To pay the petty Debt twenty times over.
When it is paid, bring your true Friend along ;
My Maid Neriffa, and my self mean time,
Will live as Maids and Widows: Come away,
For you shall hence upon my Wedding-day.
Bid your Friends welcome, show a merry Cheer;
Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
But let me hear the Letter of your Friend.

Baff. reads.

S Weet Baffanio, my Ships have all miscarry'd, my Creditors grow cruel, my Estate is very low. my Bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since, in paying it, it is imposfible I should live, all Debts are cleared between you and I, if I might see you at my Death; notwithstanding use your Pleasure: If your Love do not persuade you to come, let not my Letter.

Por. O Love! dispatch all Business, and be gone.
Baff. Since I have your good Leave to go away,

I will make haste; but 'till I come again,
No Bed shall e'er be guilty of my Stay,

Nor Rest be Interpofer 'twixt us two.

[Exeunt.

Venice.

Enter Shylock, Solarino, Anthonio, and the Goaler.

Shy. Goaler, look to him: Tell me not of Mercy.

This is the Fool that lends out Mony Gratis.

Goaler, look to him,

Ant. Hear me yet, good Shylock.

Shy. I'll have my Bond; speak not against my Bond:
I have sworn an Oath that I will have my Bond.
Thou call'st me Dog before thou hadst a Cause;
But fince I am a Dog, beware my Fangs:
The Duke shall grant me Justice. I do wonder,
Thou naughty Goaler, that thou art so fond
To come Abroad with him at his Request.
Ant. I pray thee hear me speak.

Shy. I'll have my Bond: I will not hear thee speak
I'll have my Bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd Fool,
To shake the Head, relent, and figh and yield
Christian Intercessors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking; I will have my Bond. [Exit Shylock.

Sola. It is the most impenetrable Cur

That ever kept with Men.

Ant. Let him alone,

I'll follow him no more with bootless Prayers:

He seeks my Life; his Reason 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.

Ant. 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
Consisteth of all Nations. Therefore go,
These Griefs and Losses have so bated me.
That I shall hardly spare a Pound of Flesh
To Morrow to my bloody Creditor.
Well, Goaler, on; pray God Baffanio come
To see me pay his Debt, and then I care not.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Belmont.

Enter Portia, Nerissa, Lorenzo, Jessica, and a Servant of

Porria's.

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your Prefence,
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 shew 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 for doing good,
Nor shall not now; for in Companions
That do converse and waste the Time together,
Whose Souls do bear an equal Yoke of Love,
There must be needs a like Proportion
Of Lineaments, of Manners, and of Spirit;

Which

Which makes me think that this Anthonio,
Being the Bosom-lover of my Lord,
Muft needs be like my Lord. If it be so,
How little is the Cost I have bestowed
In purchasing the Semblance of my Soul
From out the state of hellish Cruelty.
This comes too near the praising of my felf;
Therefore no more it: Here are 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 Heav'n breath'd a fecret Vow,
To live in Player 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 Imposition.
The which my Love and some Neceffity
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 Feffica
In place of Lord Baffanio and my telf,
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 with it back on you: Fare you well, Feffica. [Ex. Jef. & Lor Now, Balthazar, as I have ever found thee honeft, true, So let me find thee still: Take this same Letter, And use thou all the Endeavour of a Man, In speed to Mantua; see thou render this Into my Coufin's Hand, Doctor Bellario, And look what Notes and Garments he doth give thee, Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd freed Unto the Traject, 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. Por.

Por. Come on, Neriffa, 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; butin such a Habit,
That they shall think we are accomplimed
With that we lack. I'll hold thee any Wager,
When we are both Accoutred 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 Stride, 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 withal: 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.
Then Men shall swear I have discontinued School
Above a Twelve-month. I have within my Mind
A thousand raw Tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

[Exeunt

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 hafte away, For we must measure Twenty Miles to Day. Enter Launcelot and Jeffica. Laun. Yes, tuly: 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 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 Baftard-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.

Jef. That were a kind of Bastard hope indeed; so the Sins of my Mother should be visited upon me.

Laun. Truly then I fear you are damn'd both by Father and Mother; Thus when you shun Sylla, your Father, you fall into Charibdis, your Mother: Well, you are gone both ways. Jes. 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 Mony.

Enter Lorenzo,

Jes. I'll tell my Husband, Launcelot, what you say: Here he comes.

Lor. I shall 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 Heav'n, because I am a Jew's Daughter: And he says, you are no good Member of the Commonwealth; for in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the Price of Pork.

Lor. I shall 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.

Lann. It is much that the Moor should be more than Reafon: But if she be less than an honest Woman, she 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 shortly turn into Silence, and Difcourse grow commendable in none only but Parrats. Go in, Sirrah, bid them prepare for Dinner.

Lann. 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 occafion! wilt thou shew 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.