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 16

To please his grandam, never trust me more.
Bass. Well, we shall see your bearing.

Gra. Nay, but I bar to-night you shall not gage me

By what we do to-night.

Bass.

No, that were pity:

I would entreat you rather to put on

Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends

That purpose merriment.

I have some business.

But fare you well;

Gra. And I must to Lorenzo, and the rest;

But we will visit you at supper-time.

The same.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt

A Room in SHYLOCK'S House.

Enter JESSICA and LAUNcelot.

Jess. 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.

15 It was anciently the custom to wear the hat on during the time of dinner.

16 That is, grave appearance; show of staid and serious be haviour. Ostent is a word very commonly used for show among old dramatic writers.

Laun. 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 somewhat drown my manly spirit; adieu!

Jess. Farewell, good 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.

SCENE IV. The same. A Street.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALARINO, and
SOLANIO.

Lor. Nay, we will slink away in supper-time,
Disguise us at my lodging, and return

All in an hour.

Gra. We have not made good preparation.

Sal. We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers. Sol. 'Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order'd; And better, in my mind, not undertook.

Lor. 'Tis now but four o'clock: we have two hours

To furnish us.

Enter LAUNCELOT, with a letter.

Friend Launcelot, what's the news? Laun. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to signify.

1 That is, get possession of thee. Do is the reading of both the quartos and the first folio. The second folio has did, which gives a very different sense; and its unhandsomeness has caused it to be generally received.

H.

Lor. 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.

Laun. By your leave, sir.

Lor. Whither goest thou?

Love-news, in faith.

Laun. Marry, sir, to bid my old master the Jew to sup to-night with my new master the Christian. Lor. 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 to-night?
I am provided of a torch-bearer.

Sal. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight.
Sol. And so will I.

Lor.

Meet me and Gratiano,

At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence.

Sal. "Tis good we do so.

[Exeunt SALAR. and SOLAN.
Gra. Was not that letter from fair Jessica ?
Lor. 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.

[Exeuni

SCENE V. The same. Before SHYLOCK's House.

Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCelot.

Shy. Well, thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be th

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!

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.

Jes. Call

you u?

What is your will?

Shy. I am bid forth to supper, Jessica:

There are my keys. But wherefore should I
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 loth to go;
There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money-bags to-night.

go ?

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

Shy. So do I his.

Laun. And they have conspired together:-1 wil. not say you shall see a mask; but if you do, then it was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black-Monday last, at six o'clock

1

Easter-Monday. The origin of the name is thus explained by Stowe, the chronicler: "In the 34th of Edward III., [1360,]

i'the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four year in the afternoon.

Shy. 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;
Go you before me, sirrah :

But I will go.
Say, I will come.

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.3

[Exit LAUN.

Shy. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring?

ha!

the 14th of April, and the morrow after Easter-day, King Edward with his host, lay before the city of Paris: which day was full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter cold, that many men died on their horses' backs with the cold. Wherefore unto this day it hath been called Black-Monday." — Bleeding at the nose was anciently considered ominous.

If.

2 One of the quartos and the folio have squealing: the other quarto has squeaking, which, though neither so appropriate nor so well authorized, has been generally retained in modern editions. There has been some dispute whether wry-neck'd fife mean the instrument or the musician. Boswell cited a passage from Bar uabe Rich's Aphorisms, 1618, which appears to settle the matter: "A fife is a wry-neckt musician, for he always looks away from his instrument."

H.

3 The worth of a Jew's eye was the price with which the Jews used to buy themselves off from mutilation. The expression became proverbial, and was kept up long after its original mean ing was lost. The quibble in this case is one of the best that Launcelot gets off

H.