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_ ACT III - SCENE III
[Enter ITHAMORE.] [99]
[Footnote 99: Enter ITHAMORE: The scene a room in the house of Barabas.]
ITHAMORE.
Why, was there ever seen such villany,
So neatly plotted, and so well perform'd?
Both held in hand, [100] and flatly both beguil'd?
[Enter ABIGAIL.]
[Footnote 100: held in hand: i.e. kept in expectation, having their hopes
flattered.]
ABIGAIL.
Why, how now, Ithamore! why laugh'st thou so?
ITHAMORE.
O mistress! ha, ha, ha!
ABIGAIL.
Why, what ail'st thou?
ITHAMORE.
O, my master!
ABIGAIL.
Ha!
ITHAMORE.
O mistress, I have the bravest, gravest, secret,
subtle, bottle-nosed [101] knave to my master,
that ever gentleman had!
[Footnote 101: bottle-nosed: See note †, p. 157. [i.e. note 79.]]
ABIGAIL.
Say, knave, why rail'st upon my father thus?
ITHAMORE.
O, my master has the bravest policy!
ABIGAIL.
Wherein?
ITHAMORE.
Why, know you not?
ABIGAIL.
Why, no.
ITHAMORE.
Know you not of Mathia[s'] and Don Lodowick['s] disaster?
ABIGAIL.
No: what was it?
ITHAMORE.
Why, the devil inverted a challenge, my master
writ it, and I carried it, first to Lodowick,
and imprimis to Mathia[s];
And then they met, [and], as the story says,
In doleful wise they ended both their days.
ABIGAIL.
And was my father furtherer of their deaths?
ITHAMORE.
Am I Ithamore?
ABIGAIL.
Yes.
ITHAMORE.
So sure did your father write, and I carry the challenge.
ABIGAIL.
Well, Ithamore, let me request thee this;
Go to the new-made nunnery, and inquire
For any of the friars of Saint Jaques, [102]
And say, I pray them come and speak with me.
[Footnote 102: Jaques: Old ed. "Iaynes."]
ITHAMORE.
I pray, mistress, will you answer me to one question?
ABIGAIL.
Well, sirrah, what is't?
ITHAMORE.
A very feeling one: have not the nuns fine sport with
the friars now and then?
ABIGAIL.
Go to, Sirrah Sauce! is this your question? get ye gone.
ITHAMORE.
I will, forsooth, mistress.
[Exit.]
ABIGAIL.
Hard-hearted father, unkind Barabas!
Was this the pursuit of thy policy,
To make me shew them favour severally,
That by my favour they should both be slain?
Admit thou lov'dst not Lodowick for his sire, [103]
Yet Don Mathias ne'er offended thee:
But thou wert set upon extreme revenge,
Because the prior dispossess'd thee once,
And couldst not venge it but upon his son;
Nor on his son but by Mathias' means;
Nor on Mathias but by murdering me:
But I perceive there is no love on earth,
Pity in Jews, nor piety in Turks.--
But here comes cursed Ithamore with the friar.
[Re-enter ITHAMORE with FRIAR JACOMO.]
[Footnote 103: sire: Old ed. "sinne" (which, modernised to "sin", the editors retain, among many other equally obvious errors of the old copy).]
FRIAR JACOMO.
Virgo, salve.
ITHAMORE.
When duck you?
ABIGAIL.
Welcome, grave friar.--Ithamore, be gone.
[Exit ITHAMORE.]
Know, holy sir, I am bold to solicit thee.
FRIAR JACOMO.
Wherein?
ABIGAIL.
To get me be admitted for a nun.
FRIAR JACOMO.
Why, Abigail, it is not yet long since
That I did labour thy admission,
And then thou didst not like that holy life.
ABIGAIL.
Then were my thoughts so frail and unconfirm'd
As [104] I was chain'd to follies of the world:
But now experience, purchased with grief,
Has made me see the difference of things.
My sinful soul, alas, hath pac'd too long
The fatal labyrinth of misbelief,
Far from the sun that gives eternal life!
[Footnote 104: As: Old ed. "And."]
FRIAR JACOMO.
Who taught thee this?
ABIGAIL.
The abbess of the house,
Whose zealous admonition I embrace:
O, therefore, Jacomo, let me be one,
Although unworthy, of that sisterhood!
FRIAR JACOMO.
Abigail, I will: but see thou change no more,
For that will be most heavy to thy soul.
ABIGAIL.
That was my father's fault.
FRIAR JACOMO.
Thy father's! how?
ABIGAIL.
Nay, you shall pardon me.--O Barabas,
Though thou deservest hardly at my hands,
Yet never shall these lips bewray thy life!
[Aside.]
FRIAR JACOMO.
Come, shall we go?
ABIGAIL.
My duty waits on you.
[Exeunt.] _
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