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.

Laun. (R.) 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.

[Exil, R.

Shy. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha? Jes. His words were, Farewell, mistress; nothing 'else.

Shy. (R.) 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, R.

Jes. (L.) Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost,

I have a father, you a daughter, lost.

SONG.-JESSICA.

Haste, Lorenzo, haste away,
To my longing arms repair,
With impatience I shall die;
Come, and ease thy Jessy's care:
Let me then, in wanton play,
Sigh and gaze my soul away.

[Exil, L.

SCENE V.-A Street in Venice-Before Shylock's House.

Enter GRATIANO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO, masked, L.

Gra. (c.) This is the pent-house, under which Lo

renzo

Desired us to make stand.

Sol. His hour is almost past.

Gra. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,

For lovers ever run before the clock.

Sala. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly

To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont To keep obliged faith unforfeited!

Gra. (R. C.) That ever holds:

Enter LORENZO, masked, L.

Sala. Here comes Lorenzo;-more of this hereafter. Lor. (L. c.) 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.

Here dwells my father Jew.

My bliss too long my bride denies:
Apace the wasting summer flies:

Nor yet the wint'ry blasts I fear,

Nor storms nor night shall keep me here.

What may for strength with steel compare?
O, love has fetters stronger far!

By bolts of steel are limbs confin'd;
But cruel love enchains the mind.

No longer then perplex thy breast,

When thoughts torment, the first are best ;
"Tis mad to go, 'tis death to stay,
Away, my Jessy, haste away.

JESSICA, at the Window in Flat, L.

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

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

Lor. Heaven, and thy thoughts, are witness that

thou art.

Jes. Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains. Lor. But come at once;

For the close night doth play the run-away,

And we are staid for at Bassanio's feast.

Jes. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself

With some more ducats, and be with you straight.

[Exit, from the window. Gra. (R.) Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew. Lor. Beshrew me, but I love her heartily;

For she is wise, if I can judge of her;

And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true;
And true she is, as she hath prov'd herself:
And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true,
Shall she be placed in my constant soul.

Enter JESSICA, L.D.F.

What, art thou come?-On, gentlemen, away;
Our masking mates by this time for us stay.

[Exeunt, L.

END OF ACT II.

ACT III.

SCENE I-A Street in Venice.

Enter SALARINO and SOLANIO, r.

Sol. (c.) Why man, I saw Bassanio under sail; With him is Gratiano gone along ;

And in their ship, I am sure, Lorenzo is not.

Sala. (c.) The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the

duke;

Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship.

Sol. He came too late, the ship was under sail :

But there the Duke was given to understand,
That in a gondola were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica;
Besides, Antonio certified the Duke,
They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Sala. I never heard a passion so confus'd,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets :
"My daughter!-O my ducats!-O my daughter!-
Fled with a Christian !-O my Christian ducats !--
Justice the law! my ducats, and my daughter!"

Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
Or he shall pay for this.

Sol. Marry, well remember'd:

I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday; who told me, that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip report be an honest woman of her word.

Sala. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapt ginger, or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband: but it is true, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio-O, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company! Sol. Come, the full stop.

Sala. Why the end is, he hath lost a ship.

Sol. I would it might prove the end of his losses! Sala. Let me say Amen betimes, lest the devil cross thy prayer; for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.

Enter SHYLOCK, L.

How now, Shylock; what news among the merchants? Shy. (L. c.) You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight.

(c.)

Sol. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

Sala. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd: and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

Shy. She is damn'd for it.'

Sol. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge. Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel !

Sala. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no?

Shy. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto:-a beggar, that used to come so smug upon the mart;-let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a christian courtesy:-let him look to his bond. [Goes L. Sol. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh; what's that good for?

Shy. [Goes R.] To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. [Returns to c.] He hath disgrac'd me, and hinder'd me of half a mil

as

lion; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorn'd my nation, 'thwarted my bargains, cool'd my friends, heated my enemies; and what's his reason?—I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions ?-fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, a Christian is? if you prick us, do we not bleed ?—if you tickle us, do we not laugh ?-if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge: If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge. [Goes to R.]-The villainy, you teach me, I will execute! and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.

Sala. Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt SoL. and SALA. R.

Enter TUBAL, L.

Shy. [Running to meet him.] How, now, Tubal, what news from Genoa, hast thou found my daughter? Tub. (L.) I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

Shy. (c.) Why there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now :-two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels.-I would, my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! 'would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them?-why, so :-and I know not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring, but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs, but o' my breathing: no tears, but o' my shedding.

Tub. (L. c.) Yes, other men have ill luck too; Antonio, as I heard in Genoa

Shy. What, what, what! ill luck, ill luck?

Tub. Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.