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? The prodigal Christian.-Jessica, my girl, 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, Το gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces : 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, 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, Come and ease thy Jessy's care: Let me then, in wanton play, [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 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, Here dwells my father Jew. SONG.-LORENZO. My bliss too long my bride denies; Nor storms nor night shall keep me here. What may for strength with steel compare? By bolts of steel are limbs confined; No longer then perplex thy breast, When thoughts torment, the first are best; 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. For the close night doth play the runaway, Jes. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself For she is wise, if I can judge of her; Enter JESSICA, L. D. F. What, art thou come ?-On, gentlemen, away; 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. orenzo and his amorous Jessica: My daughter !—Oh, my ducats !—Oh, my daughter! 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. |