Part 86 (1/2)

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.