O happy hour, wherein I shall convert

An infidel, and bring his gold into our treasury!
But soft! is not this Barnardine? it is;
And, understanding I should come this way,
Stands here o' purpose, meaning me some wrong,
And intercept my going to the Jew.-
Barnardine !

Wilt thou not speak? thou think'st I see thee not;
Away, I'd wish thee, and let me go by:
No, wilt thou not? nay, then, I'll force my way;
And, see, a staff stands ready for the purpose.
As thou lik'st that, stop me another time!
Takes the staff, and strikes down the body.

Enter BARABAS and ITHAMORE.

Bara. Why, how now, Jacomo! what hast thou done?

Friar Jac. Why, stricken him that would have struck at me.

Bara. Who is it? Barnardine! now, out, alas, he is slain !

Itha. Ay, master, he's slain; look how his brains drop out on's § nose.

Friar Jac. Good sirs, I have done't: but nobody knows it but you two; I may escape.

Bara. So might my man and I hang with you for company.

Itha. No; let us bear him to the magistrates. Friar Jac. Good Barabas, let me go.

Barq. No, pardon me; the law must have his

course:

I must be forc'd to give in evidence,
That, being importun'd by this Barnardine

* What time o' night is't now, sweet Ithamore?

ITHA. Towards one] Might be adduced, among other passages, to shew that the modern editors are right when they print in Shakespeare's King John, act iii. sc. 3, "If the midnight bell Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth, Sound one into the drowsy ear of night," &c. Enter Friar Jacomo] The scene is now before Barabas's house, the audience having had to suppose that the body of Barnardine, which Ithamore had set upright, was standing outside the door.

proceed] Seems to be used here as equivalent tosucceed. § on's] i.e. of his.

To be a Christian, I shut him out,
And there he sate: now I, to keep my word,
And give my goods and substance to your house,
Was up thus early, with intent to go
Unto your friary, because you stay'd.

Itha. Fie upon 'em! master, will you turn Christian, when holy friars turn devils and murder one another?

Bara. No; for this example I'll remain a Jew: Heaven bless me! what, a friar a murderer! When shall you see a Jew commit the like? Itha. Why, a Turk could ha' done no more. Bara. To-morrow is the sessions; you shall

to it.

Come, Ithamore, let's help to take him hence. Friar Jac. Villains, I am a sacred person; touch me not.

Bara. The law shall touch you; we'll but lead you, we:

'Las, I could weep at your calamity!— Take in the staff too, for that must be shown: Law wills that each particular be known.

[Exeunt.

Enter BELLAMIRA * and PILIA-BORZA. Bell. Pilia-Borza, didst thou meet with Ithamore?

Pilia. I did.

Bell. And didst thou deliver my letter?
Pilia. I did.

Bell. And what thinkest thou? will he come? Pilia. I think so: and yet I cannot tell; for, at the reading of the letter, he looked like a man of another world.

Bell. Why so?

Pilia. That such a base slave as he should be saluted by such a tallt man as I am, from such a beautiful dame as you.

Bell. And what said he?

Pilia. Not a wise word; only gave me a nod, as who should say, "Is it even so?" and so I left him, being driven to a non-plus at the critical aspect of my terrible countenance.

Bell. And where didst meet him?

Pilia. Upon mine own free-hold, within forty foot of the gallows, conning his neck-verse, I

* Enter Bellamira, &c.] The scene, as in p. 160, a veranda or open portico of Bellamira's house.

tall] Which our early dramatists generally use in the sense of-bold, brave (see note ‡, p. 161), is here perhaps equivalent to-handsome. ("Tall or semely." Prompt. Parv. ed. 1499.)

‡ neck-verse] i.e. the verse (generally the beginning of the 51st Psalm, Miserere mei, &c.) read by a criminal to entitle him to benefit of clergy.

I'll be thy Jason, thou my golden fleece;-
Where painted carpets o'er the meads are hurl'd,
And Bacchus' vineyards overspread the world;
Where woods and forests go in goodly green;-
I'll be Adonis, thou shalt be Love's Queen ;-
The meads, the orchards, and the primrose-lanes,
Instead of sedge and reed, bear sugar-canes :
Thou in those groves, by Dis above,
Shalt live with me, and be my love.+

Bell. Whither will I not go with gentle Ithamore?

Re-enter PILIA-BORZA.

Itha. How now! hast thou the gold?
Pilia. Yes.

Itha. But came it freely did the cow give down her milk freely?

Pilia. At reading of the letter, he stared and stamped, and turned aside: I took him by the beard, and looked upon him thus; told him he were best to send it: then he hugged and embraced me.

Itha. Rather for fear than love.

Pilia. Then, like a Jew, he laughed and jeered, and told me he loved me for your sake, and said what a faithful servant you had been.

Itha. The more villain he to keep me thus: here's goodly 'parel, is there not?

Pilia. To esnclude, he gave me ten crowns. [Delivers the money to ITHAMORE.

Itha. But ten? I'll not leave him worth a grey groat. Give me a ream of paper: we'll have a kingdom of gold for't.§

* cunning] i.e. skilfully prepared.-Old ed. "running." (The maids are supposed to hear their mistress' orders within.)

Shall live with me, and be my love] A line, slightly varied, of Marlowe's well-known song. In the preceding line, the absurdity of "by Dis above" is, of course, intentional.

beard] Old ed. "sterd."

§ Give me a ream of paper: we'll have a kingdom of gold for't] A quibble. Realm was frequently written ream; and frequently (as the following passages shew), even

when the former spelling was given, the I was not sounded;

"Vpon the siluer bosome of the streame
First gan faire Themis shake her amber locks,
Whom all the Nimphs that waight on Neptunes realme
Attended from the hollowe of the rocks."

Lodge's Scillaes Metamorphosis, &c. 1589, Sig. A 2. "How he may surest stablish his new conquerd realme, How of his glorie fardest to deriue the streame.”

A Herings Tayle, &c. 1598, Sig. D 3. "Learchus slew his brother for the crowne; So did Cambyses fearing much the dreame ; Antiochus, of infamous renowne,

His brother slew, to rule alone the realme."

Mirour for Magistrates, p. 78. ed. 1610. runs division] "A musical term [of very common occurrence]" STEEVENS (apud Dodsley's 0. P.).

Enter Barabas] The scene certainly seems to be now the interior of Barabas's house, notwithstanding what he presently says to Pilia-Borza (p. 171, sec. col.), "Pray, when, sir, shall I see you at my house?"

↑ tatter'd] Old ed. "totter'd": but in a passage of our author's Edward the Second the two earliest 4tos have "tatter'd robes":-and yet Reed in a note on that

That, when he speaks, draws out his grisly beard, And winds it twice or thrice about his ear; Whose face has been a grind-stone for men's swords;

His hands are hack'd, some fingers cut quite off; Who, when he speaks, grunts like a hog, and looks

Like one that is employ'd in catzery*
And cross-biting; † such a rogue

As is the husband to a hundred whores;

And I by him must send three hundred crowns. Well, my hope is, he will not stay there still; And, when he comes-0, that he were but here!

Bara. I cannot do it; I have lost my keys. Pilia. O, if that be all, I can pick ope your locks.

Bara. Or climb up to my counting-house window: you know my meaning.

Pilia. 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.

passage (apud Dodsley's Old Plays, where the reading of the third 4to, "tottered robes ", is followed) boldly declares that "in every writer of this period the word was spelt tottered"! The truth is, it was spelt sometimes one way, sometimes the other.

*catzery] i. e. cheating, roguery. It is formed from catso (cazzo, see note *, p. 166), which our early writers used, not only as an exclamation, but as an opprobrious term.

† cross-biting] i.e. swindling (a cant term).-Something has dropt out here.

tale] i.e. reckoning.

& what he writes for you] i.e. the hundred crowns to be given to the bearer: see p. 170, sec. col.

* Rivo Castiliano] The origin of this Bacchanalian exclamation has not been discovered. Rivo generally is used alone; but, among passages parallel to that of our text, is the following one (which has been often cited),— "And Ryuo will he cry and Castile too."

Looke about You, 1600, sig. L. 4. A writer in The Westminster Review, vol. xliii. 53, thinks that it is a misprint for Rico-castellano, meaning a Spaniard belonging to the class of ricos hombres, and the phrase therefore is

'Hey, noble Castilian, a man's a man!'

'I can pledge like a man and drink like a man, my worthy Trojan;' as some of our farce-writers would say." But the frequent occurrence of Rivo in various authors proves that it is not a misprint.

the] Old ed. "you".

and he and I, snicle hand too fast, strangled a friar] There is surely some corruption here. Steevens (apud Dodsley's 0. P.) proposes to read "hand to fist". Gilchrist (ibid.) observes, "a snicle is a north-country word for a noose, and when a person is hanged, they say he is snicled." See too, in v. Snickle, Forby's Voc. of East Anglia, and the Craven Dialect.-The Rev. J. Mitford proposes the following (very violent) alteration of this passage;

"Itha. I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns; and he and I

Pilia. Two hands snickle-fast-
Ithu. Strangled a friar."

Itha. Wilt drink, Frenchman? here's to thee with a-Pox on this drunken hiccup ! Bara. Gramercy, monsieur.

Bell. Prithee, Pilia-Borza, bid the fiddler give me the posy in his hat there.

Pilia. Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy.

Bara. A votre commandement, madame.

[Giving nosegay.

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. +

Bara. So, now I am reveng'd upon 'em all: The scent thereof was death; I poison'd it.

[Aside.

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

Bara. Pardonnez moi, be no in tune yet: so, now, now all be in.

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

Pilia. There's two crowns for thee: play.

[Giving money. Bara. How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold! [Aside, and then plays. Pilia. Methinks he fingers very well. Bara. So did you when you stole my gold. [Aside.

Pilia. How swift he runs! Bara. You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window. [Aside.

Bell. Musician, hast been in Malta long? Bara. Two, three, four month, madam. Itha. Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas ? Bara. Very mush: monsieur, you no be his man?

Pilia. His man!

Itha. I scorn the peasant: tell him so.

*incony] i. e. fine, pretty, delicate.-Old ed. "incoomy." ↑ they stink like a hollyhock] "This flower, however, has no offensive smell." STEEVENS (apud Dodsley's O. P.). Its odour resembles that of the poppy.