What wind drives you thus into Malta-road?

Bas. The wind that bloweth all the world besides,

Desire of gold.

Fern. Desire of gold, great sir!

That's to be gotten in the Western Inde:

In Malta are no golden minerals.

Bas. To you of Malta thus saith Calymath :

The time you took for respite is at hand

For the performance of your promise past;
And for the tribute-money I am sent.

Fern. Basso, in brief, shalt have no tribute here,
Nor shall the heathens live upon our spoil:
First will we raze the city-walls ourselves,
Lay waste the island, hew the temples down,
And, shipping off our goods to Sicily,
Open an entrance for the wasteful sea,

Whose billows, beating the resistless banks⁕,
Shall overflow it with their refluence.

Bas. Well, governor, since thou hast broke the
league

By flat denial of the promis'd tribute,

Talk not of razing down your city-walls;
You shall not need trouble yourselves so far,
For Selim Calymath shall come himself,
And with brass bullets batter down your towers,
And turn proud Malta to a wilderness,

For these intolerable wrongs of

And so, farewell.

Fern. Farewell.

yours:

[Exit Basso.

*the resistless banks] i. e. the banks not able to resist.

And now, you men of Malta, look about,
And let's provide to welcome Calymath :
Close your port-cullis, charge your basilisks⁕,
And, as you profitably take up arms,
So now courageously encounter them,
For by this answer broken is the league,
And nought is to be look'd for now but wars,
And nought to us more welcome is than wars.

[Exeunt.

Enter FRIAR JACOMO† and FRIAR BARNARDIne. FRIAR JAC. Oh, brother, brother, all the nuns are sick,

And physic will not help them! they must die. Friar Barn. The abbess sent for me to be confess'd:

Oh, what a sad confession will there be!

Friar Jac. And so did fair Maria send for me: I'll to her lodging; hereabouts she lies.

Enter ABIGAIL.

[Exit.

FRIAR BARN. What, all dead, save only Abigail! Abig. And I shall die too, for I feel death coming. Where is the friar that convers'd with me‡?

Friar Barn. Oh, he is gone to see the other nuns.
Abig. I sent for him; but, seeing you are come,

* basilisks] See note, p. 72.

+ Enter Friar Jacomo, &c.] Scene, the interior of the Nunnery.

convers'd with me] She alludes to her conversation with Jacomo, p. 293.

Be you my ghostly father: and first know,
That in this house I liv'd religiously,

Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins;
But, ere I came—

Friar Barn. What then?

Abig. I did offend high Heaven so grievously, As I am almost desperate for my sins;

And one offence torments me more than all.
You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick?

Friar Barn. Yes; what of them?

Abig. My father did contract me to 'em both; First to Don Lodowick him I never lov'd; Mathias was the man that I held dear, And for his sake did I become a nun.

Friar Barn. So: say how was their end?

Abig. Both, jealous of my love, envied⁕ each other; And by my father's practice +, which is there

[Gives writing.

Set down at large, the gallants were both slain.

Friar Barn. Oh, monstrous villany!

Abig. To work my peace, this I confess to thee: Reveal it not; for then my father dies.

Friar Barn. Know that confession must not be

reveal'd;

The canon-law forbids it, and the priest

That makes it known, being degraded first,
Shall be condemn'd, and then sent to the fire.

envied] i.e. hated.

+ practice] i. e. artful contrivance, stratagem.

ABIG. So I have heard; pray, therefore, keep it

close.

Death seizeth on my heart: ah, gentle friar,
Convert my father that he may be sav'd,

And witness that I die a Christian!

[Dies.

Friar Barn. Ay, and a virgin too; that grieves

me most.

But I must to the Jew, and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.

Re-enter FRIAR JACOMO.

FRIAR JAC. Oh, brother, all the nuns are dead! let's bury them.

Friar Barn. First help to bury this; then go

with me,

And help me to exclaim against the Jew.

Friar Jac. Why, what has he done?

Friar Barn. A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.

Friar Jac. What, has he crucified a child⁕? Friar Barn. No, but a worse thing: 'twas told

me in shrift;

Thou know'st 'tis death, an if it be reveal'd.

Come, let's away.

[Exeunt.

crucified a child] A crime with which the Jews were often charged. "Tovey, in his Anglia Judaica, has given the several instances which are upon record, of these charges against the Jews; which he observes they were never accused of, but at such times as the king was manifestly in great want of money." Reed (apud Dodsley's O. P.).

ACT IV.

Enter Barabas⁕ and Ithamore.

Bells within.

Bara. There is no music to + a Christian's knell: How sweet the bells ring, now the nuns are dead, That sound at other times like tinkers' pans !

I was afraid the poison had not wrought,

Or, though it wrought, it would have done no good,
For every year they swell, and yet they live:
Now all are dead, not one remains alive.

Itha. That's brave, master: but think you it will not be known?

Bara. How can it, if we two be secret?
Itha. For my part, fear you not.

Bara. I'd cut thy throat, if I did.

Itha. And reason too:

But here's a royal monastery hard by;

Good master, let me poison all the monks.

Bara. Thou shalt not need; for, now the nuns

are dead,

They'll die with grief.

Itha. Do you not sorrow for your daughter's death?

Bara. No, but I grieve because she liv'd so long,

Enter Barabas, &c.] Scene a street.

+ to] Which the Editor of 1826 deliberately altered to "like," means

compared to, in comparison of.