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, L.

Jes. 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.

Laun. And they have conspired together,-I will not say, you shall see a masque; but if you do, then it was not for nothing that my nose fell a bleeding on BlackMonday 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, Jes

sica:

Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum,
And the vile squeaking of the wry-necked fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street,

Το 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, Ba

Shy. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha?

Jes. His words were, Farewell, mistress; nothing else.

[Shylock takes his hat from table and advances, R. Shy. The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder, ail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day

>re than the wild cat: drones hive not with me,
herefore I part with him; and part with him
o one that I would have him help to waste
is borrowed purse.-Well, Jessica, go in;
erhaps I will return immediately.

o as I bid you; shut doors after you ;

"ast bind, fast find;

proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

[Exit, R

Jes. Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost, have a father, you a daughter lost.

SONG.-JESSICA.

Haste, Lorenzo, haste away,
To my longing arms repair,
With impatience I shall die;

Come and ease thy Jessy's care:

Let me then, in wanton play,
Sigh and gaze my soul away.

[Exit, L

SCENE V.-A Street in Venice.-Before Shylock's House.

Enter GRATIANO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO, masked, L.

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

Sol. His hour is almost past.

Gra. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,

For lovers ever run before the clock.

Sala. Oh, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly
To seal love's bonds new-made, than they are wont
To keep obligéd faith unforfeited!

Gra. That ever holds :

Enter LORENZO, masked, L.

Sala. 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.

Here dwells my father Jew.

SONG.-LORENZO.

My bliss too long my bride denies;
Apace the wasting summer flies:
Nor yet the wintry blasts I fear,

Nor storms nor night shall keep me here.

What may for strength with steel compare?
Oh, love has fetters stronger far!

By bolts of steel are limbs confined;
But cruel love enchains the mind.

No longer then perplex thy breast,

When thoughts torment, the first are best;
'Ts mad to go, 'tis death to stay,

Away, my Jessy, haste away.

JESSICA at the Window in Flat, L.

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 the

art.

Jes. Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
Lor. But come at once;

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

Jes. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
With some more ducats, and be with you straight.
[Exit from the window.
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 placéd in my constant soul.

Enter JESSICA, L. D. F.

What, art thou come ?-On, gentlemen, away;
Our masking mates by this time for us stay. [Exeunt, L.

END OF ACT II.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-A Street in Venice.

Enter SALARINO and SOLANIO, R.

Sol. Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail; ith him is Gratiano gone along;

d in their ship, I am sure, Lorenzo is not.
Sala. The villain Jew with outcries raised the Duke,
ho went with him to search Bassanio's ship.
Sol. He came too late, the ship was under sail :
ut there the Duke was given to understand,
hat in a gondola were seen together

orenzo and his amorous Jessica:
esides, Antonio certified the Duke,
hey were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Sala. I never heard a passion so confused,
O strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets :

My daughter !—Oh, my ducats !—Oh, my daughter!
Fied with a Christian !—Oh, my Christian ducats!—
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
Let good Antonio look he keep his day,

Or he shall pay for this.

Sol. Marry, well remembered:

I reasoned with a Frenchman yesterday; who told me, that Antonio had a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas; the Goodwin, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip report be an honest woman of her word.

Sala. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapt ginger, or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband: but it is true, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,-oh, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!

Sol. Come, the full stop.

Sala. Why, the end is, he hath lost a ship.

Sol. I would it might prove the end of his losses! Sala. Let me say Amen betimes, lest the devil cross thy prayer; for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.

Enter SHYLOCK, L.

How now, Shylock; what news among the merchants ? Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight. [Crosses, c.

Sol. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

Sala. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

Shy. She is damned for it.

Sol. (L.) That's certain, if the devil may be her judge. Shy. (c.) My own flesh and blood to rebel!

[Crosses, R. Sala. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no?

Shy. There I have another bad match; a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto;— a beggar, that used to come smug upon the mart;--let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a christian courtesy :-let him look to his bond. [Crosses, L,

Sol. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh; what's that good for?

Shy. To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. [Crosses, c.] He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million: laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies; and what's his reason?—I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?-fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? -if you tickle us, do we not laugh ?-if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge! [Crosses, L.-The villainy you teach me, I will execute! and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.