But though I am a daughter to his blood, SCENE IV. The same. A Street. [Exit. Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALARINO, and SALANIO. Lor. Nay, we will slink away in supper-time; Disguise us at my lodging, and return Gra. We have not made good preparation. Lor. 'Tis now but four o'clock; we have two hours Enter LAUNCELOT, with a letter. Friend Launcelot, what's the news? Laun. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to signify. Lor. I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand; And whiter than the paper it writ on, Is the fair hand that writ. Gra. Laun. By your leave, sir. Love-news, in faith. Lor. Whither goest thou? Laun. Marry, sir, to bid my old master the Jew to sup to-night with my new master the Christian. Lor. Hold here, take this:-tell gentle Jessica, I will not fail her;-speak it privately; go.- [Exit. LAUNCELOT. Will you prepare you for this masque to-night? Salar. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight. Lor. Meet me, and Gratiano, At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence. Salar. 'Tis good we do so. [Exeunt SALAR. and SALAN. Gra. Was not that letter from fair Jessica? Lor. I must needs tell thee all: She hath directed, How I shall take her from her father's house; [Exeunt. SCENE V. The same. Before Shylock's House. Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT. Shy. Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio: What Jessica!-thou shalt not gormandize, As thou hast done with me! - What Jessica! And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out ; Why, Jessica, I say! Laun. Why, Jessica! 'Shy. Who bids thee call? I did not bid thee call. Laun. Your worship was wont to tell me, I could do nothing without bidding. Enter JESSICA. Jes. Call you? what is your will? Shy. I am bid forth to supper, Jessica; Laun. I beseech you, sir, go on; my young master doth expect your reproach. Shy. So do I his. Laun. And 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 BlackMonday last," at six o'clock i'the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four year in the after noon. Shy. What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica : Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum, And the vile squeaking 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. Laun. 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. [Exit. Shy. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha? Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day To one that I would have him help to waste u Black-Monday last,] "Black-Monday is Easter-Monday, and was so called on this occasion: in the 34th of Edward III. (1360.) the 14th of April, and the morrow after Easter-day, King Edward, with his host, lay before the city of Paris: which day was full of dark mist and hail, and so bitter cold, that many men died on their horses' backs with the cold. Wherefore, unto this day it hath been called the Blacke-Monday." Stowe, p. 264-6.-GREY. fife,]-here means the fifer, and not his instrument. Shakspeare is not singular in this application of the word. patch-] A fool, probably from the Italian pazzo from wearing a patched or party-coloured coat.-NARES. X His borrowed purse. - Well, Jessica, go in; Do, as I bid you, Shut doors after you: Fast bind, fast find; [Exit. Jes. Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost, I have a father, you a daughter, lost. [Exit. Enter GRATIANO and SALARINO, masqued. Gra. This is the pent-house, under which Lorenzo Desir'd us to make stand. Salar. His hour is almost past. Gra. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour, Salar. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly Gra. That ever holds: who riseth from a feast, Enter LORENZO. Salar. Here comes Lorenzo ;-more of this hereafter. Lor. Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode; Not I, but my affairs, have made you wait; - scarfed bark-] i. e. The vessel decorated with flags. When you shall please to play the thieves for wives, Enter JESSICA above, in boy's clothes. Jes. Who are you? Tell me for more certainty, Jes. Lorenzo, certain; and my love, indeed; Lor. Heaven, and thy thoughts, are witness that thou art. I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me, Lor. Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer. And I should be obscur'd. Lor. So are you, sweet, Even in the lovely garnish of a boy. For the close night doth play the run-away, Jes. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself [Exit, from above. Gra. Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew. For she is wise, if I can judge of her; by my hood,] The hood of his masked habit, by which he swears in imitation of the friars with whom this oath was familiar. Gentile in our author's time was frequently written Gentle, as indeed it is at this place, in the first folio and one of the quarto's, and the compliment here conveyed arises from the ambiguity of the word. |