The Jew of Malta Christopher Marlowe (top non fiction books of all time txt) š
- Author: Christopher Marlowe
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Off with your girdle, make a handsome noose.
Ithamore takes off his girdle, and ties a noose on it.
Friar, awake! They put the noose round the Friarās neck. Friar Barnadine
What, do you mean to strangle me?
IthamoreYes, ācause you use to confess.
BarabasBlame not us, but the proverb, Confess and be hanged; pull hard.
Friar BarnadineWhat, will you have67 my life?
BarabasPull hard, I say; you would have had my goods.
IthamoreAy, and our lives too, therefore pull amain. They strangle him.
āTis neatly done, sir, hereās no print at all.
Then is it as it should be; take him up.
IthamoreNay, master, be ruled by me a little. Stands the body upright against the wall, and puts a staff in its hand.
So, let him lean upon his staff; excellent! he stands as if he were begging of bacon.68
BarabasWho would not think but that this friar lived?
What time oā night isāt now, sweet Ithamore?
Towards one.
BarabasThen will not Jacomo be long from hence.
Exeunt. Scene III Enter Friar Jacomo.69 Friar JacomoThis is the hour wherein I shall proceed;70
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 a purpose, meaning me some wrong,
And intercept my going to the Jew.ā ā
Barnardine!
Wilt thou not speak? thou thinkāst I see thee not;
Away, Iād wish thee, and let me go by:
No, wilt thou not? nay, then, Iāll force my way;
And see, a staff stands ready for the purpose:
As thou likāst that, stop me another time.
Takes the staff, and strikes down the body, which falls down.
Why, how now, Jacomo, what hast thou done?
Friar JacomoWhy, stricken him that would have struck at me.
BarabasWho is it? Barnardine! now out, alas, heās slain!
IthamoreAy, master, heās slain; look how his brains drop out onās nose.
Friar JacomoGood sirs, I have doneāt, but nobody knows it but you twoā āI may escape.
BarabasSo might my man and I hang with you for company.
IthamoreNo, let us bear him to the magistrates.
Friar JacomoGood Barabas, let me go.
BarabasNo, pardon me; the law must have his course
I must be forced to give in evidence,
That being importuned by this Barnardine
To be a Christian, I shut him out,
And there he sat: 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 stayed.
Fie upon āem! master; will you turn Christian, when holy friars turn devils and murder one another?
BarabasNo, for this example Iāll remain a Jew:
Heaven bless me! what, a friar a murderer?
When shall you see a Jew commit the like?
Why, a Turk could haā done no more.
BarabasTo-morrow is the sessions; you shall to it.
Come, Ithamore, letās help to take him hence.
Villains, I am a sacred person; touch me not.
BarabasThe law shall touch you, weāll but lead you, we:
āLas, I could weep at your calamity!
Take in the staff too, for that must be shown:
Law wills that each particular be known.
Pilia-Borza, didāst thou meet with Ithamore?
Pilia-BorzaI did.
BellamiraAnd didst thou deliver my letter?
Pilia-BorzaI did.
BellamiraAnd what thinkāst thou? will he come?
Pilia-BorzaI think so, but yet I cannot tell; for, at the reading of the letter he looked like a man of another world.
BellamiraWhy so?
Pilia-BorzaThat such a base slave as he should be saluted by such a tall72 man as I am, from such a beautiful dame as you.
BellamiraAnd what said he?
Pilia-BorzaNot a wise word, only gave me a nod, as who should say, āIs it even so?ā and so I left him, being driven to a non-plus at the critical aspect of my terrible countenance.
BellamiraAnd where didst meet him?
Pilia-BorzaUpon mine own freehold, within forty feet of the gallows, conning his neck-verse,73 I take it, looking of74 a friarās execution; whom I saluted with an old hempen proverb, Hodie tibi, cras mihi, and so I left him to the mercy of the hangman: but, the exercise75 being done, see where he comes.
Enter Ithamore. IthamoreI never knew a man take his death so patiently as this friar; he was ready to leap off ere the halter was about his neck; and when the hangman had put on his hempen tippet, he made such haste to his prayers, as if he had had another cure to serve. Well, go whither he will, Iāll be none of his followers in haste: and, now I think onāt, going to the execution, a fellow met me with a muschatoes76 like a ravenās wing, and a dagger with a hilt like a warming-pan, and he gave me a letter from one Madam Bellamira, saluting me in such sort as if he had meant to make clean my boots with his lips; the effect was, that I should come to her house. I wonder what the reason is; it may be she sees more in me than I can find in myself: for she writes further, that she loves me ever since she saw me, and who would not requite such love? Hereās her house, and here she comes, and now would I were gone; I am not worthy to look upon her.
Pilia-BorzaThis is the gentleman you writ to.
IthamoreGentleman! he flouts me: what gentry can be in a poor Turk of tenpence?77 Iāll be gone.Aside.
BellamiraIsāt not a sweet-faced youth, Pilia?
IthamoreAgain, āsweet youth!ā Aside.ā āDid not you, sir, bring the sweet youth
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