LODOWICK. Well, Barabas, canst help me to a diamond?
BARABAS. O, sir, your father had my diamonds: Yet I have one left that will serve your turn.-- I mean my daughter; but, ere he shall have her, I'll sacrifice her on a pile of wood: I ha' the poison of the city(69) for him, And the white leprosy. [Aside.]
LODOWICK. What sparkle does it give without a foil?
BARABAS. The diamond that I talk of ne'er was foil'd:-- But, when he touches it, it will be foil'd.--(70) [Aside.] Lord Lodowick, it sparkles bright and fair.
LODOWICK. Is it square or pointed? pray, let me know.
BARABAS. Pointed it is, good sir,--but not for you. [Aside.]
LODOWICK. I like it much the better.
BARABAS. So do I too.
LODOWICK. How shews it by night?
BARABAS. Outshines Cynthia's rays:-- You'll like it better far o' nights than days. [Aside.]
LODOWICK. And what's the price?
BARABAS. Your life, an if you have it [Aside].--O my lord, We will not jar about the price: come to my house, And I will give't your honour--with a vengeance. [Aside.]
LODOWICK. No, Barabas, I will deserve it first.
BARABAS. Good sir, Your father has deserv'd it at my hands, Who, of mere charity and Christian ruth, To bring me to religious purity, And, as it were, in catechising sort, To make me mindful of my mortal sins, Against my will, and whether I would or no, Seiz'd all I had, and thrust me out o' doors, And made my house a place for nuns most chaste.
LODOWICK. No doubt your soul shall reap the fruit of it.
BARABAS. Ay, but, my lord, the harvest is far off: And yet I know the prayers of those nuns And holy friars, having money for their pains, Are wondrous;--and indeed do no man good;-- [Aside.] And, seeing they are not idle, but still doing, 'Tis likely they in time may reap some fruit, I mean, in fullness of perfection.
LODOWICK. Good Barabas, glance not at our holy nuns.
BARABAS. No, but I do it through a burning zeal,-- Hoping ere long to set the house a-fire; For, though they do a while increase and multiply, I'll have a saying to that nunnery.--(71) [Aside.] As for the diamond, sir, I told you of, Come home, and there's no price shall make us part, Even for your honourable father's sake,-- It shall go hard but I will see your death.-- [Aside.] But now I must be gone to buy a slave.
LODOWICK. And, Barabas, I'll bear thee company.
BARABAS. Come, then; here's the market-place.-- What's the price of this slave? two hundred crowns! do the Turks weigh so much?
FIRST OFFICER. Sir, that's his price.
BARABAS. What, can he steal, that you demand so much? Belike he has some new trick for a purse; An if he has, he is worth three hundred plates,(72) So that, being bought, the town-seal might be got To keep him for his life-time from the gallows: The sessions-day is critical to thieves, And few or none scape but by being purg'd.
LODOWICK. Rat'st thou this Moor but at two hundred plates?
FIRST OFFICER. No more, my lord.
BARABAS. Why should this Turk be dearer than that Moor?
FIRST OFFICER. Because he is young, and has more qualities.
BARABAS. What, hast the philosopher's stone? an thou hast, break my head with it, I'll forgive thee.
SLAVE.(73) No, sir; I can cut and shave.
BARABAS. Let me see, sirrah; are you not an old shaver?
SLAVE. Alas, sir, I am a very youth!
BARABAS. A youth! I'll buy you, and marry you to Lady Vanity,(74) if you do well.
SLAVE. I will serve you, sir.
BARABAS. Some wicked trick or other: it may be, under colour of shaving, thou'lt cut my throat for my goods. Tell me, hast thou thy health well?
SLAVE. Ay, passing well.
BARABAS. So much the worse: I must have one that's sickly, an't be but for sparing victuals: 'tis not a stone of beef a-day will maintain you in these chops.--Let me see one that's somewhat leaner.
FIRST OFFICER. Here's a leaner; how like you him?
BARABAS. Where wast thou born?
ITHAMORE. In Thrace; brought up in Arabia.
BARABAS. So much the better; thou art for my turn. An hundred crowns? I'll have him; there's the coin. [Gives money.]
FIRST OFFICER.