The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Publisher's Notice
• To My Worthy Friend , Master Thomas Hammon, of Gray's Inn , &c.
• Persons Represented.
• The Jew of Malta.
• Act the First.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Act the Second.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Act the Third.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Act the Fourth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Act the Fifth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Edward the Second.
• Act the First.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Act the Second.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Act the Third.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Act the Fourth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Act the Fifth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• The Massacre At Paris.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Scene VII.
• Scene VIII.
• Scene IX.
• Scene X.
• Scene XI.
• Scene XII.
• Scene XIII.
• Scene XIV.
• Scene XV.
• Scene XVI.
• Scene XVII.
• Scene XVIII.
• Scene XIX.
• Scene XX.
• Scene XXI.
• Scene XXII.
• Scene XXIII.
• Scene XXIV.
• The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage.
• Act I.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Act II.
• Scene I.
• Act III.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Act IV.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene Iii
• Scene IV.
• Scene V
• Act V.
• Scene I.

SCENE VI.

Enter1Bellamira, Ithamore, andPilia-Borsa.

Bell.

• I'll pledge thee, love, and therefore drink it off.

Itha.

• Say'st thou me so? have at it; and do you hear?
• [Whispers.

Bell.

• Go to, it shall be so.

Itha.

• Of that condition I will drink it up.
• Here's to thee.

Bell.1

• Nay, I'll have all or none.

Itha.

• There, if thou lov'st me do not leave a drop.

Bell.

• Love thee! fill me three glasses.

Itha.

• Three and fifty dozen, I'll pledge thee.

Pilia.

• Knavely spoke, and like a knight-at-arms.

Itha.

• Hey, Rivo2Castiliano! a man's a man.

  10

Bell.

• Now to the Jew.

Itha.

• Ha! to the Jew, and send me money he3 were best.

Pilia.

• What would'st thou do if he should send thee none?

Itha.

• Do nothing; but I know what I know; he's a murderer.

Bell.

• I had not thought he had been so brave a man.

Itha.

• You knew Mathias and the Governor's son; he and I killed 'em both, and yet never touched 'em.

Pilia.

• O, bravely done.

  20

Itha.

• I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns; and he and I, snickle hand too fast,4 strangled a friar.

Bell.

• You two alone!

Itha.

• We two, and 'twas never known, nor never shall be for me.

Pilia.

• This shall with me unto the Governor.
• [Aside toBellamira.

Bell.

• And fit it should: but first let's ha' more gold.
• [Aside.
• Come, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.

Itha.

• Love me little, love me long; let music rumble
• Whilst I in thy incony1 lap do tumble.

  30

• EnterBarabas, with a lute, disguised.

Bell.

• A French musician; come, let's hear your skill?

Bar.

• Must tuna my lute for sound, twang, twang, first.

Itha.

• Wilt drink, Frenchman? here's to thee with a—Pox on this drunken hiccup!

Bar.

• Gramercy, monsieur.

Bell.

• Prythee, Pilia-Borsa, bid the fiddler give me the posy in his hat there.

Pilia.

• Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy.

Bar.

• A votre commandement, madame.

  40

Bell.

• How sweet, my Ithamore, the flowers smell.

Itha.

• Like thy breath, sweetheart, no violet like 'em.

Pilia.

• Foh! methinks they stink like a hollyhock.

Bar.

• So, now I am revenged upon 'em all.
• The scent thereof was death; I poisoned it.
• [Aside.

Itha.

• Play, fiddler, or I'll cut your cat's guts into chitterlings.

Bar.

• Pardonnez moi, be no in tune yet; so now, now all be in.

Itha.

• Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine.

  50

Pilia.

• There's two crowns for thee, play.

Bar.

• How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold.
• [Aside.

Pilia.

• Methinks he fingers very well.

Bar.

• So did you when you stole my gold.
• [Aside.

Pilia.

• How swift he runs.

Bar.

• You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window.
• [Aside.

Bell.

• Musician, hast been in Malta long?

Bar.

• Two, three, four month, madam.

  60

Itha.

• Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas?

Bar.

• Very mush; monsieur, you no be his man?

Pilia.

• His man?

Itha.

• I scorn the peasant; tell him so.

Bar.

• He knows it already.
• [Aside.

Itha.

• 'Tis a strange thing of that Jew, he lives upon pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms.

Bar.

• What a slave's this? the Governor feeds not as I do.
• [Aside.

Itha.

• He never put on clean shirt since he was circumcised.

  70

Bar.

• O rascal! I change myself twice a day.
• [Aside.

Itha.

• The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder1 when he hanged himself.

Bar.

• 'Twas sent me for a present from the great Cham.
• [Aside.

Pilia.

• A musty2 slave he is; whither now, fiddler?

Bar.

• Pardonnez moi, monsieur, me3 be no well.
• [Exit.

Pilia.

• Farewell, fiddler: one letter more to the Jew.

Bell.

• Prythee, sweet love, one more, and write it sharp.

  80

Itha.

• No, I'll send by word of mouth now; 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.

• Let me alone to urge it, now I know the meaning.

Itha.

• The meaning has a meaning; come let's in:
• To undo a Jew is charity, and not sin.
• [Exeunt.

ACT THE FIFTH.

[1]Scene: the balcony of Bellamira's house.

[1]Old ed. Pil.

[2]The origm of this boisterous exclamation is uncertain. Gifford suggested that it was corrupted from the Spanish rio, which is figuratively used for a large quantity of liquor. Dyce quotes from the anonymous comedy, Look about you:—

• ” And Ryvo will he cry and Castile too.”

[3]Old ed. “you.”

[4]A corrupt passage. “Snickle” is a North-country word for “noose.” Cunningham proposed “snickle hard and fast.”

[1]Old ed. “incoomy.” The word “incony” (which is found in Love's Labour's Lost, &c.) means “delicate, dainty.” It has been doubtfully derived from the North-country “canny” or “conny” (in the sense of pretty), the prefix “in” having an intensive force.

[1]Dyce quotes from Sir John Mandeville:—“And fast by is zit the tree of Eldre that Judas henge him self upon for despeyt that he hadde when he solde and betrayed our Lorde.”—Voiage and Travell, &c., p. 112, ed. 1725. “That Judas hanged himself,” says Sir Thomas Browne, “much more that he perished thereby, we shall not raise a doubt. Although Jansemus, discoursing the point, produceth the testimony of Theophylact and Euthymius that he died not by the gallows but under a cart-wheel; and Baronius also delivereth, this was the opinion of the Greeks and derived as high as Papias one of the disciples of John. Although, also, how hardly the expression of Matthew is reconcileable unto that of Peter, and that he plainly hanged himself, with that, that falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst—with many other the learned Grotius plainly doth acknowledge.”—Vulgar Errors, vii. II.

[2]Old ed. “masty.” Dyce “nasty.”

[3]Old ed. “we.”