You are a Christian--better never lived.

NATHAN.

Indeed! the very thing that makes me seem

Christian to you, makes you a Jew to me.

But let us not distress each other thus,

'Tis time to act, and though a sevenfold love

Had bound me to this strange, this lovely maid,

Though the mere thought distracts me, that in her

I lose my seven dear sons a second time,

If Providence require her at my hands