GRA. We have not made good preparation. SALAR. We have not spoke us yet of torchbearers."

SALAN. 'Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order'd;

And better, in my mind, not undertook.

LOR. 'Tis now but four a-clock; we have two hours

To furnish us :

Enter LAUNCELOT, with a letter.

Friend Launcelot, what's the news?

LAUN. An it fhall please you to break up this, it shall seem to fignify.

Lok. I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand; And whiter than the paper it writ on,

Is the fair hand that writ.

GRA.

Love-news, in faith.

LAUN. By your leave, fir.

editor. Launcelot is not talking about Jeffica's father, but about her future husband. I am aware that, in a subsequent scene, he fays to Jeffica, "Marry, you may partly hope your father got you not;" but he is now on another subject. MALONE.

From the general cenfure expreffed in the preceding note I take leave to exempt Mr. Reed; who, by following the first folio was no fharer in the inexpiable guilt of the second. STEEVENS.

9 — torch-bearers.] See the note in Romeo and Juliet, A& I. fc. iv. We have not spoke us yet, &c. i. e. we have not yet bespoke us, &c. Thus the old copies. It may, however, mean, we have not as yet confulted on the fubject of torch-bearers. Mr. Pope reads—“ spoke as yet." STEEVENS.

2

to break up this,] To break up was a term in carving. So, in Love's Labour's Loft, Ã& III. fc. i:

66

Boyet, you can carve;

"Break up this capon.'

See the note on this paffage. STEEVENS,

LOR. Whither gocfb thou? bi to s vamal

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; go.Gentlemen, [Exit LAUNCELOT. Will you prepare you for this masque to-night?. I am provided of a torch-bearer.

SALAR. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight. SALAN. And fo will I.

LOR.

Meet me, and Gratiano,

At Gratiano's lodging fome hour hence,
SALAR. 'Tis good we do fo.

[Exeunt SALAR. and SALAN,

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 excufe,-
That she is iffue to a faithlefs Jew.

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

SCENE V.

The fame. Before Shylock's House,

Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT.

[Exeunt,

SHY. Well, thou shalt 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 fleep and fnore, and rend apparel out ;-
Why, Jeffica, I fay!

SHr. 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.

JES. Call you? What is your will?

2

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

LAUN. I beseech you, fir, go; my young master doth expect your reproach,

SHY. So do I his.

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

I am bid forth-] I am invited. To bid in old language meant to pray. MALONE.

3 —to feed upon

The prodigal Chriftian.] Shylock forgets his refolution. In a former fcene he declares he will neither eat, drink, nor pray with Chriftians. Of this circumitance the poet was aware, and meant only to heighten the malignity of the character, by making him depart from his moft fettled refolve, for the profecution of his revenge, STEEVENS,

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

SHY. 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 casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the publick street,

To

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

then it was not for nothing that my nofe fell a bleeding on Black-Monday laft,]" Black-Monday is Eafter-Monday, and was fo called on this occafion: in the 34th of Edward III. (1360) the 14th of April, and the morrow after 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. GREY. It appears from a paffage in Lodge's Rofalynde, 1592, that fome fuperftitious belief was annexed to the accident of bleeding at the nofe: "As he stood gazing, his nofe on a judden bled, which made him conjecture it was fome friend of his." STEEVENS. Again, in The Dutchefs of Malfy, 1640, Act I. fc. ü: "How fuperftitiously we mind our evils?

"The throwing downe falt, or croffing of a hare,
"Bleeding at nofe, the ftumbling of a horse,
"Or finging of a creket, are of power

"To daunt whole man in us.”

Again, A&t I. fc. iii:

My nofe bleeds. One that was fuperftitious would count this ominous, when it merely comes by chance." REED.

5 Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum,

And the vile fqueaking of the wry-neck'd fife,]

Primâ nocte domum claude; neque in vias

Sub cantu querulæ defpice tibiæ. Hor. Lib. III. Od. vii.

MALONE.

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?

JES. His words were, Farewel, mistress; nothing

elfe.

SHY. The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder,

Snail-flow in profit, and 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 doors after you: Faft bind, fast find;

A proverb never ftale in thrifty mind.

[Exit.

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

I have a father, you a daughter, lost.

[Exit.

6 There will come a Chriftian by,

Will be worth a Jewels' eye.] It's worth a Jew's eye, is a proverbial phrase. WHALLEY.

↑ The patch is kind enough;] This term should feem to have come into use from the name of a celebrated fool. This I learn from Wilfon's Art of Rhetorique, 1553: "A word-making, called of the Grecians Onomatopeia, is when we make words of our own mind, fuch as be derived from the nature of things;-as to call one Patche, or Cowlfon, whom we fee to do a thing foolishly; because these two in their time were notable fools,"

Probably the dress which the celebrated Patche wore, was, in allufion to his name, patched or parti-coloured. Hence the stage fool has ever fince been exhibited in a motley coat. Patche, of whom Wilson speaks, was Cardinal Wolfey's fool. MALONE.

Shut doors-] Doors is here ufed as a diffyllable. MALONE.