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+Project Gutenberg Etext Nathan the Wise, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
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+Title: Nathan the Wise
+
+Author: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
+
+Translator: William Taylor of Norwich
+
+Release Date: March, 2003  [Etext #3820]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 09/25/01]
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+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext Nathan the Wise, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
+********This file should be named natws10.txt or natws10.zip********
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+This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
+from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition.
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+This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
+from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+NATHAN THE WISE:  A Dramatic Poem in Five Acts
+
+by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
+
+
+
+
+Translated by William Taylor of Norwich
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born on the 22nd of January, 1729,
+eldest of ten sons of a pious and learned minister of Camenz in the
+Oberlausitz, who had two daughters also.  As a child Lessing
+delighted in books, and had knowledge beyond his years when he went
+to school, in Meissen, at the age of twelve.  As a school-boy he
+read much Greek and Latin that formed no part of the school course;
+read also the German poets of his time, wrote a "History of Ancient
+Mathematics," and began a poem of his own on the "Plurality of Worlds."
+
+In 1746, at the age of seventeen, Lessing was sent to the University
+of Leipsic.  There he studied with energy, and was attracted
+strongly by the theatre.  His artistic interest in the drama caused
+him to be put on the free list of the theatre, in exchange for some
+translations of French pieces.  Then he produced, also for the
+Leipsic stage, many slight pieces of his own, and he had serious
+thought of turning actor, which excited alarm in the parsonage at
+Camenz and caused his recall home in January, 1747.  It was found,
+however, that although he could not be trained to follow his
+father's profession, he had been studying to such good purpose, and
+developing, in purity of life, such worth of character, that after
+Easter he was sent back to Leipsic, with leave to transfer his
+studies from theology to medicine.
+
+Lessing went back, continued to work hard, but still also gave all
+his leisure to the players.  For the debts of some of them he had
+incautiously become surety, and when the company removed to Vienna,
+there were left behind them unpaid debts for which young Lessing was
+answerable.  The creditors pressed, and Lessing moved to Wittenberg;
+but he fell ill, and was made so miserable by pressure for
+impossible payments, that he resolved to break off his studies, go
+to Berlin, and begin earning by his pen, his first earnings being
+for the satisfaction of these Leipsic creditors.  Lessing went first
+to Berlin to seek his fortune in December, 1748, when he was
+nineteen years old.  He was without money, without decent clothes,
+and with but one friend in Berlin, Mylius, who was then editing a
+small journal, the Rudigersche Zeitung.  Much correspondence brought
+him a little money from the overburdened home, and with addition of
+some small earning from translations, this enabled him to obtain a
+suit of clothes, in which he might venture to present himself to
+strangers in his search for fortune.  A new venture with Mylius, a
+quarterly record of the history of the theatre, was not successful;
+but having charge committed to him of the library part of Mylius's
+journal, Lessing had an opportunity of showing his great critical
+power.  Gottsched, at Leipsic, was then leader of the war on behalf
+of classicism in German literature.  Lessing fought on the National
+side, and opposed also the beginning of a new French influence then
+rising, which was to have its chief apostle in Rousseau.
+
+In 1752 Lessing went back to Wittenberg for another year, that he
+might complete the work for graduation; graduated in December of
+that year as Master of Arts, and then returned to his work in
+Berlin.  He worked industriously, not only as critic, but also in
+translation from the classics, from French, English, and Italian;
+and he was soon able to send help towards providing education for
+the youngest of the household of twelve children in the Camenz
+parsonage.  In 1753 he gave himself eight weeks of withdrawal from
+other work to write, in a garden-house at Potsdam, his tragedy of
+"Miss Sarah Sampson."  It was produced with great success at
+Frankfort on the Oder, and Lessing's ruling passion for dramatic
+literature became the stronger for this first experience of what he
+might be able to achieve.  In literature, Frederick the Great cared
+only for what was French.  A National drama, therefore, could not
+live in Berlin.  In the autumn of 1755, Lessing suddenly moved to
+Leipsic, where an actor whom he had befriended was establishing a
+theatre.  Here he was again abandoning himself to the cause of a
+National drama, when a rich young gentleman of Leipsic invited his
+companionship upon a tour in Europe.  Terms were settled, and they
+set out together.  They saw much of Holland, and were passing into
+England, when King Frederick's attack on Saxony recalled the young
+Leipsiger, and caused breach of what had been a contract for a three
+years' travelling companionship.  In May, 1758, Lessing, aged
+twenty-nine, returned to his old work in Berlin.  Again he
+translated, edited, criticised.  He wrote a tragedy, "Philotas," and
+began a "Faust."  He especially employed his critical power in
+"Letters upon the Latest Literature," known as his Literatur briefe.
+Dissertations upon fable, led also to Lessing's "Fables," produced
+in this period of his life.
+
+In 1760 Lessing was tempted by scarcity of income to serve as a
+Government secretary at Breslau.  He held that office for five
+years, and then again returned to his old work in Berlin.  During
+the five years in Breslau, Lessing had completed his play of "Minna
+von Barnhelm," and the greatest of his critical works, "Laocoon," a
+treatise on the "Boundary Lines of Painting and Poetry."  All that
+he might then have saved from his earnings went to the buying of
+books and to the relief of the burdens in the Camenz parsonage.  At
+Berlin the office of Royal Librarian became vacant.  The claims of
+Lessing were urged, but Frederick appointed an insignificant
+Frenchman.  In 1767 Lessing was called to aid an unsuccessful
+attempt to establish a National Theatre in Hamburg.
+
+Other troubles followed.  Lessing gave his heart to a widow, Eva
+Konig, and was betrothed to her.  But the involvements of her
+worldly affairs, and of his, delayed the marriage for six years.  To
+secure fixed income he took a poor office as Librarian at
+Wolfenbuttel.  In his first year at Wolfenbuttel, he wrote his play
+of "Emilia Galotti."  Then came a long-desired journey to Italy; but
+it came in inconvenient form, for it had to be made with Prince
+Leopold, of Brunswick, hurriedly, for the sake of money, at the time
+when Lessing was at last able to marry.
+
+The wife, long waited for, and deeply loved, died at the birth of
+her first child.  This was in January, 1778, when Lessing's age was
+49.  Very soon afterwards he was attacked by a Pastor Goeze, in
+Hamburg, and other narrow theologians, for having edited papers that
+contained an attack on Christianity, which Lessing himself had said
+that he wished to see answered before he died.  The uncharitable
+bitterness of these attacks, felt by a mind that had been touched to
+the quick by the deepest of sorrows, helped to the shaping of
+Lessing's calm, beautiful lesson of charity, this noblest of his
+plays--"Nathan the Wise."  But Lessing's health was shattered, and
+he survived his wife only three years.  He died in 1781, leaving
+imperishable influence for good upon the minds of men, but so poor
+in what the world calls wealth, that his funeral had to be paid for
+by a Duke of Brunswick.
+
+William Taylor, the translator of Lessing's "Nathan the Wise;" was
+born in 1765, the son of a rich merchant at Norwich, from whose
+business he was drawn away by his strong bent towards literature.
+His father yielded to his wishes, after long visits to France and to
+Germany, in days astir with the new movements of thought, that
+preceded and followed the French Revolution.  He formed a close
+friendship with Southey, edited for a little time a "Norwich Iris,"
+and in his later years became known especially for his Historic
+Survey of German Poetry, which included his translations, and among
+them this of "Nathan the Wise."  It was published in 1830, Taylor
+died in 1836.  Thomas Carlyle, in reviewing William Taylor's Survey
+of German Poetry, said of the author's own translations in it
+"compared with the average of British translations, they may be
+pronounced of almost ideal excellence; compared with the best
+translations extant, for example, the German Shakespeare, Homer,
+Calderon, they may still be called better than indifferent.  One
+great merit Mr. Taylor has:  rigorous adherence to his original; he
+endeavours at least to copy with all possible fidelity the term of
+praise, the tone, the very metre, whatever stands written for him."
+
+H. M.
+
+
+
+NATHAN THE WISE.
+
+
+
+"Introite nam et heic Dii sunt!"--APUD GELLIUM.
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+
+SALADIN, the Sultan.
+SITTAH, his Sister.
+NATHAN, a rich Jew.
+RECHA, his adopted Daughter.
+DAYA, a Christian Woman dwelling with the Jew a companion to Recha.
+CONRADE, a young Templar.
+HAFI, a Dervis.
+ATHANASIOS, the Patriarch of Palestine.
+BONAFIDES, a Friar.
+An Emir, sundry Mamalukes, Slaves, &c.
+
+The Scene is at Jerusalem.
+
+
+
+ACT I.
+
+
+
+SCENE--A Hall in Nathan's House.
+
+NATHAN, in a travelling dress, DAYA meeting him.
+
+DAYA.
+
+'Tis he, 'tis Nathan!  Thanks to the Almighty,
+That you're at last returned.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Yes, Daya, thanks,
+That I have reached Jerusalem in safety.
+But wherefore this AT LAST?  Did I intend,
+Or was it possible to come back sooner?
+As I was forced to travel, out and in,
+'Tis a long hundred leagues to Babylon;
+And to get in one's debts is no employment,
+That speeds a traveller.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   O Nathan, Nathan,
+How miserable you had nigh become
+During this little absence; for your house -
+
+NATHAN,
+
+Well, 'twas on fire; I have already heard it.
+God grant I may have heard the whole, that chanced!
+
+DAYA.
+
+'Twas on the point of burning to the ground.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Then we'd have built another, and a better.
+
+DAYA.
+
+True!--But thy Recha too was on the point
+Of perishing amid the flames.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Of perishing?
+My Recha, saidst thou?  She?  I heard not that.
+I then should not have needed any house.
+Upon the point of perishing--perchance
+She's gone?--Speak out then--out--torment me not
+With this suspense.--Come, tell me, tell me all.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Were she no more, from me you would not hear it.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Why then alarm me?--Recha, O my Recha!
+
+DAYA.
+
+Your Recha?  Yours?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   What if I ever were
+Doomed to unlearn to call this child, MY child,
+
+DAYA.
+
+Is all you own yours by an equal title?
+
+NATHAN,
+
+Nought by a better.  What I else enjoy
+Nature and Fortune gave--this treasure, Virtue.
+
+DAYA.
+
+How dear you make me pay for all your goodness! -
+If goodness, exercised with such a view,
+Deserves the name. -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+With such a view?  With what?
+
+DAYA.
+
+My conscience -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Daya, let me tell you first -
+
+DAYA.
+
+I say, my conscience -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   What a charming silk
+I bought for you in Babylon!  'Tis rich,
+Yet elegantly rich.  I almost doubt
+If I have brought a prettier for Recha.
+
+DAYA.
+
+And what of that--I tell you that my conscience
+Will no be longer hushed.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And I have bracelets,
+And earrings, and a necklace, which will charm you.
+I chose them at Damascus.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   That's your way:-
+If you can but make presents--but make presents. -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Take you as freely as I give--and cease.
+
+DAYA.
+
+And cease?--Who questions, Nathan, but that you are
+Honour and generosity in person; -
+Yet -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Yet I'm but a Jew.--That was your meaning.
+
+DAYA.
+
+You better know what was my meaning, Nathan.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well, well, no more of this,
+
+DAYA.
+
+   I shall be silent;
+But what of sinful in the eye of heaven
+Springs out of it--not I, not I could help;
+It falls upon thy head.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   So let it, Daya.
+Where is she then?  What stays her?  Surely, surely,
+You're not amusing me--And does she know
+That I'm arrived?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   That you yourself must speak to,
+Terror still vibrates in her every nerve.
+Her fancy mingles fire with all she thinks of.
+Asleep, her soul seems busy; but awake,
+Absent:  now less than brute, now more than angel.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Poor thing!  What are we mortals -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   As she lay
+This morning sleeping, all at once she started
+And cried:  "list, list! there come my father's camels!"
+And then she drooped again upon her pillow
+And I withdrew--when, lo! you really came.
+Her thoughts have only been with you--and him.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And HIM?  What him?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   With him, who from the fire
+Preserved her life,
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Who was it?  Where is he,
+That saved my Recha for me?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   A young templar,
+Brought hither captive a few days ago,
+And pardoned by the Sultan.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   How, a TEMPLAR
+Dismissed with life by Saladin.  In truth,
+Not a less miracle was to preserve her,
+God!--God! -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Without this man, who risked afresh
+The Sultan's unexpected boon, we'd lost her.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Where is he, Daya, where's this noble youth?
+Do, lead me to his feet.  Sure, sure you gave him
+What treasures I had left you--gave him all,
+Promised him more--much more?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   How could we?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Not?
+
+DAYA.
+
+He came, he went, we know not whence, or whither.
+Quite unacquainted with the house, unguided
+But by his ear, he prest through smoke and flame,
+His mantle spread before him, to the room
+Whence pierced the shrieks for help; and we began
+To think him lost--and her; when, all at once,
+Bursting from flame and smoke, he stood before us,
+She in his arm upheld.  Cold and unmoved
+By our loud warmth of thanks, he left his booty,
+Struggled into the crowd, and disappeared.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+But not for ever, Daya, I would hope.
+
+DAYA.
+
+For some days after, underneath you palms,
+That shade his grave who rose again from death,
+We saw him wandering up and down.  I went,
+With transport went to thank him.  I conjured,
+Intreated him to visit once again
+The dear sweet girl he saved, who longed to shed
+At her preserver's feet the grateful tear -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   But in vain.  Deaf to our warmest prayers,
+On me he flung such bitter mockery -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+That hence rebuffed -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Oh, no, oh, no, indeed not,
+Daily I forced myself upon him, daily
+Afresh encountered his dry taunting speeches.
+Much I have borne, and would have borne much more:
+But he of late forbears his lonely walk
+Under the scattered palms, which stand about
+Our holy sepulchre:  nor have I learnt
+Where he now is.  You seem astonished--thoughtful -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I was imagining what strange impressions
+This conduct makes on such a mind as Recha's.
+Disdained by one whom she must feel compelled
+To venerate and to esteem so highly.
+At once attracted and repelled--the combat
+Between her head and heart must yet endure,
+Regret, Resentment, in unusual struggle.
+Neither, perhaps, obtains the upper hand,
+And busy fancy, meddling in the fray,
+Weaves wild enthusiasms to her dazzled spirit,
+Now clothing Passion in the garb of Reason,
+And Reason now in Passion's--do I err?
+This last is Recha's fate--Romantic notions -
+
+DAYA.
+
+Aye; but such pious, lovely, sweet, illusions.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Illusions though.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Yes:  and the one, her bosom
+Clings to most fondly, is, that the brave templar
+Was but a transient inmate of the earth,
+A guardian angel, such as from her childhood
+She loved to fancy kindly hovering round her,
+Who from his veiling cloud amid the fire
+Stepped forth in her preserver's form.  You smile -
+Who knows?  At least beware of banishing
+So pleasing an illusion--if deceitful
+Christian, Jew, Mussulman, agree to own it,
+And 'tis--at least to her--a dear illusion.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Also to me.  Go, my good Daya, go,
+See what she's after.  Can't I speak with her?
+Then I'll find out our untamed guardian angel,
+Bring him to sojourn here awhile among us -
+We'll pinion his wild wing, when once he's taken.
+
+DAYA.
+
+You undertake too much.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And when, my Daya,
+This sweet illusion yields to sweeter truth,
+(For to a man a man is ever dearer
+Than any angel) you must not be angry
+To see our loved enthusiast exercised.
+
+DAYA.
+
+You are so good--and yet so sly.  I'll seek her,
+But listen,--yes! she's coming of herself.
+
+NATHAN, DAYA, and RECHA.
+
+RECHA.
+
+And you are here, your very self, my father,
+I thought you'd only sent your voice before you.
+Where are you then?  What mountains, deserts, torrents,
+Divide us now?  You see me, face to face,
+And do not hasten to embrace your Recha.
+Poor Recha! she was almost burnt alive,
+But only--only--almost.  Do not shudder!
+O 'tis a horrid end to die in fire!
+
+NATHAN (embracing her).
+
+My child, my darling child!
+
+RECHA.
+
+   You had to cross
+The Jordan, Tigris, and Euphrates, and
+Who knows what rivers else.  I used to tremble
+And quake for you, till the fire came so nigh me;
+Since then, methinks 'twere comfort, balm, refreshment,
+To die by water.  But you are not drowned -
+I am not burnt alive.--We will rejoice -
+We will praise God--the kind good God, who bore thee,
+Upon the buoyant wings of UNSEEN angels,
+Across the treacherous stream--the God who bade
+My angel VISIBLY on his white wing
+Athwart the roaring flame -
+
+NATHAN (aside).
+
+   White wing?--oh, aye
+The broad white fluttering mantle of the templar.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Yes, visibly he bore me through the fire,
+O'ershadowed by his pinions.--Face to face
+I've seen an angel, father, my own angel.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Recha deserves it, and would see in him
+No fairer form than he beheld in her,
+
+RECHA.
+
+Whom are you flattering, father--tell me now -
+The angel, or yourself?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Yet had a man,
+A man of those whom Nature daily fashions,
+Done you this service, he to you had seemed,
+Had been an angel.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   No, not such a one.
+Indeed it was a true and real angel.
+And have not you yourself instructed me
+How possible it is there may be angels;
+That God for those who love him can work miracles -
+And I do love him, father -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And he thee;
+And both for thee, and all like thee, my child,
+Works daily wonders, from eternity
+Has wrought them for you.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   That I like to hear.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well, and although it sounds quite natural,
+An every day event, a simple story,
+That you was by a real templar saved,
+Is it the less a miracle?  The greatest
+Of all is this, that true and real wonders
+Should happen so perpetually, so daily.
+Without this universal miracle
+A thinking man had scarcely called those such,
+Which only children, Recha, ought to name so,
+Who love to gape and stare at the unusual
+And hunt for novelty -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Why will you then
+With such vain subtleties, confuse her brain
+Already overheated?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Let me manage. -
+And is it not enough then for my Recha
+To owe her preservation to a man,
+Whom no small miracle preserved himself.
+For whoe'er heard before that Saladin
+Let go a templar; that a templar wished it,
+Hoped it, or for his ransom offered more
+Than taunts, his leathern sword-belt, or his dagger?
+
+RECHA.
+
+That makes for me; these are so many reasons
+He was no real knight, but only seemed it.
+If in Jerusalem no captive templar,
+Appears alive, or freely wanders round,
+How could I find one, in the night, to save me?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Ingenious! dextrous!  Daya, come in aid.
+It was from you I learnt he was a prisoner;
+Doubtless you know still more about him, speak.
+
+DAYA.
+
+'Tis but report indeed, but it is said
+That Saladin bestowed upon this youth
+His gracious pardon for the strong resemblance
+He bore a favourite brother--dead, I think
+These twenty years--his name, I know it not -
+He fell, I don't know where--and all the story
+Sounds so incredible, that very likely
+The whole is mere invention, talk, romance.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And why incredible?  Would you reject
+This story, tho' indeed, it's often done,
+To fix on something more incredible,
+And give that faith?  Why should not Saladin,
+Who loves so singularly all his kindred,
+Have loved in early youth with warmer fondness
+A brother now no more.  Do we not see
+Faces alike, and is an old impression
+Therefore a lost one?  Do resembling features
+Not call up like emotions.  Where's th' incredible?
+Surely, sage Daya, this can be to thee
+No miracle, or do THY wonders only
+Demand--I should have said DESERVE belief?
+
+DAYA.
+
+You're on the bite.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Were you quite fair with me?
+Yet even so, my Recha, thy escape
+Remains a wonder, only possible
+To Him, who of the proud pursuits of princes
+Makes sport--or if not sport--at least delights
+To head and manage them by slender threads.
+
+RECHA.
+
+If I do err, it is not wilfully,
+My father.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   No, you have been always docile.
+See now, a forehead vaulted thus, or thus -
+A nose bow'd one way rather than another -
+Eye-brows with straiter, or with sharper curve -
+A line, a mole, a wrinkle, a mere nothing
+I' th' countenance of an European savage -
+And thou--art saved, in Asia, from the fire.
+Ask ye for signs and wonders after that?
+What need of calling angels into play?
+
+DAYA.
+
+But Nathan, where's the harm, if I may speak,
+Of fancying one's self by an angel saved,
+Rather than by a man?  Methinks it brings us
+Just so much the nearer the incomprehensive
+First cause of preservation.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Pride, rank pride!
+The iron pot would with a silver prong
+Be lifted from the furnace--to imagine
+Itself a silver vase.  Paha!  Where's the harm?
+Thou askest.  Where's the good?  I might reply.
+For thy IT BRINGS US NEARER TO THE GODHEAD
+Is nonsense, Daya, if not blasphemy.
+But it does harm:  yes, yes, it does indeed.
+Attend now.  To the being, who preserved you,
+Be he an angel or a man, you both,
+And thou especially wouldst gladly show
+Substantial services in just requital.
+Now to an angel what great services
+Have ye the power to do?  To sing his praise -
+Melt in transporting contemplation o'er him -
+Fast on his holiday--and squander alms -
+What nothingness of use!  To me at least
+It seems your neighbour gains much more than he
+By all this pious glow.  Not by your fasting
+Is he made fat; not by your squandering, rich;
+Nor by your transports is his glory exalted;
+Nor by your faith his might.  But to a man -
+
+DAYA.
+
+Why yes; a man indeed had furnished us
+With more occasions to be useful to him.
+God knows how readily we should have seized them.
+But then he would have nothing--wanted nothing -
+Was in himself wrapped up, and self-sufficient,
+As angels are.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   And when at last he vanished -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Vanished?  How vanished?  Underneath the palms
+Escaped your view, and has returned no more.
+Or have you really sought for him elsewhere?
+
+DAYA.
+
+No, that indeed we've not.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Not, Daya, not?
+See it does harm, hard-hearted, cold enthusiasts,
+What if this angel on a bed of illness -
+
+RECHA.
+
+Illness?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Ill! sure he is not.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   A cold shudder
+Creeps over me; O Daya, feel my forehead,
+It was so warm, 'tis now as chill as ice.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+He is a Frank, unused to this hot climate,
+Is young, and to the labours of his calling,
+To fasting, watching, quite unused -
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Ill--ill!
+
+DAYA.
+
+Thy father only means 'twere possible.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And there he lies, without a friend, or money
+To buy him friends -
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Alas! my father.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Lies
+Without advice, attendance, converse, pity,
+The prey of agony, of death -
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Where--where?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+He, who, for one he never knew, or saw -
+It is enough for him he is a man -
+Plunged into fire.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   O Nathan, Nathan, spare her.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Who cared not to know aught of her he saved,
+Declined her presence to escape her thanks -
+
+DAYA.
+
+Do, spare her!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Did not wish to see her more
+Unless it were a second time to save her -
+Enough for him he is a man -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Stop, look!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+He--he, in death, has nothing to console him,
+But the remembrance of this deed.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   You kill her!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And you kill him--or might have done at least -
+Recha 'tis medicine I give, not poison.
+He lives--come to thyself--may not be ill -
+Not even ill -
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Surely not dead, not dead.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Dead surely not--for God rewards the good
+Done here below, here too.  Go; but remember
+How easier far devout enthusiasm is
+Than a good action; and how willingly
+Our indolence takes up with pious rapture,
+Tho' at the time unconscious of its end,
+Only to save the toil of useful deeds.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Oh never leave again thy child alone! -
+But can he not be only gone a journey?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Yes, very likely.  There's a Mussulman
+Numbering with curious eye my laden camels,
+Do you know who he is?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Oh, your old dervis.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Who--who?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Your chess companion.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      That, Al-Hafi?
+
+DAYA.
+
+And now the treasurer of Saladin.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Al-Hafi?  Are you dreaming?  How was this?
+In fact it is so.  He seems coming hither.
+In with you quick.--What now am I to hear?
+
+NATHAN and HAFI.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Aye, lift thine eyes in wonder.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Is it you?
+A dervis so magnificent! -
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Why not?
+Can nothing then be made out of a dervis?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Yes, surely; but I have been wont to think
+A dervis, that's to say a thorough dervis,
+Will allow nothing to be made of him.
+
+HAFI.
+
+May-be 'tis true that I'm no thorough dervis;
+But by the prophet, when we must -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Must, Hafi?
+Needs must--belongs to no man:  and a dervis -
+
+HAFI.
+
+When he is much besought, and thinks it right,
+A dervis must.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Well spoken, by our God!
+Embrace me, man, you're still, I trust, my friend.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Why not ask first what has been made of me?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Ask climbers to look back!
+
+HAFI.
+
+   And may I not
+Have grown to such a creature in the state
+That my old friendship is no longer welcome?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+If you still bear your dervis-heart about you
+I'll run the risk of that.  Th' official robe
+Is but your cloak.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   A cloak, that claims some honour.
+What think'st thou?  At a court of thine how great
+Had been Al-Hafi?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Nothing but a dervis.
+If more, perhaps--what shall I say--my cook.
+
+HAFI.
+
+In order to unlearn my native trade.
+Thy cook--why not thy butler too?  The Sultan,
+He knows me better, I'm his treasurer.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+You, you?
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Mistake not--of the lesser purse -
+His father manages the greater still -
+The purser of his household.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   That's not small.
+
+HAFI.
+
+'Tis larger than thou think'st; for every beggar
+Is of his household.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   He's so much their foe -
+
+HAFI.
+
+That he'd fain root them out--with food and raiment -
+Tho' he turn beggar in the enterprize.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Bravo, I meant so.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   And he's almost such.
+His treasury is every day, ere sun-set,
+Poorer than empty; and how high so e'er
+Flows in the morning tide, 'tis ebb by noon.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Because it circulates through such canals
+As can be neither stopped, nor filled.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Thou hast it.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I know it well.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Nathan, 'tis woeful doing
+When kings are vultures amid caresses:
+But when they're caresses amid the vultures
+'Tis ten times worse.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   No, dervis, no, no, no.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Thou mayst well talk so.  Now then, let me hear
+What wouldst thou give me to resign my office?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+What does it bring you in?
+
+HAFI.
+
+   To me, not much;
+But thee, it might indeed enrich:  for when,
+As often happens, money is at ebb,
+Thou couldst unlock thy sluices, make advances,
+And take in form of interest all thou wilt.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And interest upon interest of the interest -
+
+HAFI.
+
+Certainly.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Till my capital becomes
+All interest.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   How--that does not take with thee?
+Then write a finis to our book of friendship;
+For I have reckoned on thee.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   How so, Hafi?
+
+HAFI.
+
+That thou wouldst help me to go thro' my office
+With credit, grant me open chest with thee -
+Dost shake thy head?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Let's understand each other.
+Here's a distinction to be made.  To you,
+To dervis Hafi, all I have is open;
+But to the defterdar of Saladin,
+To that Al-Hafi -
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Spoken like thyself!
+Thou hast been ever no less kind than cautious.
+The two Al-Hafis thou distinguishest
+Shall soon be parted.  See this coat of honour,
+Which Saladin bestowed--before 'tis worn
+To rags, and suited to a dervis' back, -
+Will in Jerusalem hang upon the hook;
+While I along the Ganges scorching strand,
+Amid my teachers shall be wandering barefoot.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+That's like you.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Or be playing chess among them.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Your sovereign good.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   What dost thou think seduced me.
+The wish of having not to beg in future -
+The pride of acting the rich man to beggars -
+Would these have metamorphosed a rich beggar
+So suddenly into a poor rich man?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+No, I think not.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   A sillier, sillier weakness,
+For the first time my vanity was tempter,
+Flattered by Saladin's good-hearted notion -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Which was?
+
+HAFI.
+
+   That all a beggar's wants are only
+Known to a beggar:  such alone can tell
+How to relieve them usefully and wisely.
+"Thy predecessor was too cold for me,
+(He said) and when he gave, he gave unkindly;
+Informed himself with too precautious strictness
+Concerning the receiver, not content
+To leant the want, unless he knew its cause,
+And measuring out by that his niggard bounty.
+Thou wilt not thus bestow.  So harshly kind
+Shall Saladin not seem in thee.  Thou art not
+Like the choked pipe, whence sullied and by spurts
+Flow the pure waters it absorbs in silence.
+Al-Hafi thinks and feels like me."  So nicely
+The fowler whistled, that at last the quail
+Ran to his net.  Cheated, and by a cheat -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Tush! dervis, gently.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   What! and is't not cheating,
+Thus to oppress mankind by hundred thousands,
+To squeeze, grind, plunder, butcher, and torment,
+And act philanthropy to individuals? -
+Not cheating--thus to ape from the Most High
+The bounty, which alike on mead and desert,
+Upon the just and the unrighteous, falls
+In sunshine or in showers, and not possess
+The never-empty hand of the Most High? -
+Not cheating -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Cease!
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Of my own cheating sure
+It is allowed to speak.  Were it not cheating
+To look for the fair side of these impostures,
+In order, under colour of its fairness,
+To gain advantage from them--ha?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Al-Hafi,
+Go to your desert quickly.  Among men
+I fear you'll soon unlearn to be a man.
+
+HAFI.
+
+And so do I--farewell.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   What, so abruptly?
+Stay, stay, Al-Hafi; has the desert wings?
+Man, 'twill not run away, I warrant you -
+Hear, hear, I want you--want to talk with you -
+He's gone.  I could have liked to question him
+About our templar.  He will likely know him.
+
+NATHAN and DAYA.
+DAYA (bursting in).
+
+O Nathan, Nathan!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Well, what now?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      He's there.
+He shows himself again.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Who, Daya, who?
+
+DAYA.
+
+He! he!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   When cannot He be seen?  Indeed
+Your He is only one; that should not be,
+Were he an angel even.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   'Neath the palms
+He wanders up and down, and gathers dates.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And eats?--and as a templar?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   How you tease us!
+Her eager eye espied him long ago,
+While he scarce gleamed between the further stems,
+And follows him most punctually.  Go,
+She begs, conjures you, go without delay;
+And from the window will make signs to you
+Which way his rovings bend.  Do, do make haste.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+What! thus, as I alighted from my camel,
+Would that be decent?  Swift, do you accost him,
+Tell him of my return.  I do not doubt,
+His delicacy in the master's absence
+Forbore my house; but gladly will accept
+The father's invitation.  Say, I ask him,
+Most heartily request him -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   All in vain!
+In short, he will not visit any Jew.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Then do thy best endeavours to detain him,
+Or with thine eyes to watch his further haunt,
+Till I rejoin you.  I shall not be long.
+
+
+SCENE--A Place of Palms.
+
+
+The TEMPLAR walking to and fro, a FRIAR following him at some
+distance, as if desirous of addressing him.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+This fellow does not follow me for pastime.
+How skaunt he eyes his hands!  Well, my good brother -
+Perhaps I should say, father; ought I not?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+No--brother--a lay-brother at your service.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Well, brother, then; if I myself had something -
+But--but, by God, I've nothing.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Thanks the same;
+And God reward your purpose thousand-fold!
+The will, and not the deed, makes up the giver.
+Nor was I sent to follow you for alms -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Sent then?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Yes, from the monastery.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Where
+I was just now in hopes of coming in
+For pilgrims' fare.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   They were already at table:
+But if it suit with you to turn directly -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Why so?  'Tis true, I have not tasted meat
+This long time.  What of that?  The dates are ripe.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+O with that fruit go cautiously to work.
+Too much of it is hurtful, sours the humours,
+Makes the blood melancholy.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And if I
+Choose to be melancholy--For this warning
+You were not sent to follow me, I ween.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Oh, no:  I only was to ask about you,
+And feel your pulse a little.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      And you tell me
+Of that yourself?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Why not?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      A deep one! troth:
+And has your cloister more such?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      I can't say.
+Obedience is our bounden duty.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   So -
+And you obey without much scrupulous questioning?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Were it obedience else, good sir?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   How is it
+The simple mind is ever in the right?
+May you inform me who it is that wishes
+To know more of me?  'Tis not you yourself,
+I dare be sworn.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Would it become me, sir,
+Or benefit me?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Whom can it become,
+Whom can it benefit, to be so curious?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+The patriarch, I presume--'twas he that sent me.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+The patriarch?  Knows he not my badge, the cross
+Of red on the white mantle?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Can I say?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Well, brother, well!  I am a templar, taken
+Prisoner at Tebnin, whose exalted fortress,
+Just as the truce expired, we sought to climb,
+In order to push forward next to Sidon.
+I was the twentieth captive, but the only
+Pardoned by Saladin--with this, the patriarch
+Knows all, or more than his occasions ask.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+And yet no more than he already knows,
+I think.  But why alone of all the captives
+Thou hast been spared, he fain would learn -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Can I
+Myself tell that?  Already, with bare neck,
+I kneeled upon my mantle, and awaited
+The blow--when Saladin with steadfast eye
+Fixed me, sprang nearer to me, made a sign -
+I was upraised, unbound, about to thank him -
+And saw his eye in tears.  Both stand in silence.
+He goes.  I stay.  How all this hangs together,
+Thy patriarch may unriddle.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   He concludes,
+That God preserved you for some mighty deed.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Some mighty deed?  To save out of the fire
+A Jewish girl--to usher curious pilgrims
+About Mount Sinai--to -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   The time may come -
+And this is no such trifle--but perhaps
+The patriarch meditates a weightier office.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Think you so, brother?  Has he hinted aught?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Why, yes; I was to sift you out a little,
+And hear if you were one to -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Well--to what?
+I'm curious to observe how this man sifts.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+The shortest way will be to tell you plainly
+What are the patriarch's wishes.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And they are -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+To send a letter by your hand.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   By me?
+I am no carrier.  And were that an office
+More meritorious than to save from burning
+A Jewish maid?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   So it should seem; must seem -
+For, says the patriarch, to all Christendom
+This letter is of import; and to bear it
+Safe to its destination, says the patriarch,
+God will reward with a peculiar crown
+In heaven; and of this crown, the patriarch says,
+No one is worthier than you -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Than I?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+For none so able, and so fit to earn
+This crown, the patriarch says, as you.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      As I?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+The patriarch here is free, can look about him,
+And knows, he says, how cities may be stormed,
+And how defended; knows, he says, the strengths
+And weaknesses of Saladin's new bulwark,
+And of the inner rampart last thrown up;
+And to the warriors of the Lord, he says,
+Could clearly point them out; -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And can I know
+Exactly the contents of this same letter?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Why, that I don't pretend to vouch exactly -
+'Tis to King Philip:  and our patriarch -
+I often wonder how this holy man,
+Who lives so wholly to his God and heaven,
+Can stoop to be so well informed about
+Whatever passes here--'Tis a hard task!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Well--and your patriarch -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Knows, with great precision,
+And from sure hands, how, when, and with what force,
+And in which quarter, Saladin, in case
+The war breaks out afresh, will take the field.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+He knows that?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Yes; and would acquaint King Philip,
+That he may better calculate, if really
+The danger be so great as to require
+Him to renew at all events the truce
+So bravely broken by your body.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   So?
+This is a patriarch indeed!  He wants
+No common messenger; he wants a spy.
+Go tell your patriarch, brother, I am not,
+As far as you can sift, the man to suit him.
+I still esteem myself a prisoner, and
+A templar's only calling is to fight,
+And not to ferret out intelligence.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+That's much as I supposed, and, to speak plainly,
+Not to be blamed.  The best is yet behind.
+The patriarch has made out the very fortress,
+Its name, and strength, and site on Libanon,
+Wherein the mighty sums are now concealed,
+With which the prudent father of the sultan
+Provides the cost of war, and pays the army.
+He knows that Saladin, from time to time,
+Goes to this fortress, through by-ways and passe
+With few attendants.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Well -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      How easy 'twere
+To seize his person in these expeditions,
+And make an end of all!  You shudder, sir -
+Two Maronites, who fear the Lord, have offer
+To share the danger of the enterprise,
+Under a proper leader.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And the patriarch
+Had cast his eye on me for this brave office?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+He thinks King Philip might from Ptolemais
+Best second such a deed.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   On me? on me?
+Have you not heard then, just now heard, the favour
+Which I received from Saladin?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Oh, yes!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And yet?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   The patriarch thinks--that's mighty well -
+God, and the order's interest -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Alter nothing,
+Command no villainies.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   No, that indeed not;
+But what is villainy in human eyes
+May in the sight of God, the patriarch thinks,
+Not be -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I owe my life to Saladin,
+And might take his?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   That--fie!  But Saladin,
+The patriarch thinks, is yet the common foe
+Of Christendom, and cannot earn a right
+To be your friend.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   My friend--because I will not
+Behave like an ungrateful scoundrel to him.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Yet gratitude, the patriarch thinks, is not
+A debt before the eye of God or man,
+Unless for our own sakes the benefit
+Had been conferred; and, it has been reported,
+The patriarch understands that Saladin
+Preserved your life merely because your voice,
+Your air, or features, raised a recollection
+Of his lost brother.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   He knows this? and yet -
+If it were sure, I should--ah, Saladin!
+How! and shall nature then have formed in me
+A single feature in thy brother's likeness,
+With nothing in my soul to answer to it?
+Or what does correspond shall I suppress
+To please a patriarch?  So thou dost not cheat us,
+Nature--and so not contradict Thyself,
+Kind God of all.--Go, brother, go away:
+Do not stir up my anger.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   I withdraw
+More gladly than I came.  We cloister-folk
+Are forced to vow obedience to superiors.
+[Goes
+
+TEMPLAR and DAYA.
+DAYA.
+
+The monk, methinks, left him in no good mood:
+But I must risk my message.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Better still
+The proverb says that monks and women are
+The devil's clutches; and I'm tossed to-day
+From one to th' other.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Whom do I behold? -
+Thank God!  I see you, noble knight, once more.
+Where have you lurked this long, long space?  You've not
+Been ill?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   No.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Well, then?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Yes.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      We've all been anxious
+Lest something ailed you.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   So?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Have you been journeying?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Hit off!
+
+DAYA.
+
+   How long returned?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Since yesterday.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Our Recha's father too is just returned,
+And now may Recha hope at last -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      For what?
+
+DAYA.
+
+For what she often has requested of you.
+Her father pressingly invites your visit.
+He now arrives from Babylon, with twenty
+High-laden camels, brings the curious drugs,
+And precious stones, and stuffs, he has collected
+From Syria, Persia, India, even China.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I am no chap.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   His nation honours him,
+As if he were a prince, and yet to hear him
+Called the WISE Nathan by them, not the RICH,
+Has often made me wonder.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   To his nation
+Are RICH and WISE perhaps of equal import.
+
+DAYA.
+
+But above all he should be called the GOOD.
+You can't imagine how much goodness dwells
+Within him.  Since he has been told the service
+You rendered to his Recha, there is nothing
+That he would grudge you.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Aye?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Do--see him, try him.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+A burst of feeling soon is at an end.
+
+DAYA.
+
+And do you think that I, were he less kind,
+Less bountiful, had housed with him so long:
+That I don't feel my value as a Christian:
+For 'twas not o'er my cradle said, or sung,
+That I to Palestina should pursue
+My husband's steps, only to educate
+A Jewess.  My husband was a noble page
+In Emperor Frederic's army.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      And by birth
+A Switzer, who obtained the gracious honour
+Of drowning in one river with his master.
+Woman, how often you have told me this!
+Will you ne'er leave off persecuting me?
+
+DAYA.
+
+My Jesus! persecute -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Aye, persecute.
+Observe then, I henceforward will not see,
+Not hear you, nor be minded of a deed
+Over and over, which I did unthinking,
+And which, when thought about, I wonder at.
+I wish not to repent it; but, remember,
+Should the like accident occur again,
+'Twill be your fault if I proceed more coolly,
+Ask a few questions, and let burn what's burning.
+
+DAYA.
+
+My God forbid!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   From this day forth, good woman,
+Do me at least the favour not to know me:
+I beg it of you; and don't send the father.
+A Jew's a Jew, and I am rude and bearish.
+The image of the maid is quite erased
+Out of my soul--if it was ever there -
+
+DAYA.
+
+But yours remains with her.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Why so--what then -
+Wherefore give harbour to it? -
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Who knows wherefore?
+Men are not always what they seem to be.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+They're seldom better than they seem to be.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Ben't in this hurry.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Pray, forbear to make
+These palm-trees odious.  I have loved to walk here.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Farewell then, bear.  Yet I must track the savage.
+
+
+
+ACT II.
+
+
+
+SCENE--The Sultan's Palace.--An outer room of Sittah's apartment.
+
+SALADIN and SITTAH, playing chess.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Wherefore so absent, brother?  How you play!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Not well?  I thought -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Yes; very well for me,
+Take back that move.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Why?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Don't you see the knight
+Becomes exposed?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   'Tis true:  then so.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      And so
+I take the pawn.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   That's true again.  Then, check!
+
+SITTAH.
+
+That cannot help you.  When my king is castled
+All will be safe.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   But out of my dilemma
+'Tis not so easy to escape unhurt.
+Well, you must have the knight.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      I will not have him,
+I pass him by.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   In that, there's no forbearance:
+The place is better than the piece.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Maybe.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Beware you reckon not without your host:
+This stroke you did not think of.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      No, indeed;
+I did not think you tired of your queen.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+My queen?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Well, well!  I find that I to-day
+Shall earn a thousand dinars to an asper.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+How so, my sister?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Play the ignorant -
+As if it were not purposely thou losest.
+I find not my account in 't; for, besides
+That such a game yields very little pastime,
+When have I not, by losing, won with thee?
+When hast thou not, by way of comfort to me
+For my lost game, presented twice the stake?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+So that it may have been on purpose, sister,
+That thou hast lost at times.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      At least, my brother's
+Great liberality may be one cause
+Why I improve no faster.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   We forget
+The game before us:  lot us make an end of it.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+I move--so--now then--check! and check again!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+This countercheck I wasn't aware of, Sittah;
+My queen must fall the sacrifice.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Let's see -
+Could it be helped?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   No, no, take off the queen!
+That is a piece which never thrives with me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Only that piece?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Off with it!  I shan't miss it.
+Thus I guard all again.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      How civilly
+We should behave to queens, my brother's lessons
+Have taught me but too well.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Take her, or not,
+I stir the piece no more.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Why should I take her?
+Check!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Go on.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Check! -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      And check-mate?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Hold! not yet.
+You may advance the knight, and ward the danger,
+Or as you will--it is all one.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   It is so.
+You are the winner, and Al-Hafi pays.
+Let him be called.  Sittah, you was not wrong;
+I seem to recollect I was unmindful -
+A little absent.  One isn't always willing
+To dwell upon some shapeless bits of wood
+Coupled with no idea.  Yet the Imam,
+When I play with him, bends with such abstraction -
+The loser seeks excuses.  Sittah, 'twas not
+The shapeless men, and the unmeaning squares,
+That made me heedless--your dexterity,
+Your calm sharp eye.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   And what of that, good brother,
+Is that to be th' excuse for your defeat?
+Enough--you played more absently than I.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Than you!  What dwells upon your mind, my Sittah?
+Not your own cares, I doubt -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      O Saladin,
+When shall we play again so constantly?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+An interruption will but whet our zeal.
+You think of the campaign.  Well, let it come.
+It was not I who first unsheathed the sword.
+I would have willingly prolonged the truce,
+And willingly have knit a closer bond,
+A lasting one--have given to my Sittah
+A husband worthy of her, Richard's brother.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+You love to talk of Richard.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Richard's sister
+Might then have been allotted to our Melek.
+O what a house that would have formed--the first -
+The best--and what is more--of earth the happiest!
+You know I am not loth to praise myself;
+Why should I?--Of my friends am I not worthy?
+O we had then led lives!
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   A pretty dream.
+It makes me smile.  You do not know the Christians.
+You will not know them.  'Tis this people's pride
+Not to be men, but to be Christians.  Even
+What of humane their Founder felt, and taught,
+And left to savour their found superstition,
+They value not because it is humane,
+Lovely, and good for man; they only prize it
+Because 'twas Christ who taught it, Christ who did it.
+'Tis well for them He was so good a man:
+Well that they take His goodness all for granted,
+And in His virtues put their trust.  His virtues -
+'Tis not His virtues, but His name alone
+They wish to thrust upon us--'Tis His name
+Which they desire should overspread the world,
+Should swallow up the name of all good men,
+And put the best to shame.  'Tis His mere name
+They care for -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Else, my Sittah, as thou sayst,
+They would not have required that thou, and Melek,
+Should be called Christians, ere you might be suffered
+To feel for Christians conjugal affection.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+As if from Christians only, and as Christians,
+That love could be expected which our Maker
+In man and woman for each other planted.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+The Christians do believe such idle notions,
+They well might fancy this:  and yet thou errest.
+The templars, not the Christians, are in fault.
+'Tis not as Christians, but as templars, that
+They thwart my purpose.  They alone prevent it.
+They will on no account evacuate Acca,
+Which was to be the dower of Richard's sister,
+And, lest their order suffer, use this cant -
+Bring into play the nonsense of the monk -
+And scarcely would await the truce's end
+To fall upon us.  Go on so--go on,
+To me you're welcome, sirs.  Would all things else
+Went but as right!
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   What else should trouble thee,
+If this do not?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Why, that which ever has.
+I've been on Libanon, and seen our father.
+He's full of care.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Alas!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      He can't make shift,
+Straitened on all sides, put off, disappointed;
+Nothing comes in.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   What fails him, Saladin?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+What? but the thing I scarcely deign to name,
+Which, when I have it, so superfluous seems,
+And, when I have it not, so necessary.
+Where is Al-Hafi then--this fatal money -
+O welcome, Hafi!
+
+HAFI, SALADIN, and SITTAH.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   I suppose the gold
+From Egypt is arrived.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Hast tidings of it?
+
+HAFI.
+
+I? no, not I.  I thought to have ta'en it here.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+To Sittah pay a thousand dinars.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Pay?
+And not receive--that's something less than nothing.
+To Sittah and again to Sittah--and
+Once more for loss at chess?  Is this your game?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Dost grudge me my good fortune?
+
+HAFI (examining the board).
+
+   Grudge! you know -
+
+SITTAH (making signs to Hafi).
+
+Hush, Hafi, hush!
+
+HAFI.
+
+   And were the white men yours?
+You gave the check?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   'Tis well he does not hear.
+
+HAFI.
+
+And he to move?
+
+SITTAH (approaching Hafi).
+
+   Say then aloud that I
+Shall have my money.
+
+HAFI (still considering the game).
+
+   Yes, yes! you shall have it -
+As you have always had it.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Are you crazy?
+
+HAFI.
+
+The game is not decided; Saladin,
+You have not lost.
+
+SALADIN (scarcely hearkening).
+
+   Well, well!--pay, pay.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Pay, pay -
+There stands your queen.
+
+SALADIN (still walking about).
+
+   It boots not, she is useless.
+
+SITTAH (low to Hafi).
+
+Do say that I may send and fetch the gold.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Aye, aye, as usual--But although the queen
+Be useless, you are by no means check-mate.
+
+SALADIN (dashes down the board).
+
+I am.  I will then -
+
+HAFI.
+
+   So! small pains, small gains;
+As got, so spent.
+
+SALADIN (to Sittah).
+
+   What is he muttering there?
+
+SITTAH (to Saladin, winking meanwhile to Hafi).
+
+You know him well, and his unyielding way.
+He chooses to be prayed to--maybe he's envious -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+No, not of thee, not of my sister, surely.
+What do I hear, Al-Hafi, are you envious?
+
+HAFI.
+
+Perhaps.  I'd rather have her head than mine,
+Or her heart either.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Ne'ertheless, my brother,
+He pays me right, and will again to-day.
+Let him alone.  There, go away, Al-Hafi;
+I'll send and fetch my dinars.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   No, I will not;
+I will not act this farce a moment longer:
+He shall, must know it.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Who? what?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      O Al-Hafi,
+Is this thy promise, this thy keeping word?
+
+HAFI.
+
+How could I think it was to go so far?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Well, what am I to know?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   I pray thee, Hafi,
+Be more discreet.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   That's very singular.
+And what can Sittah then so earnestly,
+So warmly have to sue for from a stranger,
+A dervis, rather than from me, her brother?
+Al-Hafi, I command.  Dervis, speak out.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Let not a trifle, brother, touch you nearer
+Than is becoming.  You know I have often
+Won the same sum of you at chess, and, as
+I have not just at present need of money,
+I've left the sum at rest in Hafi's chest,
+Which is not over-full; and thus the stakes
+Are not yet taken out--but, never fear,
+It is not my intention to bestow them
+On thee, or Hafi.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Were it only this -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Some more such trifles are perhaps unclaimed;
+My own allowance, which you set apart,
+Has lain some months untouched.
+
+HAFI.
+
+      Nor is that all -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Nor yet--speak then!
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Since we have been expecting
+The treasure out of Egypt, she not only -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Why listen to him?
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Has not had an asper; -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Good creature--but has been advancing to thee -
+
+HAFI.
+
+Has at her sole expense maintained thy state.
+
+SALADIN (embracing her).
+
+My sister--ah!
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   And who but you, my brother,
+Could make me rich enough to have the power?
+
+HAFI.
+
+And in a little time again will leave thee
+Poor as himself.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   I, poor--her brother, poor?
+When had I more, when less than at this instant?
+A cloak, a horse, a sabre, and a God! -
+What need I else?  With them what can be wanting?
+And yet, Al-Hafi, I could quarrel with thee
+For this.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   A truce to that, my brother.  Were it
+As easy to remove our father's cares!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Ah! now my joy thou hast at once abated:
+To me there is, there can be, nothing wanting;
+But--but to him--and, in him, to us all.
+What shall I do?  From Egypt maybe nothing
+Will come this long time.  Why--God only knows.
+We hear of no stir.  To reduce, to spare,
+I am quite willing for myself to stoop to,
+Were it myself, and only I, should suffer -
+But what can that avail?  A cloak, a horse,
+A sword I ne'er can want;--as to my God,
+He is not to be bought; He asks but little,
+Only my heart.  I had relied, Al-Hafi,
+Upon a surplus in my chest.
+
+HAFI.
+
+      A surplus?
+And tell me, would you not have had me impaled,
+Or hanged at least, if you had found me out
+In hoarding up a surplus?  Deficits -
+Those one may venture on.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Well, but how next?
+Could you have found out no one where to borrow
+Unless of Sittah?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   And would I have borne
+To see the preference given to another?
+I still lay claim to it.  I am not as yet
+Entirely bare.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Not yet entirely--This
+Was wanting still.  Go, turn thyself about;
+Take where, and as, thou canst; be quick, Al-Hafi.
+Borrow on promise, contract, anyhow;
+But heed me--not of those I have enriched -
+To borrow there might seem to ask it back.
+Go to the covetous.  They'll gladliest lend -
+They know how well their money thrives with me -
+
+HAFI.
+
+I know none such.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   I recollect just now
+I heard, Al-Hafi, of thy friend's return.
+
+HAFI (startled).
+
+Friend--friend of mine--and who should that be?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Who?
+Thy vaunted Jew!
+
+HAFI.
+
+   A Jew, and praised by me?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+To whom his God (I think I still retain
+Thy own expression used concerning him)
+To whom, of all the good things of this world,
+His God in full abundance has bestowed
+The greatest and the least.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   What could I mean
+When I said so?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   The least of good things, riches;
+The greatest, wisdom.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   How--and of a Jew
+Could I say that?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Didst thou not--of thy Nathan?
+
+HAFI.
+
+Hi ho! of him--of Nathan?  At that moment
+He did not come across me.  But, in fact,
+He is at length come home; and, I suppose,
+Is not ill off.  His people used to call him
+The wise--also the rich.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   The rich he's named
+Now more than ever.  The whole town resounds
+With news of jewels, costly stuffs, and stores,
+That he brings back.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Is he the rich again -
+He'll be, no fear of it, once more the wise.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What thinkst thou, Hafi, of a call on him?
+
+HAFI.
+
+On him--sure not to borrow--why, you know him -
+He lend?  Therein his very wisdom lies,
+That he lends no one.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Formerly thon gav'st
+A very different picture of this Nathan.
+
+HAFI.
+
+In case of need he'll lend you merchandise,
+But money, money, never.  He's a Jew,
+There are but few such! he has understanding,
+Knows life, plays chess; but is in bad notorious
+Above his brethren, as he is in good.
+On him rely not.  To the poor indeed
+He vies perhaps with Saladin in giving:
+Though he distributes less, he gives as freely,
+As silently, as nobly, to Jew, Christian,
+Mahometan, or Parsee--'tis all one.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+And such a man should be -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      How comes it then
+I never heard of him?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Should be unwilling
+To lend to Saladin, who wants for others,
+Not for himself.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Aye, there peeps out the Jew,
+The ordinary Jew.  Believe me, prince,
+He's jealous, really envious of your giving.
+To earn God's favour seems his very business.
+He lends not that he may always have to give.
+The law commandeth mercy, not compliance:
+And thus for mercy's sake he's uncomplying.
+'Tis true, I am not now on the best terms
+With Nathan, but I must entreat you, think not
+That therefore I would do injustice to him.
+He's good in everything, but not in that -
+Only in that.  I'll knock at other doors.
+I just have recollected an old Moor,
+Who's rich and covetous--I go--I go.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Why in such hurry, Hafi?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Let him go.
+
+SALADIN and SITTAH.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+He hastens like a man who would escape me;
+Why so?  Was he indeed deceived in Nathan,
+Or does he play upon us?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Can I guess?
+I scarcely know of whom you have been talking,
+And hear to-day, for the first time, of Nathan.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Is't possible the man were hid from thee,
+Of whom 'tis said, he has found out the tombs
+Of Solomon and David, knows the word
+That lifts their marble lids, and thence obtains
+The golden oil that feeds his shining pomp?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Were this man's wealth by miracle created,
+'Tis not at David's tomb, or Solomon's,
+That 'twould be wrought.  Not virtuous men lie there.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+His source of opulence is more productive
+And more exhaustless than a cave of Mammon.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+He trades, I hear.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   His ships fill every harbour;
+His caravans through every desert toil.
+This has Al-Hafi told me long ago:
+With transport adding then--how nobly Nathan
+Bestows what he esteems it not a meanness
+By prudent industry to have justly earned -
+How free from prejudice his lofty soul -
+His heart to every virtue how unlocked -
+With every lovely feeling how familiar.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Yet Hafi spake just now so coldly of him.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Not coldly; but with awkwardness, confusion,
+As if he thought it dangerous to praise him,
+And yet knew not to blame him undeserving,
+Or can it really be that e'en the best
+Among a people cannot quite escape
+The tinges of the tribe; and that, in fact,
+Al-Hafi has in this to blush for Nathan?
+Be that as't may--be he the Jew or no -
+Is he but rich--that is enough for us.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+You would not, sister, take his wealth by force.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What do you mean by force--fire, sword?  Oh no!
+What force is necessary with the weak
+But their own weakness?  Come awhile with me
+Into my harem:  I have bought a songstress,
+You have not heard her, she came yesterday:
+Meanwhile I'll think somewhat about a project
+I have upon this Nathan.  Follow, brother.
+
+
+SCENE--The Place of Palms, close to Nathan's House.
+NATHAN, attired, comes out with RECHA.
+
+
+RECHA.
+
+You have been so very slow, my dearest father,
+You now will hardly be in time to find him.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well, if not here beneath the palms; yet, surely,
+Elsewhere.  My child, be satisfied.  See, see,
+Is not that Daya making towards us?
+
+RECHA.
+
+She certainly has lost him then.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Why so?
+
+RECHA.
+
+Else she'd walk quicker.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   She may not have seen us.
+
+RECHA.
+
+There, now she sees us.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And her speed redoubles,
+Be calm, my Recha.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Would you have your daughter
+Be cool and unconcerned who 'twas that saved her,
+Heed not to whom is due the life she prizes
+Chiefly because she owed it first to thee?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I would not wish thee other than thou art,
+E'en if I knew that in thy secret soul
+A very different emotion throbs.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Why--what my father?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Dost thou ask of me,
+So tremblingly of me, what passes in thee?
+Whatever 'tis, 'tis innocence and nature.
+Be not alarmed, it gives me no alarm;
+But promise me that, when thy heart shall speak
+A plainer language, thou wilt not conceal
+A single of thy wishes from my fondness.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Oh the mere possibility of wishing
+Rather to veil and hide them makes me shudder.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Let this be spoken once for all.  Well, Daya -
+
+NATHAN, RECHA, and DAYA.
+
+DAYA.
+
+He still is here beneath the palms, and soon
+Will reach yon wall.  See, there he comes.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      And seems
+Irresolute where next; if left or right.
+
+DAYA.
+
+I know he mostly passes to the convent,
+And therefore comes this path.  What will you lay me?
+
+RECHA.
+
+Oh yes he does.  And did you speak to him?
+How did he seem to-day?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   As heretofore.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Don't let him see you with me:  further back;
+Or rather to the house.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Just one peep more.
+Now the hedge steals him from me.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Come away.
+Your father's in the right--should he perceive us,
+'Tis very probable he'll tack about.
+
+RECHA.
+
+But for the hedge -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Now he emerges from it.
+He can't but see you:  hence--I ask it of you.
+
+DAYA.
+
+I know a window whence we yet may -
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Ay.
+
+[Goes in with Daya.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I'm almost shy of this strange fellow, almost
+Shrink back from his rough virtue.  That one man
+Should ever make another man feel awkward!
+And yet--He's coming--ha!--by God, the youth
+Looks like a man.  I love his daring eye,
+His open gait.  May be the shell is bitter;
+But not the kernel surely.  I have seen
+Some such, methinks.  Forgive me, noble Frank.
+
+NATHAN and TEMPLAR.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+What?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Give me leave.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Well, Jew, what wouldst thou have?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+The liberty of speaking to you!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   So -
+Can I prevent it?  Quick then, what's your business?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Patience--nor hasten quite so proudly by
+A man, who has not merited contempt,
+And whom, for evermore, you've made your debtor.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+How so?  Perhaps I guess--No--Are you then -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+My name is Nathan, father to the maid
+Your generous courage snatched from circling flames,
+And hasten -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   If with thanks, keep, keep them all.
+Those little things I've had to suffer much from:
+Too much already, far.  And, after all,
+You owe me nothing.  Was I ever told
+She was your daughter?  'Tis a templar's duty
+To rush to the assistance of the first
+Poor wight that needs him; and my life just then
+Was quite a burden.  I was mighty glad
+To risk it for another; tho' it were
+That of a Jewess.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Noble, and yet shocking!
+The turn might be expected.  Modest greatness
+Wears willingly the mask of what is shocking
+To scare off admiration:  but, altho'
+She may disdain the tribute, admiration,
+Is there no other tribute she can bear with?
+Knight, were you here not foreign, not a captive
+I would not ask so freely.  Speak, command,
+In what can I be useful?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   You--in nothing.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I'm rich.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   To me the richer Jew ne'er seemed
+The bettor Jew.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Is that a reason why
+You should not use the better part of him,
+His wealth?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Well, well, I'll not refuse it wholly,
+For my poor mantle's sake--when that is threadbare,
+And spite of darning will not hold together,
+I'll come and borrow cloth, or money of thee,
+To make me up a new one.  Don't look solemn;
+The danger is not pressing; 'tis not yet
+At the last gasp, but tight and strong and good,
+Save this poor corner, where an ugly spot
+You see is singed upon it.  It got singed
+As I bore off your daughter from the fire.
+
+NATHAN (taking hold of the mantle).
+
+'Tis singular that such an ugly spot
+Bears better testimony to the man
+Than his own mouth.  This brand--Oh I could kiss it!
+Your pardon--that I meant not.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   What?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      A tear
+Fell on the spot.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   You'll find up more such tears -
+(This Jew methinks begins to work upon me).
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Would you send once this mantle to my daughter?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Why?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   That her lips may cling to this dear speck;
+For at her benefactor's feet to fall,
+I find, she hopes in vain.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   But, Jew, your name
+You said was Nathan--Nathan, you can join
+Your words together cunningly--right well -
+I am confused--in fact--I would have been -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Twist, writhe, disguise you, as you will, I know you,
+You were too honest, knight, to be more civil;
+A girl all feeling, and a she-attendant
+All complaisance, a father at a distance -
+You valued her good name, and would not see her.
+You scorned to try her, lest you should be victor;
+For that I also thank you.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I confess,
+You know how templars ought to think.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Still templars -
+And only OUGHT to think--and all because
+The rules and vows enjoin it to the ORDER -
+I know how good men think--know that all lands
+Produce good men.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   But not without distinction.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+In colour, dress, and shape, perhaps, distinguished.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Here more, there fewer sure?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      That boots not much,
+The great man everywhere has need of room.
+Too many set together only serve
+To crush each others' branches.  Middling good,
+As we are, spring up everywhere in plenty.
+Only let one not scar and bruise the other;
+Let not the gnarl be angry with the stump;
+Let not the upper branch alone pretend
+Not to have started from the common earth.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Well said:  and yet, I trust, you know the nation,
+That first began to strike at fellow men,
+That first baptised itself the chosen people -
+How now if I were--not to hate this people,
+Yet for its pride could not forbear to scorn it,
+The pride which it to Mussulman and Christian
+Bequeathed, as were its God alone the true one,
+You start, that I, a Christian and a templar,
+Talk thus.  Where, when, has e'er the pious rage
+To own the better god--on the whole world
+To force this better, as the best of all -
+Shown itself more, and in a blacker form,
+Than here, than now?  To him, whom, here and now,
+The film is not removing from his eye -
+But be he blind that wills!  Forget my speeches
+And leave me.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Ah! indeed you do not know
+How closer I shall cling to you henceforth.
+We must, we will be friends.  Despise my nation -
+We did not choose a nation for ourselves.
+Are we our nations?  What's a nation then?
+Were Jews and Christians such, e'er they were men?
+And have I found in thee one more, to whom
+It is enough to be a man?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      That hast thou.
+Nathan, by God, thou hast.  Thy hand.  I blush
+To have mistaken thee a single instant.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And I am proud of it.  Only common souls
+We seldom err in.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And uncommon ones
+Seldom forget.  Yes, Nathan, yes we must,
+We will be friends.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   We are so.  And my Recha -
+She will rejoice.  How sweet the wider prospect
+That dawns upon me!  Do but know her--once.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I am impatient for it.  Who is that
+Bursts from your house, methinks it is your Daya.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Ay--but so anxiously -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Sure, to our Recha
+Nothing has happened.
+
+NATHAN, TEMPLAR, and DAYA.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Nathan, Nathan.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Well.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Forgive me, knight, that I must interrupt you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+What is the matter?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   What?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      The sultan sends -
+The sultan wants to see you--in a hurry.
+Jesus! the sultan -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Saladin wants me?
+He will be curious to see what wares,
+Precious, or new, I brought with me from Persia.
+Say there is nothing hardly yet unpacked.
+
+DAYA.
+
+No, no:  'tis not to look at anything.
+He wants to speak to you, to you in person,
+And orders you to come as soon as may be.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I'll go--return.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Knight, take it not amiss;
+But we were so alarmed for what the sultan
+Could have in view.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      That I shall soon discover.
+
+NATHAN and TEMPLAR.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And don't you know him yet, I mean his person?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Whose, Saladin's?  Not yet.  I've neither shunned,
+Nor sought to see him.  And the general voice
+Speaks too well of him, for me not to wish,
+Rather to take its language upon trust,
+Than sift the truth out.  Yet--if it be so -
+He, by the saving of your life, has now -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Yes:  it is so.  The life I live he gave.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And in it double treble life to me.
+This flings a bond about me, which shall tie me
+For ever to his service:  and I scarcely
+Like to defer inquiring for his wishes.
+For everything I am ready; and am ready
+To own that 'tis on your account I am so.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+As often as I've thrown me in his way,
+I have not found as yet the means to thank him.
+The impression that I made upon him came
+Quickly, and so has vanished.  Now perhaps
+He recollects me not, who knows?  Once more
+At least, he must recall me to his mind,
+Fully to fix my doom.  'Tis not enough
+That by his order I am yet in being,
+By his permission live, I have to learn
+According to whose will I must exist.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Therefore I shall the more avoid delay.
+Perchance some word may furnish me occasion
+To glance at you--perchance--Excuse me, knight,
+I am in haste.  When shall we see you with us?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Soon as I may.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   That is, whene'er you will.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+To-day, then.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And your name?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      My name was--is
+Conrade of Stauffen.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Conrade of Stauffen!  Stauffen!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Why does that strike so forcibly upon you?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+There are more races of that name, no doubt.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Yes, many of that name were here--rot here.
+My uncle even--I should say, my father.
+But wherefore is your look so sharpened on me?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Nothing--how can I weary to behold you -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Therefore I quit you first.  The searching eye
+Finds often more than it desires to see.
+I fear it, Nathan.  Fare thee well.  Let time,
+Not curiosity make us acquainted.
+
+[Goes.
+
+NATHAN, and soon after, DAYA.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+"The searching eye will oft discover more
+Than it desires," 'tis as he read my soul.
+That too may chance to me.  'Tis not alone
+Leonard's walk, stature, but his very voice.
+Leonard so wore his head, was even wont
+Just so to brush his eyebrows with his hand,
+As if to mask the fire that fills his look.
+Those deeply graven images at times
+How they will slumber in us, seem forgotten,
+When all at once a word a tone, a gesture,
+Retraces all.  Of Stauffen?  Ay right--right -
+Filnek and Stauffen--I will soon know more -
+But first to Saladin--Ha, Daya there?
+Why on the watch?  Come nearer.  By this time,
+I'll answer for't, you've something more at heart
+Than to know what the sultan wants with me.
+
+DAYA.
+
+And do you take it ill in part of her?
+You were beginning to converse with him
+More confidentially, just as the message,
+Sent by the sultan, tore us from the window.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Go tell her that she may expect his visit
+At every instant.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   What indeed--indeed?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I think I can rely upon thee, Daya:
+Be on thy guard, I beg.  Thou'lt not repent it.
+Be but discreet.  Thy conscience too will surely
+Find its account in 't.  Do not mar my plans
+But leave them to themselves.  Relate and question
+With modesty, with backwardness.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Oh fear not.
+How come you to preach up all this to me?
+I go--go too.  The sultan sends for you
+A second time, and by your friend Al-Hafi.
+
+NATHAN and HAFI.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Ha! art thou here?  I was now seeking for thee.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Why in such haste?  What wants he then with me?
+
+HAFI.
+
+Who?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Saladin.  I'm coming--I am coming.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Where, to the sultan's?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Was 't not he who sent thee?
+
+HAFI.
+
+Me?  No.  And has he sent already?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Yes.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Then 'tis all right.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   What's right?
+
+HAFI.
+
+      That I'm unguilty.
+God knows I am not guilty, knows I said -
+What said I not of thee--belied thee--slandered -
+To ward it off.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   To ward off what--be plain.
+
+HAFI.
+
+That them art now become his defterdar.
+I pity thee.  Behold it I will not.
+I go this very hour--my road I told thee.
+Now--hast thou orders by the way--command,
+And then, adieu.  Indeed they must not be
+Such business as a naked man can't carry.
+Quick, what's thy pleasure?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Recollect yourself.
+As yet all this is quite a riddle to me.
+I know of nothing.
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Where are then thy bags?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Bags?
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Bags of money:  bring the weightiest forth:
+The money thou'rt to lend the sultan, Nathan.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And is that all?
+
+HAFI.
+
+   Novice, thou'st yet to learn
+How he day after day will scoop and scoop,
+Till nothing but an hollow empty paring,
+A husk as light as film, is left behind.
+Thou'st yet to learn how prodigality
+From prudent bounty's never-empty coffers
+Borrows and borrows, till there's not a purse
+Left to keep rats from starving.  Thou mayst fancy
+That he who wants thy gold will heed thy counsel;
+But when has he yet listened to advice?
+Imagine now what just befell me with him.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well -
+
+HAFI.
+
+   I went in and found him with his sister,
+Engaged, or rather rising up from chess.
+Sittah plays--not amiss.  Upon the board
+The game, that Saladin supposed was lost
+And had given up, yet stood.  When I drew nigh,
+And had examined it, I soon discovered
+It was not gone by any means.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      For you
+A blest discovery, a treasure-trove.
+
+HAFI.
+
+He only needed to remove his king
+Behind the tower t' have got him out of check.
+Could I but make you sensible -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      I'll trust thee.
+
+HAFI.
+
+Then with the knight still left.--I would have shown him
+And called him to the board.--He must have won;
+But what d'ye think he did?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Dared doubt your insight?
+
+HAFI.
+
+He would not listen; but with scorn o'erthrew
+The standing pieces.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Is that possible?
+
+HAFI.
+
+And said, he chose to be check-mate--he chose it -
+Is that to play the game?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Most surely not:
+'Tis to play with the game.
+
+HAFI.
+
+      And yet the stake
+Was not a nut-shell.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Money here or there
+Matters but little.  Not to listen to thee,
+And on a point of such importance, Hafi,
+There lies the rub.  Not even to admire
+Thine eagle eye--thy comprehensive glance -
+That calls for vengeance: --does it not, Al-Hafi?
+
+HAFI.
+
+I only tell it to thee that thou mayst see
+How his brain's formed.  I bear with him no longer.
+Here I've been running to each dirty Moor,
+Inquiring who will lend him.  I, who ne'er
+Went for myself a begging, go a borrowing,
+And that for others.  Borrowing's much the same
+As begging; just as lending upon usury
+Is much the same as thieving--decency
+Makes not of lewdness virtue.  On the Ganges,
+Among my ghebers, I have need of neither:
+Nor need I be the tool or pimp of either -
+Upon the Ganges only there are men.
+Here, thou alone art somehow almost worthy
+To have lived upon the Ganges.  Wilt thou with me?
+And leave him with the captive cloak alone,
+The booty that he wants to strip thee of.
+Little by little he will flay thee clean.
+Thins thou'lt be quit at once, without the tease
+Of being sliced to death.  Come wilt thou with me?
+I'll find thee with a staff.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I should have thought,
+Come what come may, that thy resource remained:
+But I'll consider of it.  Stay.
+
+HAFI.
+
+      Consider -
+No; such things must not be considered.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Stay:
+Till I have seen the sultan--till you've had -
+
+HAFI.
+
+He, who considers, looks about for motives
+To forbear daring.  He, who can't resolve
+In storm and sunshine to himself to live,
+Must live the slave of others all his life.
+But as you please; farewell! 'tis you who choose.
+My path lies yonder--and yours there -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Al-Hafi,
+Stay then; at least you'll set things right--not leave them
+At sixes and at sevens -
+
+HAFI.
+
+      Farce!  Parade!
+The balance in the chest will need no telling.
+And my account--Sittah, or you, will vouch.
+Farewell.
+
+[Goes.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Yes I will vouch it.  Honest, wild -
+How shall I call you--Ah! the real beggar
+Is, after all, the only real monarch.
+
+
+
+ACT III.
+
+
+
+SCENE--A Room in Nathan's House.
+
+RECHA and DAYA.
+
+RECHA.
+
+What, Daya, did my father really say
+I might expect him, every instant, here?
+That meant--now did it not? he would come soon.
+And yet how many instants have rolled by! -
+But who would think of those that are elapsed? -
+To the next moment only I'm alive. -
+At last the very one will come that brings him.
+
+DAYA.
+
+But for the sultan's ill-timed message, Nathan
+Had brought him in.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   And when this moment comes,
+And when this warmest inmost of my wishes
+Shall be fulfilled, what then? what then?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      What then?
+Why then I hope the warmest of my wishes
+Will have its turn, and happen.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      'Stead of this,
+What wish shall take possession of my bosom,
+Which now without some ruling wish of wishes
+Knows not to heave?  Shall nothing? ah, I shudder.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Yes:  mine shall then supplant the one fulfilled -
+My wish to see thee placed one day in Europe
+In hands well worthy of thee.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      No, thou errest -
+The very thing that makes thee form this wish
+Prevents its being mine.  The country draws thee,
+And shall not mine retain me?  Shall an image,
+A fond remembrance of thy home, thy kindred,
+Which years and distance have not yet effaced,
+Be mightier o'er thy soul, than what I hear,
+See, feel, and hold, of mine.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      'Tis vain to struggle -
+The ways of heaven are the ways of heaven.
+Is he the destined saviour, by whose arm
+His God, for whom he fights, intends to lead thee
+Into the land, which thou wast born for -
+
+RECHA.
+
+         Daya,
+What art thou prating of?  My dearest Daya,
+Indeed thou hast some strange unseemly notions.
+"HIS God--FOR whom he fights"--what is a God
+Belonging to a man--needing another
+To fight his battles?  And can we pronounce
+FOR which among the scattered clods of earth
+You, I was born; unless it be for that
+ON which we were produced.  If Nathan heard thee -
+What has my father done to thee, that thou
+Hast ever sought to paint my happiness
+As lying far remote from him and his.
+What has he done to thee that thus, among
+The seeds of reason, which he sowed unmixed,
+Pure in my soul, thou ever must be seeking
+To plant the weeds, or flowers, of thy own land.
+He wills not of these pranking gaudy blossoms
+Upon this soil.  And I too must acknowledge
+I feel as if they had a sour-sweet odour,
+That makes me giddy--that half suffocates.
+Thy head is wont to bear it.  I don't blame
+Those stronger nerves that can support it.  Mine -
+Mine it behoves not.  Latterly thy angel
+Had made me half a fool.  I am ashamed,
+Whene'er I see my father, of the folly.
+
+DAYA.
+
+As if here only wisdom were at home -
+Folly--if I dared speak.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   And dar'st thou not?
+When was I not all ear, if thou beganst
+To talk about the heroes of thy faith?
+Have I not freely on their deeds bestowed
+My admiration, to their sufferings yielded
+The tribute of my tears?  Their faith indeed
+Has never seemed their most heroic side
+To me:  yet, therefore, have I only learnt
+To find more consolation in the thought,
+That our devotion to the God of all
+Depends not on our notions about God.
+My father has so often told us so -
+Thou hast so often to this point consented -
+How can it be that thou alone art restless
+To undermine what you built up together?
+This is not the most fit discussion, Daya,
+To usher in our friend to; tho' indeed
+I should not disincline to it--for to me
+It is of infinite importance if
+He too--but hark--there's some one at the door.
+If it were he--stay--hush -
+
+(A Slave who shows in the Templar.)
+
+      They are--here this way.
+
+TEMPLAR, DAYA, and RECHA.
+
+RECHA.
+
+(starts--composes herself--then offers to fall at his feet)
+'Tis he--my saviour! ah!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      This to avoid
+Have I alone deferred my call so long.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Yes, at the feet of this proud man, I will
+Thank--God alone.  The man will have no thanks;
+No more than will the bucket which was busy
+In showering watery damps upon the flame.
+That was filled, emptied--but to me, to thee
+What boots it?  So the man--he too, he too
+Was thrust, he knew not how, and the fire.
+I dropped, by chance, into his open arm.
+By chance, remained there--like a fluttering spark
+Upon his mantle--till--I know not what
+Pushed us both from amid the conflagration.
+What room is here for thanks?  How oft in Europe
+Wine urges men to very different deeds!
+Templars must so behave; it is their office,
+Like better taught or rather handier spaniels,
+To fetch from out of fire, as out of water.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Oh Daya, Daya, if, in hasty moments
+Of care and of chagrin, my unchecked temper
+Betrayed me into rudeness, why convey
+To her each idle word that left my tongue?
+This is too piercing a revenge indeed;
+Yet if henceforth thou wilt interpret better -
+
+DAYA.
+
+I question if these barbed words, Sir Knight,
+Alighted so, as to have much disserved you.
+
+RECHA.
+
+How, you had cares, and were more covetous
+Of them than of your life?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+[who has been viewing her with wonder and perturbation].
+
+   Thou best of beings,
+How is my soul 'twixt eye and ear divided!
+No:  'twas not she I snatched from amid fire:
+For who could know her and forbear to do it? -
+Indeed--disguised by terror -
+[Pause:  during which he gazes on her as it were entranced.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      But to me
+You still appear the same you then appeared.
+
+[Another like pause--till she resumes, in order to interrupt him.
+
+Now tell me, knight, where have you been so long?
+It seems as might I ask--where are you now?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I am--where I perhaps ought not to be.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Where have you been? where you perhaps ought not -
+That is not well.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Up--how d'ye call the mountain?
+Up Sinai.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Oh, that's very fortunate.
+Now I shall learn for certain if 'tis true -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+What! if the spot may yet be seen where Moses
+Stood before God; when first -
+
+RECHA.
+
+      No, no, not that.
+Where'er he stood, 'twas before God.  Of this
+I know enough already.  Is it true,
+I wish to learn from you that--that it is not
+By far so troublesome to climb this mountain
+As to get down--for on all mountains else,
+That I have seen, quite the reverse obtains.
+Well, knight, why will you turn away from me?
+Not look at me?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Because I wish to hear you.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Because you do not wish me to perceive
+You smile at my simplicity--You smile
+That I can think of nothing more important
+To ask about the holy hill of hills:
+Do you not?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Must I meet those eyes again?
+And now you cast them down, and damp the smile -
+Am I in doubtful motions of the features
+To read what I so plainly hear--what you
+So audibly declare; yet will conceal? -
+How truly said thy father "Do but know her!"
+
+RECHA.
+
+Who has--of whom--said so to thee?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Thy father
+Said to me "Do but know her," and of thee.
+
+DAYA.
+
+And have not I too said so, times and oft.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+But where is then your father--with the sultan?
+
+RECHA.
+
+So I suppose.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Yet there?  Oh, I forget,
+He cannot be there still.  He is waiting for me
+Most certainly below there by the cloister.
+'Twas so, I think, we had agreed, Forgive,
+I go in quest of him.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Knight, I'll do that.
+Wait here, I'll bring him hither instantly.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Oh no--Oh no.  He is expecting me.
+Besides--you are not aware what may have happened.
+'Tis not unlikely he may be involved
+With Saladin--you do not know the sultan -
+In some unpleasant--I must go, there's danger
+If I forbear.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Danger--of what? of what?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Danger for me, for thee, for him; unless
+I go at once.  [Goes.
+
+RECHA and DAYA.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   What is the matter, Daya?
+So quick--what comes across him, drives him hence?
+
+DAYA.
+
+Let him alone, I think it no bad sign.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Sign--and of what?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      That something passes in him.
+It boils--but it must not boil over.  Leave him -
+Now 'tis your turn.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   My turn?  Thou dost become
+Like him incomprehensible to me.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Now you may give him back all that unrest
+He once occasioned.  Be not too severe,
+Nor too vindictive.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Daya, what you mean
+You must know best.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      And pray are you again
+So calm.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   I am--yes that I am.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      At least
+Own--that this restlessness has given you pleasure,
+And that you have to thank his want of ease
+For what of ease you now enjoy.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Of that
+I am unconscious.  All I could confess
+Were, that it does seem strange unto myself,
+How, in this bosom, such a pleasing calm
+Can suddenly succeed to such a tossing.
+
+DAYA.
+
+His countenance, his speech, his manner, has
+By this the satiated thee.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Satiated,
+I will not say--not by a good deal yet.
+
+DAYA.
+
+But satisfied the more impatient craving.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Well, well, if you must have it so.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      I? no.
+
+RECHA.
+
+To me he will be ever dear, will ever
+Remain more dear than my own life; altho'
+My pulse no longer flutters at his name,
+My heart no longer, when I think about him,
+Beats stronger, swifter.  What have I been prating?
+Come, Daya, let us once more to the window
+Which overlooks the palms.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      So that 'tis not
+Yet satisfied--the more impatient craving.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Now I shall see the palm-trees once again,
+Not him alone amid them.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      This cold fit
+Is but the harbinger of other fevers.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Cold--cold--I am not cold; but I observe not
+Less willingly what I behold with calmness.
+
+
+SCENE--An Audience Room in the Sultan's Palace.
+
+
+SITTAH:  SALADIN giving directions at the door.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Here, introduce the Jew, whene'er he comes -
+He seems in no great haste.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      May be at first
+He was not in the way.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Ah, sister, sister!
+
+SITTAH.
+
+You seem as if a combat were impending.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+With weapons that I have not learnt to wield.
+Must I disguise myself?  I use precautions?
+I lay a snare?  When, where gained I that knowledge?
+And this, for what?  To fish for money--money -
+For money from a Jew--and to such arts
+Must Saladin descend at last to come at
+The least of little things?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Each little thing
+Despised too much finds methods of revenge.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+'Tis but too true.  And if this Jew should prove
+The fair good man, as once the dervis painted -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Then difficulties cease.  A snare concerns
+The avaricious, cautious, fearful Jew;
+And not the good wise man:  for he is ours
+Without a snare.  Then the delight of hearing
+How such a man speaks out; with what stern strength
+He tears the net, or with what prudent foresight
+He one by one undoes the tangled meshes;
+That will be all to boot -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      That I shall joy in.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What then should trouble thee?  For if he be
+One of the many only, a mere Jew,
+You will not blush to such a one to seem
+A man, as he thinks all mankind to be.
+One, that to him should bear a better aspect,
+Would seem a fool--a dupe.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      So that I must
+Act badly, lest the bad think badly of me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Yes, if you call it acting badly, brother,
+To use a thing after its kind.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   There's nothing
+That woman's wit invents it can't embellish.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Embellish -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   But their fine-wrought filligree
+In my rude hand would break.  It is for those
+That can contrive them to employ such weapons:
+They ask a practised wrist.  But chance what may,
+Well as I can -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Trust not yourself too little.
+I answer for you, if you have the will.
+Such men as you would willingly persuade us
+It was their swords, their swords alone that raised them.
+The lion's apt to be ashamed of hunting
+In fellowship of the fox--'tis of his fellow
+Not of the cunning that he is ashamed.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+You women would so gladly level man
+Down to yourselves.  Go, I have got my lesson.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What--MUST I go?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Had you the thought of staying?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+In your immediate presence not indeed,
+But in the by-room.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      You could like to listen.
+Not that, my sister, if I may insist.
+Away! the curtain rustles--he is come.
+Beware of staying--I'll be on the watch.
+
+[While Sittah retires through one door, Nathan enters at another,
+and Saladin seats himself.]
+
+SALADIN and NATHAN.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Draw nearer, Jew, yet nearer; here, quite by me,
+Without all fear.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Remain that for thy foes!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Your name is Nathan?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Yes.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Nathan the wise?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+No.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   If not thou, the people calls thee so.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+May be, the people.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Fancy not that I
+Think of the people's voice contemptuously;
+I have been wishing much to know the man
+Whom it has named the wise.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      And if it named
+Him so in scorn.  If wise meant only prudent.
+And prudent, one who knows his interest well.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Who knows his real interest, thou must mean.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Then were the interested the most prudent,
+Then wise and prudent were the same.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+         I hear
+You proving what your speeches contradict.
+You know man's real interests, which the people
+Knows not--at least have studied how to know them.
+That alone makes the sage.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Which each imagines
+Himself to be.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Of modesty enough!
+Ever to meet it, where one seeks to hear
+Dry truth, is vexing.  Let us to the purpose -
+But, Jew, sincere and open -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I will serve thee
+So as to merit, prince, thy further notice.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Serve me--how?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Thou shalt have the best I bring.
+Shalt have them cheap.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   What speak you of?--your wares?
+My sister shall be called to bargain with you
+For them (so much for the sly listener), I
+Have nothing to transact now with the merchant.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Doubtless then you would learn, what, on my journey,
+I noticed of the motions of the foe,
+Who stirs anew.  If unreserved I may -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Neither was that the object of my sending:
+I know what I have need to know already.
+In short I willed your presence -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Sultan, order.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+To gain instruction quite on other points.
+Since you are a man so wise, tell me which law,
+Which faith appears to you the better?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Sultan,
+I am a Jew.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   And I a Mussulman:
+The Christian stands between us.  Of these three
+Religions only one came be the true.
+A man, like you, remains not just where birth
+Has chanced to cast him, or, if he remains there,
+Does it from insight, choice, from grounds of preference.
+Share then with me your insight--let me hear
+The grounds of preference, which I have wanted
+The leisure to examine--learn the choice,
+These grounds have motived, that it may be mine.
+In confidence I ask it.  How you startle,
+And weigh me with your eye!  It may well be
+I'm the first sultan to whom this caprice,
+Methinks not quite unworthy of a sultan,
+Has yet occurred.  Am I not?  Speak then--Speak.
+Or do you, to collect yourself, desire
+Some moments of delay--I give them you -
+(Whether she's listening?--I must know of her
+If I've done right.)  Reflect--I'll soon return -
+
+[Saladin steps into the room to which Sittah had retired.]
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Strange! how is this? what wills the sultan of me?
+I came prepared with cash--he asks truth.  Truth?
+As if truth too were cash--a coin disused
+That goes by weight--indeed 'tis some such thing -
+But a new coin, known by the stamp at once,
+To be flung down and told upon the counter,
+It is not that.  Like gold in bags tied up,
+So truth lies hoarded in the wise man's head
+To be brought out.--Which now in this transaction
+Which of us plays the Jew; he asks for truth,
+Is truth what he requires, his aim, his end?
+That this is but the glue to lime a snare
+Ought not to be suspected, 'twere too little,
+Yet what is found too little for the great -
+In fact, through hedge and pale to stalk at once
+Into one's field beseems not--friends look round,
+Seek for the path, ask leave to pass the gate -
+I must be cautious.  Yet to damp him back,
+And be the stubborn Jew is not the thing;
+And wholly to throw off the Jew, still less.
+For if no Jew he might with right inquire -
+Why not a Mussulman--Yes--that may serve me.
+Not children only can be quieted
+With stories.  Ha! he comes--well, let him come.
+
+SALADIN (returning).
+
+So, there, the field is clear, I'm not too quick,
+Thou hast bethought thyself as much as need is,
+Speak, no one hears.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Might the whole world but hear us.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Is Nathan of his cause so confident?
+Yes, that I call the sage--to veil no truth,
+For truth to hazard all things, life and goods.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Aye, when 'tis necessary and when useful.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Henceforth I hope I shall with reason bear
+One of my titles--"Betterer of the world
+And of the law."
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   In truth a noble title.
+But, sultan, e'er I quite unfold myself
+Allow me to relate a tale.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Why not?
+I always was a friend of tales well told.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well told, that's not precisely my affair.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Again so proudly modest, come begin.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+In days of yore, there dwelt in east a man
+Who from a valued hand received a ring
+Of endless worth:  the stone of it an opal,
+That shot an ever-changing tint:  moreover,
+It had the hidden virtue him to render
+Of God and man beloved, who in this view,
+And this persuasion, wore it.  Was it strange
+The eastern man ne'er drew it off his finger,
+And studiously provided to secure it
+For ever to his house.  Thus--He bequeathed it;
+First, to the MOST BELOVED of his sons,
+Ordained that he again should leave the ring
+To the MOST DEAR among his children--and
+That without heeding birth, the FAVOURITE son,
+In virtue of the ring alone, should always
+Remain the lord o' th' house--You hear me, Sultan?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+I understand thee--on.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   From son to son,
+At length this ring descended to a father,
+Who had three sons, alike obedient to him;
+Whom therefore he could not but love alike.
+At times seemed this, now that, at times the third,
+(Accordingly as each apart received
+The overflowings of his heart) most worthy
+To heir the ring, which with good-natured weakness
+He privately to each in turn had promised.
+This went on for a while.  But death approached,
+And the good father grew embarrassed.  So
+To disappoint two sons, who trust his promise,
+He could not bear.  What's to be done.  He sends
+In secret to a jeweller, of whom,
+Upon the model of the real ring,
+He might bespeak two others, and commanded
+To spare nor cost nor pains to make them like,
+Quite like the true one.  This the artist managed.
+The rings were brought, and e'en the father's eye
+Could not distinguish which had been the model.
+Quite overjoyed he summons all his sons,
+Takes leave of each apart, on each bestows
+His blessing and his ring, and dies--Thou hearest me?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+I hear, I hear, come finish with thy tale;
+Is it soon ended?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      It is ended, Sultan,
+For all that follows may be guessed of course.
+Scarce is the father dead, each with his ring
+Appears, and claims to be the lord o' th' house.
+Comes question, strife, complaint--all to no end;
+For the true ring could no more be distinguished
+Than now can--the true faith.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      How, how, is that
+To be the answer to my query?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      No,
+But it may serve as my apology;
+If I can't venture to decide between
+Rings, which the father got expressly made,
+That they might not be known from one another.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+The rings--don't trifle with me; I must think
+That the religions which I named can be
+Distinguished, e'en to raiment, drink and food,
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And only not as to their grounds of proof.
+Are not all built alike on history,
+Traditional, or written.  History
+Must be received on trust--is it not so?
+In whom now are we likeliest to put trust?
+In our own people surely, in those men
+Whose blood we are, in them, who from our childhood
+Have given us proofs of love, who ne'er deceived us,
+Unless 'twere wholesomer to be deceived.
+How can I less believe in my forefathers
+Than thou in thine.  How can I ask of thee
+To own that thy forefathers falsified
+In order to yield mine the praise of truth.
+The like of Christians.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   By the living God,
+The man is in the right, I must be silent.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Now let us to our rings return once more.
+As said, the sons complained.  Each to the judge
+Swore from his father's hand immediately
+To have received the ring, as was the case;
+After he had long obtained the father's promise,
+One day to have the ring, as also was.
+The father, each asserted, could to him
+Not have been false, rather than so suspect
+Of such a father, willing as he might be
+With charity to judge his brethren, he
+Of treacherous forgery was bold t' accuse them.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Well, and the judge, I'm eager now to hear
+What thou wilt make him say.  Go on, go on.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+The judge said, If ye summon not the father
+Before my seat, I cannot give a sentence.
+Am I to guess enigmas?  Or expect ye
+That the true ring should here unseal its lips?
+But hold--you tell me that the real ring
+Enjoys the hidden power to make the wearer
+Of God and man beloved; let that decide.
+Which of you do two brothers love the best?
+You're silent.  Do these love-exciting rings
+Act inward only, not without?  Does each
+Love but himself?  Ye're all deceived deceivers,
+None of your rings is true.  The real ring
+Perhaps is gone.  To hide or to supply
+Its loss, your father ordered three for one.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+O charming, charming!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And (the judge continued)
+If you will take advice in lieu of sentence,
+This is my counsel to you, to take up
+The matter where it stands.  If each of you
+Has had a ring presented by his father,
+Let each believe his own the real ring.
+'Tis possible the father chose no longer
+To tolerate the one ring's tyranny;
+And certainly, as he much loved you all,
+And loved you all alike, it could not please him
+By favouring one to be of two the oppressor.
+Let each feel honoured by this free affection.
+Unwarped of prejudice; let each endeavour
+To vie with both his brothers in displaying
+The virtue of his ring; assist its might
+With gentleness, benevolence, forbearance,
+With inward resignation to the godhead,
+And if the virtues of the ring continue
+To show themselves among your children's children,
+After a thousand thousand years, appear
+Before this judgment-seat--a greater one
+Than I shall sit upon it, and decide.
+So spake the modest judge.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   God!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Saladin,
+Feel'st thou thyself this wiser, promised man?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+I dust, I nothing, God!
+
+[Precipitates himself upon Nathan, and takes hold of his hand, which
+he does not quit the remainder of the scene.]
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   What moves thee, Sultan?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Nathan, my dearest Nathan, 'tis not yet
+The judge's thousand thousand years are past,
+His judgment-seat's not mine.  Go, go, but love me.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Has Saladin then nothing else to order?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+No.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Nothing?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Nothing in the least, and wherefore?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I could have wished an opportunity
+To lay a prayer before you.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Is there need
+Of opportunity for that?  Speak freely.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I come from a long journey from collecting
+Debts, and I've almost of hard cash too much;
+The times look perilous--I know not where
+To lodge it safely--I was thinking thou,
+For coming wars require large sums, couldst use it.
+
+SALADIN (fixing Nathan).
+
+Nathan, I ask not if thou sawst Al-Hafi,
+I'll not examine if some shrewd suspicion
+Spurs thee to make this offer of thyself.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Suspicion -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   I deserve this offer.  Pardon,
+For what avails concealment, I acknowledge
+I was about -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   To ask the same of me?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Yes.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Then 'tis well we're both accommodated.
+That I can't send thee all I have of treasure
+Arises from the templar; thou must know him,
+I have a weighty debt to pay to him.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+A templar!  How, thou dost not with thy gold
+Support my direst foes.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I speak of him
+Whose life the sultan -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   What art thou recalling?
+I had forgot the youth, whence is he, knowest thou?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Hast thou not heard then how thy clemency
+To him has fallen on me.  He at the risk
+Of his new-spared existence, from the flames
+Rescued my daughter.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Ha!  Has he done that;
+He looked like one that would--my brother too,
+Whom he's so like, bad done it.  Is he here still?
+Bring him to me--I have so often talked
+To Sittah of this brother, whom she knew not,
+That I must let her see his counterfeit.
+Go fetch him.  How a single worthy action,
+Though but of whim or passion born, gives rise
+To other blessings!  Fetch him.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      In an instant.
+The rest remains as settled.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   O, I wish
+I had let my sister listen.  Well, I'll to her.
+How shall I make her privy to all this?
+
+
+SCENE.--The Place of Palms.
+
+
+[The TEMPLAR walking and agitated.]
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Here let the weary victim pant awhile. -
+Yet would I not have time to ascertain
+What passes in me; would not snuff beforehand
+The coming storm.  'Tis sure I fled in vain;
+But more than fly I could not do, whatever
+Comes of it.  Ah! to ward it off--the blow
+Was given so suddenly.  Long, much, I strove
+To keep aloof; but vainly.  Once to see her -
+Her, whom I surely did not court the sight of,
+To see her, and to form the resolution,
+Never to lose sight of her here again,
+Was one--The resolution?--Not 'tis will,
+Fixt purpose, made (for I was passive in it)
+Sealed, doomed.  To see her, and to feel myself
+Bound to her, wove into her very being,
+Was one--remains one.  Separate from her
+To live is quite unthinkable--is death.
+And wheresoever after death we be,
+There too the thought were death.  And is this love?
+Yet so in troth the templar loves--so--so -
+The Christian loves the Jewess.  What of that?
+Here in this holy land, and therefore holy
+And dear to me, I have already doffed
+Some prejudices.--Well--what says my vow?
+As templar I am dead, was dead to that
+From the same hour which made me prisoner
+To Saladin.  But is the head he gave me
+My old one?  No.  It knows no word of what
+Was prated into yon, of what had bound it.
+It is a better; for its patrial sky
+Fitter than yon.  I feel--I'm conscious of it,
+With this I now begin to think, as here
+My father must have thought; if tales of him
+Have not been told untruly.  Tales--why tales?
+They're credible--more credible than ever -
+Now that I'm on the brink of stumbling, where
+He fell.  He fell?  I'd rather fall with men,
+Than stand with children.  His example pledges
+His approbation, and whose approbation
+Have I else need of?  Nathan's?  Surely of his
+Encouragement, applause, I've little need
+To doubt--O what a Jew is he! yet easy
+To pass for the mere Jew.  He's coming--swiftly -
+And looks delighted--who leaves Saladin
+With other looks?  Hoa, Nathan!
+
+NATHAN and TEMPLAR.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Are you there?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Your visit to the sultan has been long.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Not very long; my going was indeed
+Too much delayed.  Troth, Conrade, this man's fame
+Outstrips him not.  His fame is but his shadow.
+But before all I have to tell you -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      What?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+That he would speak with you, and that directly.
+First to my house, where I would give some orders,
+Then we'll together to the sultan.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Nathan,
+I enter not thy doors again before -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Then you've been there this while--have spoken with her.
+How do you like my Recha?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Words cannot tell -
+Gaze on her once again--I never will -
+Never--no never:  unless thou wilt promise
+That I for ever, ever, may behold her.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+How should I take this?
+
+TEMPLAR (falling suddenly upon his neck).
+
+Nathan--O my father!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Young man!
+
+TEMPLAR (quitting him as suddenly).
+
+   Not son?--I pray thee, Nathan--ha!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Thou dear young man!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Not son?--I pray thee, Nathan,
+Conjure thee by the strongest bonds of nature,
+Prefer not those of later date, the weaker. -
+Be it enough to thee to be a man!
+Push me not from thee!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Dearest, dearest friend! -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Not son?  Not son?  Not even--even if
+Thy daughter's gratitude had in her bosom
+Prepared the way for love--not even if
+Both wait thy nod alone to be but one? -
+You do not speak?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Young knight, you have surprised me.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Do I surprise thee--thus surprise thee, Nathan,
+With thy own thought?  Canst thou not in my mouth
+Know it again?  Do I surprise you?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Ere
+I know, which of the Stauffens was your father?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+What say you, Nathan?--And in such a moment
+Is curiosity your only feeling?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+For see, once I myself well knew a Stauffen,
+Whose name was Conrade.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Well, and if my father
+Was bearer of that name?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Indeed?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      My name
+Is from my father's, Conrade.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Then thy father
+Was not my Conrade.  He was, like thyself,
+A templar, never wedded.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   For all that -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+How?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   For all that he may have been my father.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+You joke.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And you are captious.  Boots it then
+To be true-born?  Does bastard wound thine ear?
+The race is not to be despised:  but hold,
+Spare me my pedigree; I'll spare thee thine.
+Not that I doubt thy genealogic tree.
+O, God forbid!  You may attest it all
+As far as Abraham back; and backwarder
+I know it to my heart--I'll swear to it also.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Knight, you grow bitter.  Do I merit this?
+Have I refused you ought?  I've but forborne
+To close with you at the first word--no more.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Indeed--no more?  O then forgive -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      'Tis well.
+Do but come with me.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Whither?  To thy house?
+No? there not--there not:  'tis a burning soil.
+Here I await thee, go.  Am I again
+To see her, I shall see her times enough:
+If not I have already gazed too much.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I'll try to be soon back.  [Goes.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Too much indeed--
+Strange that the human brain, so infinite
+Of comprehension, yet at times will fill
+Quite full, and all at once, of a mere trifle -
+No matter what it teems with.  Patience!  Patience!
+The soul soon calms again, th' upboiling stuff
+Makes itself room and brings back light and order.
+Is this then the first time I love?  Or was
+What by that name I knew before, not love -
+And this, this love alone that now I feel?
+
+DAYA and TEMPLAR.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Sir knight, sir knight.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Who calls? ha, Daya, you?
+
+DAYA.
+
+I managed to slip by him.  No, come here
+(He'll see us where you stand) behind this tree.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Why so mysterious?  What's the matter, Daya?
+
+DAYA.
+
+Yes, 'tis a secret that has brought me to you
+A twofold secret.  One I only know,
+The other only you.  Let's interchange,
+Intrust yours first to me, then I'll tell mine.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+With pleasure when I'm able to discover
+What you call me.  But that yours will explain.
+Begin -
+
+DAYA.
+
+That is not fair, yours first, sir knight;
+For be assured my secret serves you not
+Unless I have yours first.  If I sift it out
+You'll not have trusted me, and then my secret
+Is still my own, and yours lost all for nothing.
+But, knight, how can you men so fondly fancy
+You ever hide such secrets from us women.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Secrets we often are unconscious of.
+
+DAYA.
+
+May be--So then I must at last be friendly,
+And break it to you.  Tell me now, whence came it
+That all at once you started up abruptly
+And in the twinkling of an eye were fled?
+That you left us without one civil speech!
+That you return no more with Nathan to us -
+Has Recha then made such a slight impression,
+Or made so deep a one?  I penetrate you.
+Think you that on a limed twig the poor bird
+Can flutter cheerfully, or hop at ease
+With its wing pinioned?  Come, come, in one word
+Acknowledge to me plainly that you love her,
+Love her to madness, and I'll tell you what.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+To madness, oh, you're very penetrating.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Grant me the love, and I'll give up the madness.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Because that must be understood of course -
+A templar love a Jewess -
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Seems absurd,
+But often there's more fitness in a thing
+Than we at once discern; nor were this time
+The first, when through an unexpected path
+The Saviour drew his children on to him
+Across the tangled maze of human life.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+So solemn that--(and yet if in the stead
+Of Saviour, I were to say Providence,
+It would sound true) you make me curious, Daya,
+Which I'm unwont to be.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      This is the place
+For miracles
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   For wonders--well and good -
+Can it be otherwise, where the whole world
+Presses as toward a centre.  My dear Daya,
+Consider what you asked of me as owned;
+That I do love her--that I can't imagine
+How I should live without her--that
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Indeed!
+Then, knight, swear to me you will call her yours,
+Make both her present and eternal welfare.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And how, how can I, can I swear to do
+What is not in my power?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      'Tis in your power,
+A single word will put it in your power.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+So that her father shall not be against it.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Her father--father? he shall be compelled.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+As yet he is not fallen among thieves--
+Compelled?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Aye to be willing that you should.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Compelled and willing--what if I inform thee
+That I have tried to touch this string already,
+It vibrates not responsive.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      He refused thee?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+He answered in a tone of such discordance
+That I was hurt.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   What do you say?  How, you
+Betrayed the shadow of a wish for Recha,
+And he did not spring up for joy, drew back,
+Drew coldly back, made difficulties?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Almost.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Well then I'll not deliberate a moment.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And yet you are deliberating still.
+
+DAYA.
+
+That man was always else so good, so kind,
+I am so deeply in his debt.  Why, why
+Would he not listen to you?  God's my witness
+That my heart bleeds to come about him thus.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I pray you, Daya, once for all, to end
+This dire uncertainty.  But if you doubt
+Whether what 'tis your purpose to reveal
+Be right or wrong, be praiseworthy or shameful,
+Speak not--I will forget that you have had
+Something to hide.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   That spurs me on still more.
+Then learn that Recha is no Jewess, that
+She is a Christian.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I congratulate you,
+'Twas a hard labour, but 'tis out at last;
+The pangs of the delivery won't hurt you.
+Go on with undiminished zeal, and people
+Heaven, when no longer fit to people earth.
+
+DAYA.
+
+How, knight, does my intelligence deserve
+Such bitter scorn?  That Recha is a Christian
+On you a Christian templar, and her lover,
+Confers no joy.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Particularly as
+She is a Christian of your making, Daya.
+
+DAYA.
+
+O, so you understand it--well and good -
+I wish to find out him that might convert her.
+It is her fate long since to have been that
+Which she is spoiled for being.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Do explain -
+Or go.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   She is a Christian child--of Christian
+Parents was born and is baptised.
+
+TEMPLAR (hastily).
+
+      And Nathan -
+
+DAYA.
+
+Is not her father.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Nathan not her father -
+And are you sure of what you say?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      I am,
+It is a truth has cost me tears of blood.
+No, he is not her father.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And has only
+Brought her up as his daughter, educated
+The Christian child a Jewess.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Certainly.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And she is unacquainted with her birth?
+Has never learnt from him that she was born
+A Christian, and no Jewess?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Never yet.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And he not only let the child grow up
+In this mistaken notion, but still leaves
+The woman in it.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Aye, alas!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      How, Nathan,
+The wise good Nathan thus allow himself
+To stifle nature's voice?  Thus to misguide
+Upon himself th' effusions of a heart
+Which to itself abandoned would have formed
+Another bias, Daya--yes, indeed
+You have intrusted an important secret
+That may have consequences--it confounds me,
+I cannot tell what I've to do at present,
+Therefore go, give me time, he may come by
+And may surprise us.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   I should drop for fright.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I am not able now to talk, farewell;
+And if you chance to meet him, only say
+That we shall find each other at the sultan's.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Let him not see you've any grudge against him.
+That should be kept to give the proper impulse
+To things at last, and may remove your scruples
+Respecting Recha.  But then, if you take her
+Back with you into Europe, let not me
+Be left behind.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   That we'll soon settle, go.
+
+
+
+ACT IV.
+
+
+
+SCENE.--The Cloister of a Convent.
+The FRIAR alone.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Aye--aye--he's very right--the patriarch is -
+In fact of all that he has sent me after
+Not much turns out his way--Why put on me
+Such business and no other?  I don't care
+To coax and wheedle, and to run my nose
+Into all sorts of things, and have a hand
+In all that's going forward.  I did not
+Renounce the world, for my own part, in order
+To be entangled with 't for other people.
+
+FRIAR and TEMPLAR.
+
+TEMPLAR (abruptly entering).
+
+Good brother, are you there?  I've sought you long.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Me, sir?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   What, don't you recollect me?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Oh,
+I thought I never in my life was likely
+To see you any more.  For so I hoped
+In God.  I did not vastly relish the proposal
+That I was bound to make you.  Yes, God knows,
+How little I desired to find a hearing,
+Knows I was inly glad when you refused
+Without a moment's thought, what of a knight
+Would be unworthy.  Are your second thoughts -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+So, you already know my purpose, I
+Scarce know myself.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Have you by this reflected
+That our good patriarch is not so much out,
+That gold and fame in plenty may be got
+By his commission, that a foe's a foe
+Were he our guardian angel seven times over.
+Have you weighed this 'gainst flesh and blood, and come
+To strike the bargain he proposed.  Ah, God.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+My dear good man, set your poor heart at ease.
+Not therefore am I come, not therefore wish
+To see the patriarch in person.  Still
+On the first point I think as I then thought,
+Nor would I for aught in the world exchange
+That good opinion, which I once obtained
+From such a worthy upright man as thou art,
+I come to ask your patriarch's advice -
+
+FRIAR (looking round with timidity).
+
+Our patriarch's--you? a knight ask priest's advice?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Mine is a priestly business.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Yet the priests
+Ask not the knights' advice, be their affair
+Ever so knightly.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Therefore one allows them
+To overshoot themselves, a privilege
+Which such as I don't vastly envy them.
+Indeed if I were acting for myself,
+Had not t' account with others, I should care
+But little for his counsel.  But some things
+I'd rather do amiss by others' guidance
+Than by my own aright.  And then by this time
+I see religion too is party, and
+He, who believes himself the most impartial,
+Does but uphold the standard of his own,
+Howe'er unconsciously.  And since 'tis so,
+So must be well.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   I rather shall not answer,
+For I don't understand exactly.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Yet
+Let me consider what it is precisely
+That I have need of, counsel or decision,
+Simple or learned counsel.--Thank you, brother,
+I thank you for your hint--A patriarch--why?
+Be thou my patriarch; for 'tis the plain Christian,
+Whom in the patriarch I have to consult,
+And not the patriarch in the Christian.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Oh,
+I beg no further--you must quite mistake me;
+He that knows much hath learnt much care, and I
+Devoted me to only one.  'Tis well,
+Most luckily here comes the very man,
+Wait here, stand still--he has perceived you, knight.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I'd rather shun him, he is not my man.
+A thick red smiling prelate--and as stately -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+But you should see him on a gala-day;
+He only comes from visiting the sick.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Great Saladin must then be put to shame.
+
+[The Patriarch, after marching up one of the aisles in great pomp,
+draws near, and makes signs to the Friar, who approaches him.]
+
+PATRIARCH, FRIAR, and TEMPLAR.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+Hither--was that the templar?  What wants he?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+I know not.
+
+PATRIARCH (approaches the templar, while the friar and the rest of
+his train draw back).
+
+   So, sir knight, I'm truly happy
+To meet the brave young man--so very young too -
+Something, God helping, may come of him.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      More
+Than is already hardly will come of him,
+But less, my reverend father, that may chance.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+It is my prayer at least a knight so pious
+May for the cause of Christendom and God
+Long be preserved; nor can that fail, so be
+Young valour will lend ear to aged counsel.
+With what can I be useful any way?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+With that which my youth is without, with counsel.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+Most willingly, but counsel should be followed.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Surely not blindly?
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+   Who says that?  Indeed
+None should omit to make use of the reason
+Given him by God, in things where it belongs,
+But it belongs not everywhere; for instance,
+If God, by some one of his blessed angels,
+Or other holy minister of his word,
+Deign'd to make known a mean, by which the welfare
+Of Christendom, or of his holy church,
+In some peculiar and especial manner
+Might be promoted or secured, who then
+Shall venture to rise up, and try by reason
+The will of him who has created reason,
+Measure th' eternal laws of heaven by
+The little rules of a vain human honour? -
+But of all this enough.  What is it then
+On which our counsel is desired?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Suppose,
+My reverend father, that a Jew possessed
+An only child, a girl we'll say, whom he
+With fond attention forms to every virtue,
+And loves more than his very soul; a child
+Who by her pious love requites his goodness.
+And now suppose it whispered--say to me -
+This girl is not the daughter of the Jew,
+He picked up, purchased, stole her in her childhood -
+That she was born of Christians and baptised,
+But that the Jew hath reared her as a Jewess,
+Allows her to remain a Jewess, and
+To think herself his daughter.  Reverend father
+What then ought to be done?
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+      I shudder!  But
+First will you please explain if such a case
+Be fact, or only an hypothesis?
+That is to say, if you, of your own head,
+Invent the case, or if indeed it happened,
+And still continues happening?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      I had thought
+That just to learn your reverence's opinion
+This were all one.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+   All one--now see how apt
+Proud human reason is in spiritual things
+To err:  'tis not all one; for, if the point
+In question be a mere sport of the wit,
+'Twill not be worth our while to think it through
+But I should recommend the curious person
+To theatres, where oft, with loud applause,
+Such pro and contras have been agitated.
+But if the object should be something more
+Than by a school-trick--by a sleight of logic
+To get the better of me--if the case
+Be really extant, if it should have happened
+Within our diocese, or--or perhaps
+Here in our dear Jerusalem itself,
+Why then -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   What then?
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+      Then were it proper
+To execute at once upon the Jew
+The penal laws in such a case provided
+By papal and imperial right, against
+So foul a crime--such dire abomination.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+So.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+   And the laws forementioned have decreed,
+That if a Jew shall to apostacy
+Seduce a Christian, he shall die by fire.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+So.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+   How much more the Jew, who forcibly
+Tears from the holy font a Christian child,
+And breaks the sacramental bond of baptism;
+For all what's done to children is by force -
+I mean except what the church does to children.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+What if the child, but for this fostering Jew,
+Must have expired in misery?
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+      That's nothing,
+The Jew has still deserved the faggot--for
+'Twere better it here died in misery
+Than for eternal woe to live.  Besides,
+Why should the Jew forestall the hand of God?
+God, if he wills to save, can save without him.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And spite of him too save eternally.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+That's nothing!  Still the Jew is to be burnt.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+That hurts me--more particularly as
+'Tis said he has not so much taught the maid
+His faith, as brought her up with the mere knowledge
+Of what our reason teaches about God.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+That's nothing!  Still the Jew is to be burnt -
+And for this very reason would deserve
+To be thrice burnt.  How, let a child grow up
+Without a faith?  Not even teach a child
+The greatest of its duties, to believe?
+'Tis heinous!  I am quite astonished, knight,
+That you yourself -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   The rest, right reverend sir,
+In the confessional, but not before.  [Offers to go.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+What off--not stay for my interrogation -
+Not name to me this infidel, this Jew -
+Not find him up for me at once?  But hold,
+A thought occurs, I'll straightway to the sultan
+Conformably to the capitulation,
+Which Saladin has sworn, he must support us
+In all the privileges, all the doctrines
+Which appertain to our most holy faith,
+Thank God, we've the original in keeping,
+We have his hand and seal to it--we -
+And I shall lead him easily to think
+How very dangerous for the state it is
+Not to believe.  All civic bonds divide,
+Like flax fire-touched, where subjects don't believe.
+Away with foul impiety!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      It happens
+Somewhat unlucky that I want the leisure
+To enjoy this holy sermon.  I am sent for
+To Saladin.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+   Why then--indeed--if so -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+And will prepare the sultan, if agreeable.
+For your right reverend visit.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+      I have heard
+That you found favour in the sultan's sight,
+I beg with all humility to be
+Remembered to him.  I am purely motived
+By zeal in th' cause of God.  What of too much
+I do, I do for him--weigh that in goodness.
+'Twas then, most noble sir--what you were starting
+About the Jew--a problem merely!
+
+TEMPLAR
+
+      Problem!
+[Goes.
+
+PATRIARCH.
+
+Of whose foundation I'll have nearer knowledge.
+Another job for brother Bonafides.
+Hither, my son!
+
+[Converses with the Friar as he walks off.
+
+
+SCENE--A Room in the Palace.
+
+
+[SLAVES bring in a number of purses and pile them on the floor.
+SALADIN is present.]
+
+SALADIN.
+
+In troth this has no end.  And is there much
+Of this same thing behind?
+
+SLAVE.
+
+   About one half.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Then take the rest to Sittah.  Where's Al-Hafi?
+What's here Al-Hafi shall take charge of straight.
+Or shan't I rather send it to my father;
+Here it slips through one's fingers.  Sure in time
+One may grow callous; it shall now cost labour
+To come at much from me--at least until
+The treasures come from AEgypt, poverty
+Must shift as 't can--yet at the sepulchre
+The charges must go on--the Christian pilgrims
+Shall not go back without an alms.
+
+SALADIN and SITTAH.
+
+SITTAH (entering).
+
+      Why this?
+Wherefore the gold to me?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Pay thyself with it,
+And if there's something left 'twill be in store.
+Are Nathan and the templar not yet come?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+He has been seeking for him everywhere -
+Look what I met with when the plate and jewels
+Were passing through my hands -
+[Showing a small portrait.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Ha!  What, my brother?
+'Tis he, 'tis he, WAS he, WAS he alas!
+Thou dear brave youth, and lost to me so early;
+What would I not with thee and at thy side
+Have undertaken?  Let me have the portrait,
+I recollect it now again; he gave it
+Unto thy elder sister, to his Lilah,
+That morning that she would not part with him,
+But clasped him so in tears.  It was the last
+Morning that he rode out; and I--I let him
+Ride unattended.  Lilah died for grief,
+And never could forgive me that I let him
+Then ride alone.  He came not back.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Poor brother -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Time shall be when none of us will come back,
+And then who knows?  It is not death alone
+That balks the hopes of young men of his cast,
+Such have far other foes, and oftentimes
+The strongest like the weakest is o'ercome.
+Be as it may--I must compare this picture
+With our young templar, to observe how much
+My fancy cheated me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   I therefore brought it;
+But give it me, I'll tell thee if 'tis like.
+We women see that best.
+
+SALADIN (to a slave at the door).
+
+      Ah, who is there?
+The templar? let him come.
+
+SITTAH (throws herself on a sofa apart and drops her veil).
+
+      Not to interfere,
+Or with my curiosity disturb you.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+That's right.  And then his voice, will that be like?
+The tone of Assad's voice, sleeps somewhere yet -
+So -
+
+TEMPLAR and SALADIN.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I thy prisoner, sultan,
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Thou my prisoner -
+And shall I not to him whose life I gave
+Also give freedom?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   What 'twere worthy thine
+To do, it is my part to hear of thee,
+And not to take for granted.  But, O Sultan,
+To lay loud protestations at thy feet
+Of gratitude for a life spared, agrees
+Not with my station or my character.
+At all times, 'tis once more, prince, at thy service.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Only forbear to use it against me.
+Not that I grudge my enemy one pair more
+Of hands--but such a heart, it goes against me
+To yield him.  I have been deceived with thee,
+Thou brave young man, in nothing.  Yes, thou art
+In soul and body Assad.  I could ask thee,
+Where then hast thou been lurking all this time?
+Or in what cavern slept?  What Ginnistan
+Chose some kind Perie for thy hiding-place,
+That she might ever keep the flower thus fresh?
+Methinks I could remind thee here and yonder
+Of what we did together--could abuse thee
+For having had one secret, e'en to me -
+Cheat me of one adventure--yes, I could,
+If I saw thee alone, and not myself.
+Thanks that so much of this fond sweet illusion
+At least is true, that in my sear of life
+An Assad blossoms for me.  Thou art willing?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+All that from thee comes to me, whatsoever
+It chance to prove, lies as a wish already
+Within my soul.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   We'll try the experiment.
+Wilt thou stay with me? dwell about me? boots not
+As Mussulman or Christian, in a turban
+Or a white mantle--I have never wished
+To see the same bark grow about all trees.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Else, Saladin, thou hardly hadst become
+The hero that thou art, alike to all
+The gardener of the Lord.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   If thou think not
+The worse of me for this, we're half right.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Quite so.
+One word.
+
+SALADIN (holds out his hand).
+
+TEMPLAR (takes it).
+
+   One man--and with this receive more
+Than thou canst take away again--thine wholly.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+'Tis for one day too great a gain--too great.
+Came he not with thee?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Who?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Who?  Nathan.
+
+TEMPLAR (coldly).
+
+      No,
+I came alone.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   O, what a deed of thine!
+And what a happiness, a blessing to thee,
+That such a deed was serving such a man.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Yes, yes.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   So cold--no, my young friend--when God
+Does through our means a service, we ought not
+To be so cold, not out of modesty
+Wish to appear so cold.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   In this same world
+All things have many sides, and 'tis not easy
+To comprehend how they can fit each other.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Cling ever to the best--Give praise to God,
+Who knows how they can fit.  But, my young man,
+If thou wilt be so difficult, I must
+Be very cautious with thee, for I too
+Have many sides, and some of them perhaps
+Such as mayn't always seem to fit.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      That wounds me;
+Suspicion usually is not my failing.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Say then of whom thou harbour'st it, of Nathan?
+So should thy talk imply--canst thou suspect him?
+Give me the first proof of thy confidence.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I've nothing against Nathan, I am angry
+With myself only.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   And for what?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      For dreaming
+That any Jew could learn to be no Jew -
+For dreaming it awake.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Out with this dream.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Thou know'st of Nathan's daughter, sultan.  What
+I did for her I did--because I did it;
+Too proud to reap thanks which I had not sown for,
+I shunned from day to day her very sight.
+The father was far off.  He comes, he hears,
+He seeks me, thanks me, wishes that his daughter
+May please me; talks to me of dawning prospects -
+I listen to his prate, go, see, and find
+A girl indeed.  O, sultan, I am ashamed -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+A shamed that a Jew girl knew how to make
+Impression on thee, surely not.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      But that
+To this impression my rash yielding heart,
+Trusting the smoothness of the father's prate,
+Opposed no more resistance.  Fool--I sprang
+A second time into the flame, and then
+I wooed, and was denied.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Denied!  Denied!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+The prudent father does not flatly say
+No to my wishes, but the prudent father
+Must first inquire, and look about, and think.
+Oh, by all means.  Did not I do the same?
+Did not I look about and ask who 'twas
+While she was shrieking in the flame?  Indeed,
+By God, 'tis something beautifully wise
+To be so circumspect.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Come, come, forgive
+Something to age.  His lingerings cannot last.
+He is not going to require of thee
+First to turn Jew.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Who knows?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Who?  I, who know
+This Nathan better.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Yet the superstition
+In which we have grown up, not therefore loses
+When we detect it, all its influence on us.
+Not all are free that can bemock their fetters.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Maturely said--but Nathan, surely Nathan -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+The worst of superstitions is to think
+One's own most bearable.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   May be, but Nathan -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Must Nathan be the mortal, who unshrinking
+Can face the moon-tide ray of truth, nor there
+Betray the twilight dungeon which he crawled from.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Yes, Nathan is that man.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I thought so too,
+But what if this picked man, this chosen sage,
+Were such a thorough Jew that he seeks out
+For Christian children to bring up as Jews -
+How then?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Who says this of him?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      E'en the maid
+With whom he frets me--with the hope of whom
+He seemed to joy in paying me the service,
+Which he would not allow me to do gratis -
+This very maid is not his daughter--no,
+She is a kidnapped Christian child.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Whom he
+Has, notwithstanding, to thy wish refused?
+
+TEMPLAR (with vehemence).
+
+Refused or not, I know him now.  There lies
+The prating tolerationist unmasked -
+And I'll halloo upon this Jewish wolf,
+For all his philosophical sheep's clothing,
+Dogs that shall touze his hide.
+
+SALADIN (earnestly.)
+
+      Peace, Christian!
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+         What!
+Peace, Christian--and may Jew and Mussulman
+Stickle for being Jew and Mussulman,
+And must the Christian only drop the Christian?
+
+SALADIN (more solemnly).
+
+Peace, Christian!
+
+TEMPLAR (calmly.)
+
+   Yes, I feel what weight of blame
+Lies in that word of thine pent up.  O that
+I knew how Assad in my place would act.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+He--not much better, probably as fiery.
+Who has already taught thee thus at once
+Like him to bribe me with a single word?
+Indeed, if all has past as thou narratest,
+I scarcely can discover Nathan in it.
+But Nathan is my friend, and of my friends
+One must not bicker with the other.  Bend -
+And be directed.  Move with caution.  Do not
+Loose on him the fanatics of thy sect.
+Conceal what all thy clergy would be claiming
+My hand to avenge upon him, with more show
+Of right than is my wish.  Be not from spite
+To any Jew or Mussulman a Christian.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Thy counsel is but on the brink of coming
+Somewhat too late, thanks to the patriarch's
+Bloodthirsty rage, whose instrument I shudder
+To have almost become.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   How! how! thou wentest
+Still earlier to the patriarch than to me?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Yes, in the storm of passion, in the eddy
+Of indecision--pardon--oh! thou wilt
+No longer care, I fear, to find in me
+One feature of thy Assad.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Yes, that fear.
+Methinks I know by this time from what failings
+Our virtue springs--this do thou cultivate,
+Those shall but little harm thee in my sight.
+But go, seek Nathan, as he sought for thee,
+And bring him hither:  I must reconcile you.
+If thou art serious about the maid -
+Be calm, she shall be thine--Nathan shall feel
+That without swine's flesh one may educate
+A Christian child, Go.  [Templar withdraws.
+
+SITTAH (rising from the sofa).
+
+   Very strange indeed!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Well, Sittah, must my Assad not have been
+A gallant handsome youth?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      If he was thus,
+And 'twasn't the templar who sat to the painter.
+But how couldst thou be so forgetful, brother,
+As not to ask about his parents?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      And
+Particularly too about his mother.
+Whether his mother e'er was in this country,
+That is your meaning, isn't it?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      You run on -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Oh, nothing is more possible, for Assad
+'Mong handsome Christian ladies was so welcome,
+To handsome Christian ladies so attached,
+That once a report spread--but 'tis not pleasant
+To bring that up.  Let us be satisfied
+That we have got him once again--have got him
+With all the faults and freaks, the starts and wildness
+Of his warm gentle heart--Oh, Nathan must
+Give him the maid--Dost think so?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Give--give up!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Aye, for what right has Nathan with the girl
+If he be not her father?  He who saved
+Her life so lately has a stronger claim
+To heir their rights who gave it her at first.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What therefore, Saladin, if you withdraw
+The maid at once from the unrightful owner?
+
+SALADIN,
+
+There is no need of that.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Need, not precisely;
+But female curiosity inspires
+Me with that counsel.  There are certain men
+Of whom one is irresistibly impatient
+To know what women they can be in love with.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Well then you may send for her.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      May I, brother?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+But hurt not Nathan, he must not imagine
+That we propose by violence to part them.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Be without apprehension.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Fare you well,
+I must make out where this Al-Hafi is.
+
+
+SCENE.--The Hall in Nathan's House, as in the first scene; the
+things there mentioned unpacked and displayed.
+
+
+DAYA and NATHAN.
+
+DAYA.
+
+O how magnificent, how tasty, charming -
+All such as only you could give--and where
+Was this thin silver stuff with sprigs of gold
+Woven?  What might it cost?  Yes, this is worthy
+To be a wedding-garment.  Not a queen
+Could wish a handsomer.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Why wedding-garment?
+
+DAYA.
+
+Perhaps of that you thought not when you bought it;
+But Nathan, it must be so, must indeed.
+It seems made for a bride--the pure white ground,
+Emblem of innocence--the branching gold,
+Emblem of wealth--Now is not it delightful?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+What's all this ingenuity of speech for?
+Over whose wedding-gown are you displaying
+Your emblematic learning?  Have you found
+A bridegroom?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   I -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Who then?
+
+DAYA.
+
+         I--Gracious God!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Who then?  Whose wedding-garment do you speak of?
+For this is all your own and no one's else.
+
+DAYA.
+
+Mine--is't for me and not for Recha?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      What
+I brought for Recha is in another bale.
+Come, clear it off:  away with all your rubbish.
+
+DAYA.
+
+You tempter--No--Were they the precious things
+Of the whole universe, I will not touch them
+Until you promise me to seize upon
+Such an occasion as heaven gives not twice.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Seize upon what occasion?  For what end?
+
+DAYA.
+
+There, do not act so strange.  You must perceive
+The templar loves your Recha--Give her to him;
+Then will your sin, which I can hide no longer,
+Be at an end.  The maid will come once more
+Among the Christians, will be once again
+What she was born to, will be what she was;
+And you, by all the benefits, for which
+We cannot thank you enough, will not have heaped
+More coals of fire upon your head.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Again
+Harping on the old string, new tuned indeed,
+But so as neither to accord nor hold.
+
+DAYA.
+
+How so?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   The templar pleases me indeed,
+I'd rather he than any one had Recha;
+But--do have patience.
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Patience--and is that
+Not the old string you harp on?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Patience, patience,
+For a few days--no more.  Ha! who comes here?
+A friar--ask what he wants.
+
+DAYA (going).
+
+      What can he want?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Give, give before he begs.  O could I tell
+How to come at the templar, not betraying
+The motive of my curiosity -
+For if I tell it, and if my suspicion
+Be groundless, I have staked the father idly.
+What is the matter?
+
+DAYA (returning).
+
+   He must speak to you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Then let him come to me.  Go you meanwhile.
+
+[Daya goes.
+
+How gladly would I still remain my Recha's
+Father.  And can I not remain so, though
+I cease to wear the name.  To her, to her
+I still shall wear it, when she once perceives
+
+[Friar enters.
+
+How willingly I were so.  Pious brother,
+What can be done to serve you?
+
+NATHAN and FRIAR.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      O not much;
+And yet I do rejoice to see you yet
+So well.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   You know me then -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Who knows you not?
+You have impressed your name in many a hand,
+And it has been in mine these many years.
+
+NATHAN (feeling for his purse).
+
+Here, brother, I'll refresh it.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Thank you, thank you -
+From poorer men I'd steal--but nothing now!
+Only allow me to refresh my name
+In your remembrance; for I too may boast
+To mayo of old put something in your hand
+Not to be scorned.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Excuse me, I'm ashamed,
+What was it?  Claim it of me sevenfold,
+I'm ready to atone for my forgetting.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+But before all, hear how this very day
+I was reminded of the pledge I brought you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+A pledge to me intrusted?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Some time since,
+I dwelt as hermit on the Quarantana,
+Not far from Jericho, but Arab robbers
+Came and broke up my cell and oratory,
+And dragged me with them.  Fortunately I
+Escaped, and with the patriarch sought a refuge,
+To beg of him some other still retreat,
+Where I may serve my God in solitude
+Until my latter end.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I stand on coals -
+Quick, my good brother, let me know what pledge
+You once intrusted to me.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Presently,
+Good Nathan, presently.  The patriarch
+Has promised me a hermitage on Thabor,
+As soon as one is vacant, and meanwhile
+Employs me as lay-brother in the convent,
+And there I am at present:  and I pine
+A hundred times a day for Thabor; for
+The patriarch will set me about all work,
+And some that I can't brook--as for example -
+
+NATHAN
+
+Be speedy, I beseech you.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Now it happens
+That some one whispered in his ear to-day,
+There lives hard by a Jew, who educates
+A Christian child as his own daughter.
+
+NATHAN (startled).
+
+      How
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Hear me quite out.  So he commissions me,
+If possible to track him out this Jew:
+And stormed most bitterly at the misdeed;
+Which seems to him to be the very sin
+Against the Holy Ghost--That is, the sin
+Of all most unforgiven, most enormous;
+But luckily we cannot tell exactly
+What it consists in--All at once my conscience
+Was roused, and it occurred to me that I
+Perhaps had given occasion to this sin.
+Now do not you remember a knight's squire,
+Who eighteen years ago gave to your hands
+A female child a few weeks old?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      How that?
+In fact such was -
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Now look with heed at me,
+And recollect.  I was the man on horseback
+Who brought the child.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Was you?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      And he from whom
+I brought it was methinks a lord of Filnek -
+Leonard of Filnek.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Right!
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Because the mother.
+Died a short time before; and he, the father,
+Had on a sudden to make off to Gazza,
+Where the poor helpless thing could not go with him;
+Therefore he sent it you--that was my message.
+Did not I find you out at Darun? there
+Consign it to you?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Yes.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      It were no wonder
+My memory deceived me.  I have had
+Many a worthy master, and this one
+I served not long.  He fell at Askalon -
+But he was a kind lord.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   O yes, indeed;
+For much have I to thank him, very much -
+He more than once preserved me from the sword.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+O brave--you therefore will with double pleasure
+Have taken up this daughter.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      You have said it.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Where is she then?  She is not dead, I hope -
+I would not have her dead, dear pretty creature.
+If no one else know anything about it
+All is yet safe.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Aye all!
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Yes, trust me, Nathan,
+This is my way of thinking--if the good
+That I propose to do is somehow twined
+With mischief, then I let the good alone;
+For we know pretty well what mischief is,
+But not what's for the best.  'Twas natural
+If you meant to bring up the Christian child
+Right well, that you should rear it as your own;
+And to have done this lovingly and truly,
+For such a recompense--were horrible.
+It might have been more prudent to have had it
+Brought up at second hand by some good Christian
+In her own faith.  But your friend's orphan child
+You would not then have loved.  Children need love,
+Were it the mute affection of a brute,
+More at that age than Christianity.
+There's always time enough for that--and if
+The maid have but grown up before your eyes
+With a sound frame and pious--she remains
+Still in her maker's eye the same.  For is not
+Christianity all built on Judaism?
+Oh, it has often vexed me, cost me tears,
+That Christians will forget so often that
+Our Saviour was a Jew.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   You, my good brother,
+Shall be my advocate, when bigot hate
+And hard hypocrisy shall rise upon me -
+And for a deed--a deed--thou, thou shalt know it -
+But take it with thee to the tomb.  As yet
+Has vanity ne'er tempted me to tell it
+To living soul--only to thee I tell it,
+To simple piety alone; for it
+Alone can feel what deeds the man who trusts
+In God can gain upon himself.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      You seem
+Affected, and your eye-balls swim in water.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+'Twas at Darun you met me with the child;
+But you will not have known that a few days
+Before, the Christians murdered every Jew in Gath,
+Woman and child; that among these, my wife
+With seven hopeful sons were found, who all
+Beneath my brother's roof which they had fled to,
+Were burnt alive.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Just God!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      And when you came,
+Three nights had I in dust and ashes lain
+Before my God and wept--aye, and at times
+Arraigned my maker, raged, and cursed myself
+And the whole world, and to Christianity
+Swore unrelenting hate.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Ah, I believe you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+But by degrees returning reason came,
+She spake with gentle voice--And yet God is,
+And this was his decree--now exercise
+What thou hast long imagined, and what surely
+Is not more difficult to exercise
+Than to imagine--if thou will it once.
+I rose and called out--God, I will--I will,
+So thou but aid my purpose--And behold
+You was just then dismounted, and presented
+To me the child wrapt in your mantle.  What
+You said, or I, occurs not to me now -
+Thus much I recollect--I took the child,
+I bore it to my couch, I kissed it, flung
+Myself upon my knees and sobbed--my God,
+Now have I one out of the seven again!
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Nathan, you are a Christian!  Yes, by God
+You are a Christian--never was a better.
+
+NATHAN
+
+Heaven bless us!  What makes me to you a Christian
+Makes you to me a Jew.  But let us cease
+To melt each other--time is nigh to act,
+And though a sevenfold love had bound me soon
+To this strange only girl, though the mere thought,
+That I shall lose in her my seven sons
+A second time distracts me--yet I will,
+If providence require her at my hands,
+Obey.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   The very thing I should advise you;
+But your good genius has forestalled my thought.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+The first best claimant must not seek to tear
+Her from me.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   No most surely not.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      And he,
+That has not stronger claims than I, at least
+Ought to have earlier.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   Certainly.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      By nature
+And blood conferred.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   I mean so too.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Then name
+The man allied to her as brother, uncle,
+Or otherwise akin, and I from him
+Will not withhold her--she who was created
+And was brought up to be of any house,
+Of any faith, the glory--I, I hope,
+That of your master and his race you knew
+More than myself.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   I hardly think that, Nathan;
+For I already told you that I passed
+A short time with him.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Can you tell at least
+The mother's family name?  She was, I think,
+A Stauffen.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   May be--yes, in fact, you're right.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Conrade of Stauffen was her brother's name -
+He was a templar.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      I am clear it was.
+But stay, I recollect I've yet a book,
+'Twas my dead lord's--I drew it from his bosom,
+While we were burying him at Askalon.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well!
+
+FRIAR.
+
+   There are prayers in't, 'tis what we call
+A breviary.  This, thought I, may yet serve
+Some Christian man--not me indeed, for I
+Can't read.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   No matter, to the thing.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+This book is written at both ends quite full,
+And, as I'm told, contains, in his hand-writing
+About both him and her what's most material.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Go, run and fetch the book--'tis fortunate;
+I am ready with its weight in gold to pay it,
+And thousand thanks beside--Go, run.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      Most gladly;
+But 'tis in Arabic what he has written.  [Goes.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+No matter--that's all one--do fetch it--Oh!
+If by its means I may retain the daughter,
+And purchase with it such a son-in-law;
+But that's unlikely--well, chance as it may.
+Who now can have been with the patriarch
+To tell this tale?  That I must not forget
+To ask about.  If 't were of Daya's?
+
+NATHAN and DAYA
+
+DAYA (anxiously breaks in).
+
+         Nathan!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Well!
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Only think, she was quite frightened at it,
+Poor child, a message -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   From the patriarch?
+
+DAYA.
+
+      No -
+The sultan's sister, princess Sittah, sends.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And not the patriarch?
+
+DAYA.
+
+   Can't you hear?  The princess
+Has sent to see your Recha.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Sent for Recha
+Has Sittah sent for Recha?  Well, if Sittah,
+And not the patriarch, sends.
+
+DAYA.
+
+      Why think of him?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Have you heard nothing from him lately--really
+Seen nothing of him--whispered nothing to him?
+
+DAYA.
+
+How, I to him?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Where are the messengers?
+
+DAYA.
+
+There, just before you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I will talk with them
+Out of precaution.  If there's nothing lurking
+Beneath this message of the patriarch's doing--[Goes.
+
+DAYA.
+
+And I--I've other fears.  The only daughter,
+As they suppose, of such a rich, rich Jew,
+Would for a Mussulman be no bad thing;
+I bet the templar will be choused, unless
+I risk the second step, and to herself
+Discover who she is.  Let me for this
+Employ the first short moments we're alone;
+And that will be--oh, as I am going with her.
+A serious hint upon the road I think
+Can't be amiss--yes, now or never--yes.
+
+
+
+ACT V.
+
+
+
+SCENE.--A Room in the Palace; the Purses still in a pile.
+
+SALADIN, and, soon after, several MAMALUKES.
+
+SALADIN (as he comes in).
+
+Here lies the money still, and no one finds
+The dervis yet--he's probably got somewhere
+Over a chess-board.  Play would often make
+The man forget himself, and why not, me.
+Patience--Ha! what's the matter.
+
+SALADIN and IBRAHIM.
+
+IBRAHIM.
+
+      Happy news -
+Joy, sultan, joy, the caravan from Cairo
+Is safe arrived and brings the seven years' tribute
+Of the rich Nile.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Bravo, my Ibrahim,
+Thou always wast a welcome messenger,
+And now at length--at length--accept my thanks
+For the good tidings.
+
+IBRAHIM (waiting).
+
+   Hither with them, sultan.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+What art thou waiting for?  Go.
+
+IBRAHIM.
+
+      Nothing further
+For my glad news?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   What further?
+
+IBRAHIM.
+
+      Errand boys
+Earn hire--and when their message smiles i' the telling,
+The sender's hire by the receiver's bounty
+Is oft outweighed.  Am I to be the first
+Whom Saladin at length has learnt to pay
+In words?  The first about whose recompense
+The sultan higgled?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Go, pick up a purse.
+
+IBRAHIM.
+
+No, not now--you might give them all away
+
+SALADIN.
+
+All--hold, man.  Here, come hither, take these two -
+And is he really going--shall he conquer
+Me then in generosity? for surely
+'Tis harder for this fellow to refuse
+Than 'tis for me to give.  Here, Ibrahim -
+Shall I be tempted, just before my exit,
+To be a different man--small Saladin
+Not die like Saladin, then wherefore live so?
+
+ABDALLAH and SALADIN.
+
+ABDALLAH.
+
+Hail, Sultan!
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   If thou comest to inform me
+That the whole convoy is arrived from Egypt,
+I know it already.
+
+ABDALLAH.
+
+   Do I come too late?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Too late, and why too late?  There for thy tidings
+Pick up a purse or two.
+
+ABDALLAH.
+
+      Does that make three?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+So thou wouldst reckon--well, well, take them, take them.
+
+ABDALLAH.
+
+A third will yet be here if he be able.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+How so?
+
+ABDALLAH.
+
+   He may perhaps have broke his neck.
+We three, as soon as certain of the coming
+Of the rich caravan, each crossed our horses,
+And galloped hitherward.  The foremost fell,
+Then I was foremost, and continued so
+Into the city, but sly Ibrahim,
+Who knows the streets -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      But he that fell, go, seek him.
+
+ABDALLAH.
+
+That will I quickly--if he lives, the half
+Of what I've got is his.  [Goes.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   What a fine fellow!
+And who can boast such mamalukes as these;
+And is it not allowed me to imagine
+That my example helped to form them.  Hence
+With the vile thought at last to turn another.
+
+A third COURIER.
+
+Sultan -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Was't thou who fell?
+
+COURIER.
+
+      No, I've to tell thee
+That Emir Mansor, who conducts the convoy,
+Alights.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   O bring him to me--Ah, he's there -
+Be welcome, Emir.  What has happened to thee?
+For we have long expected thee.
+
+SALADIN and EMIR.
+
+EMIR (after the wont obeisance).
+
+      This letter
+Will show, that, in Thebais, discontents
+Required thy Abulkassem's sabred hand,
+Ere we could march.  Since that, our progress, sultan,
+My zeal has sped most anxiously.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      I trust thee -
+But my good Mansor take without delay -
+Thou art not loth to go further--fresh protection,
+And with the treasure on to Libanon;
+The greater part at least I have to lodge
+With my old father.
+
+EMIR.
+
+   O, most willingly.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+And take not a slight escort.  Libanon
+Is far from quiet, as thou wilt have heard;
+The templars stir afresh, be therefore cautious.
+Come, I must see thy troop, and give the orders.
+
+[To a slave.
+
+Say I shall be with Sittah when I've finished.
+
+
+SCENE--A Place of Palms.
+
+
+The TEMPLAR walking to and fro.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Into this house I go not--sure at last
+He'll show himself--once, once they used to see me
+So instantly, so gladly--time will come
+When he'll send out most civilly to beg me
+Not to pace up and down before his door.
+Psha--and yet I'm a little nettled too;
+And what has thus embittered me against him?
+He answered yes.  He has refused me nothing
+As yet.  And Saladin has undertaken
+To bring him round.  And does the Christian nestle
+Deeper in me than the Jew lurks in him?
+Who, who can justly estimate himself?
+How comes it else that I should grudge him so
+The little booty that he took such pains
+To rob the Christians of?  A theft, no less
+Than such a creature tho'--but whose, whose creature?
+Sure not the slave's who floated the mere block
+On to life's barren strand, and then ran off;
+But his the artist's, whose fine fancy moulded
+Upon the unowned block a godlike form,
+Whose chisel graved it there.  Recha's true father,
+Spite of the Christian who begot her, is,
+Must ever be, the Jew.  Alas, were I
+To fancy her a simple Christian wench,
+And without all that which the Jew has given,
+Which only such a Jew could have bestowed -
+Speak out my heart, what had she that would please thee?
+No, nothing!  Little!  For her very smile
+Shrinks to a pretty twisting of the muscles -
+Be that, which makes her smile, supposed unworthy
+Of all the charms in ambush on her lips?
+No, not her very smile--I've seen sweet smiles
+Spent on conceit, on foppery, on slander,
+On flatterers, on wicked wooers spent,
+And did they charm me then? then wake the wish
+To flutter out a life beneath their sunshine?
+Indeed not--Yet I'm angry with the man
+Who alone gave this higher value to her.
+How this, and why?  Do I deserve the taunt
+With which I was dismissed by Saladin?
+'Tis bad enough that Saladin should think so;
+How little, how contemptible must I
+Then have appeared to him--all for a girl.
+Conrade, this will not do--back, back--And if
+Daya to boot had prated matter to me
+Not easy to be proved--At last he's coming,
+Engaged in earnest converse--and with whom?
+My friar in Nathan's house! then he knows all -
+Perhaps has to the patriarch been betrayed.
+O Conrade, what vile mischiefs thou hast brooded
+Out of thy cross-grained head, that thus one spark
+Of that same passion, love, can set so much
+O' 'th' brain in flame?  Quick, then, determine, wretch,
+What shalt thou say or do?  Step back a moment
+And see if this good friar will please to quit him.
+
+NATHAN and the FRIAR come together out of Nathan's house.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Once more, good brother, thanks.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      The like to you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+To me, and why; because I'm obstinate -
+Would force upon you what you have no use for?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+The book besides was none of mine.  Indeed
+It must at any rate belong to th' daughter;
+It is her whole, her only patrimony -
+Save she has you.  God grant you ne'er have reason
+To sorrow for the much you've done for her.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+How should I? that can never be; fear nothing.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Patriarchs and templars -
+
+NATHAN,
+
+   Have not in their power
+Evil enough to make me e'er repent.
+And then--But are you really well assured
+It is a templar who eggs on your patriarch?
+
+FRIAR.
+
+It scarcely can be other, for a templar
+Talked with him just before, and what I heard
+Agreed with this.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   But there is only one
+Now in Jerusalem; and him I know;
+He is my friend, a noble open youth.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+The same.  But what one is at heart, and what
+One gets to be in active life, mayn't always
+Square well together.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   No, alas, they do not.
+Therefore unangered I let others do
+Their best or worst.  O brother, with your book
+I set all at defiance, and am going
+Straight with it to the Sultan.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+      God be with you!
+Here I shall take my leave.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      And have not seen her -
+Come soon, come often to us.  If to-day
+The patriarch make out nothing--but no matter,
+Tell him it all to-day, or when you will.
+
+FRIAR.
+
+Not I--farewell!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Do not forget us, brother
+My God, why may I not beneath thy sky
+Here drop upon my knees; now the twined knot,
+Which has so often made my thinkings anxious,
+Untangles of itself--God, how I am eased,
+Now that I've nothing in the world remaining
+That I need hide--now that I can as freely
+Walk before man as before thee, who only
+Need'st not to judge a creature by his deeds -
+Deeds which so seldom are his own--O God!
+
+NATHAN and TEMPLAR.
+
+TEMPLAR (coming forward).
+
+Hoa, Nathan, take me with you.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Ha!  Who calls?
+Is it you, knight?  And whither have you been
+That you could not be met with at the Sultan's?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+We missed each other--take it not amiss.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I, no, but Saladin.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   You was just gone.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+O, then you spoke with him; I'm satisfied.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Yes--but he wants to talk with us together.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+So much the better.  Come with me, my step
+Was eitherwise bent thither.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   May I ask,
+Nathan, who 'twas now left you?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Did you know him?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Was't that good-hearted creature the lay-brother,
+Whom the hoar patriarch has a knack of using
+To feel his way out?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   That may be.  In fact
+He's at the patriarch's.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   'Tis no awkward hit
+To make simplicity the harbinger
+Of craft.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   If the simplicity of dunces,
+But if of honest piety?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      This last
+No patriarch can believe in.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I'll be bound for't
+This last belongs to him who quitted me.
+He'll not assist his patriarch to accomplish
+A vile or cruel purpose.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Such, at least,
+He would appear--but has he told you then
+Something of me?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Of you?  No--not by name,
+He can't well be acquainted with your name.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+No, that not.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   He indeed spoke of a templar,
+Who -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   What?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      But by this templar could not mean
+To point out you.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Stay, stay, who knows?  Let's hear.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Who has accused me to his patriarch.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Accused thee, no, that by his leave is false.
+Nathan do hear me--I am not the man
+Who would deny a single of his actions;
+What I have done, I did.  Nor am I one
+Who would defend all he has done as right -
+Why be ashamed of failing?  Am I not
+Firmly resolved on better future conduct?
+And am I not aware how much the man
+That's willing can improve?  O, hear me, Nathan -
+I am the templar your lay-brother talked of -
+Who has accused--You know what made me angry,
+What set the blood in all my veins on fire,
+The mad-cap that I was--I had drawn nigh
+To fling myself with soul and body whole
+Into your arms--and you received me, Nathan--
+How cold, how lukewarm, for that's worse than cold. -
+How with words weighed and measured, you took care
+To put me off; and with what questioning
+About my parentage, and God knows what,
+You seemed to answer me--I must not think on't
+If I would keep my temper--Hear me, Nathan -
+While in this ferment--Daya steps behind me,
+Bolts out a secret in my ear, which seemed
+At once to lend a clue to your behaviour.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+How so?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Do hear me to the end.  I fancied
+That what you from the Christians had purloined
+You wasn't content to let a Christian have;
+And so the project struck me short and good,
+To hold the knife to your throat till -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Short and good;
+And good--but where's the good?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Yet hear me, Nathan,
+I own I did not right--you are unguilty,
+No doubt.  The prating Daya does not know
+What she reported--has a grudge against you -
+Seeks to involve you in an ugly business -
+May be, may be, and I'm a crazy looby,
+A credulous enthusiast--both ways mad -
+Doing ever much too much, or much too little -
+That too may be--forgive me, Nathan.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      If
+Such be the light in which you view -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      In short
+I to the patriarch went.  I named you not.
+That, as I said, was false.  I only stated
+In general terms, the case, to learn his notion,
+That too might have been let alone--assuredly.
+For knew I not the patriarch then to be
+A knave?  And might I not have talked with you?
+And ought I to have exposed the poor girl--ha!
+To part with such a father?  Now what happens?
+The patriarch's villainy consistent ever
+Restored me to myself--O, hear me out -
+Suppose he was to ferret out your name,
+What then?  What then?  He cannot seize the maid,
+Unless she still belong to none but you.
+'Tis from your house alone that he could drag her
+Into a convent; therefore grant her me -
+Grant her to me, and let him come.  By God -
+Sever my wife from me--he'll not be rash
+Enough to think about it.  Give her to me,
+Be she or no thy daughter, Christian, Jewess,
+Or neither, 'tis all one, all one--I'll never
+In my whole life ask of thee which she is,
+Be't as it may.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   You may perhaps imagine
+That I've an interest to conceal the truth.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Be't as it may.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I neither have to you
+Nor any one, whom it behooved to know it,
+Denied that she's a Christian, and no more
+Than my adopted daughter.  Why, to her
+I have not yet betrayed it--I am bound
+To justify only to her.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Of that
+Shall be no need.  Indulge, indulge her with
+Never beholding you with other eyes -
+Spare, spare her the discovery.  As yet
+You have her to yourself, and may bestow her;
+Give her to me--oh, I beseech thee, Nathan,
+Give her to me, I, only I can save her
+A second time, and will.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Yes, could have saved her.
+But 'tis all over now--it is too late.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+How so, too late.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Thanks to the patriarch.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      How
+Thanks to the patriarch, and for what?  Can he
+Earn thanks of us.  For what?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   That now we know
+To whom she is related--to whose hands
+She may with confidence be now delivered.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+He thank him who has more to thank him for.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+From theirs you now have to obtain her, not
+From mine.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Poor Recha--what befalls thee?  Oh,
+Poor Recha--what had been to other orphans
+A blessing, is to thee a curse.  But, Nathan,
+Where are they, these new kinsmen?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Where they are?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Who are they?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Who--a brother is found out
+To whom you must address yourself.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      A brother!
+And what is he, a soldier or a priest?
+Let's hear what I've to hope.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      As I believe
+He's neither of the two--or both.  Just now
+I cannot say exactly.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And besides
+He's -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   A brave fellow, and with whom my Recha
+Will not be badly placed.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   But he's a Christian.
+At times I know not what to make of you -
+Take it not ill of me, good Nathan.  Will she
+Not have to play the Christian among Christians;
+And when she has been long enough the actress
+Not turn so?  Will the tares in time not stifle
+The pure wheat of your setting--and does that
+Affect you not a whit--you yet declare
+She'll not be badly placed.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   I think, I hope so.
+And should she there have need of any thing
+Has she not you and me?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Need at her brother's -
+What should she need when there?  Won't he provide
+His dear new sister with all sorts of dresses,
+With comfits and with toys and glittering jewels?
+And what needs any sister wish for else -
+Only a husband?  And he comes in time.
+A brother will know how to furnish that,
+The Christianer the better.  Nathan, Nathan,
+O what an angel you had formed, and how
+Others will mar it now!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Be not so downcast,
+Believe me he will ever keep himself
+Worthy our love.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   No, say not that of mine.
+My love allows of no refusal--none.
+Were it the merest trifle--but a name.
+Hold there--has she as yet the least suspicion
+Of what is going forward?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      That may be,
+And yet I know not whence.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      It matters not,
+She shall, she must in either case from me
+First learn what fate is threatening.  My fixed purpose
+To see her not again, nor speak to her,
+Till I might call her mine, is gone.  I hasten -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Stay, whither would you go?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      To her, to learn
+If this girl's soul be masculine enough
+To form the only resolution worthy
+Herself.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   What resolution?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      This--to ask
+No more about her brother and her father,
+And -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   And -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      To follow me.  E'en if she were
+So doing to become a Moslem's wife.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Stay, you'll not find her--she is now with Sittah,
+The Sultan's sister.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   How long since, and wherefore?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+And would you there behold her brother, come
+Thither with me.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Her brother, whose then?  Sittah's
+Or Recha's do you mean?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Both, both, perchance.
+Come this way--I beseech you, come with me.
+[Leads off the Templar with him.
+
+
+SCENE.--The Sultan's Palace.  A Room in Sittah's Apartment.
+
+
+SITTAH and RECHA.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+How I am pleased with thee, sweet girl!  But do
+Shake off this perturbation, be not anxious,
+Be not alarmed, I want to hear thee talk -
+Be cheerful.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Princess!
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      No, not princess, child.
+Call me thy friend, or Sittah, or thy sister,
+Or rather aunt, for I might well be thine;
+So young, so good, so prudent, so much knowledge,
+You must have read a great deal to be thus.
+
+RECHA.
+
+I read--you're laughing, Sittah, at your sister,
+I scarce can read.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Scarce can, you little fibber.
+
+RECHA.
+
+My father's hand or so--I thought you spoke
+Of books.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Aye, surely so I did, of books.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Well really now it puzzles me to read them.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+In earnest?
+
+RECHA.
+
+   Yes, in earnest, for my father
+Hates cold book-learning, which makes an impression
+With its dead letters only on the brain.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What say you?  Aye, he's not unright in that.
+So then the greater part of what you know -
+
+RECHA.
+
+I know but from his mouth--of most of it
+I could relate to you, the how, the where,
+The why he taught it me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   So it clings closer,
+And the whole soul drinks in th' instruction.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Yes,
+And Sittah certainly has not read much.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+How so?  Not that I'm vain of having read;
+But what can be thy reason?  Speak out boldly,
+Thy reason for it.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   She is so right down,
+Unartificial--only like herself
+And books do seldom leave us so; my father
+Says.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   What a man thy father is, my Recha.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Is not he?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   How he always hits the mark.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Does not he?  And this father -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Love, what ails thee?
+
+RECHA.
+
+This father -
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   God, thou'rt weeping
+
+RECHA.
+
+      And this father -
+It must have vent, my heart wants room, wants room.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Child, child, what ails you, Recha?
+
+RECHA.
+
+      And this father
+I am to lose.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Thou lose him, O no, never:
+Arise, be calm, how so?  It must not be.
+
+RECHA.
+
+So shall thy offer not have been in vain,
+To be my friend, my sister.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Maid, I am.
+Rise then, or I must call for help.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Forgive,
+My agony made me awhile forgetful
+With whom I am.  Tears, sobbing, and despair,
+Can not avail with Sittah.  Cool calm reason
+Alone is over her omnipotent;
+Whose cause that pleads before her, he has conquered.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Well, then!
+
+RECHA.
+
+My friend, my sister, suffer not
+Another father to be forced upon me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Another father to be forced upon thee -
+Who can do that, or wish to do it, Recha?
+
+RECHA.
+
+Who?  Why my good, my evil genius, Daya,
+She, she can wish it, will it--and can do it.
+You do not know this dear good evil Daya.
+God, God forgive it her--reward her for it;
+So much good she has done me, so much evil.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Evil to thee--much goodness she can't have.
+
+RECHA.
+
+O yes, she has indeed.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Who is she?
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Who?
+A Christian, who took care of all my childhood.
+You cannot think how little she allowed me
+To miss a mother--God reward her for it -
+But then she has so teased, so tortured me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+And about what?  Why, how, when?
+
+RECHA.
+
+      The poor woman,
+I tell thee, is a Christian--and she must
+From love torment--is one of those enthusiasts
+Who think they only know the one true road
+To God.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   I comprehend thee.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   And who feel
+Themselves in duty bound to point it out
+To every one who is not in this path,
+To lead, to drag them into it.  And indeed
+They can't do otherwise consistently;
+For if theirs really be the only road
+On which 'tis safe to travel--they cannot
+With comfort see their friends upon another
+Which leads to ruin, to eternal ruin:
+Else were it possible at the same instant
+To love and hate the same man.  Nor is 't this
+Which forces me to be aloud complainant.
+Her groans, her prayers, her warnings, and her threats,
+I willingly should have abided longer -
+Most willingly--they always called up thoughts
+Useful and good; and whom does it not flatter
+To be by whomsoever held so dear,
+So precious, that they cannot bear the thought
+Of parting with us at some time for ever?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+Most true.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   But--but--at last this goes too far;
+I've nothing to oppose to it, neither patience,
+Neither reflection--nothing.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      How, to what?
+
+RECHA.
+
+To what she has just now, as she will have it,
+Discovered to me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   How discovered to thee?
+
+RECHA.
+
+Yes, just this instant.  Coming hitherward
+We past a fallen temple of the Christians -
+She all at once stood still, seemed inly struggling,
+Turned her moist eyes to heaven, and then on me.
+Come, says she finally, let us to the right
+Thro' this old fane--she leads the way, I follow.
+My eyes with horror overran the dim
+And tottering ruin--all at once she stops
+By the sunk steps of a low Moorish altar. -
+O how I felt, when there, with streaming tears
+And wringing hands, prostrate before my feet
+She fell
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Good child -
+
+RECHA.
+
+      And by the holy Virgin,
+Who there had hearkened many a prayer, and wrought
+Many a wonder, she conjured, intreated,
+With looks of heartfelt sympathy and love,
+I would at length take pity of myself -
+At least forgive, if she must now unfold
+What claims her church had on me.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      Ah!  I guessed it.
+
+RECHA.
+
+That I am sprung of Christian blood--baptised -
+Not Nathan's daughter--and he not my father.
+God, God, he not my father!  Sittah, Sittah,
+See me once more low at thy feet.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      O Recha,
+Not so; arise, my brother's coming, rise.
+
+SALADIN, SITTAH, and RECHA.
+
+SALADIN (entering).
+
+What is the matter, Sittah?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      She is swooned--
+God -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Who?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      You know sure.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      What, our Nathan's daughter?
+What ails her?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Child, come to thyself, the sultan.
+
+RECHA.
+
+No, I'll not rise, not rise, not look upon
+The Sultan's countenance--I'll not admire
+The bright reflection of eternal justice
+And mercy on his brow, and in his eye,
+Before -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Rise, rise.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Before he shall have promised -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Come, come, I promise whatsoe'er thy prayer.
+
+RECHA.
+
+Nor more nor less than leave my father to me,
+And me to him.  As yet I cannot tell
+What other wants to be my father.  Who
+Can want it, care I not to inquire.  Does blood
+Alone then make the father? blood alone?
+
+SALADIN (raising her).
+
+Who was so cruel in thy breast to shed
+This wild suspicion?  Is it proved, made clear?
+
+RECHA.
+
+It must, for Daya had it from my nurse,
+Whose dying lips intrusted it to her.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Dying, perhaps delirious; if 'twere true,
+Blood only does not make by much the father,
+Scarcely the father of a brute, scarce gives
+The first right to endeavour at deserving
+The name of father.  If there be two fathers
+At strife for thee, quit both, and take a third,
+And take me for thy father.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Do it, do it.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+I will be a kind father--but methinks
+A better thought occurs, what hast thou need
+Of father upon father?  They will die,
+So that 'tis better to look out by times
+For one that starts fair, and stakes life with life
+On equal terms.  Knowst thou none such?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+      My brother,
+Don't make her blush.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Why that was half my project.
+Blushing so well becomes the ugly, that
+The fair it must make charming--I have ordered
+Thy father Nathan hither, and another,
+Dost guess who 'tis? one other.--Sittah, you
+Will not object?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Brother -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      And when he comes,
+Sweet girl, then blush to crimson.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      Before whom -
+Blush?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Little hypocrite--or else grow pale,
+Just as thou willst and canst.  Already there?
+
+SITTAH (to a female slave who comes in).
+
+Well, be they ushered in.  Brother, 'tis they.
+
+SALADIN, SITTAH, RECHA, NATHAN, and TEMPLAR.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+Welcome, my dear good friends.  Nathan, to you
+I've first to mention, you may send and fetch
+Your monies when you will.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Sultan -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      And now
+I'm at your service.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Sultan -
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      For my treasures
+Are all arrived.  The caravan is safe.
+I'm richer than I've been these many years.
+Now tell me what you wish for, to achieve
+Some splendid speculation--you in trade
+Like us, have never too much ready cash.
+
+NATHAN (going towards Recha).
+
+Why first about this trifle?--I behold
+An eye in tears, which 'tis far more important
+To me to dry.  My Recha thou hast wept,
+What hast thou lost?  Thou art still, I trust, my daughter.
+
+RECHA.
+
+My father!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   That's enough, we are understood
+By one another; but be calm, be cheerful.
+If else thy heart be yet thy own--if else
+No threatened loss thy trembling bosom wring
+Thy father shall remain to thee.
+
+RECHA.
+
+      None, none.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+None, none--then I'm deceived.  What we don't fear
+To lose, we never fancied, never wished
+Ourselves possessed of.  But 'tis well, 'tis well.
+Nathan, this changes all--all.  Saladin,
+At thy command we came, but I misled thee,
+Trouble thyself no further.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Always headlong;
+Young man, must every will then bow to thine,
+Interpret all thy meanings?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Thou hast heard,
+Sultan, hast seen.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Aye, 'twas a little awkward
+Not to be certain of thy cause.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      I now
+Do know my doom,
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Pride in an act of service
+Revokes the benefit.  What thou hast saved
+Is therefore not thy own, or else the robber,
+Urged by his avarice thro' fire-crumbling halls,
+Were like thyself a hero.  Come, sweet maid,
+
+[Advances toward Recha in order to lead her up to the Templar.
+
+Come, stickle not for niceties with him.
+Other--he were less warm and proud, and had
+Paused, and not saved thee.  Balance then the one
+Against the other, and put him to the blush,
+Do what he should have done--own thou thy love -
+Make him thy offer, and if he refuse,
+Or o'er forgot how infinitely more
+By this thou do for him than he for thee -
+What, what in fact has he then done for thee
+But make himself a little sooty?  That
+(Else he has nothing of my Assad in him,
+But only wears his mask) that was mere sport,
+Come, lovely girl.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   Go, go, my love, this step
+Is for thy gratitude too short, too trifling.
+
+[They are each taking one of Recha's hands when Nathan with a solemn
+gesture of prohibition says,
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Hold, Saladin--hold, Sittah.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Ha! thou too?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+One other has to speak.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Who denies that?
+Unquestionably, Nathan, there belongs
+A vote to such a foster-father--and
+The first, if you require it.  You perceive
+I know how all the matter lies.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Not all--
+I speak not of myself.  There is another,
+A very different man, whom, Saladin,
+I must first talk with.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Who?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Her brother.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      Recha's?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Yes, her's.
+
+RECHA.
+
+   My brother--have I then a brother?
+
+[The templar starts from his silent and sullen inattention.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+Where is this brother?  Not yet here?  'Twas here
+I was to find him.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Patience yet a while.
+
+TEMPLAR (very bitterly).
+
+He has imposed a father on the girl,
+He'll find her up a brother.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   That was wanting!
+Christian, this mean suspicion ne'er had past
+The lips of Assad.  Go but on -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      Forgive him,
+I can forgive him readily.  Who knows
+What in his place, and at his time of life,
+We might have thought ourselves?  Suspicion, knight,
+
+[Approaching the templar in a friendly manner.
+
+Succeeds soon to mistrust.  Had you at first
+Favoured me with your real name.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      How? what?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+You are no Stauffen.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Who then am I?  Speak.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Conrade of Stauffen is no name of yours.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+What is my name then?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Guy of Filnek.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   How?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+You startle -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   And with reason.  Who says that?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+I, who can tell you more.  Meanwhile, observe
+I do not tax you with a falsehood.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   No?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+May be you with propriety can wear
+Yon name as well.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I think so too.  (God--God
+Put that speech on his tongue.)
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   In fact your mother -
+She was a Stauffen:  and her brother's name,
+(The uncle to whose care you were resigned,
+When by the rigour of the climate chased,
+Your parents quitted Germany to seek
+This land once more) was Conrade.  He perhaps
+Adopted you as his own son and heir.
+Is it long since you hither travelled with him?
+Is he alive yet?
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   So in fact it stands.
+What shall I say?  Yes, Nathan, 'tis all right:
+Tho' he himself is dead.  I came to Syria
+With the last reinforcement of our order,
+But--but what has all this long tale to do
+With Recha's brother, whom -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   Your father -
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Him,
+Him did you know?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+He was my friend.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+      Your friend?
+And is that possible?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   He called himself
+Leonard of Filnek, but he was no German.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+You know that too?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   He had espoused a German,
+And followed for a time your mother thither.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+No more I beg of you--But Recha's brother -
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Art thou
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   I, I her brother -
+
+RECHA.
+
+      He, my brother?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+So near akin -
+
+RECHA (offers to clasp him).
+
+   My brother!
+
+TEMPLAR (steps back).
+
+      Brother to her -
+
+RECHA (turning to Nathan).
+
+It cannot be, his heart knows nothing of it.
+We are deceivers, God.
+
+SALADIN (to the templar).
+
+   Deceivers, yes;
+All is deceit in thee, face, voice, walk, gesture,
+Nothing belongs to thee.  How, not acknowledge
+A sister such as she?  Go.
+
+TEMPLAR (modestly approaching him).
+
+   Sultan, Sultan
+O do not misinterpret my amazement -
+Thou never saw'st in such a moment, prince,
+Thy Assad's heart--mistake not him and me.
+
+[Hastening towards Nathan.
+
+O Nathan, you have taken, you have given,
+Both with full hands indeed; and now--yes--yes,
+You give me more than you have taken from me,
+Yes, infinitely more--my sister--sister.
+
+[Embraces Recha.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Blanda of Filnek.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+   Blanda, ha! not Recha,
+Your Recha now no longer--you resign her,
+Give her her Christian name again, and then
+For my sake turn her off.  Why Nathan, Nathan,
+Why must she suffer for it? she for me?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+What mean you?  O my children, both my children -
+For sure my daughter's brother is my child,
+So soon as he but will it!
+
+[While they embrace Nathan by turns, Saladin draws nigh to Sittah.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   What sayst thou
+Sittah to this?
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   I'm deeply moved.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+      And I
+Half tremble at the thought of the emotion
+Still greater, still to come.  Nathan, a word
+
+[While he converses with Nathan, Sittah goes to express her sympathy
+to the others.
+
+With thee apart.  Wast thou not saying also
+That her own father was no German born?
+What was he then?  Whence was he?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+      He himself
+Never intrusted me with that.  From him
+I knew it not.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+You say he was no Frank?
+
+NATHAN.
+
+No, that he owned:  he loved to talk the Persian.
+
+SALADIN.
+
+The Persian--need I more?  'Tis he--'twas he!
+
+NATHAN.
+
+Who?
+
+SALADIN.
+
+   Assad certainly, my brother Assad.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+If thou thyself perceive it, be assured;
+Look in this book--[Gives the breviary.
+
+SALADIN (eagerly looking.)
+
+   O 'tis his hand, his hand,
+I recollect it well.
+
+NATHAN.
+
+   They know it not;
+It rests with thee what they shall learn of this.
+
+SALADIN (turning over the breviary.)
+
+I not acknowledge my own brother's children,
+Not own my nephew--not my children--I
+Leave them to thee?  Yes, Sittah, it is they, [Aloud.
+They are my brother's and thy brother's children.  [Rushes to
+embrace them.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+What do I hear?  Could it be otherwise?  [The like.
+
+SALADIN (to the templar).
+
+Now, proud boy, thou shalt love me, thou must love me,
+
+[To Recha.
+
+And I am, what I offered to become,
+With or without thy leave.
+
+SITTAH.
+
+   I too--I too.
+
+SALADIN (to the templar.)
+
+My son--my Assad--my lost Assad's son.
+
+TEMPLAR.
+
+I of thy blood--then those were more than dreams
+With which they used to lull my infancy -
+Much more.
+
+[Falls at the Sultan's feet.
+
+SALADIN (raising him.)
+
+   Now mark his malice.  Something of it
+He knew, yet would have let me butcher him -
+Boy, boy!
+
+
+
+[During the silent continuance of reciprocal embraces the curtain falls.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext Nathan the Wise, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
+
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