The Jew of Malta · Act I · Scene II (2/2) (2/2)

| Abigail | Fearing the afflictions which my father feels Proceed from sin, or want of faith in us, I’d pass away my life in penitence, And be a novice in your nunnery, To make atonement for my labouring soul. | | Friar Jacomo | No doubt, brother, but this proceedeth of the spirit. | | Friar Barnadine | Ay, and of a moving spirit too, brother; but come, Let us entreat she may be entertained. | | Abbess | Well, daughter, we admit you for a nun. | | Abigail | First let me as a novice learn to frame My solitary life to your strait laws, And let me lodge where I was wont to lie, I do not doubt, by your divine precepts And mine own industry, but to profit much. | | Barabas | As much, I hope, as all I hid is worth. Aside. | | Abbess | Come, daughter, follow us. | | Barabas | Coming forward. Why, how now, Abigail, What makest thou amongst these hateful Christians? | | Friar Jacomo | Hinder her not, thou man of little faith, For she has mortified herself. | | Barabas | How! mortified? | | Friar Jacomo | And is admitted to the sisterhood. | | Barabas | Child of perdition, and thy father’s shame! What wilt thou do among these hateful fiends? I charge thee on my blessing that thou leave These devils, and their damned heresy! | | Abigail | Father, forgive me⁠—She goes to him. | | Barabas | Nay, back, Abigail, (And think upon the jewels and the gold; The board is marked thus that covers it.) Aside to Abigail in a whisper. Away, accursed, from thy father’s sight! | | Friar Jacomo | Barabas, although thou art in misbelief, And wilt not see thine own afflictions, Yet let thy daughter be no longer blind. | | Barabas | Blind friar, I reck not thy persuasions, (The board is marked thus24 that covers it.) Aside to Abigail in a whisper. For I had rather die than see her thus. Wilt thou forsake me too in my distress, Seduced daughter? (Go, forget not,) Aside in a whisper. Becomes it Jews to be so credulous? (To-morrow early I’ll be at the door.) Aside in a whisper. No, come not at me; if thou wilt be damned, Forget me, see me not, and so be gone! (Farewell; remember to-morrow morning.) Aside in a whisper. Out, out, thou wretch! | | | Exeunt, on one side, Barabas, on the other side Friars, Abbess, Nun, and Abigail; as they are going out, | | | Enter Mathias. | | Mathias | Who’s this? fair Abigail, the rich Jew’s daughter, Become a nun! her father’s sudden fall Has humbled her, and brought her down to this: Tut, she were fitter for a tale of love, Than to be tired out with orisons: And better would she far become a bed, Embraced in a friendly lover’s arms, Than rise at midnight to a solemn mass. | | | Enter Lodowick. | | Lodowick | Why, how now, Don Mathias! in a dump? | | Mathias | Believe me, noble Lodowick, I have seen The strangest sight, in my opinion, That ever I beheld. | | Lodowick | What was’t, I prithee? | | Mathias | A fair young maid, scarce fourteen years of age, The sweetest flower in Cytherea’s field, Cropt from the pleasures of the fruitful earth, And strangely metamorphosed nun. | | Lodowick | But say, what was she? | | Mathias | Why, the rich Jew’s daughter. | | Lodowick | What, Barabas, whose goods were lately seized? Is she so fair? | | Mathias | And matchless beautiful; As, had you seen her, ’twould have mov’d your heart, Though countermined with walls of brass, to love, Or, at the least, to pity. | | Lodowick | An if she be so fair as you report, ’Twere time well spent to go and visit her: How say you? shall we? | | Mathias | I must and will, sir; there’s no remedy. | | Lodowick | And so will I too, or it shall go hard. Farewell, Mathias. | | Mathias | Farewell, Lodowick. | | | Exeunt severally. |