________________________________________________
_ ACT III - SCENE I
[Enter BELLAMIRA.] [91]
[Footnote 91: Enter BELLAMIRA: She appears, we may suppose, in a veranda or open portico of her house (that the scene is not the interior of the house, is proved by what follows).]
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.
[Enter PILIA-BORZA.]
PILIA-BORZA.
Hold thee, wench, there's something for thee to spend.
[Shewing a bag of silver.]
BELLAMIRA.
'Tis silver; I disdain it.
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.
BELLAMIRA.
Hide the bag.
[Enter ITHAMORE.]
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.]
ITHAMORE.
O, the sweetest face that ever I beheld! I know she
is a courtezan by her attire: now would I give a hundred of
the Jew's crowns that I had such a concubine.
Well, I have deliver'd the challenge in such sort,
As meet they will, and fighting die,--brave sport!
[Exit.] _
Read next: Act 3 - Scene 2
Read previous: Act 2 - Scene 3
Table of content of Jew of Malta
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
