O Nathan! what a dire calamity Had, in your absence, nigh befallen us! Your house---- NATHAN. Took fire. I have already heard. God grant I may have learnt the whole that chanced! DAJA. Chance saved it, or it had been burnt to ashes. NATHAN. Then, Daja! we had built another house, And a far better---- DAJA. True--ay, true! but Recha Was on the point of perishing amid The flames---- NATHAN. Of perishing? Who saidst thou? Recha? I had not heard of that. I should not then Have needed any house. What! on the point Of perishing? Nay, nay; perchance she's dead-- Is burnt alive. Speak, speak the dreadful truth. Kill me, but do not agonize me thus. Tell me at once she's dead. DAJA. And if she were Could you expect to hear it from these lips? NATHAN. Why then alarm me? Recha! O my Recha! DAJA. Your Recha? Yours? NATHAN. And can it ever be That I shall cease to call this child my own? DAJA. Is all you have yours by an equal title? NATHAN. Nought by a better. What I else enjoy Are Fortune's gifts, or Nature's. This alone-- This treasure do I owe to virtue. DAJA. Nathan! How dearly must I pay for all your goodness! If goodness practised for an end like yours Deserves the name. NATHAN. An end like mine! What mean you? DAJA. My conscience---- NATHAN. Daja, let me tell you first---- DAJA. I say my conscience---- NATHAN. Oh, the gorgeous robe That I have bought for you in Babylon! Costly it is and rare. For Recha's self I have not bought a richer. DAJA. What of that? My conscience can be silent now no more. NATHAN. I long to witness your delight, to see The bracelets, earrings, and the golden chain Which I selected at Damascus for you. DAJA. 'Tis always so, you surfeit me with gifts. NATHAN. Accept them freely, as they are bestowed, And silence! DAJA.