ACT II
SCENE V 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]




 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE


ACT II