BARABAS. You'll make 'em friends! are there not Jews enow in Malta, But thou must dote upon a Christian?
ABIGAIL. I will have Don Mathias; he is my love.
BARABAS. Yes, you shall have him.--Go, put her in.
ITHAMORE. Ay, I'll put her in. [Puts in ABIGAIL.]
BARABAS. Now tell me, Ithamore, how lik'st thou this?
ITHAMORE. Faith, master, I think by this You purchase both their lives: is it not so?
BARABAS. True; and it shall be cunningly perform'd.
ITHAMORE. O, master, that I might have a hand in this!
BARABAS. Ay, so thou shalt; 'tis thou must do the deed: Take this, and bear it to Mathias straight, [Giving a letter.] And tell him that it comes from Lodowick.
BARABAS. No, no; and yet it might be done that way: It is a challenge feign'd from Lodowick.
ITHAMORE. Fear not; I will so set his heart a-fire, That he shall verily think it comes from him.
BARABAS. I cannot choose but like thy readiness: Yet be not rash, but do it cunningly.
ITHAMORE. As I behave myself in this, employ me hereafter.
BARABAS. Away, then! [Exit ITHAMORE.] So; now will I go in to Lodowick, And, like a cunning spirit, feign some lie, Till I have set 'em both at enmity. [Exit.]
BELLAMIRA. Since this town was besieg'd, my gain grows cold: The time has been, that but for one bare night A hundred ducats have been freely given; But now against my will I must be chaste: And yet I know my beauty doth not fail. ]From Venice merchants, and from Padua Were wont to come rare-witted gentlemen, Scholars I mean, learned and liberal; And now, save Pilia-Borza, comes there none, And he is very seldom from my house; And here he comes.
PILIA-BORZA. Hold thee, wench, there's something for thee to spend. [Shewing a bag of silver.]
PILIA-BORZA. Ay, but the Jew has gold, And I will have it, or it shall go hard.
BELLAMIRA. Tell me, how cam'st thou by this?
PILIA-BORZA. Faith, walking the back-lanes, through the gardens, I chanced to cast mine eye up to the Jew's counting-house, where I saw some bags of money, and in the night I clambered up with my hooks; and, as I was taking my choice, I heard a rumbling in the house; so I took only this, and run my way.--But here's the Jew's man.
PILIA-BORZA. Look not towards him, let's away. Zoons, what a looking thou keepest! thou'lt betray's anon. [Exeunt BELLAMIRA and PILIA-BORZA.]