William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

To please his grandam, never trust me more.

BASSANIO.

Well, we shall see your bearing.

GRATIANO.

Nay, but I bar tonight; you shall not gauge me

By what we do tonight.

BASSANIO.

No, that were pity;

I would entreat you rather to put on

Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends

That purpose merriment. But fare you well;

I have some business.

GRATIANO.

And I must to Lorenzo and the rest;

But we will visit you at suppertime.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE 3. The same. A room in SHYLOCK’s house.

[Enter JESSICA and LAUNCELOT.]

JESSICA.

I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so:

Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil,

Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.

But fare thee well; there is a ducat for thee;

And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see

Lorenzo, who is thy new master’s guest:

Give him this letter; do it secretly.

And so farewell. I would not have my father

See me in talk with thee.

LAUNCELOT. Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived. But, adieu! these foolish drops do something drown my manly spirit; adieu!

JESSICA.

Farewell, good Launcelot.

[Exit LAUNCELOT]

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me

To be asham’d to be my father’s child!

But though I am a daughter to his blood,

I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo!

If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,

Become a Christian and thy loving wife.

[Exit]

SCENE 4. The same. A street

[Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALARINO, and SALANIO.]

LORENZO.

Nay, we will slink away in suppertime,

Disguise us at my lodging, and return

All in an hour.

GRATIANO.

We have not made good preparation.

SALARINO.

We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers.

SALANIO.

‘Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order’d,

And better in my mind not undertook.

LORENZO.

‘Tis now but four o’clock; we have two hours

To furnish us.

[Enter LAUNCELOT, With a letter.]

Friend Launcelot, what’s the news?

LAUNCELOT. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to signify.

LORENZO.

I know the hand; in faith, ‘tis a fair hand,

And whiter than the paper it writ on

Is the fair hand that writ.

GRATIANO.

Love news, in faith.

LAUNCELOT.

By your leave, sir.

LORENZO.

Whither goest thou?

LAUNCELOT. Marry, sir, to bid my old master, the Jew, to sup tonight with my new master, the Christian.

LORENZO.

Hold, here, take this. Tell gentle Jessica

I will not fail her; speak it privately.

Go, gentlemen,

[Exit LAUNCELOT]

Will you prepare you for this masque tonight?

I am provided of a torch-bearer.

SALARINO.

Ay, marry, I’ll be gone about it straight.

SALANIO.

And so will I.

LORENZO.

Meet me and Gratiano

At Gratiano’s lodging some hour hence.

SALARINO.

‘Tis good we do so.

[Exeunt SALARINO and SALANIO.]

GRATIANO.

Was not that letter from fair Jessica?

LORENZO.

I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed

How I shall take her from her father’s house;

What gold and jewels she is furnish’d with;

What page’s suit she hath in readiness.

If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven,

It will be for his gentle daughter’s sake;

And never dare misfortune cross her foot,

Unless she do it under this excuse,

That she is issue to a faithless Jew.

Come, go with me, peruse this as thou goest;

Fair Jessica shall be my torch-bearer.

[Exeunt]

SCENE 5. The same. Before SHYLOCK’S house

[Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT.]

SHYLOCK.

Well, thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge,

The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:—

What, Jessica!—Thou shalt not gormandize,

As thou hast done with me;—What, Jessica!—

And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out—

Why, Jessica, I say!

LAUNCELOT.

Why, Jessica!

SHYLOCK.

Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call.

LAUNCELOT. Your worship was wont to tell me I could do nothing without bidding.

[Enter JESSICA.]

JESSICA.

Call you? What is your will?

SHYLOCK.

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 loath to go;

There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,

For I did dream of money-bags tonight.

LAUNCELOT. I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect your reproach.

SHYLOCK.

So do I his.

LAUNCELOT. 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 Black Monday last at six o’clock i’ the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four year in the afternoon.

SHYLOCK.

What! are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica:

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

And the vile squealing of the wry-neck’d fife,

Clamber not you up to the casements then,

Nor thrust your head into the public street

To gaze on Christian fools with varnish’d faces;

But stop my house’s ears-I mean my casements;

Let not the sound of shallow fopp’ry enter

My sober house. By Jacob’s staff, I swear

I have no mind of feasting forth tonight;

But I will go. Go you before me, sirrah;

Say I will come.

LAUNCELOT.

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 LAUNCELOT.]

SHYLOCK.

What says that fool of Hagar’s offspring, ha?

JESSICA.

His words were ‘Farewell, mistress’; nothing else.

SHYLOCK.

The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder;

Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps 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 waste

His borrow’d purse. Well, Jessica, go in;

Perhaps I will return immediately:

Do as I bid you, shut doors after you:

‘Fast bind, fast find,’

A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

[Exit.]

JESSICA.

Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost,

I have a father, you a daughter, lost.

[Exit.]

SCENE 6. The same.

[Enter GRATIANO and SALARINO, masqued.]

GRATIANO.

This is the penthouse under which Lorenzo

Desir’d us to make stand.

SALARINO.

His hour is almost past.

GRATIANO.

And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,

For lovers ever run before the clock.

SALARINO.

O! ten times faster Venus’ pigeons fly

To seal love’s bonds new made than they are wont

To keep obliged faith unforfeited!

GRATIANO.

That ever holds: who riseth from a feast

With that keen appetite that he sits down?

Where is the horse that doth untread again

His tedious measures with the unbated fire

That he did pace them first? All things that are

Are with more spirit chased than enjoy’d.

How like a younker or a prodigal

The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,

Hugg’d and embraced by the strumpet wind!

How like the prodigal doth she return,

With over-weather’d ribs and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggar’d by the strumpet wind!

SALARINO.