ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 5
1The same. Before Shylock’s house.
2Enter Shylock and Launcelot.
3ShylockWell, 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!
4LauncelotWhy, Jessica!
5ShylockWho bids thee call? I do not bid thee call.
6LauncelotYour worship was wont to tell me that I could do nothing without bidding.
7Enter Jessica.
8JessicaCall you? what is your will?
9ShylockI 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.
10LauncelotI beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect your reproach.
11ShylockSo do I his.
12LauncelotAn 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.
13ShylockWhat, 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.
14LauncelotI 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.
15ShylockWhat says that fool of Hagar’s offspring, ha?
16JessicaHis words were “Farewell mistress;” nothing else.
17ShylockThe 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.
18JessicaFarewell; and if my fortune be not crost,
I have a father, you a daughter, lost. Exit.