Itha. I, and such as-Go to, no more. send me half he has, and glad he scapes so too.

I'll make him

[Pen and ink.1

I'll write unto him; we'll have money straight.
Pilia. Send for a hundred crowns at least.

Itha. Ten hundred thousand crowns-Master Bara[Writing.

bas.

Pilia. Write not so submissively, but threatening him. Itha. Sirrah, Barabas, send me a hundred crowns. Pilia. Put in two hundred at least.

Itha. I charge thee send me three hundred by this bearer, and this shall be your warrant; if you do not, no more, but so.

82

Pilia. Tell him you will confess.

Itha. Otherwise I'll confess all—Vanish, and return in a twinkle.

Pilia. Let me alone; I'll use him in his kind. [Exit PILIA-BORSA.

Itha. Hang him, Jew.

Bell. Now, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.
Where are my maids? provide a running 2 banquet ;
Send to the merchant, bid him bring me silks,
Shall Ithamore, my love, go in such rags?

Itha. And bid the jeweller come hither too.
Bell. I have no husband, sweet; I'll marry thee.
Itha. Content, but we will leave this paltry land,

90

1 In old ed. these words are printed as part of the text. I have followed Dyce in printing them as a stage-direction.

2 So the old ed.-Dyce and Cunningham read "cunning; " but the expression "running banquet "(akin to our “hasty meal") occurs in Henry VIII. i. 4, l. 13.

And sail from hence to Greece, to lovely Greece.
I'll be thy Jason, thou my golden fleece;
Where painted carpets o'er the meads are hurled,
And Bacchus' vineyards overspread the world;
Where woods and forests go in goodly green,
I'll be Adonis, thou shalt be Love's Queen.
The meads, the orchards, and the primrose lanes,
Instead of sedge and reed, bear sugar-canes :
Thou in those groves, by Dis above,

Shalt live with me and be my love.

Bell. Whither will I not go with gentle Ithamore?

Enter PILIA-BORSA.

Itha. How now! hast thou the gold?

Pilia. Yes.

Itha. But came it freely? did the cow give down her milk freely?

100

Pilia. At reading of the letter, he stared and stamped and turned aside. I took him by the beard,1 and looked upon him thus; told him he were best to send it; then he hugged and embraced me.

113

Itha. Rather for fear than love.

Pilia. Then, like a Jew, he laughed and jeered, and told me he loved me for your sake, and said what a faithful servant you had been.

Itha. The more villain he to keep me thus; here's goodly 'parel, is there not?

1 So modern editors. Old ed. "steed."

120

Pilia. To conclude, he gave me ten crowns.
Itha. But ten? I'll not leave him worth a grey groat.

Give me a ream1 of paper; we'll have a kingdom of gold for 't.

Pilia. Write for five hundred crowns.

Itha. [Writing] Sirrah, Jew, as you love your life send me five hundred crowns, and give the bearer one hundred. Tell him I must have 't.

Pilia. I warrant your worship shall have 't.

Itha. And if he ask why I demand so much, tell him I scorn to write a line under a hundred crowns.

130

Pilia. You'd make a rich poet, sir. I am gone. [Exit. Itha. Take thou the money; spend it for my sake. Bell. 'Tis not thy money, but thyself I weigh: Thus Bellamira esteems of gold. [Throws it on the floor. But thus of thee. [Kisses him. Itha. That kiss again; she runs division 2 of my lips. What an eye she casts on me? It twinkles like a star.

Bell. Come, my dear love, let's in and sleep together. Itha. O, that ten thousand nights were put in one, that we might sleep seven years together afore we wake. Bell. Come, amorous wag, first banquet, and then sleep. [Exeunt. 141

SCENE V.

Enter 3 BARABAS, reading a letter.

Bar. "Barabas, send me three hundred crowns." Plain Barabas: O, that wicked courtesan !

1 Dyce observes that "realm" was often written "ream." Marlowe was not much addicted to quibbling.

2 A musical term.

3 Scene: a room in Barabas' house.

"2

He was not wont to call me Barabas.
"Or else I will confess : I, there it goes:
But if I get him, coupe de gorge, for that.
He sent a shaggy tottered 1 staring slave,
That when he speaks draws out his grisly beard,
And winds it twice or thrice about his ear;2
Whose face has been a grindstone for men's swords;
His hands are hacked, some fingers cut quite off;
Who, when he speaks, grunts like a hog, and looks
Like one that is employed in catzerie 3

And crossbiting,*—such a rogue

As is the husband to a hundred whores :

And I by him must send three hundred crowns!
Well, my hope is, he will not stay there still;
And when he comes: O, that he were but here!

Enter PILIA-BORSA.

Pilia. Jew, I must have more gold.

Bar. Why, want'st thou any of thy tale?

Pilia. No; but three hundred will not serve his turn. 20 Bar. Not serve his turn, sir?

"A lean-faced writhen knave,

Hawk-nosed and very hollow-eyed,

1 "Tottered" and "tattered" are used indifferently by old writers. 2 Cf. a somewhat similar description of a ruffian in Arden of Feversham:

With mighty furrows in his stormy brows;
Long hair down his shoulders curled ;

His chin was bare, but on his upper lip

A mutchado which he wound about his ear."

3 A word formed from "catso." 4 Swindling.

Pilia. No, sir; and, therefore, I must have five hundred more.

Bar. I'll rather

Pilia. O good words, sir, and send it you were best ; see, there's his letter. [Gives letter. Bar. Might he not as well come as send; pray bid him come and fetch it; what he writes for you, ye shall have straight.

Pilia. I, and the rest too, or else

Bar. I must make this villain away.

30

[Aside.

Please you dine with me, sir ;—and you shall be most heartily poisoned. [Aside. Pilia. No, God-a-mercy. Shall I have these crowns? Bar. I cannot do it, I have lost my keys. Pilia. O, if that be all, I can pick ope your locks.

Bar. Or climb up to my counting-house window : you know my meaning.

Pilia. I know enough, and therefore talk not to me of your counting-house. The gold, or know, Jew, it is in my power to hang thee.

41

Bar. I am betrayed.

[Aside.

'Tis not five hundred crowns that I esteem,
I am not moved at that: this angers me,
That he who knows I love him as myself,
Should write in this imperious vein. Why, sir,
You know I have no child, and unto whom
Should I leave all but unto Ithamore?

Pilia. Here's many words, but no

crowns!

crowns: the