The Jew of Malta

I count religion but a childish toy And hold there is no sin but ignorance.

I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance.

BARABAS: For religion Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

BARABAS: Why, I esteem the injury far less, To take the lives of miserable men Than be the causers of their misery.

Infinite riches in a little room

BARABAS: As for myself, I walk abroad a-nights, And kill sick people groaning under walls. Sometimes I go about and poison wells; And now and then, to cherish Christian thieves, I am content to lose some of my crowns, That I may, walking in my gallery, See 'em go pinion'd along by my door. Being young, I studied physic, and began To practice first upon the Italian; There I enrich'd the priests with burials, And always kept the sexton's arms in ure With digging graves and ringing dead men's knells. And, after that, was I an engineer, And in the wars 'twixt France and Germany, Under pretence of helping Charles the Fifth, Slew friend and enemy with my stratagems: Then, after that, was I an usurer, And with extorting, cozening, forfeiting, And tricks belonging unto brokery, I fill'd the gaols with bankrupts in a year, And with young orphans planted hospitals; And every moon made some or other mad, And now and then one hang himself for grief, Pinning upon his breast a long great scroll How I with interest tormented him. But mark how I am blest for plaguing them: I have as much coin as will buy the town.

BARABAS: Things past recovery Are hardly cur'd with exclamations. Be silent, daughter; sufferance breeds ease, And time may yield us an occasion, Which on the sudden cannot serve the turn.

BARABAS: A reaching thought will search his deepest wits, And cast with cunning for the time to come; For evils are apt to happen every day.

For whilst I live, here lives my soul's sole hope, And when I die, here shall my spirit walk.