I know you would be prouder of the work,
Than customary bounty can enforce you.
Por. I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now:

This comes too near the praising 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 toward heaven breath'd a secret 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 desire you
Not to deny this imposition;

The which my love, and some necessity,
Now lays upon you.

Lor. Madam, with all

my heart;

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por. My people do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jessica

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 ladyship all heart's content.

Por. I thank you for your wish, and am well
pleas'd

To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica.— [Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO.

Now, Balthazar,

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee still: Take this same letter,

And use thou all the endeavour of a man,

In speed to Padua ; see 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 :-waste no time in words,
But get thee gone; I shall be there before thee.
Bal. Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
[Exit BALTHAZAR.
Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand
That you yet know not of: We'll see our husbands
Before they think of us.
Ner. Shall they see us?
Por. They shall, Nerissa;
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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

The Garden at Belmont.

Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA.

Laun. Yes, truly-for, look you, the sins 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 speak the agitation of the matter. Therefore be of good cheer; for, truly, I think, you are damned. There is but one hope in it, that can do you any good: and that is but a kind of a bastard hope neither.

Jess. 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. Jess. That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed; so the sins of my mother should be visited upon me.

F

Laun. Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways.

Jess. I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a christian.

Laun. Truly, the more to blame he: we were christians enough before; e'en as many as could well live one by another: this making of christians 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.

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

Enter LORENZO.

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

Jess. 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.

Lor. Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner. Laun. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs. Lor. Goodly lord, what a wit snapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner,

Laun. That is done too, sir; only, cover is the word. Lor. Will you cover then, sir?

Laun. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.

Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.

Laun. For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in to dinner, sir, why let it be as humours and conceits shall govern. [Exit LAUNCELOT. Lor. O dear discretion, how his words are suited!

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 tricksy word
Defy the matter. How cheer'st thou, Jessica
And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,
How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife?
Jess. Past all expressing.

Lor. Even such a husband

Hast thou of me, as she is for a wife.
Jess. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.

DUETT.

Jess. In rows of everlasting truth,

You waste your idle hours, fond youth;
But leave me once, and I should find,
That out of sight were out of mind.

Lor. Ah, do thyself no wrong, my dear,
Affect no coy nor jealous fear;
Each beauteous object, I might see,
Would but inspire a thought of thee.

Jess. and Lor. Thus absence warms with fiercer flame The fine affections of the soul;

As distance points with surer aim

The faithful needle to its darling pole.

[Exeunt.

ACT THE FOURTH.

SCENE I.

A Court of Justice in Venice.

Flourish of Trumpets.

The DUKE, the MAGNIFICOES, ANTONIO, BassaNIO, SALANIO, SALARINO, GRATIANO, and others, discovered.

Duke. What, is Antonio here?

Ant. Ready, so please your grace.

Duke. I am sorry for thee; thou art come to an

swer

A stony 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 course; but since 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 suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his.

Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the court.
Sala. He's ready at the door: he comes, my lord.

Enter SHYLOCK.

Duke. Make room, and let him stand before our

face.

Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,