Shy. I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond: I've fworn an oath, that I will have my bond. Thou call'dft me dog, before thou hadít a caufe; But fince I am a dog, beware my fangs : The Duke fhall grant me juftice. I do wonder, Thou naughty goaler, that thou art so fond To come abroad with him at his request. Anth. I pray thee, hear me speak.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: I'll have my bond; and therefore fpeak no more; I'll not be made a foft and dull-ey'd fool, To fhake the head, relent, and figh and yield To christian interceffors. Follow not; I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond.

[Exit Shylock. Sola. It is the most impenetrable cur,

That ever kept with men.

Anth. Let him alone,

I'll follow him no more with bootless pray'rs:
He seeks my life; his reason well I know;
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

Many, that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.

Sola. I am fure, the Duke

Will never grant this Forfeiture to hold.

*

Anth. The Duke cannot deny the courfe of law;
For the commodity that ftrangers have
With us in Venice, if it be deny'd,

Will much impeach the juftice of the ftate;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Confiffeth of all nations. Therefore go,

The Duke cannot deny, &c.---] As the Reafon here given seems a little perplexed, it may be proper to explain it. If, says he, the Duke ftop the Courfe of Law it will be attended with this Inconvenience, that stranger Merchants, by whom the Wealth and Power of this City is fupported, will cry out of Injustice. For the known stated Law being their Guide and Security, they will never bear to have the Current of it ftoped on any Pretence of Equity whatsoever.

Thefe

These griefs and loffes have fo 'bated me,
That I fhall hardly spare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.

Well, goaler, on; pray God, Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not! [Exeunt.

Changes to BELMONT.

Enter Portia, Neriffa, Lorenzo, Jeffica, and Balthazar.

Lor.

ADAM, although I fpeak it in your

MAD prefence,

You have a noble and a true conceit

Of God-like amity; which appears moft ftrongly
In bearing thus the absence of lord.

your
fhew this honour,
But if you knew to whom you
How true a gentleman you send relief to,
How dear a lover of my lord your husband;
I know, you would be prouder of the work,
Than cuftomary bounty can enforce you.

Por. I never did repent of doing good,
And shall not now; for in companions
That do converfe and wafte the time together,
Whofe fouls do bear an equal yokê of love,
There must needs be a like proportion
Of lineaments of manners, and of spirit;
Which makes me think, that this Anthonio,
Being the bofom-lover of my lord,
Muft needs be like my lord. If it be fo,
How little is the coft I have bestowed,
In purchafing the femblance of my foul
From out the ftate of hellish cruelty?
This comes too near the praising of myself;
Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house,
lord's return. For mine own part,

Until my

I

I have tow'rd heav'n breath'd a fecret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Nerissa here,

Until her husband and my Lord's return.
There is a monaftery two miles off,

And there we will abide.

I do defire you,

Not to deny this Impofition:

The which my love and some neceffity

Now lays upon you.

Lor. Madam, with all my heart;

I fhall obey you in all fair commands.
Por. My people do already know my mind,
And will acknowledge you and Jeffica
In place of lord Bassanio and myself.

So fare you well, 'till we fhall meet again.

Lor. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you! Jef. I wish your ladyship all heart's content.

Por. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased

To wifh it back on you: fare you well. Jeffica.

Now, Balthazar,

[Exeunt Jeffica and Lorenzo.

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee ftill: take this fame letter,
And use thou all th' endeavour of a man,

In fpeed to Padua; see thou render this

Into my cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;

And look what notes and garments he doth give thee,
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed
Unto the Traject, to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice: wafte no time in words,
But get thee gone; I fhall be there before thee.
Bal. Madam, I go with all convenient fpeed. [Exit.
Por. Come on, Neriffa; I have work in hand,
That you yet know not of: we'll fee our husbands,
Before they think of us.

Ner. Shall they fee us?

Por. They fhall, Neriffa; but in fuch a habit,

That

That they shall think we are accomplished
With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both apparell'd like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,

And wear my dagger with the braver grace;
And fpeak between the change of man and boy,
With a reed Voice; and turn two mincing fteps
Into a manly ftride; and speak of frays,
Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies fought my love,
Which I denying, they fell fick and dy'd,
I could not do with all: then I'll repent,

And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them.
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell ;

That men fhall fwear, I've difcontinued school
Above a twelve-month. I have in my mind.
A thousand raw tricks of thefe bragging jacks,
Which I will practise.

Ner. Shall we turn to men?

Por. Fie, what a queftion's that,

If thou wert near a lewd Interpreter !
But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park-gate; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to day. [Exeunt.

Laun.

SCENE VI.

Enter Launcelot and Jeffica.

YES, truly: for look you, the fins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promise you, I fear you... I was always plain with you; and fo now I speak my agitation of the matter therefore be of good cheer; for truly, I think, you are damn'd: there is but one hope in it that can do you any good, and that is but a kind of baftard hope neither.

Jef.

Jef. And what hope is that, I pray thee? Laun. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter. Jef. That were a kind of baftard hope, indeed; fo the fins of my mother should be vifited upon me. Laun. Truly, then, I fear, you are damn'd both by father and mother; thus when you fhun Scylla, your father, you fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways.

Jef. I fhall be faved by my husband; he hath made me a christian.

Laun. Truly, the more to blame he; we were christians enough before, e'en as many as could well live one by another: this making of chriftians will raife the price of hogs; if we grow all to be porkeaters, we shall not fhortly have a rafher on the coals for money.

Enter Lorenzo.

Jef. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you fay: here he comes.

if

Lor. I fhall grow jealous of you fhortly, Launcelot, you thus get my wife into corners.

Jef. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are out; he tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heav'n, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he says, you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to chriftians, you raise the price of pork..

Lor. I fhall anfwer that better to the commonwealth, than you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.

Laun. It is much, that the Moor fhould be more than reason: but if she be less than an honeft woman, fhe is indeed more than I took her for.

Lor. How every fool can play upon the word! I think, the best grace of wit will fhortly turn into filence, and difcourfe grow commendable in none

but