The Jew of Malta

ye shall have straight. Pilia-Borza

Ay, and the rest too, or else⁠—

Barabas

I must make this villain away. Aside.

Please you dine with me, sir;⁠—and you shall be most heartily poisoned. Aside.

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 your counting-house. The gold! or know, Jew, it is in my power to hang thee.

Barabas

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-Borza

Here’s many words, but no crowns: the crowns!

Barabas

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. Gives money.
O, that I should part with so much gold! Aside.
Here, take ’em, fellow, with as good a will⁠—
As I would see thee hanged; Aside. 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.

Exit. 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, force from me
Three hundred crowns, and then five hundred crowns!
Well, I must seek a means to rid ’em all,
And presently; for in his villany
He will tell all he knows, and I shall die for’t.
I have it:
I will in some disguise go see the slave,
And how the villain revels with my gold.

Exit.

Scene VI

	Enter Bellamira, Ithamore, and Pilia-Borza.86
Bellamira	I’ll pledge thee, love, and therefore drink it off.
Ithamore	Say’st thou me so? have at it; and do you hear? Whispers.
Bellamira	Go to, it shall be so.
Ithamore	Of87 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.
Ithamore	Hey, Rivo Castiliano!88 a man’s a man.
Bellamira	Now to the Jew.
Ithamore	Ha! to the Jew; and send me money he were best.
Pilia-Borza	What would’st 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 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,89 strangled a friar.
Bellamira	You two alone?
Ithamore	We two; and ’twas never known, nor never shall be for me.
Pilia-Borza	This shall with me unto the governor. Aside to Bellamira.
Bellamira	And fit it should: but first let’s ha’ more gold. Aside to Pilia-Borza. Come, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.
Ithamore	Love me little, love me long: let music rumble, Whilst I in thy incony90 lap do tumble.
	Enter Barabas, disguised as a French musician, with a lute, and a nosegay in his hat.
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 votre commandement, madame. Giving nosegay.
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	So, now I am revenged upon ’em all: The scent thereof was death; I poisoned it. Aside.
Ithamore	Play, fiddler, or I’ll cut your cat’s guts into chitterlings.
Barabas	Pardonnez moi, be no in tune yet: so, now, now all be in.
Ithamore	Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine.
Pilia-Borza	There’s two crowns for thee; play. Giving money.
Barabas	How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold! Aside, Barabas then plays.
Pilia-Borza	Methinks he fingers very well.
Barabas	So did you when you stole my gold. Aside.
Pilia-Borza	How swift he runs!
Barabas	You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window. Aside.
Bellamira	Musician, hast been in Malta long?
Barabas	Two, three, four month, madam.
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	He knows it already. Aside.
Ithamore	’Tis a strange thing of that Jew, he lives upon pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms.
Barabas	What a slave’s this? the governor feeds not as I do. Aside.
Ithamore	He never put on clean shirt since he was circumcised.
Barabas	O rascal! I change myself twice a day. Aside.
Ithamore	The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder91 when he hanged himself.
Barabas	’Twas sent me for a present from the Great Cham. Aside.
Pilia-Borza	A musty slave he is.⁠—Whither now, fiddler?
Barabas	Pardonnez moi, monsieur, me be no well.
Pilia-Borza	Farewell, fiddler!
	Exit Barabas.
	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—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