BASSANIO Thou speak’st it well. Go, father, with thy son.
Take leave of thy old master and inquire
My lodging out. Give him a livery
More guarded than his fellows’: see it done.
LAUNCELOT Father, in. I cannot get a service, no; I have
ne’er a tongue in my head. Well, if any man in
Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear
upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to,
here’s a simple line of life: here’s a small trifle
of wives: alas, fifteen wives is nothing! eleven
widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one
man: and then to ‘scape drowning thrice, and to be
in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed;
here are simple scapes. Well, if Fortune be a
woman, she’s a good wench for this gear. Father,
come; I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye.
Exeunt Launcelot and Old Gobbo
BASSANIO I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this:
These things being bought and orderly bestow’d,
Return in haste, for I do feast to-night
My best-esteem’d acquaintance: hie thee, go.
LEONARDO My best endeavours shall be done herein.
Enter GRATIANO
GRATIANO Where is your master?
LEONARDO Yonder, sir, he walks.
Exit
GRATIANO Signior Bassanio!
BASSANIO Gratiano!
GRATIANO I have a suit to you.
BASSANIO You have obtain’d it.
GRATIANO You must not deny me: I must go with you to Belmont.
BASSANIO Why then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano;
Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice;
Parts that become thee happily enough
And in such eyes as ours appear not faults;
But where thou art not known, why, there they show
Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain
To allay with some cold drops of modesty
Thy skipping spirit, lest through thy wild behavior
I be misconstrued in the place I go to,
And lose my hopes.
GRATIANO Signior Bassanio, hear me:
If I do not put on a sober habit,
Talk with respect and swear but now and then,
Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely,
Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes
Thus with my hat, and sigh and say ‘amen,’
Use all the observance of civility,
Like one well studied in a sad ostent
To please his grandam, never trust me more.
BASSANIO Well, we shall see your bearing.
GRATIANO Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me
By what we do to-night.
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 supper-time.
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 did 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 ashamed 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 supper-time,
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 torchbearers.
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 to-night 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.
SALANIO 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 gormandise,
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 that
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 to-night.
LAUNCELOT I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect
your reproach.
SHYLOCK So do I his.
LAUNCELOT An 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 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.
LAUNCELOT I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at
window, for all this, There will come a Christian
boy, will be worth a Jewess’ eye.
Exit
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 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 pent-house under which Lorenzo
Desired 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