Pierr. Who’s he disputes the judgment of the Senate?
Presumptuous rebel—on—

[Strikes JAFFEIR.

Jaff. By Heaven, you stir not.
I must be heard, I must have leave to speak;
Thou hast disgrac’d me, Pierre, by a vile blow:
Had not a dagger done thee nobler justice?
But use me as thou wilt, thou canst not wrong me,
For I am fallen beneath the basest injuries;
Yet look upon me with an eye of mercy,
With pity and with charity behold me;
Shut not thy heart against a friend’s repentance,
But as there dwells a god-like nature in thee
Listen with mildness to my supplications.

Pierr. What whining monk art thou? what holy cheat,
That wouldst encroach upon my credulous ears
And cant’st thus vilely? hence. I know thee not.
Dissemble and be nasty: leave me, hypocrite.

Jaff. Not know me, Pierre?

Pierr. No, I know thee not: what art thou?

Jaff. Jaffeir, thy friend, thy once loved, valued friend!
Though now deservedly scorned, and used most hardly.

Pierr. Thou Jaffeir! Thou my once loved valued friend?
By heavens, thou liest; the man, so call’d, my friend,
Was generous, honest, faithful, just and valiant,
Noble in mind, and in his person lovely,
Dear to my eyes and tender to my heart:
But thou a wretched, base, false, worthless coward,
Poor even in soul, and loathsome in thy aspect,
All eyes must shun thee, and all hearts detest thee.
Prithee avoid, nor longer cling thus round me,
Like something baneful, that my nature’s chill’d at.

Jaff. I have not wrong’d thee, by these tears I have not.
But still am honest, true, and hope too, valiant:
My mind still full of thee, therefore still noble;
Let not thy eyes then shun me, nor thy heart
Detest me utterly; oh, look upon me,
Look back and see my sad sincere submission!
How my heart swells, as even ’twould burst my bosom;
Fond of its gaol, and labouring to be at thee!
What shall I do? what say to make thee hear me?

Pierr. Hast thou not wronged me? dar’st thou call thyself
Jaffeir, that once loved, valued friend of mine,
And swear thou hast not wronged me? whence these chains?
Whence the vile death which I may meet this moment?
Whence this dishonour, but from thee, thou false one?

Jaff. All’s true, yet grant one thing, and I’ve done asking.

Pierr. What’s that?

Jaff. To take thy life on such conditions
The Council have propos’d: thou and thy friends
May yet live long, and to be better treated.

Pierr. Life! ask my life! confess! record myself
A villain for the privilege to breathe,
And carry up and down this cursed city
A discontented and repining spirit,
Burthensome to itself a few years longer,
To lose it, may be, at last in a lewd quarrel
For some new friend, treacherous and false as thou art!
No, this vile world and I have long been jangling,
And cannot part on better terms than now,
When only men like thee are fit to live in’t.

Jaff. By all that’s just—

Pierr. Swear by some other powers,
For thou hast broke that sacred oath too lately.

Jaff. Then by that hell I merit, I’ll not leave thee,
Till to thyself at least thou’rt reconciled,
However thy resentment deal with me.