NATHAN: Who hath betrayed me to the
Patriarch?
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
He hath heard
That hereabouts there dwells a certain Jew
Who hath brought up a Christian as his child.
NATHAN: How?
BONAFIDES: Hear me out. I fear me that I gave
Occasion for this sin, when I, a squire,
Brought you, full eighteen years ago, the babe,
The orphan babe of Leonard, Lord of Filnek.
He fell at Askalon.
NATHAN: Ay so; and I,
Bereft by Christians of my wife and sons,
Received the infant as a gift from Heaven,
And made it mine. And now, belike, I suffer
For this my charity. But tell me now,
Was not the mother sister to a Templar,
Conrade of Stauffen?
BONAFIDES: Let me fetch a book,
In Arabic, I had from my dead lord.
'Tis said to tell the lineage of the babe.
NATHAN: Go, fetch it quickly. [_Exeunt. _
SCENE IV. --_A place of palms. _ NATHAN _and the_ TEMPLAR.
NATHAN: Who hath betrayed me to the Patriarch?
TEMPLAR: Alas! 'twas I. You took my suit so coldly
That when from Daya I had learned your secret,
I fancied you had little mind to give
A Christian what from Christians you had taken.
I thought to use my knowledge as a lever,
And so, not having you, I put the matter
In problem-wise before the Patriarch.
Suppose he find you out. What then? He cannot
Seize Recha, if she be no longer yours.
Ah! give her then, to me, and let him come.
NATHAN: Too late! You are too late, for I have found
Her kinsfolk. Hark you, Recha has a brother.
TEMPLAR: Well, he's the man to fit her with a husband.
Of thee and me she'll have no longer need.
SCENE V.
That hereabouts there dwells a certain Jew
Who hath brought up a Christian as his child.
NATHAN: How?
BONAFIDES: Hear me out. I fear me that I gave
Occasion for this sin, when I, a squire,
Brought you, full eighteen years ago, the babe,
The orphan babe of Leonard, Lord of Filnek.
He fell at Askalon.
NATHAN: Ay so; and I,
Bereft by Christians of my wife and sons,
Received the infant as a gift from Heaven,
And made it mine. And now, belike, I suffer
For this my charity. But tell me now,
Was not the mother sister to a Templar,
Conrade of Stauffen?
BONAFIDES: Let me fetch a book,
In Arabic, I had from my dead lord.
'Tis said to tell the lineage of the babe.
NATHAN: Go, fetch it quickly. [_Exeunt. _
SCENE IV. --_A place of palms. _ NATHAN _and the_ TEMPLAR.
NATHAN: Who hath betrayed me to the Patriarch?
TEMPLAR: Alas! 'twas I. You took my suit so coldly
That when from Daya I had learned your secret,
I fancied you had little mind to give
A Christian what from Christians you had taken.
I thought to use my knowledge as a lever,
And so, not having you, I put the matter
In problem-wise before the Patriarch.
Suppose he find you out. What then? He cannot
Seize Recha, if she be no longer yours.
Ah! give her then, to me, and let him come.
NATHAN: Too late! You are too late, for I have found
Her kinsfolk. Hark you, Recha has a brother.
TEMPLAR: Well, he's the man to fit her with a husband.
Of thee and me she'll have no longer need.
SCENE V.
