Enter BARABAS [and] ITHAMORE. Bells within.
BARABAS
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.
ITHAMORE That’s brave, master. But think you it will not be
known?
10 BARABAS How can it, if we two be secret?
ITHAMORE For my part fear you not.
BARABAS I’d cut thy throat if I did.
ITHAMORE
And reason, too.
But here’s a royal monast’ry hard by;
Good master, let me poison all the monks.
BARABAS
Thou shalt not need, for, now the nuns are dead,
They’ll die with grief.
ITHAMORE Do you not sorrow for your daughter’s death?
BARABAS
No, but I grieve because she lived so long.
An Hebrew born, and would become a Christian!
20
Enter the two FRIARS [JACOMO and BARNARDINE].
ITHAMORE Look, look, master, here come two religious caterpillars.
BARABAS I smelt ’em ere they came.
ITHAMORE God-a-mercy, nose! Come, let’s be gone.
FRIAR BARNARDINE
Stay, wicked Jew! Repent, I say, and stay.
FRIAR JACOMO
Thou hast offended, therefore must be damned.
BARABAS [aside to ITHAMORE]
I fear they know we sent the poisoned broth.
ITHAMORE [aside to BARABAS]
And so do I, master. Therefore speak ’em fair.
30 FRIAR BARNARDINE Barabas, thou hast –
FRIAR JACOMO Ay, that thou hast –
BARABAS True, I have money. What though I have?
FRIAR BARNARDINE Thou art a –
FRIAR JACOMO Ay, that thou art, a –
BARABAS What needs all this? I know I am a Jew.
FRIAR BARNARDINE Thy daughter –
FRIAR JACOMO Ay, thy daughter –
BARABAS O, speak not of her; then I die with grief.
FRIAR BARNARDINE Remember that –
40 FRIAR JACOMO Ay, remember that –
BARABAS I must needs say that I have been a great usurer.
FRIAR BARNARDINE Thou hast committed –
BARABAS Fornication? But that was in another country; and besides, the wench is dead.
FRIAR BARNARDINE Ay, but Barabas, remember Mathias and Don Lodowick.
BARABAS Why, what of them?
FRIAR BARNARDINE I will not say that by a forged challenge they met.
BARABAS (aside [to ITHAMORE])
50 She has confessed, and we are both undone,
My bosom inmate!
But I must dissemble. [To them]
O holy friars, the burden of my sins
Lie heavy on my soul. Then pray you tell me,
Is’t not too late now to turn Christian?
I have been zealous in the Jewish faith,
Hard-hearted to the poor, a covetous wretch,
That would for lucre’s sake have sold my soul.
A hundred for a hundred I have ta’en,
And now for store of wealth may I compare
60 With all the Jews in Malta. But what is wealth?
I am a Jew, and therefore am I lost.
Would penance serve for this my sin,
I could afford to whip myself to death –
ITHAMORE [aside]
And so could I; but penance will not serve.
BARABAS
To fast, to pray, and wear a shirt of hair,
And on my knees creep to Jerusalem.
Cellars of wine and sollars full of wheat,
Warehouses stuffed with spices and with drugs,
Whole chests of gold, in bullion and in coin,
70 Besides I know not how much weight in pearl,
Orient and round, have I within my house;
At Alexandria, merchandise unsold.
But yesterday two ships went from this town,
Their voyage will be worth ten thousand crowns.
In Florence, Venice, Antwerp, London, Seville,
Frankfurt, Lubeck, Moscow, and where not,
Have I debts owing; and in most of these,
Great sums of money lying in the banco.
All this I’ll give to some religious house,
80 So I may be baptized and live therein.
FRIAR JACOMO
O good Barabas, come to our house!
FRIAR BARNARDINE
O no, good Barabas, come to our house!
And Barabas, you know –
BARABAS
I know that I have highly sinned.
You shall convert me; you shall have all my wealth.
O, Barabas, their laws are strict.
BARABAS
I know they are, and I will be with you.
FRIAR JACOMO
They wear no shirts, and they go barefoot too.
BARABAS
Then ’tis not for me; and I am resolved
90 You shall confess me and have all my goods.
FRIAR BARNARDINE
Good Barabas, come to me.
BARABAS
You see I answer him, and yet he stays.
Rid him away, and go you home with me.
FRIAR JACOMO
I’ll be with you tonight.
BARABAS
Come to my house at one o’clock this night.
FRIAR JACOMO
You hear your answer, and you may be gone.
FRIAR BARNARDINE Why, go get you away.
FRIAR JACOMOI will not go for thee.
FRIAR BARNARDINE Not? Then I’ll make thee, rogue.
100 FRIAR JACOMO How, dost call me rogue?
[The FRIARS] fight.
ITHAMORE Part ’em, master, part ’em.
BARABAS
This is mere frailty. Brethren, be content.
Friar Barnardine, go you with Ithamore.
[Aside to FRIAR BARNARDINE]
You know my mind, let me alone with him.
FRIAR JACOMO
Why does he go to thy house? Let him be gone.
BARABAS [aside to FRIAR JACOMO]
I’ll give him something, and so stop his mouth.
Exit [ITHAMORE with FRIAR BARNARDINE].
I never heard of any man but he
Maligned the order of the Jacobins.
But do you think that I believe his words?
110 Why, brother, you converted Abigall,
And I am bound in charity to requite it,
And so I will. O Jacomo, fail not, but come.
FRIAR JACOMO
But, Barabas, who shall be your godfathers?
For presently you shall be shrived.
BARABAS
Marry, the Turk shall be one of my godfathers.
But not a word to any of your convent.
FRIAR JACOMO
I warrant thee, Barabas.
Exit [FRIAR JACOMO].
BARABAS
So, now the fear is past, and I am safe,
For he that shrived her is within my house.
120 What if I murdered him ere Jacomo comes?
Now I have such a plot for both their lives,
As never Jew nor Christian knew the like.
One turned my daughter, therefore he shall die;
The other knows enough to have my life,
Therefore ’tis not requisite he should live.
But are not both these wise men to suppose
That I will leave my house, my goods, and all,
To fast and be well whipped? I’ll none of that.
Now, Friar Barnardine, I come to you.
130 I’ll feast you, lodge you, give you fair words,
And after that, I and my trusty Turk –
No more but so. It must and shall be done.
Enter ITHAMORE.
Ithamore, tell me, is the friar asleep?
ITHAMORE
Yes, and I know not what the reason is,
Do what I can, he will not strip himself,
Nor go to bed, but sleeps in his own clothes.
I fear me he mistrusts what we intend.
BARABAS
No, ’tis an order which the friars use.
Yet if he knew our meanings, could he ’scape?
ITHAMORE
140 No, none can hear him, cry he ne’er so loud.
BARABAS
Why, true. Therefore did I place him there.
The other chambers open towards the street.
ITHAMORE
You loiter, master. Wherefore stay we thus?
O, how I long to see him shake his heels!
[FRIAR BARNARDINE is discovered asleep.]
BARABAS
Come on, sirrah,
Off with your girdle, make a handsome noose.
[They secure the FRIAR’S belt around his neck.]
Friar, awake!
FRIAR BARNARDINE
What, do you mean to strangle me?
ITHAMORE
Yes, ’cause you use to confess.
BARABAS
150 Blame not us but the proverb, ‘Confess and be hanged.’
Pull hard!
FRIAR BARNARDINE
What, will you have my life?
BARABAS
Pull hard, I say! You would have had my goods.
ITHAMORE
Ay, and our lives too. Therefore, pull amain.
[They strangle him.]
’Tis neatly done, sir. Here’s no print at all.
BARABAS
Then is it as it should be. Take him up.
ITHAMORE Nay, master, be ruled by me a little. So, let him lean upon his staff.
[He props up the body.]
Excellent! He stands as if he were begging of bacon.
BARABAS
160 Who would not think but that this friar lived?
What time o’ night is’t now, sweet Ithamore?
ITHAMORE
Towards one.
BARABAS
Then will not Jacomo be long from hence.
[They hide themselves.]
Enter [FRIAR] JACOMO.
FRIAR JACOMO
This is the hour
Wherein I shall proceed. O 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,
170 Stands here o’ 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.
[FRIAR JACOMO seizes FRIAR BARNARDINE’S staff and]
strike[s] him; [BARNARDINE] falls. Enter BARABAS [and ITHAMORE from hiding].
BARABAS
Why, how now, Jacomo, what hast thou done?
FRIAR JACOMO
Why, stricken him that would have struck at me.
BARABAS Who is it? Barnadine? Now out, alas, he is slain!
180
ITHAMORE Ay, master, he’s slain. Look how his brains drop out on’s nose.
FRIAR JACOMO Good sirs, I have done’t, but nobody knows it but you two, I may escape.
BARABAS So might my man and I hang with you for company.
ITHAMORE
No, let us bear him to the magistrates.
[They seize FRIAR JACOMO.]
Good Barabas, let me go.
BARABAS
No, pardon me, the law must have his course.
I must be forced to give in evidence
190 That, being importuned by this Barnardine
To be a Christian, I shut him out,
And there he sat. 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 stayed.
ITHAMORE
Fie upon ’em, master, will you turn Christian,
When holy friars turn devils and murder one another?
BARABAS
No, for this example I’ll remain a Jew.
Heaven bless me! What, a friar a murderer?
200 When shall you see a Jew commit the like?
ITHAMORE
Why, a Turk could ha’ done no more.
BARABAS
Tomorrow is the sessions; you shall to it.
Come, Ithamore, let’s help to take him hence.
FRIAR JACOMO
Villains, I am a sacred person, touch me not.
BARABAS
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 the] Courtesan and PILIA-BORZA.
BELLAMIRA Pilia-Borza, didst thou meet with Ithamore?
PILIA-BORZA I did.
BELLAMIRA And didst thou deliver my letter?
PILIA-BORZA I did.
BELLAMIRAA nd what think’st thou, will he come?
PILIA-BORZA I think so, and yet I cannot tell, for at the reading of the letter he looked like a man of another world.
BELLAMIRA Why so?
PILIA-BORZA 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.
10
BELLAMIRA And what said he?
PILIA-BORZA Not a wise word, only gave me a nod, as who should say, ‘Is it even so?’ And so I left him, being driven to a nonplus at the critical aspect of my terrible countenance.
BELLAMIRA And where didst meet him?
PILIA-BORZA Upon mine own freehold, 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
20
Enter ITHAMORE.
ITHAMORE 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 like a raven’s
wing and a dagger with a hilt like a warming-pan, and he
gave me a letter from one Madam Bellamira, saluting me in
such sort as if he had meant to make clean my boots with his
30
lips; the effect was that I should come to her house. I wonder
what the reason is. It may be she sees more in me than I can
find in myself, for she writes further that she loves me ever
since she saw me, and who would not requite such love?
Here’s her house, and here she comes, and now would I were
gone. I am not worthy to look upon her.
PILIA-BORZA This is the gentleman you writ to.
ITHAMORE [aside] ‘Gentleman’! He flouts me. What gentry can be in a poor Turk of tenpence? I’ll be gone.
40 BELLAMIRA Is’t not a sweet-faced youth, Pilia?
ITHAMORE [aside] Again, ‘sweet youth’! [To PILIA-BORZA] Did not you, sir, bring the sweet youth a letter?
PILIA-BORZA I did, sir, and from this gentlewoman, who, as myself and the rest of the family, stand or fall at your service.
BELLAMIRA
Though woman’s modesty should hale me back,
I can withhold no longer. Welcome, sweet love.
[She kisses him.]
ITHAMORE [aside] Now am I clean, or rather foully, out of the way.
[He starts to leave.]
BELLAMIRA Whither so soon?
50 ITHAMORE [aside] I’ll go steal some money from my master, to make me handsome. [Aloud] Pray pardon me, I must go see a ship discharged.
BELLAMIRA Canst thou be so unkind to leave me thus?
PILIA-BORZA An ye did but know how she loves you, sir!
ITHAMORE Nay, I care not how much she loves me. Sweet
Bellamira, would I had my master’s wealth for thy sake.
PILIA-BORZA And you can have it, sir, an if you please.
ITHAMORE If ’twere above ground I could and would have it,
but he hides and buries it up as partridges do their eggs, under
60
the earth.
PILIA-BORZA And is’t not possible to find it out?
ITHAMORE By no means possible.
BELLAMIRA [aside to PILIA-BORZA]
What shall we do with this base villain, then?
PILIA-BORZA [aside to BELLAMIRA]
Let me alone, do but you speak him fair.
[To ITHAMORE]
But you know some secrets of the Jew,
Which if they were revealed would do him harm.
ITHAMORE Ay, and such as - Go to, no more, I’ll make him send me half he has, and glad he ’scapes so too. Pen and ink!
I’ll write unto him; we’ll have money straight.
PILIA-BORZA [giving pen and ink] Send for a hundred crowns
70
at least.
ITHAMORE Ten hundred thousand crowns. (He writes) ‘Master Barabas – ’
PILIA-BORZA Write not so submissively, but threat’ning him.
ITHAMORE ‘Sirrah Barabas, send me a hundred crowns.’
PILIA-BORZA Put in two hundred at least.
ITHAMORE ’I charge thee send me three hundred by this bearer, and this shall be your warrant. If you do not, no more but so.’
PILIA-BORZA Tell him you will confess.
80 ITHAMORE ‘Otherwise I’ll confess all.’ Vanish, and return in a twinkle.
PILIA-BORZA Let me alone. I’ll use him in his kind.
[Exit PILIA-BORZA.]
ITHAMORE Hang him, Jew!
BELLAMIRA
Now, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.
Where are my maids? Provide a running banquet;
Send to the merchant, bid him bring me silks.
Shall Ithamore my love go in such rags?
ITHAMORE
And bid the jeweller come hither too.
BELLAMIRA
I have no husband, sweet, I’ll marry thee.
90 ITHAMORE
Content, but we will leave this paltry land,
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.
100 Thou in those groves, by Dis above,
Shalt live with me and be my love.
BELLAMIRA
Whither will I not go with gentle Ithamore?
Enter PILIA-BORZA [with a moneybag].
ITHAMORE How now? Hast thou the gold?
PILIA-BORZA Yes.
ITHAMORE But came it freely? Did the cow give down her milk freely?
PILIA-BORZA At reading of the letter, he stared and stamped,
and turned aside. I took him by the beard and looked upon
him thus, told him he were best to send it, then he hugged
110
and embraced me.
ITHAMORE Rather for fear than love.
PILIA-BORZA 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.
ITHAMORE The more villain he to keep me thus. Here’s goodly ’parel, is there not?
PILIA-BORZA To conclude, he gave me ten crowns.
ITHAMORE But ten? I’ll not leave him worth a grey groat. Give me a ream of paper. We’ll have a kingdom of gold for’t.
120 PILIA-BORZA [providing paper] Write for five hundred crowns.
ITHAMORE [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-BORZA I warrant your worship shall have’t.
ITHAMORE And if he ask why I demand so much, tell him I scorn to write a line under a hundred crowns.
PILIA-BORZA You’d make a rich poet, sir. I am gone.
Exit [PILIA-BORZA].
ITHAMORE
Take thou the money. Spend it for my sake.
BELLAMIRA
130 ’Tis not thy money but thyself I weigh.
Thus Bellamira esteems of gold;
But thus of thee.
[She] kiss [es] him.
ITHAMORE [aside] That kiss again! She runs division of my lips.
What an eye she casts on me! It twinkles like a star.
BELLAMIRA
Come, my dear love, let’s in and sleep together.
ITHAMORE O, that ten thousand nights were put in one, that we might sleep seven years together afore we wake!
BELLAMIRA
Come, amorous wag, first banquet and then sleep.
[Exeunt.]
Enter BARABAS, reading a letter.
BARABAS
‘Barabas, send me three hundred crowns.’
Plain ‘Barabas’? O, that wicked courtesan!
He was not wont to call me ‘Barabas’.
‘Or else I will confess.’ Ay, there it goes.
But if I get him, coupe de gorge for that.
He sent a shaggy, tottered, staring slave
That, when he speaks, draws out his grisly beard
And winds it twice or thrice about his ear;
Whose face has been a grindstone for men’s swords,
10 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
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-BORZA.
PILIA-BORZA Jew, I must ha’ more gold.
BARABAS Why, want’st thou any of thy tale?
20 PILIA-BORZA No; but three hundred will not serve his turn.
BARABAS Not serve his turn, sir?
PILIA-BORZA No, sir, and therefore I must have five hundred more.
BARABAS I’ll rather –
PILIA-BORZA O, good words, sir, and send it, you were best; see, there’s his letter.
[He presents ITHAMORE’S second letter.]
BARABAS Might he not as well come as send? Pray bid him come and fetch it; what he writes for you, ye shall have straight.
30 PILIA-BORZA Ay, and the rest too, or else –
BARABAS [aside] I must make this villain away. [To him]Please you dine with me, sir, (aside) and you shall be most heartily poisoned.
PILIA-BORZA No, God-a-mercy. Shall I have these crowns?
BARABAS I cannot do it, I have lost my keys.
PILIA-BORZA O, if that be all, I can pick ope your locks.
BARABAS Or climb up to my counting-house window? You know my meaning.
PILIA-BORZA I know enough, and therefore talk not to me of
40
your counting-house. The gold! – or know, Jew, it is in my
power to hang thee.
BARABAS [aside]I am betrayed.
[To him]
’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-BORZA Here’s many words but no crowns. The crowns!
BARABAS
50 Commend me to him, sir, most humbly,
And unto your good mistress as unknown.
PILIA-BORZA Speak, shall I have ’em, sir?
BARABAS Sir, here they are. [He gives money.]
[Aside] O, that I should part with so much gold!
[To him] Here, take ’em, fellow, with as good a will –
[Aside] As I would see thee hanged.
[To him] O, love stops my breath.
Never loved man servant as I do Ithamore.
PILIA-BORZA I know it, sir.
BARABAS
Pray, when, sir, shall I see you at my house?
PILIA-BORZA Soon enough, to your cost, sir. Fare you well.
60
Exit [PILIA-BORZA].
BARABAS
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 demand
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’t.
I have it!
I will in some disguise go see the slave,
70 And how the villain revels with my gold.
Exit.
Enter [BELLAMIRA] the Courtesan, ITHAMORE, PILIA-BORZA [and SERVANTS with wine].
BELLAMIRA I’ll pledge thee, love, and therefore drink it off.
ITHAMORE Say’st thou me so? Have at it! And do you hear?
[He whispers to her.]
BELLAMIRA GO to, it shall be so.
ITHAMORE Of that condition I will drink it up. Here’s to thee.
BELLAMIRA Nay, I’ll have all or none.
ITHAMORE There, if thou lov’st me, do not leave a drop.
BELLAMIRA Love thee? Fill me three glasses!
ITHAMORE Three-and-fifty dozen I’ll pledge thee.
PILIA-BORZA Knavely spoke, and like a knight at arms.
10 ITHAMORE Hey, Rivo Castiliano! A man’s a man.
BELLAMIRA Now to the Jew.
ITHAMORE Ha, to the Jew! And send me money, you were best.
PILIA-BORZA What wouldst thou do if he should send thee none?
ITHAMORE Do? Nothing. But I know what I know. He’s a murderer.
BELLAMIRA I had not thought he had been so brave a man.
ITHAMORE You knew Mathias and the governor’s son? He and
20 I killed ’em both, and yet never touched ’em.
PILIA-BORZA O, bravely done!
ITHAMORE I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns, and he and I – snickle hand too fast – strangled a friar.
BELLAMIRA You two alone?
ITHAMORE We two, and ’twas never known, nor never shall be for me.
PILIA-BORZA [aside to BELLAMIRA]
This shall with me unto the governor.
BELLAMIRA [aside to PILIA-BORZA]
And fit it should; but first let’s ha’ more gold.
[To ITHAMORE]
Come, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.
ITHAMORE
30 Love me little, love me long. Let music rumble,
Whilst I in thy incony lap do tumble.
Enter BARABAS with a lute, disguised.
BELLAMIRA
A French musician! Come, let’s hear your skill.
BARABAS
Must tuna my lute for sound, twang, twang, first.
ITHAMORE Wilt drink, Frenchman? Here’s to thee with a – Pox on this drunken hiccup!
BARABAS Gramercy, monsieur.
BELLAMIRA Prithee, Pilia-Borza, bid the fiddler give me the posy in his hat there.
PILIA-BORZA Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy.
BARABAS A vôtre commandement, madame.
40 [He presents a nosegay which they sniff.]
BELLAMIRA
How sweet, my Ithamore, the flowers smell!
ITHAMORE Like thy breath, sweetheart, no violet like ’em.
PILIA-BORZA Foh, methinks they stink like a hollyhock.
BARABAS [aside]
So, now I am revenged upon ’em all.
The scent thereof was death; I poisoned it.
ITHAMORE Play, fiddler, or I’ll cut your cat’s guts into chitterlings.
BARABAS Pardonnez-moi, be no in tune yet. [He tunes.] So now, now all be in.
ITHAMORE Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine.
50 PILIA-BORZA [giving money] There’s two crowns for thee. Play.
BARABAS (aside) How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold!
[He plays the lute.]
PILIA-BORZA Methinks he fingers very well.
BARABAS (aside) So did you when you stole my gold.
PILIA-BORZA How swift he runs!
BARABAS (aside) You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window.
BELLAMIRA Musician, hast been in Malta long?
BARABAS Two, three, four month, madame.
60 ITHAMORE Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas?
BARABAS Very mush, monsieur. You no be his man?
PILIA-BORZA His man?
ITHAMORE I scorn the peasant. Tell him so.
BARABAS [aside] He knows it already.
ITHAMORE ’Tis a strange thing of that Jew: he lives upon pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms.
BARABAS (aside) What a slave’s this! The governor feeds not as Ido.
ITHAMORE He never put on clean shirt since he was circum
70
cised.
BARABAS (aside) O, rascal! I change myself twice a day.
ITHAMORE The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder when he hanged himself.
BARABAS (aside) ’Twas sent me for a present from the Great Cham.
PILIA-BORZA A masty slave he is.
[BARABAS starts to leave.]
Whither now, fiddler?
BARABAS Par donnez-moi, monsieur, me be no well.
Exit [BARABAS].
80 PILIA-BORZA Farewell, fiddler. One letter more to the Jew.
BELLAMIRA Prithee, sweet love, one more, and write it sharp.
ITHAMORE No, I’ll send by word of mouth now. [To PILIA-BORZA] 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.
PILIA-BORZA Let me alone to urge it, now I know the meaning.
ITHAMORE
The meaning has a meaning. Come, let’s in.
To undo a Jew is charity, and not sin.
Exeunt.