"you and me, if I might but fee you at my death. Not"withstanding use yonr pleasure: if your love do not peryou to come, let not my letter."

❝ fuade

POR. O love! dispatch all business, and be gone. BASS. Since I have your good leave to go away, I will make hafte; but 'till I come again, No bed fhall e'er be guilty of my stay;

No reft be interpofer 'twixt us twain,

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Changes to a ftreet in Venice.

Enter Shylock, Solarino, Anthonio, and the Gaoler,
SHY. Gaoler, look to him--Tell not me of mercy-
This is the fool, that lent out money gratis-
Gaoler, look to him.

ANTH. Hear me yet, good Shylock.

SHY. I'll have my bond; fpeak not against my bond:
I've fworn an oath, that I will have my bond.
Thou call'dft we dog, before thou hadft a caufe;
But fince I am a dog, beware my fangs.
The duke fhall grant me juftice. I do wonder,
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art fo fond
To come abroad with him at his request.

ANTH. I pray thee, hear me fpeak.

SHY. I'll have my bond-I will not hear thee speakI'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.

I'll not be made a foft and dull-ey'd fool,

To shake the head, relent, and figh and yield

To chriftian interceffors. Follow not;

I'll have no fpeaking; I will have my bond. [Exit Shylock, SOLA. It is the most impenetrable cur,

That ever kept with men.

ANTH. Let him alone,

I'll follow him no more with bootless pray'rs :
He feeks my life; his reafon well I know;
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

Many, that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.

SOLA. I am fure, the duke

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

ANTH. The duke cannot deny the course of law;

For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice, if it be deny'd,

Will much impeach the justice of the state;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Confifteth of all nations. Therefore go,
These griefs and loffes have so 'bated me,
That I fhall hardly fpare a pound of flesh
To-morow to my bloody creditor.

Well, goaler, on- -Pray God, Bassanio come
To fee me pay his debt, and then I care not!

SCENE 11. Changes to Belmont.

[Exeunt.

Enter Portia, Neriffa, Lorenzo, Jeffica, and Balthazar.
LOR. Madam, although I speak it in your presence,
You have a noble and a true conceit

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly
In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But if you knew to whom you fhew this honour,

How true a gentleman you send relief to,
How dear a lover of my lord your husband;
I know you would be prouder of the work,
Than customary bounty can enforce you.

POR. I never did repent of doing good,
And fhall not now; for in companions

That do converfe and waste the time together,
Whose fouls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must needs be a like proportion
Of lineaments of manners, and of spirit ;
Which makes me think, that this Anthonio,
Being the bofom-lover of my lord,
Must needs be like my lord. If it be fo,
How little is the coft I have bestow'd,
In purchafing the femblance of my foul
From out the state of hellish cruelty?
This comes too near the praifing of myself;
Therefore, no more of it. Hear other things
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house,
Until my lord's return. For mine own part,
I have tow'rd heaven breath'd a fecret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,

Only attended by Nerissa here,

Until her husband and my lord's return.

There is a monastery two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do defire you,

Not to deny this impofition;

The which my love and fome neceffity

Now lays upon you.

LOR. Madam, with all my heart;

I fhall obey you in all fair commands.

POR. My People do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jeffica

In place of lord Bassanio and myself.

So fare you well, 'till we shall meet again.

LOR. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
JES. I wish your lady ship all heart's content.

POR. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased To wish it back on you: fare ye well, Jeffica.

Now, Balthazar,

[Exeunt Jef. and Lor.

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee still take this fame letter,
And use thou all th'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 traject, to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice: wafte no time in words,

But get thee gone; I shall be there before you.

BALTH. Madam, I go with all convenient fpeed. [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?

prove

POR. They fhall, Neriffa; but in fuch a habit,
That they fhall think we are accomplished
With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both apparell'd like young men,
I'll 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 fteps
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 dy'd,
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've difcontinued fchool
Above a twelvemonth. I have in my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks,
Which I will practise.

NER. Shall we turn to men?

FOR. 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 VI.

Enter Launcelot and Jeffica.

[Exeunt.

LAUN. Yes, truly- -for look you, the fins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promise you, I fear you. I was always plain with you; and so now I fpeak my agitation of the matter: therefore be of good cheer; for truly, I think, you are damn'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 bastard hope, indeed. So the fins of my mother should be visited upon me.

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