The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing Part 86

Hush, Dervise, hus.h.!.+

DERVISE.

What! is it not a cheat To grind mankind by hundred thousands thus!

Oppress them, plunder, butcher, and torment, And singly play the philanthropic part?

Not cheating, to pretend to imitate That heavenly bounty, which in even course Descends alike on desert and on plain, On good and bad, in suns.h.i.+ne and in shower, And not possess the never empty hand Of the Most High! Not cheating----

NATHAN.

Dervise, cease!

DERVISE.

Nay, let me speak of cheating of my own, How now? Were it not cheating to seek out The bright side of impostures such as these, That under colour of this brighter side I might take part in them? What say you now?

NATHAN.

Fly to your desert quickly. Amongst men I fear you'll soon unlearn to be a man.

DERVISE.

I fear so too. Farewell!

NATHAN.

What, so abrupt?

Stay, stay, Al-Hafi! Has the desert wings?

It will not fly away. Here, stay, Al-Hafi!

He's gone; he's gone. I would that I had asked About that Templar; he must know the man.

Scene IV.

Daja (_rus.h.i.+ng in_), Nathan.

DAJA.

O Nathan, Nathan!

NATHAN.

Well! what now?

DAJA.

He's there.

He shows himself once more.

NATHAN.

Who, Daja--who?

DAJA.

He--he!

NATHAN.

Where cannot he be found? But _he_ You mean, is, I suppose, the only _He_.

That should not be, were he an angel's self.

DAJA.

Beneath the palms he wanders up and down, And gathers dates.

NATHAN.

And eats them, I suppose, Just as a Templar would.

DAJA.

You mock me, sir!

Her eager eye espied him long ago, When scarcely seen amid the distant trees.

She watches him intently, and implores That you will go to him without delay.

Then go, and from the window she will mark Which way his paces tend. Go, go; make haste!

NATHAN.

What! thus, as I alighted from my camel?

Would that be seemly? But do you accost him; Tell him of my return. I do not doubt You'll find the honest man forbore our house Because the host was absent. He'll accept A father's invitation. Say I ask him, I heartily request him.

DAJA.

All in vain!

In short, he will not visit any Jew.

NATHAN.

Then use your best endeavours to detain him, Or, with unerring eye, observe his steps, And mark him well. Go, I shall not be long.

(Nathan _enters the house_. Daja _retires_.)

Scene V.

_A Place of Palms. The_ Templar, _walking to and fro; a_ Friar, _following him at some distance, as if desirous of addressing him_.

TEMPLAR.