Gra.

Love-news, in faith.

Laun. By your leave, sir.

Lor. Whither goest thou?

Laun. Marry, sir, to bid my old master the Jew to sup to-night with my new master the Christian. Lor. Hold, here take this:

tell gentle Jessica,

I will not fail her; speak it privately: go.
Gentlemen,

Will you prepare you for this masque to-night?
I am provided of a torchbearer.

Meet me and Gratiano

[Exit LAUN.

Salar. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight.
Solan. And so will I.
Lor.
At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence.
Salar. 'Tis good we do so.

Gra.

Lor.

[Ex. SALAR. and SOLAN.

Was not that letter from fair Jessica?
I must needs tell thee all: she hath directed
How I shall take her from her father's house;
What gold and jewels she is furnished with;
What page's suit she hath in readiness.
If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven,
It will be for his gentle daughter's sake;
And never dare misfortune cross her foot,
Unless she do it under this excuse,
That she is issue to a faithless Jew.

Come, go with me; peruse this as thou goest:
Fair Jessica shall be my torchbearer.

SCENE V.

[Exeunt.

Venice. Before Shylock's House.

Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT.

Shy. Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:

What, Jessica! - thou shalt not gormandize,
As thou hast done with me;

What, Jessica!

And sleep, and snore, and rend apparel out;
Why, Jessica, I say!

Laun.

Why, Jessica!

Shy. Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call. Laun. Your worship was wont to tell me I could do nothing without bidding.

Enter JESSICA.

Fes. Call you? What is your will?
Shy. I am bid forth to supper, Jessica;

There are my keys: But wherefore should I go?
I am not bid for love; they flatter me:

But yet I'll go in hate, to feed upon

The prodigal Christian. - Jessica, my girl,
Look to my house: I am right loth to go;
There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,

For I did dream of money-bags to-night.

Laun. I beseech you, sir, go; my young master doth expect your reproach.

Shy. So do I his.

1

Laun. And they have conspired together,

say you shall see a masque; but if you do, then it was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black-Monday last, at six o' clock i' the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four year, in the afternoon.

Shy. What are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica: Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum, And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife, Clamber not you up to the casements then, Nor thrust your head into the public street, To gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces: But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements; Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter

My sober house.

By Jacob's staff I swear,

I have no mind of feasting forth to night:

But I will go.

Go you before me, sirrah;

Say, I will come.
Laun.
I will go before, sir.
Mistress, look out at window for all this;
There will come a Christian by,

Will be worth a Jewess' eye.

[Exit LAUN.
Shy. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha?
Jes. His words were, Farewell, mistress; nothing else.
Shy. The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder,
Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day

More than the wild cat: drones hive not with me,
Therefore I part with him; and part with him
To one that I would have him help to waste

His borrowed purse.

Perhaps, I will return immediately;

Well, Jessica, go in;

Do as I bid you; shut doors after you:

Fast bind, fast find;

A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

[Exit.

Jes. Farewell; and if my fortune be not crossed,

I have a father, you a daughter lost.

[Exit.

4

Gra. This is the pent-house, under which Lorenzo Desired us to make a stand.

Salar.

His hour is almost past.
Gra. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,
For lovers ever run before the clock.

Salar. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly
To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont
To keep obliged faith unforfeited!

Gra. That ever holds: who riseth from a feast,
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
How like a younker, or a prodigal,

The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind!
How like a prodigal doth she return;

With over-weathered ribs, and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind!

Enter LORENZO.

Salar. Here comes Lorenzo; more of this hereafter. Lor. Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode: Not I, but my affairs, have made you wait.

When you shall please to play the thieves for wives,
I'll watch as long for you then. Approach;

Here dwells my father Jew:

Ho! who's within?

Enter JESSICA, above, in boy's clothes.

Jes. Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty, Albeit I'll swear that I do know your tongue.

Lor. Lorenzo, and thy love.

Jes. Lorenzo, certain; and my love, indeed; For who love I so much? and now who knows

But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?

Lor. Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art. Jes. Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.

I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,

For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.

Lor. Descend, for you must be my torchbearer.
Fes. What, must I hold a candle to my shames?
They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.
Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love;

And I should be obscured.

Lor.

So are you, sweet,

Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.

But come at once;

For the close night doth play the runaway,
And we are staid for at Bassanio's feast.

Fes. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
With some more ducats, and be with you straight.

[Exit, from above. Gra. Now, by my hood, a Gentile and no Jew. Lor. Beshrew me, but I love her heartily:

For she is wise, if I can judge of her;
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true;
And true she is, as she hath proved herself;
And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true,
Shall she be placed in my constant soul.

Enter JESSICA, below.

What, art thou come?

On, gentlemen, away;

Our masquing mates by this time for us stay.

[Exit, with JES. and SALAR.

SCENE VIII. Venice. A Street.

Enter SALARINO and SOLANIO.

Salar. Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail; With him is Gratiano gone along;

And in their ship, I am sure, Lorenzo is not.

Solan. The villain Jew with outcries raised the duke;

Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship.

Salar. He came too late, the ship was under sail:

But there the duke was given to understand,
That in a gondola were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica;

Besides, Antonio certified the duke,
They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Solan. I never heard a passion so confused,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable,

As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:

My daughter! - O my ducats! - O my daughter!
Fled with a Christian! O my christian ducats!
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,

Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
And jewels; two stones, two rich and precious stones,
Stolen by my daughter! Justice! find the girl!
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats!
Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.
Solan. Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
Or he shall pay for this.

Salar.

Marry, well remembered:
I reasoned with a Frenchman yesterday,
Who told me, in the narrow seas that part
The French and English, there miscarried
A vessel of our country, richly fraught:
I thought upon Antonio when he told me,
And wished in silence that it were not his.

Solan. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;

Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.

Salar. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.

I saw Bassanio and Antonio part:

Bassanio told him, he would make some speed
Of his return: he answered

Do not so,

Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,

But stay the very riping of the time;

And for the Few's bond, which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind of love;
Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship, and such fair ostents of love
As shall conveniently become you there:
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
And, with affection wondrous sensible,

He wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted.
Solan. I think he only loves the world for him.
I pray thee, let us go and find him out,
And quicken his embraced heaviness
With some delight or other.

Salar.

Do we so.

[Exeunt.