Gra. Love-news, in faith.

Laun. By your leave, fir.
Lor. Whither goest thou?

Laun. Marry, fir, to bid my old master the Jew to fup to-night with my new mafter the Chriftian. Lor. Hold, here, take this.-Tell gentle Jeffica, I will not fail her:-Speak it privately; goGentlemen, will you prepare you for this mafque to night?

I am provided of a torch-bearer.

[Exit Laun. Sal. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it strait. Sola. And fo will I.

Lor. Meet me, and Gratiano,

At Gratiano's lodging fome hour hence.

Sal. 'Tis good we do fo.

[Exit.

Gra. Was not that letter from fair Jeffica?

Lor. I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed,
How I fhall take her from her father's house;
What gold and jewels fhe is furnish'd with ;
What page's fuit fhe hath in readiness.
If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven,
It will be for his gentle daughter's fake:
And never dare misfortune cross her foot,
Unless fhe do it under this excuse,
That fhe is iffue to a faithlefs Jew.

Come, go with me; perufe this, as thou goeft.
Fair Jeffica fhall be my torch-bearer.

SCENE V.

Shylock's house.

Enter Shylock and Launcelot.]

[Exeunt.

Shy. Well, thou fhalt fee, thy eyes fhall be thy
judge,

The difference of old Shylock and Baffanio:-
What, Jeffica!-thou shalt not gormandize,
As thou haft done with me;-what, Jeffica!-

And

And fleep and fnore, and rend apparel out:
Why, Jeffica, I say!

Laun. Why, Jeffica!

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

Enter Jeffica.

Jef. Call you? What is your will? Shy. I am bid forth to fupper, Jeffica; 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 Chriftian.-Jeffica, my girl, Look to my houfe :-I am right loth to go, There is fome ill a brewing towards my reft, For I did dream of money-bags to night.

Laun. I beseech you, fir, go; my young mafter doth expect your reproach.

Shy. So do I his.

Laun. And they have confpired together.-I will not fay, you shall fee a mafque; but if you do, 9 then it was not for nothing that my nofe fell a bleed

- To feed upon

The prodigal Chriftian.]

Shakespeare has made Shylock forget his refolution. In a former fcene he declares he will neither eat, drink, nor pray with Chriftians. Of this circumftance the poet was aware, and meant only to heighten the malignity of the character, by making him depart from his most settled refolve, for the prosecution of his revenge. STEEVENS.

66

then it was not for nothing that my nose fell a bleeding on Black-Monday last.] Black-Monday is a moveable day; it is "Eafter-Monday, and was fo called on this occafion: In the 34th "of Edward III. (1360) the 14th of April, and the morrow af"ter Eafter-day, King Edward, with his hoft, lay before the "city of Paris; which day was full dark of mift and hail, and "fo bitter cold, that many men died on their horfes' backs with "the cold. Wherefore, unto this day, it hath been called the Blacke-Monday." Stowe, p. 264-6.

GRAY.

the

ing on Black-Monday laft, at fix o'clock morning, falling out that year on Afh-Wednesday was four year in the afternoon.

Sby. What! are there mafques? Hear you me; Jeffica,

Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum,
And the vile fqueaking of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the cafements then,
Nor thrust your head into the publick street,

To

gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces:
But stop my house's ears, I mean, my cafements;
Let not the found of fhallow foppery enter
My fober house.-By Jacob's ftaff, I swear,
I have no mind of feasting forth to night:
But I will go.-Go you before me, firrah :
Say, I will come.

Laun. I will go before, fir:

Mistress, look out at window, for all this
There will come a Chriftian by,
Will be worth a Jewefs' eye.

[Exit Laun. Shy. What fays that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha? Jef. His words were, Farewel, miftrefs; nothing

else.

Shy. The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder; Snail-flow in profit; but he fleeps 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 wafte
His borrow'd purse.-Well, Jeffica, go in;
Perhaps, I will return immediately;
Do, as I bid you :-

Shut the doors after you; fast bind, fast find;
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

[Exit.

Jef. Farewel; and if my fortune be not croft,

I have a father, you a daughter, lost.

-the vile squeaking.] The folio and one of the quartos read Squealing. STEEVENS.

VOL. III.

L

SCENE

SCENE VI.

THE STREET.

Enter Gratiano and Salanio in masquerade.

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

Sal. His hour is almost past.

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

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

Gra. That ever holds. Who rifeth from a feaft, With that keen appetite that he fits down? Where is the horfe that doth untread again

1Q, ten times fafler Venus' pigeons fly.] This is a very odd image, of Venus's pigeons flying to feal the bonds of love. The fente is obvious, and we know the dignity due to Venus's pigeons. There was certainly a joke intended here, which the ignorance or boldness of the first tranfcribers has murdered: I doubt not but Shakespeare wrote the line thus:

O, ten times fafter Venus' widgeons fy
To feal, &c.

For widgeon fignified metaphorically, a filly fellow, as goofe, or gudgeon, does now. The calling love's votaries, Venus's widgeons is in high humour. Butler ufes the fame joke in speaking of the Presbyterians;

Th' apofiles of this fierce religion,

Like Mahomet's, were afs and widgeon.

Mahomet's afs or rather mule was famous and the monks in their fabulous accounts of him faid, he taught a pigeon to pick peas out of his ears to carry on the ends of this impoftor.

WARBURTON.

I believe the poet wrote as the editors have printed. How it is fo very high humour to call lovers widgeons rather than pigeons, 1 cannot find. Lovers have in poetry been alway called Turtles, or Doves, which in lower language may be pigeons. JOHNSON.

His tedious measures with the unbated fire,

That he did pace them first ? all things that are,
Are with more spirit chafed than enjoy'd.
How like a younker, or a prodigal,

The skarfed bark puts from her naked bay,
Hugg'd and embraced by the ftrumpet wind!
How like the prodigal doth fhe return,
With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged fails,
Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the ftrumpet wind!

Enter Lorenzo.

Sal. 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?
Jeffica above in boy's cloaths.

Jef. Who are you? tell me, for more certainty,
Albeit I'll fwear that I do know your tongue.
Lor. Lorenzo, and thy love.

Jef. Lorenzo, certain; and my love, indeed; For whom love I fo much? and now who knows, But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?

Lor. Heaven and thy thoughts are witness, that thou art.

Jef. Here, catch this cafket, it is worth the pains. I am glad, 'tis night, you do not look on me, For I am much afham'd of my exchange: But love is blind, and lovers cannot fee The pretty follies that themselves commit; For if they could, Cupid himself would blush To fee me thus transformed to a boy.

-a younker.] All the old copies read a younger.

L 2

STEEVENS.

Lor