BARABAS. Thus trolls our fortune in by land and sea,
And thus are we on every side enrich'd:
These are the blessings promis'd to the Jews,
And herein was old Abraham's happiness:
What more may heaven do for earthly man
Than thus to pour out plenty in their laps,
Ripping the bowels of the earth for them,
Making the sea[s] their servants, and the winds
To drive their substance with successful blasts?
Who hateth me but for my happiness?
Or who is honour'd now but for his wealth?
Rather had I, a Jew, be hated thus,
Than pitied in a Christian poverty;
For I can see no fruits in all their faith,
But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride,
Which methinks fits not their profession.
Haply some hapless man hath conscience,
And for his conscience lives in beggary.
They say we are a scatter'd nation:
I cannot tell; but we have scambled up
More wealth by far than those that brag of faith [. . .]
[Three Jews enter and tell Barabas that a fleet from Turkey is coming to Malta. They fear war, especially because the Governor of Malta has ordered all Jews to come to the sentate-house (the seat of government). The Bassoes (emissaries) of the Turk explain that they have come to collect 10 years tribute that is past due. The governor of Malta is given one month to raise the funds or Malta will be attacked]
Enter FERNEZE governor of Malta, KNIGHTS, and OFFICERS;
met by CALYMATH, and BASSOES of the TURK.
FERNEZE. And all good fortune wait on Calymath!
[Exeunt CALYMATH and BASSOES.]
Go one and call those Jews of Malta hither:
Were they not summon'd to appear to-day?
FIRST OFFICER. They were, my lord; and here they come.
Enter BARABAS and three JEWS.
FIRST KNIGHT. Have you determin'd what to say to them?
FERNEZE. Yes; give me leave:—and, Hebrews, now come near.
From the Emperor of Turkey is arriv'd
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 robb'd 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 money'd 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 tax'd?
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 befall'n,
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. [reads] SECONDLY, HE THAT DENIES TO PAY, SHALL
STRAIGHT-BECOME A CHRISTIAN.
BARABAS. How! a Christian!—Hum,—what's here to do?
[Aside.]
OFFICER. [reads] 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 us'd but as my brethren are.
FERNEZE. No, Jew, thou hast denied the articles,
And now it cannot be recall'd.
[Exeunt OFFICERS, on a sign from FERNEZE]
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 scorn'd 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 forc'd 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.
[Barabas is very upset about what has happened and begins to plot revenge. He starts by looking for his daughter Abigail]
BARABAS. [...]
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 fram'd 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. Nor for myself, but aged Barabas,
Father, for thee lamenteth Abigail:
But I will learn to leave these fruitless tears;
And, urg'd 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, Abigail; things past recovery
Are hardly cur'd 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 seiz'd 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 barr'd.
BARABAS. My gold, my gold, and all my wealth is gone!—
You partial heavens, have I deserv'd 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 rul'd 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 entertain'd.
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 entertain'd.
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 entertain'd,
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 BARABAS, with a light.
BARABAS. Thus, like the sad-presaging raven, that tolls
The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,
And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings,
Vex'd and tormented runs poor Barabas
With fatal curses towards these Christians.
The incertain pleasures of swift-footed time
Have ta'en their flight, and left me in despair;
And of my former riches rests no more
But bare remembrance; like a soldier's scar,
That has no further comfort for his maim.—
O Thou, that with a fiery pillar ledd'st
The sons of Israel through the dismal shades,
Light Abraham's offspring; and direct the hand
Of Abigail this night! or let the day
Turn to eternal darkness after this!—
No sleep can fasten on my watchful eyes,
Nor quiet enter my distemper'd thoughts,
Till I have answer of my Abigail.
Enter ABIGAIL above.
ABIGAIL. Now have I happily espied a time
To search the plank my father did appoint;
And here, behold, unseen, where I have found
The gold, the pearls, and jewels, which he hid.
BARABAS. Now I remember those old women's words,
Who in my wealth would tell me winter's tales,
And speak of spirits and ghosts that glide by night
About the place where treasure hath been hid:
And now methinks that I am one of those;
For, whilst I live, here lives my soul's sole hope,
And, when I die, here shall my spirit walk.
ABIGAIL. Now that my father's fortune were so good
As but to be about this happy place!
'Tis not so happy: yet, when we parted last,
He said he would attend me in the morn.
Then, gentle Sleep, where'er his body rests,
Give charge to Morpheus that he may dream
A golden dream, and of the sudden wake,
Come and receive the treasure I have found.
BARABAS. Bueno para todos mi ganado no era:
As good go on, as sit so sadly thus.—
But stay: what star shines yonder in the east?
The loadstar of my life, if Abigail.—
Who's there?
ABIGAIL. Who's that?
BARABAS. Peace, Abigail! 'tis I.
ABIGAIL. Then, father, here receive thy happiness.
BARABAS. Hast thou't?
ABIGAIL. Here.[throws down bags] Hast thou't?
There's more, and more, and more.
BARABAS. O my girl,
My gold, my fortune, my felicity,
Strength to my soul, death to mine enemy;
Welcome the first beginner of my bliss!
O Abigail, Abigail, that I had thee here too!
Then my desires were fully satisfied:
But I will practice thy enlargement thence:
O girl! O gold! O beauty! O my bliss!
[Hugs the bags.]
[Barabas realizes the Lodowick is in love with Abigail, and that he can use this to his advantage, even though she is in love eith Don Mathias. Barabas uses Abigail to play suitors off one another until he manipulates the men into a duel and they both die; ultimately, she decides not to continue participating in his plans and becomes a nun.]
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/901/901-h/901-h.htm#noteref-31