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_ ACT IV - SCENE V
[Enter BARABAS, [159] reading a letter.]
[Footnote 159: Enter BARABAS: The scene certainly seems to be now the interior of Barabas's house, notwithstanding what he presently says to Pilia-Borza (p. 171, sec. col.), "Pray, when, sir, shall I see you at my house?"]
BARABAS.
BARABAS, SEND ME THREE HUNDRED CROWNS;--
Plain Barabas! O, that wicked courtezan!
He was not wont to call me Barabas;--
OR ELSE I WILL CONFESS;--ay, there it goes:
But, if I get him, coupe de gorge for that.
He sent a shaggy, tatter'd, [160] staring slave,
That, when he speaks, draws out his grisly beard,
And winds it twice or thrice about his ear;
Whose face has been a grind-stone for men's swords;
His hands are hack'd, some fingers cut quite off;
Who, when he speaks, grunts like a hog, and looks
Like one that is employ'd in catzery [161]
And cross-biting; [162] such a rogue
As is the husband to a hundred whores;
And I by him must send three hundred crowns.
Well, my hope is, he will not stay there still;
And, when he comes--O, that he were but here!
[Enter PILIA-BORZA.]
[Footnote 160: tatter'd: Old ed. "totter'd": but in a passage of our author's EDWARD THE SECOND the two earliest 4tos have "TATTER'D robes":--and yet Reed in a note on that passage (apud Dodsley's OLD PLAYS, where the reading of the third 4to, "tottered robes", is followed) boldly declares that "in every writer of this period the word was spelt TOTTERED"! The truth is, it was spelt sometimes one way, sometimes the other.]
[Footnote 161: catzery: i.e. cheating, roguery. It is formed from CATSO (CAZZO, see note *, p. 166 i.e. note 127), which our early writers used, not only as an exclamation, but as an opprobrious term.]
[Footnote 162: cross-biting: i.e. swindling (a cant term).--Something has dropt out here.]
PILIA-BORZA.
Jew, I must ha' more gold.
BARABAS.
Why, want'st thou any of thy tale? [163]
[Footnote 163: tale: i.e. reckoning.]
PILIA-BORZA.
No; but three hundred will not serve his turn.
BARABAS.
Not serve his turn, sir!
PILIA-BORZA.
No, sir; and therefore I must have five hundred more.
BARABAS.
I'll rather----
PILIA-BORZA.
O, good words, sir, and send it you were best! see,
there's his letter.
[Gives letter.]
BARABAS.
Might he not as well come as send? pray,
bid him come and fetch it: what he writes for you,
[164] ye shall have straight.
[Footnote 164: what he writes for you: i.e. the hundred crowns to be given to the bearer: see p. 170, sec. col.
p. 170, second column, this play:
"ITHAMORE. [writing: SIRRAH JEW, AS YOU LOVE YOUR LIFE,
SEND ME FIVE HUNDRED CROWNS, AND GIVE THE BEARER A HUNDRED.
--Tell him I must have't."]
PILIA-BORZA.
Ay, and the rest too, or else----
BARABAS.
I must make this villain away [Aside].--Please you dine
with me, sir--and you shall be most heartily poisoned.
[Aside.]
PILIA-BORZA.
No, God-a-mercy. Shall I have these crowns?
BARABAS.
I cannot do it; I have lost my keys.
PILIA-BORZA.
O, if that be all, I can pick ope your locks.
BARABAS.
Or climb up to my counting-house window: you know my meaning.
PILIA-BORZA.
I know enough, and therefore talk not to me of
your counting-house. The gold! or know, Jew,
it is in my power to hang thee.
BARABAS.
I am betray'd.--
[Aside.]
'Tis not five hundred crowns that I esteem;
I am not mov'd at that: this angers me,
That he, who knows I love him as myself,
Should write in this imperious vein. Why, sir,
You know I have no child, and unto whom
Should I leave all, but unto Ithamore?
PILIA-BORZA.
Here's many words, but no crowns: the crowns!
BARABAS.
Commend me to him, sir, most humbly,
And unto your good mistress as unknown.
PILIA-BORZA.
Speak, shall I have 'em, sir?
BARABAS. Sir, here they are.--
[Gives money.]
O, that I should part [165] with so much gold!--
[Aside.]
Here, take 'em, fellow, with as good a will----
As I would see thee hang'd [Aside]. O, love stops my breath!
Never lov'd man servant as I do Ithamore.
[Footnote 165: I should part: Qy. "I E'ER should part"?]
PILIA-BORZA.
I know it, sir.
BARABAS.
Pray, when, sir, shall I see you at my house?
PILIA-BORZA.
Soon enough to your cost, sir. Fare you well.
[Exit.]
BARABAS.
Nay, to thine own cost, villain, if thou com'st!
Was ever Jew tormented as I am?
To have a shag-rag knave to come [force from me]
Three hundred crowns, and then five hundred crowns!
Well; I must seek a means to rid [166] 'em all,
And presently; for in his villany
He will tell all he knows, and I shall die for't.
I have it:
I will in some disguise go see the slave,
And how the villain revels with my gold.
[Footnote 166: rid: i.e. despatch, destroy.]
[Exit.] _
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