Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

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. BAR. 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.

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

[Aside.

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,
But now I must be gone to buy a slave.

[Aside.

LOD. And, Barabas, I'll bear thee company.
BAR. Come then, here's the market place; what's

the price

Of this slave, two hundred crowns? Do the Turks weigh so much?

OFF. Sir, that's his price.

BAR. 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.

LOD. Ratest thou this Moor but at two hundred

plates?

1 OFF. No more, my lord.

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

OFF. Because he is young and has more qualities. BAR. What, hast the philosopher's stone? and thou hast,

Break my head with it, I'll forgive thee.

SLAVE. No sir, I can cut and shave.

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

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

BAR. A youth? I'll buy you, and marry you to Lady Vanity,

If you do well.

SLAVE. I will serve you, sir.

BAR. 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. Aye, passing well.

BAR. So much the worse; I must have one that's

sickly;

And 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.

1 OFF. Here's a leaner, how like you him? BAR. Where wast thou born?

ITHA. In Thrace; brought up in Arabia.

BAR. So much the better, thou art for my turn, An hundred crowns, I'll have him; there's the

coin.

1 OFF. Then mark him, sir, and take him hence. BAR. Aye, mark him, you were best, for this is he

That by my help shall do much villany.

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 his MOTHER.

MATH. What makes the Jew and Lodowick so private?

I fear me 'tis about fair Abigail.

BAR. 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.

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

son.

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

BAR. 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?

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

Abigail.

MOTH. Tell me, Mathias, is not that the Jew?

BAR. 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.

MOTH. 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.
BAR. Marry will I, sir.

[Exeunt.

OFF. Come, I have made a reasonable market,

let's away:

BAR. 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.

BAR. Hast thou no trade? then listen to my

words,

And I will teach thee that shall stick by thee:
First be thou void of these affections,

Compassion, love, vain hope, and heartless fear,
Be mov'd at nothing, see thou pity none,

But to thyself smile when the Christians moan.

ITHA. O brave master, I worship your nose for

this.*

BAR. As for myself, I walk abroad a nights
And kill sick people groaning under walls:
Sometimes I go about and poison wells;
And now and then, to cherish Christian thieves,
I am content to lose some of my crowns;
That I may, walking in my gallery,
See 'em go pinion'd along by my door.
Being young I studied physick, and began
To practise first upon the Italian ;

There I enrich'd the priests with burials,
And always kept the sexton's arms in use
With digging graves and ringing dead men's knells:
And after that was I an engineer,

And in the wars 'twixt France and Germany,
Under pretence of helping Charles the Fifth,
Slew friend and enemy with my stratagems.
Then after that was I an usurer,
And with extorting, cozening, forfeiting,
And tricks belonging unto brokery,
I fill'd the jails with bankrupts in a year,
And with young orphans planted hospitals,
And every moon made some or other mad,
And now and then one hung himself for grief,
Pinning upon his breast a long great scroll
How I with interest tormented him.

But mark how I am blest for plaguing them,

The Jew, it appears from Rowley's Search for Money, 1609, was represented on the stage with a large nose.

VOL. I.

15

« ZurückWeiter »