The Jew of Malta

epub:type="noteref">53 the blood of Hydra, Lerna’s bane:

The juice of hebon, 54 and Cocytus’ breath,

And all the poisons of the Stygian pool

Break from the fiery kingdom; and in this

Vomit your venom and invenom her

That like a fiend hath left her father thus.

Ithamore

What a blessing has he given’t! was ever pot of rice-porridge so sauced? Aside. What shall I do with it?



Barabas

O, my sweet Ithamore, go set it down,

And come again so soon as thou hast done,

For I have other business for thee.



Ithamore

Here’s a drench to poison a whole stable of Flanders mares: I’ll carry’t to the nuns with a powder.



Barabas

And the horse pestilence to boot; away!



Ithamore

I am gone:

Pay me my wages, for my work is done.




Exit.


Barabas

I’ll pay thee with a vengeance, Ithamore!




Exit.


Scene V




Enter Ferneze, Martin del Bosco, Knights, and Basso. 55


Ferneze

Welcome, great basso; how fares Calymath?

What wind drives you thus into Malta-road?



Basso

The wind that bloweth all the world besides⁠—

Desire of gold.



Ferneze

Desire of gold, great sir?

That’s to be gotten in the Western Ind:

In Malta are no golden minerals.



Basso

To you of Malta thus saith Calymath:

The time you took for respite is at hand,

For the performance of your promise passed,

And for the tribute-money I am sent.



Ferneze

Basso, in brief, ’shalt have no tribute here,

Nor shall the heathens live upon our spoil:

First will we raze the city walls ourselves,

Lay waste the island, hew the temples down,

And, shipping off our goods to Sicily,

Open an entrance for the wasteful sea,

Whose billows, beating the resistless banks,

Shall overflow it with their refluence.



Basso

Well, governor, since thou hast broke the league

By flat denial of the promised tribute,

Talk not of razing down your city walls;

You shall not need trouble yourselves so far,

For Selim Calymath shall come himself,

And with brass bullets batter down your towers,

And turn proud Malta to a wilderness

For these intolerable wrongs of yours;

And so, farewell.



Ferneze

Farewell.




Exit Basso.




And now, ye men of Malta, look about,

And let’s provide to welcome Calymath:

Close your portcullis, charge your basilisks, 56

And as you profitably take up arms,

So now courageously encounter them;

For by this answer broken is the league,

And naught is to be looked for now but wars,

And naught to us more welcome is than wars.




Exeunt.





Scene VI




Enter Friar Jacomo and Friar Barnadine. 57


Friar Jacomo

O, brother, brother, all the nuns are sick,

And physic will not help them: they must die.



Friar Barnadine

The abbess sent for me to be confessed:

O, what a sad confession will there be!



Friar Jacomo

And so did fair Maria send for me:

I’ll to her lodging: hereabouts she lies.




Exit.



Enter Abigail.


Friar Barnadine

What, all dead, save only Abigail?



Abigail

And I shall die too, for I feel death coming.

Where is the friar that conversed with me?



Friar Barnadine

O, he is gone to see the other nuns.



Abigail

I sent for him, but, seeing you are come,

Be you my ghostly father: and first know,

That in this house I lived religiously,

Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins;

But, ere I came⁠—



Friar Barnadine

What then?



Abigail

I did offend high Heaven so grievously

As I am almost desperate for my sins:

And one offence torments me more than all.

You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick?



Friar Barnadine

Yes; what of them?



Abigail

My father did contract me to ’em both:

First to Don Lodowick: him I never loved;

Mathias was the man that I held dear,

And for his sake did I become a nun.



Friar Barnadine

So, say how was their end?



Abigail

Both, jealous of my love, envied 58 each other,

And by my father’s practice, 59 which is there

Set down at large, the gallants were both slain.

Gives a written paper.



Friar Barnadine

O monstrous villany!



Abigail

To work my peace, this I confess to thee;

Reveal it not, for then my father dies.



Friar Barnadine

Know that confession must not be revealed,

The canon law forbids it, and the priest

That makes it known, being degraded first,

Shall be condemned, and then sent to the fire.



Abigail

So I have heard; pray, therefore, keep it close.

Death seizeth on my heart: ah gentle friar,

Convert my father that he may be saved,

And witness that I die a Christian!

Dies.



Friar Barnadine

Ay, and a virgin too; that grieves me most:

But I must to the Jew, and exclaim on him,

And make him stand in fear of me.




Re-enter Friar Jacomo.


Friar Jacomo

O brother, all the nuns are dead, let’s bury them.



Friar Barnadine

First help to bury this, then go with me,

And help me to exclaim against the Jew.



Friar Jacomo

Why, what has he done?



Friar Barnadine

A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.



Friar Jacomo

What, has he crucified a child? 60



Friar Barnadine

No, but a worse thing: ’twas told me in shrift,

Thou know’st ’tis death, an if it be revealed.

Come, let’s away.




Exeunt.





Act IV

Scene I




Enter Barabas and Ithamore. Bells within. 61


Barabas

There is no music to 62 a Christian’s knell:

How sweet the bells ring now the nuns are dead,

That sound at other times like tinkers’ pans!

I was afraid the poison had not wrought:

Or, though it wrought, it would have done no good,

For every year they swell, and yet they live;

Now all are dead, not one remains alive.



Ithamore

That’s brave, master, but think you it will not be known?



Barabas

How can it, if we two be secret?



Ithamore

For my part fear you not.



Barabas

I’d cut thy throat if I did.



Ithamore

And reason too.

But here’s a royal monastery hard by;

Good master, let me poison all the monks.



Barabas

Thou shalt not need, for, now the nuns are dead

They’ll die with grief.



Ithamore

Do you not sorrow for your daughter’s death?



Barabas

No, but I grieve