The Complete Plays (38 page)

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,

190   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
birthday, 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.

200 
BARABAS
         Ay, ay;

Pray leave me in my patience. You that

Were ne'er possessed 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
for
got.

FIRST JEW

210   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,

220   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
ABIGALL,
the Jew's daughter.

But whither wends my beauteous Abigall?

O, what has made my lovely daughter sad?

What, woman, moan not for a little loss.

Thy father has enough in store for thee.

ABIGALL

Not for myself, but aged Barabas,

230   Father, for thee lamenteth Abigall.

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 rent their hearts with tearing of my hair,

Till they reduce the wrongs done to my father.

BARABAS

No, Abigall,
things past recovery

Are hardly cured with exclamations.

Be silent, daughter;
sufferance breeds ease
,

240 
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.

ABIGALL
                     Where, father?

BARABAS
                     In my house, my girl.

ABIGALL

Then shall they ne'er be seen of Barabas,

250   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.

ABIGALL
                     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,

260   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

270   Wherein these Christians have oppressèd me.

Be ruled by me, for in extremity

We ought to make bar of no policy.

ABIGALL

Father, whate'er it be, to injure them

That have so manifestly wrongèd us,

What will not Abigall attempt?

BARABAS
                     Why, so.

Then thus: thou told'st me they have turned my house

Into a nunnery, and some nuns are there.

ABIGALL

I did.

BARABAS
Then, Abigall, there must my girl

Entreat the Abbess to be entertained.

ABIGALL

How, as a nun?

280 
BARABAS
                     Ay, daughter, for religion

Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

ABIGALL

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.

ABIGALL

Thus, father, shall I much dissemble.

BARABAS
 Tush,

As good
dissemble that thou never mean'st

290   As first mean truth and then dissemble it.

A counterfeit
profession is better

Than unseen hypocrisy.

ABIGALL

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, Abigall.

ABIGALL

Then, father, go with me.

BARABAS
                     No, Abigall, in this

300   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.

Enter two
FRIARS [JACOMO
and
BARNARDINE]
and [an
ABBESS
and
]
TWO NUNS
.

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

310   Will much delight you.

ABBESS

It may be so. But who comes here?

ABIGALL
[
comes forward
]

Grave Abbess, and
you, happy virgins' guide
,

Pity the state of a distressèd maid!

ABBESS

What art thou, daughter?

ABIGALL

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?

ABIGALL

320   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
[
to
BARNARDINE
]

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

FRIAR BARNARDINE
[
tO
JACOMO]

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.

ABIGALL

First let me as a novice learn to frame

330   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
(
aside
)

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

ABBESS

Come, daughter, follow us.

BARABAS
[
coming forward
]

Why, how now, Abigall?
What mak'st 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

340   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 damnèd heresy.

ABIGALL

Father, give me –

BARABAS
         Nay, back, Abigall!

(
Whispers to her
) And think upon the jewels and the gold;

The board is
markèd thus
[
makes the sign of the cross
]

that covers it.

[
Aloud
] Away, accursèd, from thy father's sight!

FRIAR JACOMO

Barabas, although thou art in misbelief

350   And wilt not see thine own afflictions,

Yet let thy daughter be no longer blind.

BARABAS

Blind, friar? I reck not thy persuasions.

[
Aside tO
ABIGALL.
]

The board is marked thus [
makes the sign of the cross
]

that covers it.

[
Aloud
] For I had rather die than see her thus.

Wilt thou forsake me too in my distress,

Seducèd daughter? (
Aside to her
) Go, forget not.

[
Aloud
] Becomes it Jews to be so credulous?

(
Aside to her
) Tomorrow early I'll be at the door.

[
Aloud
] No, come not at me! If thou wilt be damned,

360   Forget me, see me not, and so begone.

(
Aside [to her]
) Farewell. Remember tomorrow morning.

[
Aloud
] Out, out, thou wretch!

[
Exeunt separately
.]

Enter
MATHIAS.

MATHIAS

Who's this? Fair Abigall, 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,

Embracèd 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

10   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,

Cropped from the pleasures of the fruitful earth,

And strangely
metamorphized 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,

20   As, had you seen her, 'twould have moved your heart,

Though
countermured
with walls of brass, to love,

Or at the least to pity.

LODOWICK