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. O, that I should part with so much gold! Here, take 'em, fellow, with as good a will 50 [Aside. As I would see thee hang'd [Aside]; O, love stops my breath: Never loved man servant 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. 60 [Exit. 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, Three hundred crowns,—and then five hundred crowns! Well, I must seek a means to rid 'em all, And presently; for in his villainy He will tell all he knows, and I shall die for it. I have it : I will in some disguise go see the slave, And how the villain revels with my gold. SCENE VI. 70 [Exit. Enter1 BELLAMIRA, ITHAMORE, and PILIA-BORSA. Bell. I'll pledge thee, love, and therefore drink it off. 1 Scene: the balcony of Bellamira's house. Itha. Say'st thou me so? have at it; and do you hear? Bell. Go to, it shall be so. Itha. Of 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. Itha. Three and fifty dozen, I'll pledge thee. 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. 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. Itha. I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns; and he and I, snickle hand too fast,3 strangled a friar. 1 Old ed. Pil. 20 2 The origin of this boisterous exclamation is uncertain. Gifford suggested that it was corrupted from the Spanish rio, which is figuratively used for a large quantity of liquor." Dyce quotes from the anonymous comedy, Look about you: "And Ryvo will he cry and Castile too." 3 A corrupt passage. "Snickle" is a North-country word for "noose." Cunningham proposed “snickle hard and fast." Bell. You two alone! Itha. We two, and 'twas never known, nor never shall be for me. Pilia. This shall with me unto the Governor. [Aside to BELLAmira. Bell. And fit it should: but first let's ha' more gold. Come, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap. [Aside. Itha. Love me little, love me long; let music rumble Whilst I in thy incony 1 lap do tumble. Enter BARABAS, with a lute, disguised. Bell. A French musician; come, let's hear your skill? Bar. Must tuna my lute for sound, twang, twang first. 31 Itha. Wilt drink, Frenchman? here's to thee with a- -Pox on this drunken hiccup! the Bar. Gramercy, monsieur. Bell. Prythee, Pilia-Borsa, bid the fiddler give me posy in his hat there. Pilia. Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy. Bell. How sweet, my Ithamore, the flowers smell. 1 Old ed. "incoomy." The word "incony" (which is found in Love's Labour's Lost, &c.) means "delicate, dainty." It has been doubtfully derived from the North-country “canny” or “conny" (in the sense of pretty), the prefix "in " having an intensive force. Bar. So, now I am revenged upon 'em all. The scent thereof was death; I poisoned it. [Aside. 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. Itha. Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine. Pilia. There's two crowns for thee, play. Bar. How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold. Pilia. Methinks he fingers very well. Bar. So did you when you stole my gold. [Aside. 51 [Aside. Bar. You ran swifter when you threw my gold out of my window. Bell. Musician, hast been in Malta long? Bar. Two, three, four month, madam. Itha. Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas? [Aside. Bar. Very mush; monsieur, you no be his man? 60 Itha. I scorn the peasant; tell him so. Bar. He knows it already. [Aside. Itha. 'Tis a strange thing of that Jew, he lives upon pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms. Bar. What a slave's this? the Governor feeds not as I do. [Aside. Itha. He never put on clean shirt since he was circumcised. Bar. O rascal! I change myself twice a day. 70 [Aside. Itha. The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder1 when he hanged himself. Bar. 'Twas sent me for a present from the great Cham. [Aside. Pilia. A musty 2 slave he is; whither now, fiddler? Bar. Pardonnez moi, monsieur, me 3 be no well. [Exit. Pilia. Farewell, fiddler : one letter more to the Jew. 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. 81 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. 1 Dyce quotes from Sir John Mandeville:-" And fast by is zit the tree of Eldre that Judas henge him self upon for despeyt that he hadde when he solde and betrayed our Lorde."- Voiage and Travell, &c., p. 112, ed. 1725. "That Judas hanged himself," says Sir Thomas Browne, "much more that he perished thereby, we shall not raise a doubt. Although Jansenius, discoursing the point, produceth the testimony of Theophylact and Euthymius that he died not by the gallows but under a cart-wheel; and Baronius also delivereth, this was the opinion of the Greeks and derived as high as Papias one of the disciples of John. Although, also, how hardly the expression of Matthew is reconcileable unto that of Peter, and that he plainly hanged himself, with that, that falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst-with many other the learned Grotius plainly doth acknowledge."-Vulgar Errors, vii. II. 2 Old ed. "masty." Dyce "nasty." 3 Old ed. "we." |