The Complete Plays
Page 32
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;
[she throws it aside]
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.]
[Scene 3]
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.
[Scene 4]
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.
ACT 5
[Scene 1]
Enter [FERNEZE the] Governor, KNIGHTS, MARTIN DEL
BOSCO [and OFFICERS].
FERNEZE
Now, gentlemen, betake you to your arms,
And see that Malta be well fortified.
And it behoves you to be resolute,
For Calymath, having hovered here so long,
Will win the town or die before the walls.
FIRST KNIGHT
And die he shall, for we will never yield.
Enter [BELLAMIRA the] Courtesan [and] PILIA-BORZA.
BELLAMIRA
O, bring us to the governor.
FERNEZE
Away with her! She is a courtesan.
BELLAMIRA
Whate’er I am, yet, governor, hear me speak.
I bring thee news by whom thy son was slain:
10 Mathias did it not, it was the Jew.
PILIA-BORZA Who, besides the slaughter of these gentlemen, poisoned his own daughter and the nuns, strangled a friar, and I know not what mischief beside.
FERNEZE
Had we but proof of this!
BELLAMIRA
Strong proof, my lord. His man’s now at my lodging
That was his agent; he’ll confess it all.
FERNEZE
Go fetch him straight.
[Exeunt OFFICERS.]
I always feared that Jew.
Enter BARABAS [and] ITHAMORE [guarded by some OFFICERS].
BARABAS
I’ll go alone, dogs, do not hale me thus.
20 ITHAMORE Nor me neither. I cannot out-run you, constable. O, my belly!
BARABAS [aside]
One dram of powder more had made all sure.
What a damned slave was I!
FERNEZE
Make fires, heat irons, let the rack be fetched.
FIRST KNIGHT
Nay, stay, my lord, ’t may be he will confess.
BARABAS
Confess? What mean you, lords, who should confess?
FERNEZE
Thou and thy Turk: ’twas you that slew my son.
ITHAMORE Guilty, my lord, I confess. Your son and Mathias
were both contracted unto Abigall; he forged a counterfeit
30 challenge.
BARABAS Who carried that challenge?
ITHAMORE I carried it, I confess, but who writ it? Marry, even he that strangled Barnardine, poisoned the nuns, and his own daughter.
FERNEZE
Away with him! His sight is death to me.
BARABAS
For what? You men of Malta, hear me speak.
She is a courtesan, and he a thief,
And he my bondman. Let me have law,
For none of th
is can prejudice my life.
FERNEZE
40 Once more, away with him! You shall have law.
BARABAS
Devils, do your worst, I’ll live in spite of you.
As these have spoke, so be it to their souls.
[Aside] I hope the poisoned flowers will work anon.
Exeunt [OFFICERS with BARABAS, ITHAMORE,
BELLAMIRA and PILIA-BORZA]. Enter KATHERINE.
KATHERINE
Was my Mathias murdered by the Jew?
Ferneze, ’twas thy son that murdered him.
FERNEZE
Be patient, gentle madam, it was he.
He forged the daring challenge made them fight.
KATHERINE
Where is the Jew? Where is that murderer?
FERNEZE
In prison, till the law has passed on him.
Enter [an] OFFICER.
OFFICER
My lord, the courtesan and her man are dead;
50 So is the Turk, and Barabas the Jew.
FERNEZE Dead?
OFFICER
Dead, my lord, and here they bring his body.
[Enter OFFICERS, carrying BARABAS as dead.]
DEL BOSCO
This sudden death of his is very strange.
FERNEZE
Wonder not at it, sir, the heavens are just.
Their deaths were like their lives, then think not of ’em.
Since they are dead, let them be buried.
For the Jew’s body, throw that o’er the walls,
To be a prey for vultures and wild beasts.
[OFFICERS throw down the body.]
60 So, now away, and fortify the town.
Exeunt [; BARABAS remains].
BARABAS [rising]
What, all alone? Well fare, sleepy drink!
I’ll be revenged on this accursed town,
For by my means Calymath shall enter in.
I’ll help to slay their children and their wives,
To fire the churches, pull their houses down,
Take my goods too, and seize upon my lands.
I hope to see the governor a slave,
And, rowing in a galley, whipped to death.
Enter CALYMATH, BASHAWS, [and] TURKS.
CALYMATH
Whom have we there, a spy?
BARABAS
70 Yes, my good lord, one that can spy a place
Where you may enter and surprise the town.
My name is Barabas, I am a Jew.
CALYMATH
Art thou that Jew whose goods we heard were sold
For tribute-money?
BARABAS The very same, my lord;
And since that time they have hired a slave, my man,
To accuse me of a thousand villainies.
I was imprisoned, but escaped their hands.
CALYMATH
Didst break prison?
BARABAS