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, gaoler, on. Pray God, Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not!

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S

house.

Enter PORTIA, Nerissa, Lorenzo, Jessica, and BALTHASAR.

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 show this honour,
How true a gentleman you send relief,
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 makes me think that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,
Must needs be like my lord.

32. bated, reduced, emaciated.
2. conceit, conception, idea.

If it be so,

9. i.e. Than ordinary acts of generosity can make you. 12. waste, spend, pass.

How little is the cost I have bestow'd
In purchasing the semblance of my soul
From out the state of hellish misery!
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 breathed 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 will we 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.
And so farewell, 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
pleased

To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica.
[Exeunt Jessica and Lorenzo.

Now, Balthasar,

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

25. husbandry, government. 33. imposition, charge.

20

30

40

Into my cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,

Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined speed

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.
Balth. Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
[Exit.
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?

50

Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit, 60 That they shall think we are accomplished

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 sought my love,

Which I denying, they fell sick 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,

70

cannot have blundered in a word of obvious Latin derivation.

54. trades, plies.

56. convenient speed, the speed appropriate to the occasion. 61. accomplished, furnished. 69. quaint, ingenious. 72. do withal, help it.

That men shall swear I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

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 haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. The same. A garden.

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 ye, 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 damned. 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 sins of my mother should be visited upon me.

Laun. Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and mother: thus when I shun 5. agitation, i.e. cogitation.

3. fear, fear for.

80

ΤΟ

Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, 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 enow 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.

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 heaven, 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.

:

20

30

Lor. I shall answer that better to the common- 40 wealth than you can the getting up of the negro's belly the Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.

Laun. It is much that the Moor should be more than reason: 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

25. one by another, side by side, i.e. where they compete for a livelihood.