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!