Nathan the Wise; a dramatic poem in five acts. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

I

      Scene.—A Hall in Nathan’s House

Nathan, in a travelling dress, Daya meeting himDAYA

      ’Tis he, ’tis Nathan!  Thanks to the Almighty,

      That you’re at last returned.

NATHAN

         Yes, Daya, thanks,

      That I have reached Jerusalem in safety.

      But wherefore this at last?  Did I intend,

      Or was it possible to come back sooner?

      As I was forced to travel, out and in,

      ’Tis a long hundred leagues to Babylon;

      And to get in one’s debts is no employment,

      That speeds a traveller.

DAYA

         O Nathan, Nathan,

      How miserable you had nigh become

      During this little absence; for your house—

NATHAN

      Well, ’twas on fire; I have already heard it.

      God grant I may have heard the whole, that chanced!

DAYA

      ’Twas on the point of burning to the ground.

NATHAN

      Then we’d have built another, and a better.

DAYA

      True!—But thy Recha too was on the point

      Of perishing amid the flames.

NATHAN

         Of perishing?

      My Recha, saidst thou?  She?  I heard not that.

      I then should not have needed any house.

      Upon the point of perishing—perchance

      She’s gone?—Speak out then—out—torment me not

      With this suspense.—Come, tell me, tell me all.

DAYA

      Were she no more, from me you would not hear it.

NATHAN

      Why then alarm me?—Recha, O my Recha!

DAYA

      Your Recha?  Yours?

NATHAN

         What if I ever were

      Doomed to unlearn to call this child, my child,

DAYA

      Is all you own yours by an equal title?

NATHAN

      Nought by a better.  What I else enjoy

      Nature and Fortune gave—this treasure, Virtue.

DAYA

      How dear you make me pay for all your goodness!—

      If goodness, exercised with such a view,

      Deserves the name.—

NATHAN

      With such a view?  With what?

DAYA

      My conscience—

NATHAN

      Daya, let me tell you first—

DAYA

      I say, my conscience—

NATHAN

         What a charming silk

      I bought for you in Babylon!  ’Tis rich,

      Yet elegantly rich.  I almost doubt

      If I have brought a prettier for Recha.

DAYA

      And what of that—I tell you that my conscience

      Will no be longer hushed.

NATHAN

         And I have bracelets,

      And earrings, and a necklace, which will charm you.

      I chose them at Damascus.

DAYA

         That’s your way:—

      If you can but make presents—but make presents.—

NATHAN

      Take you as freely as I give—and cease.

DAYA

      And cease?—Who questions, Nathan, but that you are

      Honour and generosity in person;—

      Yet—

NATHAN

         Yet I’m but a Jew.—That was your meaning.

DAYA

      You better know what was my meaning, Nathan.

NATHAN

      Well, well, no more of this,

DAYA

         I shall be silent;

      But what of sinful in the eye of heaven

      Springs out of it—not I, not I could help;

      It falls upon thy head.

NATHAN

         So let it, Daya.

      Where is she then?  What stays her?  Surely, surely,

      You’re not amusing me—And does she know

      That I’m arrived?

DAYA

         That you yourself must speak to,

      Terror still vibrates in her every nerve.

      Her fancy mingles fire with all she thinks of.

      Asleep, her soul seems busy; but awake,

      Absent: now less than brute, now more than angel.

NATHAN

      Poor thing!  What are we mortals—

DAYA

         As she lay

      This morning sleeping, all at once she started

      And cried: “list, list! there come my father’s camels!”

      And then she drooped again upon her pillow

      And I withdrew—when, lo! you really came.

      Her thoughts have only been with you—and him.

NATHAN

      And him?  What him?

DAYA

         With him, who from the fire

      Preserved her life,

NATHAN

         Who was it?  Where is he,

      That saved my Recha for me?

DAYA

         A young templar,

      Brought hither captive a few days ago,

      And pardoned by the Sultan.

NATHAN

         How, a templar

      Dismissed with life by Saladin.  In truth,

      Not a less miracle was to preserve her,

      God!—God!—

DAYA

         Without this man, who risked afresh

      The Sultan’s unexpected boon, we’d lost her.

NATHAN

      Where is he, Daya, where’s this