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_ ACT II - SCENE I
[Enter BARABAS, with a light.] [53]
[Footnote 53: Enter BARABAS, with a light: The scene is now before the house of Barabas, which has been turned into a nunnery.]
BARABAS.
Thus, like the sad-presaging raven, that tolls
The sick man's passport in her hollow beak, [54]
And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings,
Vex'd and tormented runs poor Barabas
With fatal curses towards these Christians.
The incertain pleasures of swift-footed time
Have ta'en their flight, and left me in despair;
And of my former riches rests no more
But bare remembrance; like a soldier's scar,
That has no further comfort for his maim.--
O Thou, that with a fiery pillar ledd'st
The sons of Israel through the dismal shades,
Light Abraham's offspring; and direct the hand
Of Abigail this night! or let the day
Turn to eternal darkness after this!--
No sleep can fasten on my watchful eyes,
Nor quiet enter my distemper'd thoughts,
Till I have answer of my Abigail.
[Enter ABIGAIL above.]
[Footnote 54: Thus, like the sad-presaging raven, that tolls
The sick man's passport in her hollow beak
Mr. Collier (HIST. OF ENG. DRAM. POET. iii. 136) remarks that
these lines are cited (with some variation, and from memory,
as the present play was not printed till 1633) in an epigram on
T. Deloney, in Guilpin's SKIALETHEIA OR THE SHADOWE OF TRUTH,
1598,--
"LIKE TO THE FATALL OMINOUS RAVEN, WHICH TOLLS
THE SICK MAN'S DIRGE WITHIN HIS HOLLOW BEAKE,
So every paper-clothed post in Poules
To thee, Deloney, mourningly doth speake," &c.]
ABIGAIL.
Now have I happily espied a time
To search the plank my father did appoint;
And here, behold, unseen, where I have found
The gold, the pearls, and jewels, which he hid.
BARABAS.
Now I remember those old women's words,
Who in my wealth would tell me winter's tales,
And speak of spirits and ghosts that glide by night
About the place where treasure hath been hid:
And now methinks that I am one of those;
For, whilst I live, here lives my soul's sole hope,
And, when I die, here shall my spirit walk.
ABIGAIL. Now that my father's fortune were so good
As but to be about this happy place!
'Tis not so happy: yet, when we parted last,
He said he would attend me in the morn.
Then, gentle Sleep, where'er his body rests,
Give charge to Morpheus that he may dream
A golden dream, and of [55] the sudden wake, [56]
Come and receive the treasure I have found.
[Footnote 55: of: i.e. on.]
[Footnote 56: wake: Old ed. "walke."]
BARABAS.
Bueno para todos mi ganado no era: [57]
As good go on, as sit so sadly thus.--
But stay: what star shines yonder in the east? [58]
The loadstar of my life, if Abigail.--
Who's there?
[Footnote 57: Bueno para todos mi ganado no era: Old ed. "Birn para todos, my ganada no er."]
[Footnote 58: But stay: what star shines yonder in the east, &c. Shakespeare, it would seem, recollected this passage, when he wrote,--
"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"
ROMEO AND JULIET, act ii. sc. 2.]
ABIGAIL.
Who's that?
BARABAS.
Peace, Abigail! 'tis I.
ABIGAIL.
Then, father, here receive thy happiness.
BARABAS.
Hast thou't?
ABIGAIL.
Here.[throws down bags] Hast thou't?
There's more, and more, and more.
BARABAS.
O my girl,
My gold, my fortune, my felicity,
Strength to my soul, death to mine enemy;
Welcome the first beginner of my bliss!
O Abigail, Abigail, that I had thee here too!
Then my desires were fully satisfied:
But I will practice thy enlargement thence:
O girl! O gold! O beauty! O my bliss!
[Hugs the bags.]
ABIGAIL.
Father, it draweth towards midnight now,
And 'bout this time the nuns begin to wake;
To shun suspicion, therefore, let us part.
BARABAS.
Farewell, my joy, and by my fingers take
A kiss from him that sends it from his soul.
[Exit ABIGAIL above.]
Now, Phoebus, ope the eye-lids of the day.
And, for the raven, wake the morning lark,
That I may hover with her in the air,
Singing o'er these, as she does o'er her young.
Hermoso placer de los dineros. [59]
[Footnote 59: Hermoso placer de los dineros: Old ed. "Hormoso Piarer, de les Denirch."]
[Exit.] _
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