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To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jeffica.

Now, Balthazar,

[Exeunt JESSICA and Lorenzo.

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee ftill: Take this fame letter,
And use thou all the endeavour of a man,

In fpeed to Padua; fee thou render this

Into my cousin's hand, doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee, Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed

Unto the tranect, to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice

But get thee gone;

wafte no time in words,

I fhall be there before thee.

BALTH. Madam, I go with all convenient speed. [Exit. POR. Come on, Neriffa; I have work in hand, That you yet know not of: we'll fee our husbands Before they think of us.

NER. Shall they see us?

POR. They fhall, Neriffa; but in fuch a habit,
That they shall think we are accomplished
With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accouter'd like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,

And wear my dagger with the braver grace;
And speak, between the change of man and boy,
With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly ftride; and speak of frays,
Like a fine bragging youth: and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies fought my love,

Which I denying, they fell fick and died;
I could not do with all; then I'll repent,

And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them:
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,

That men fhall fwear, I have difcontinued school
Above a twelvemonth :-I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

NER. Why, shall we turn to men?
POR. Fie! what a question's that,
If thou wert near a lewd interpreter ?
But come,
I'll tell thee all my whole device
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

SCENE V. The fame. A Garden.

Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA,

[Exeunt.

LAUN. Yes, truly :-for, look you, the fins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promife you, I fear you. I was always plain with you, and fo now I speak my agitation of the matter: Therefore be of good cheer; for, truly, I think, you are damın'd. There is but one hope in it that can do you any good; and that is but a kind of bastard hope neither.

JES. And what hope is that, I pray thee?

LAUN. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter.

JES. That were a kind of baftard hope, indeed; fo the fins of my mother should be visited upon me.

LAUN. Truly then I fear you are damn'd both by father and mother: thus when I fhun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways.

JES. I fhall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian.

LAUN. Truly, the more to blame he: we were Chrif

tians enough before; e'en as many as could well live, one by another: This making of Chriftians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money. Enter LORENZO.

JES. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say; here he comes.

LOR. I fhall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners.

JES. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are out he tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he fays, you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to Chriftians, you raise the price of pork.

LOR. I fhall answer that better to the commonwealth, than you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the. Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.

LAUN. It is much, that the Moor fhould be more than reafon but if fhe be lefs than an honeft woman, fhe is, indeed, more than I took her for.

LOR. How every fool can play upon the word! I think, the best grace of wit will fhortly turn into filence; and difcourfe grow commendable in none only but parrots. Go in, firrah; bid them prepare for dinner. LAUN. That is done, fir; they have all ftomachs. LOR. Goodly lord, what a wit-fnapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner.

LAUN. That is done too, fir; only, cover is the word. LOR. Will you cover then, fir?

LAUN. Not fo, fir, neither; I know my duty.

LOR. Yet more quarrelling with occafion! Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an inftant? I pray

thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, ferve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.

LAUN. For the table, fir, it'fhall be ferved in; for the meat, fir, it shall be covered; for your coming in to dinner, fir, why, let it be as humours and conceits fhall govern. [Exit LAUNCELot. LOR. O dear difcretion, how his words are fuited! The fool hath planted in his memory

An

army of good words; And I do know
A many fools, that stand in better place,
Garnish'd like him, that for a trickfy word
Defy the matter. How cheer'st thou, Jeffica?
And now, good fweet, fay thy opinion,
How doft thou like the Lord Baffanio's wife?

JES. Paft all expreffing: It is very meet,
The lord Baffanio live an upright life;
For, having fuch a bleffing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
And, if on earth he do not mean it, it

Is reafon he should never come to heaven.

Why, if two gods fhould play fome heavenly match,
And on the wager lay two earthly women,

And Portia one, there must be something else

Pawn'd with the other; for the poor

Hath not her fellow.

LOR. Even fuch a husband

Haft thou of me, as fhe is for a wife.

rude world

JES. Nay, but afk my opinion too of that.

LOR. I will anon; first, let us go to dinner.

JES. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a ftomach. LOR. No, pray thee, let it ferve for table-talk;

Then, howfoe'er thou speak'ft, 'mong other things

I fhall digeft it.

JES. Well, I'll fet

you forth.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Venice. A Court of Justice.

Enter the DUKE, the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALARINO, SALANIO, and others.

DUKE. What, is Antonio here?

ANT. Ready, fo please your grace.

DUKE. I am forry for thee; thou art come to answer A ftony adversary, an inhuman wretch

Uncapable of pity, void and empty

From any dram of mercy.

ANT. I have heard,

Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify

His rigorous courfe; but fince he stands obdurate,
And that no lawful means can carry me

Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury; and am arm'd
To fuffer, with a quietness of fpirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his.

DUKE. Go one, and call the Jew into the court.
SALAN. He's ready at the door: he comes my lord.
Enter SHYLOCK.

DUKE. Make room, and let him ftand before our face.

Shylock, the world thinks, and I think fo too,
That thou but lead'ft this fashion of thy malice
To the last hour of act; and then, 'tis thought,
Thou'lt fhow thy mercy, and remorfe, more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty :

And, where thou now exact'ft the penalty,

(Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,)

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