The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing Part 79

DAJA.

Is all you have yours by an equal t.i.tle?

NATHAN.

Nought by a better. What I else enjoy Are Fortune's gifts, or Nature's. This alone-- This treasure do I owe to virtue.

DAJA.

 

Nathan!

How dearly must I pay for all your goodness!

If goodness practised for an end like yours Deserves the name.

NATHAN.

An end like mine! What mean you?

DAJA.

My conscience----

NATHAN.

Daja, let me tell you first----

DAJA.

I say my conscience----

NATHAN.

Oh, the gorgeous robe That I have bought for you in Babylon!

Costly it is and rare. For Recha's self I have not bought a richer.

DAJA.

What of that?

My conscience can be silent now no more.

NATHAN.

I long to witness your delight, to see The bracelets, earrings, and the golden chain Which I selected at Damascus for you.

DAJA.

'Tis always so, you surfeit me with gifts.

NATHAN.

Accept them freely, as they are bestowed, And silence!

DAJA.

Silence! Yes. But who can doubt That you are generosity itself?

And yet----

NATHAN.

I'm but a Jew! Daja, confess That I have guessed your thought.

DAJA.

You know my thoughts Far better.

NATHAN.

Well, be silent!

DAJA.

I am dumb.

And henceforth all the evil that may spring From this, which I cannot avert, nor change, Fall on your head.

NATHAN.

Let it all fall on me!

But where is Recha? What detains her thus?

Are you deceiving me? Can she have heard That I am here?

DAJA.

Yourself must answer that.

Terror still palpitates through every nerve, And fancy mingles fire with all her thoughts.

In sleep her soul's awake; but when awake, Is wrapt in slumber. Less than mortal now, And now far more than angel, she appears.

NATHAN.

Poor child! how frail a thing is human nature!

DAJA.

She lay this morning with her eyelids closed-- One would have thought her dead--when suddenly She started from her couch, and cried, "Hark, hark!

Here come my father's camels, and I hear His own sweet voice again!" With that, her eyes Once more she opened, and her arms' support Withdrawn, her head droop'd softly on her pillow.

Quickly I hastened forth, and now behold, I find you here. But marvel not at this.

Has not her every thought been long engrossed With dreams of you and him?

NATHAN.