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_ ACT IV - SCENE VI
[Enter BELLAMIRA, [167] ITHAMORE, and PILIA-BORZA.]
[Footnote 167: Enter BELLAMIRA, &c.: They are supposed to be sitting in a veranda or open portico of Bellamira's house: see note *, p. 168. [i.e. note 145.]
BELLAMIRA.
I'll pledge thee, love, and therefore drink it off.
ITHAMORE.
Say'st thou me so? have at it! and do you hear?
[Whispers to her.]
BELLAMIRA.
Go to, it shall be so.
ITHAMORE.
Of [168] that condition I will drink it up:
Here's to thee.
[Footnote 168: Of: i.e. on.]
BELLAMIRA.
[169] Nay, I'll have all or none.
[Footnote 169: BELLAMIRA.: Old ed. "Pil."]
ITHAMORE.
There, if thou lov'st me, do not leave a drop.
BELLAMIRA.
Love thee! fill me three glasses.
ITHAMORE.
Three and fifty dozen: I'll pledge thee.
PILIA-BORZA.
Knavely spoke, and like a knight-at-arms.
ITHAMORE.
Hey, Rivo Castiliano! [170] a man's a man.
[Footnote 170: 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.]
BELLAMIRA.
Now to the Jew.
ITHAMORE.
Ha! to the Jew; and send me money he [171] were best.
[Footnote 171: he: Old ed. "you".]
PILIA-BORZA.
What wouldst thou do, if he should send thee none?
ITHAMORE.
Do nothing: but I know what I know; he's a murderer.
BELLAMIRA.
I had not thought he had been so brave a man.
ITHAMORE.
You knew Mathias and the governor's son; he and I
killed 'em both, and yet never touched 'em.
PILIA-BORZA.
O, bravely done!
ITHAMORE.
I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns; and he
and I, snicle hand too fast, strangled a friar. [172]
[Footnote 172: and he and I, snicle hand too fast, strangled a friar] There is surely some corruption here. Steevens (apud Dodsley's O. 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--
Itha. Strangled a friar."]
BELLAMIRA.
You two alone?
ITHAMORE.
We two; and 'twas never known, nor never shall be for me.
PILIA-BORZA.
This shall with me unto the governor.
[Aside to BELLAMIRA.]
BELLAMIRA.
And fit it should: but first let's ha' more gold.--
[Aside to PILIA-BORZA.]
Come, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.
ITHAMORE.
Love me little, love me long: let music rumble,
Whilst I in thy incony [173] lap do tumble.
[Enter BARABAS, disguised as a French musician, with a lute, and a nosegay in his hat.]
[Footnote 173: incony: i.e. fine, pretty, delicate.--Old ed. "incoomy."]
BELLAMIRA.
A French musician!--Come, let's hear your skill.
BARABAS.
Must tuna my lute for sound, twang, twang, first.
ITHAMORE.
Wilt drink, Frenchman? here's to thee with a--Pox on
this drunken hiccup!
BARABAS.
Gramercy, monsieur.
BELLAMIRA.
Prithee, Pilia-Borza, bid the fiddler give me the
posy in his hat there.
PILIA-BORZA.
Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy.
BARABAS.
A votre commandement, madame.
[Giving nosegay.]
BELLAMIRA.
How sweet, my Ithamore, the flowers smell!
ITHAMORE.
Like thy breath, sweetheart; no violet like 'em.
PILIA-BORZA.
Foh! methinks they stink like a hollyhock. [174]
[Footnote 174: 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.]
BARABAS.
So, now I am reveng'd upon 'em all:
The scent thereof was death; I poison'd it.
[Aside.]
ITHAMORE.
Play, fiddler, or I'll cut your cat's guts into chitterlings.
BARABAS.
Pardonnez moi, be no in tune yet: so, now, now all be in.
ITHAMORE.
Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine.
PILIA-BORZA.
There's two crowns for thee: play.
[Giving money.]
BARABAS.
How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold!
[Aside, and then plays.]
PILIA-BORZA.
Methinks he fingers very well.
BARABAS.
So did you when you stole my gold.
[Aside.]
PILIA-BORZA.
How swift he runs!
BARABAS.
You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window.
[Aside.]
BELLAMIRA.
Musician, hast been in Malta long?
BARABAS.
Two, three, four month, madam.
ITHAMORE.
Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas?
BARABAS.
Very mush: monsieur, you no be his man?
PILIA-BORZA.
His man!
ITHAMORE.
I scorn the peasant: tell him so.
BARABAS.
He knows it already.
[Aside.]
ITHAMORE.
'Tis a strange thing of that Jew, he lives upon
pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms. [175]
[Footnote 175: mushrooms: For this word (as, indeed, for most words) our early writers had no fixed spelling. Here the old ed. has "Mushrumbs": and in our author's EDWARD THE SECOND, the 4tos have "mushrump."]
BARABAS.
What a slave's this! the governor feeds not as I do.
[Aside.]
ITHAMORE.
He never put on clean shirt since he was circumcised.
BARABAS. O rascal! I change myself twice a-day.
[Aside.]
ITHAMORE.
The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder when he
hanged himself. [176]
[Footnote 176: under the elder when he hanged himself: That Judas hanged himself on an elder-tree, was a popular legend. Nay, the very tree was exhibited to the curious in Sir John Mandeville's days: "And faste by, is zit the Tree of Eldre, that Judas henge him self upon, for despeyt that he hadde, whan he solde and betrayed oure Lorde." VOIAGE AND TRAVAILE, &c. p. 112. ed. 1725. But, according to Pulci, Judas had recourse to a carob-tree:
"Era di sopra a la fonte UN CARRUBBIO,
L'ARBOR, SI DICE, OVE S'IMPICCO GIUDA," &c.
MORGANTE MAG. C. xxv. st. 77.]
BARABAS.
'Twas sent me for a present from the Great Cham.
[Aside.]
PILIA-BORZA.
A nasty [177] slave he is.--Whither now, fiddler?
[Footnote 177: nasty: Old ed. "masty."]
BARABAS.
Pardonnez moi, monsieur; me [178] be no well.
[Footnote 178: me: Old ed. "we".]
PILIA-BORZA.
Farewell, fiddler
[Exit BARABAS.]
One letter more to the Jew.
BELLAMIRA.
Prithee, sweet love, one more, and write it sharp.
ITHAMORE.
No, I'll send by word of mouth now.
--Bid him deliver thee a thousand crowns, by the
same token that the nuns loved rice, that Friar
Barnardine slept in his own clothes; any of 'em
will do it.
PILIA-BORZA.
Let me alone to urge it, now I know the meaning.
ITHAMORE.
The meaning has a meaning. Come, let's in:
To undo a Jew is charity, and not sin.
[Exeunt.] _
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