is slain !

ITHA. Ay, master, he's slain; look how his brains drop out on's nose.

FRIAR JAC. Good sirs, I have done't: but nobody knows it but you two; I may escape.

BARA. So might my man and I hang with you company.

ITHA. No; let us bear him to the magistrates.
FRIAR JAC. Good Barabas, let me go.

BARA. No, pardon me; the law must have his

course:

I must be forc'd to give in evidence,

That, being importun'd by this Barnardine
To be a Christian, I shut him out,

And there he sate: now I, to keep my word,

And give my goods and substance to your house,
Was up thus early, with intent to go

Unto your friary, because you stay'd.

for

ITHA. Fie upon 'em! master, will you turn Christian, when holy friars turn devils, and murder one another?

BARA. No; for this example I'll remain a Jew: Heaven bless me! what, a friar a murderer! When shall you see a Jew commit the like? ITHA. Why, a Turk could ha' done no more. BARA. To-morrow is the sessions; you shall to it.

*on's] i. e. of his.

Come, Ithamore, let's help to take him hence.
FRIAR JAC. Villains, I am a sacred person; touch

me not.

BARA. The law shall touch you; we'll but lead you,

we:

'Las, I could weep at your calamity !

Take in the staff too, for that must be shown:
Law wills that each particular be known. [Exeunt.

Enter BELLAMIRA* and PILIA-BORZA.

BELL. Pilia-Borza, didst thou meet with Ithamore?
PILIA. I did.

BELL. And didst thou deliver my letter?

PILIA. I did.

BELL. And what think'st thou ? will he come?

PILIA. I think so: and yet I cannot tell; for, at the reading of the letter, he looked like a man of another world.

BELL. Why so?

PILIA. That such a base slave as he should be saluted by such a tall† man as I am, from such a beautiful dame as you.

BELL. And what said he?

PILIA. Not a wise word; only gave me a nod, as who should say, is it even so? and so I left him,

* Enter Bellamira, &c.] The scene, as at p. 286, a veranda or open portico of Bellamira's house.

t tall] Which our early dramatists generally use in the sense of -- bold, brave (see note, p. 288), is here perhaps equivalent to-handsome. (" Tall or semely." Prompt. Parv. ed. 1499.)

being driven to a non-plus at the critical aspect of my terrible countenance.

BELL. And where didst meet him?

PILIA. Upon mine own free-hold, within forty foot of the gallows, conning his neck-verse*, I take it, looking of a friar's execution, whom I saluted with an old hempen proverb, Hodie tibi, cras mihi, and so I left him to the mercy of the hangman: but, the exercise being done, see where he comes.

Enter ITHAMORE.

ITHA. I never knew a man take his death so patiently as this friar; he was ready to leap off ere the halter was about his neck; and, when the hangman had put on his hempen tippet, he made such haste to his prayers, as if he had had another cure to serve. Well, go whither he will, I'll be none of his followers in haste: and, now I think on't, going to the execution, a fellow met me with a muschatoes §

neck-verse] i.e. the verse (generally the beginning of the 51st Psalm, Miserere mei, &c.) read by a criminal to entitle him to benefit of clergy.

t of] i. e. on.

exercise] i. e. sermon, preaching.

$ with a muschatoes] i.e. with a pair of mustachios. The modern editors print "with mustachios," and "with a mustachios" but compare,

66

:

My Tuskes more stiffe than are a Cats muschatoes."

S. Rowley's Noble Spanish Soldier, 1634, sig. C.

"His crow-black muchatoes."

The Black Book,-Middleton's Works, v. 516, ed. Dyce.