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?