SceneII

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Scene

II

Enter Ferneze governor of Malta, Knights, and Officers; met by Calymath, and Bassoes of the Turk.

Ferneze

Now, Bassoes, what demand you at our hands?

First Basso

Know, Knights of Malta, that we came from Rhodes,

From Cyprus, Candy, and those other Isles

That lie betwixt the Mediterranean seas.

Ferneze

What’s Cyprus, Candy, and those other Isles

To us or Malta? what at our hands demand ye?

Calymath

The ten years’ tribute that remains unpaid.

Ferneze

Alas! my lord, the sum is over-great!

I hope your highness will consider us.

Calymath

I wish, grave governor, ’twere in my power

To favour you; but ’tis my father’s cause,

Wherein I may not, nay, I dare not dally.

Ferneze

Then give us leave, great Selim Calymath.

Consults apart with the Knights.

Calymath

Stand all aside, and let the knights determine,

And send to keep our galleys under sail,

For happily we shall not tarry here;

Now, governor, say, how are you resolved?

Ferneze

Thus: since your hard conditions are such

That you will needs have ten years’ tribute past,

We may have time to make collection

Amongst the inhabitants of Malta for’t.

First Basso

That’s more than is in our commission.

Calymath

What, Callapine! a little courtesy.

Let’s know their time, perhaps it is not long;

And ’tis more kingly to obtain by peace

Than to enforce conditions by constraint.

What respite ask you, governor?

Ferneze

But a month.

Calymath

We grant a month, but see you keep your promise.

Now launch our galleys back again to sea,

Where we’ll attend the respite you have ta’en,

And for the money send our messenger.

Farewell, great governor and brave Knights of Malta.

Ferneze

And all good fortune wait on Calymath!

Exeunt Calymath and Bassoes.

Go one and call those Jews of Malta hither:

Were they not summoned to appear to-day?

First Officer

They were, my lord, and here they come.

Enter Barabas and three Jews.

First Knight

Have you determined what to say to them?

Ferneze

Yes, give me leave:⁠—and, Hebrews, now come near.

From the Emperor of Turkey is arrived

Great Selim Calymath, his highness’ son,

To levy of us ten years’ tribute past,

Now, then, here know that it concerneth us⁠—

Barabas

Then, good my lord, to keep your quiet still,

Your lordship shall do well to let them have it.

Ferneze

Soft, Barabas, there’s more ’longs to ’t than so.

To what this ten years’ tribute will amount,

That we have cast, but cannot compass it

By reason of the wars that robbed our store;

And therefore are we to request your aid.

Barabas

Alas, my lord, we are no soldiers:

And what’s our aid against so great a prince?

First Knight

Tut, Jew, we know thou art no soldier;

Thou art a merchant and a moneyed man,

And ’tis thy money, Barabas, we seek.

Barabas

How, my lord! my money?

Ferneze

Thine and the rest,

For, to be short, amongst you’t must be had.

First Jew

Alas, my lord, the most of us are poor.

Ferneze

Then let the rich increase your portions.

Barabas

Are strangers with your tribute to be taxed?

Second Knight

Have strangers leave with us to get their wealth?

Then let them with us contribute.

Barabas

How! equally?

Ferneze

No, Jew, like infidels.

For through our sufferance of your hateful lives,

Who stand accursed in the sight of Heaven,

These taxes and afflictions are befallen,

And therefore thus we are determined.⁠—

Read there the articles of our decrees.

Officer

Reads. “First, the tribute-money of the Turks shall all be levied amongst the Jews, and each of them to pay one half of his estate.”

Barabas

How! half his estate? I hope you mean not mine. Aside.

Ferneze

Read on.

Officer

Reading. “Secondly, he that denies to pay, shall straight become a Christian.”

Barabas

How! a Christian? Hum, what’s here to do? Aside.

Officer

Reading. “Lastly, he that denies this, shall absolutely lose all he has.”

Three Jews

O my lord, we will give half.

Barabas

O earth-mettled villains, and no Hebrews born!

And will you basely thus submit yourselves

To leave your goods to their arbitrement?

Ferneze

Why, Barabas, wilt thou be christened?

Barabas

No, governor, I will be no convertite.

Ferneze

Then pay thy half.

Barabas

Why, know you what you did by this device?

Half of my substance is a city’s wealth.

Governor, it was not got so easily;

Nor will I part so slightly therewithal.

Ferneze

Sir, half is the penalty of our decree;

Either pay that, or we will seize on all.

Barabas

Corpo di Dio! stay! you shall have half;

Let me be used but as my brethren are.

Ferneze

No, Jew, thou hast denied the articles,

And now it cannot be recalled.

Exeunt Officers, on a sign from Ferenze.

Barabas

Will you, then, steal my goods?

Is theft the ground of your religion?

Ferneze

No, Jew, we take particularly thine,

To save the ruin of a multitude:

And better one want for a common good

Than many perish for a private man:

Yet, Barabas, we will not banish thee,

But here in Malta, where thou gott’st thy wealth,

Live still; and, if thou canst, get more.

Barabas

Christians, what or how can I multiply?

Of naught is nothing made.

First Knight

From naught at first thou cam’st to little wealth,

From little unto more, from more to most:

If your first curse fall heavy on thy head,

And make thee poor and scorned of all the world,

’Tis not our fault, but thy inherent sin.

Barabas

What, bring you Scripture to confirm your wrongs?

Preach me not out of my possessions.

Some Jews are wicked, as all Christians are:

But say the tribe that I descended of

Were all in general cast away for sin,

Shall I be tried by their transgression?

The man that dealeth righteously shall live:

And which of you can charge me otherwise?

Ferneze

Out, wretched Barabas!

Sham’st thou not thus to justify thyself,

As if we knew not thy profession?

If thou rely upon thy righteousness,

Be patient and thy riches will increase.

Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness;

And covetousness, O, ’tis a monstrous sin.

Barabas

Ay, but theft is worse: tush! take not from me then,

For that is theft! and, if you rob me thus,

I must be forced to steal and compass more.

First Knight

Grave governor, list not to his exclaims.

Convert his mansion to a nunnery;

His house will harbour many holy nuns.

Ferneze

It shall be so.

Reenter Officers.

Now, officers, have you done?

First Officer

Ay, my lord, we have seized upon the goods

And wares of Barabas, which, being valued,

Amount to more than all the wealth in Malta.

And of the other we have seized half.

Ferneze

Then we’ll take order for the residue.

Barabas

Well, then, my lord, say, are you satisfied?

You have my goods, my money, and my wealth,

My ships, my store, and all that I enjoyed;

And, having all, you can request no more;

Unless your unrelenting flinty hearts

Suppress all pity in your stony breasts,

And now shall move you to bereave my life.

Ferneze

No, Barabas, to stain our hands with blood

Is far from us and our profession.

Barabas

Why, I esteem the injury far less

To take the lives of miserable men

Than be the causers of their misery.

You have my wealth, the labour of my life,

The comfort of mine age, my children’s hope,

And therefore ne’er distinguish of the wrong.

Ferneze

Content thee, Barabas, thou hast naught but right.

Barabas

Your extreme right does me exceeding wrong:

But take it to you, i’ the devil’s name.

Ferneze

Come, let us in, and gather of these goods

The money for this tribute of the Turk.

First Knight

’Tis necessary that be looked unto:

For, if we break our day, we break the league,

And that will prove but simple policy.

Exeunt all except Barabas and the Jews.

Barabas

Ay, policy! that’s their profession,

And not simplicity, as they suggest.

The plagues of Egypt, and the curse of Heaven,

Earth’s barrenness, and all men’s hatred

Inflict upon them, thou great Primus Motor!

And here upon my knees, striking the earth,

I ban their souls to everlasting pains

And extreme tortures of the fiery deep,

That thus have dealt with me in my distress!

First Jew

O yet be patient, gentle Barabas.

Barabas

O silly brethren, born to see this day;

Why stand you thus unmoved with my laments?

Why weep you not to think upon my wrongs?

Why pine not I, and die in this distress?

First Jew

Why, Barabas, as hardly can we brook

The cruel handling of ourselves in this;

Thou seest they have taken half our goods.

Barabas

Why did you yield to their extortion?

You were a multitude, and I but one:

And of me only have they taken all.

First Jew

Yet, brother Barabas, remember Job.

Barabas

What tell you me of Job? I wot his wealth

Was written thus: he had seven thousand sheep,

Three thousand camels, and two hundred yoke

Of labouring oxen, and five hundred

She-asses: but for every one of those,

Had they been valued at indifferent rate,

I had at home, and in mine argosy,

And other ships that came from Egypt last,

As much as would have bought his beasts and him,

And yet have kept enough to live upon:

So that not he, but I, may curse the day,

Thy fatal birth-day, forlorn Barabas;

And henceforth wish for an eternal night,

That clouds of darkness may enclose my flesh,

And hide these extreme sorrows from mine eyes:

For only I have toiled to inherit here

The months of vanity and loss of time,

And painful nights, have been appointed me.

Second Jew

Good Barabas, be patient.

Barabas

Ay, I pray, leave me in my patience. You,

Were ne’er possess’d of wealth, are pleased with want;

But give him liberty at least to mourn,

That in a field amidst his enemies,

Doth see his soldiers slain, himself disarmed,

And knows no means of his recovery:

Ay, let me sorrow for this sudden chance;

’Tis in the trouble of my spirit I speak;

Great injuries are not so soon forgot.

First Jew

Come, let us leave him; in his ireful mood

Our words will but increase his ecstasy.

Second Jew

On, then: but trust me ’tis a misery

To see a man in such affliction.⁠—

Farewell, Barabas.

Exeunt the three Jews.

Barabas

Ay, fare you well.

See the simplicity of these base slaves,

Who, for the villains have no wit themselves,

Think me to be a senseless lump of clay

That will with every water wash to dirt:

No, Barabas is born to better chance,

And framed of finer mould than common men,

That measure naught but by the present time.

A reaching thought will search his deepest wits,

And cast with cunning for the time to come:

For evils are apt to happen every day.⁠—

Enter Abigail.

But whither wends my beauteous Abigail?

O! what has made my lovely daughter sad?

What, woman! moan not for a little loss:

Thy father has enough in store for thee.

Abigail

Not for myself, but aged Barabas:

Father, for thee lamenteth Abigail:

But I will learn to leave these fruitless tears,

And, urged thereto with my afflictions,

With fierce exclaims run to the senate-house,

And in the senate reprehend them all,

And rend their hearts with tearing of my hair,

Till they reduce the wrongs done to my father.

Barabas

No, Abigail, things past recovery

Are hardly cured with exclamations.

Be silent, daughter, sufferance breeds ease

And time may yield us an occasion

Which on the sudden cannot serve the turn.

Besides, my girl, think me not all so fond

As negligently to forgo so much

Without provision for thyself and me,

Ten thousand portagues, besides great pearls,

Rich costly jewels, and stones infinite,

Fearing the worst of this before it fell,

I closely hid.

Abigail

Where, father?

Barabas

In my house, my girl.

Abigail

Then shall they ne’er be seen of Barabas:

For they have seized upon thy house and wares.

Barabas

But they will give me leave once more, I trow,

To go into my house.

Abigail

That may they not:

For there I left the governor placing nuns,

Displacing me; and of thy house they mean

To make a nunnery, where none but their own sect

Must enter in; men generally barred.

Barabas

My gold! my gold! and all my wealth is gone!

You partial heavens, have I deserved this plague?

What, will you thus oppose me, luckless stars,

To make me desperate in my poverty?

And knowing me impatient in distress,

Think me so mad as I will hang myself,

That I may vanish o’er the earth in air,

And leave no memory that e’er I was?

No, I will live; nor loathe I this my life:

And, since you leave me in the ocean thus

To sink or swim, and put me to my shifts,

I’ll rouse my senses and awake myself.

Daughter! I have it: thou perceiv’st the plight

Wherein these Christians have oppressed me:

Be ruled by me, for in extremity

We ought to make bar of no policy.

Abigail

Father, whate’er it be to injure them

That have so manifestly wronged us,

What will not Abigail attempt?

Barabas

Why, so;

Then thus, thou told’st me they have turn’d my house

Into a nunnery, and some nuns are there?

Abigail

I did.

Barabas

Then, Abigail, there must my girl

Entreat the abbess to be entertained.

Abigail

How! as a nun?

Barabas

Ay, daughter, for religion

Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

Abigail

Ay, but, father, they will suspect me there.

Barabas

Let ’em suspect; but be thou so precise

As they may think it done of holiness.

Entreat ’em fair, and give them friendly speech,

And seem to them as if thy sins were great,

Till thou hast gotten to be entertained.

Abigail

Thus, father, shall I much dissemble.

Barabas

Tush!

As good dissemble that thou never mean’st,

As first mean truth and then dissemble it⁠—

A counterfeit profession is better

Than unseen hypocrisy.

Abigail

Well, father, say I be entertained,

What then shall follow?

Barabas

This shall follow then;

There have I hid, close underneath the plank

That runs along the upper-chamber floor,

The gold and jewels which I kept for thee.

But here they come; be cunning, Abigail.

Abigail

Then, father, go with me.

Barabas

No, Abigail, in this

It is not necessary I be seen:

For I will seem offended with thee for’t:

Be close, my girl, for this must fetch my gold.

They retire.

Enter Friar Jacomo, Friar Barnadine, Abbess, and a Nun.

Friar Jacomo

Sisters,

We now are almost at the new-made nunnery.

Abbess

The better; for we love not to be seen:

’Tis thirty winters long since some of us

Did stray so far amongst the multitude.

Friar Jacomo

But, madam, this house

And waters of this new-made nunnery

Will much delight you.

Abbess

It may be so; but who comes here?

Abigail comes forward.

Abigail

Grave abbess, and you, happy virgins’ guide,

Pity the state of a distressed maid.

Abbess

What art thou, daughter?

Abigail

The hopeless daughter of a hapless Jew,

The Jew of Malta, wretched Barabas;

Sometimes the owner of a goodly house,

Which they have now turned to a nunnery.

Abbess

Well, daughter, say, what is thy suit with us?

Abigail

Fearing the afflictions which my father feels

Proceed from sin, or want of faith in us,

I’d pass away my life in penitence,

And be a novice in your nunnery,

To make atonement for my labouring soul.

Friar Jacomo

No doubt, brother, but this proceedeth of the spirit.

Friar Barnadine

Ay, and of a moving spirit too, brother; but come,

Let us entreat she may be entertained.

Abbess

Well, daughter, we admit you for a nun.

Abigail

First let me as a novice learn to frame

My solitary life to your strait laws,

And let me lodge where I was wont to lie,

I do not doubt, by your divine precepts

And mine own industry, but to profit much.

Barabas

As much, I hope, as all I hid is worth. Aside.

Abbess

Come, daughter, follow us.

Barabas

Coming forward. Why, how now, Abigail,

What makest thou amongst these hateful Christians?

Friar Jacomo

Hinder her not, thou man of little faith,

For she has mortified herself.

Barabas

How! mortified?

Friar Jacomo

And is admitted to the sisterhood.

Barabas

Child of perdition, and thy father’s shame!

What wilt thou do among these hateful fiends?

I charge thee on my blessing that thou leave

These devils, and their damned heresy!

Abigail

Father, forgive me⁠—She goes to him.

Barabas

Nay, back, Abigail,

(And think upon the jewels and the gold;

The board is marked thus that covers it.) Aside to Abigail in a whisper.

Away, accursed, from thy father’s sight!

Friar Jacomo

Barabas, although thou art in misbelief,

And wilt not see thine own afflictions,

Yet let thy daughter be no longer blind.

Barabas

Blind friar, I reck not thy persuasions,

(The board is marked thus that covers it.)

Aside to Abigail in a whisper.

For I had rather die than see her thus.

Wilt thou forsake me too in my distress,

Seduced daughter? (Go, forget not,) Aside in a whisper.

Becomes it Jews to be so credulous?

(To-morrow early I’ll be at the door.) Aside in a whisper.

No, come not at me; if thou wilt be damned,

Forget me, see me not, and so be gone!

(Farewell; remember to-morrow morning.) Aside in a whisper.

Out, out, thou wretch!

Exeunt, on one side, Barabas, on the other side Friars, Abbess, Nun, and Abigail; as they are going out,

Enter Mathias.

Mathias

Who’s this? fair Abigail, the rich Jew’s daughter,

Become a nun! her father’s sudden fall

Has humbled her, and brought her down to this:

Tut, she were fitter for a tale of love,

Than to be tired out with orisons:

And better would she far become a bed,

Embraced in a friendly lover’s arms,

Than rise at midnight to a solemn mass.

Enter Lodowick.

Lodowick

Why, how now, Don Mathias! in a dump?

Mathias

Believe me, noble Lodowick, I have seen

The strangest sight, in my opinion,

That ever I beheld.

Lodowick

What was’t, I prithee?

Mathias

A fair young maid, scarce fourteen years of age,

The sweetest flower in Cytherea’s field,

Cropt from the pleasures of the fruitful earth,

And strangely metamorphosed nun.

Lodowick

But say, what was she?

Mathias

Why, the rich Jew’s daughter.

Lodowick

What, Barabas, whose goods were lately seized?

Is she so fair?

Mathias

And matchless beautiful;

As, had you seen her, ’twould have mov’d your heart,

Though countermined with walls of brass, to love,

Or, at the least, to pity.

Lodowick

An if she be so fair as you report,

’Twere time well spent to go and visit her:

How say you? shall we?

Mathias

I must and will, sir; there’s no remedy.

Lodowick

And so will I too, or it shall go hard.

Farewell, Mathias.

Mathias

Farewell, Lodowick.

Exeunt severally.