The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare [the false prince TXT] 📗
- Author: William Shakespeare
Book online «The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare [the false prince TXT] 📗». Author William Shakespeare
I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this:
These things being bought and orderly bestow’d,
Return in haste, for I do feast to-night
My best-esteem’d acquaintance: hie thee, go.
Why then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano;
Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice;
Parts that become thee happily enough
And in such eyes as ours appear not faults;
But where thou art not known, why, there they show
Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain
To allay with some cold drops of modesty
Thy skipping spirit, lest through thy wild behavior
I be misconstrued in the place I go to,
And lose my hopes.
Signior Bassanio, hear me:
If I do not put on a sober habit,
Talk with respect and swear but now and then,
Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely,
Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes
Thus with my hat, and sigh and say “amen,”
Use all the observance of civility,
Like one well studied in a sad ostent
To please his grandam, never trust me more.
Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me
By what we do to-night.
No, that were pity:
I would entreat you rather to put on
Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends
That purpose merriment. But fare you well:
I have some business.
And I must to Lorenzo and the rest:
But we will visit you at supper-time. Exeunt.
The same. A room in Shylock’s house.
Enter Jessica and Launcelot. JessicaI am sorry thou wilt leave my father so:
Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil,
Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.
But fare thee well, there is a ducat for thee:
And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see
Lorenzo, who is thy new master’s guest:
Give him this letter; do it secretly;
And so farewell: I would not have my father
See me in talk with thee.
Farewell, good Launcelot. Exit Launcelot.
Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
To be ashamed to be my father’s child!
But though I am a daughter to his blood,
I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,
If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
Become a Christian and thy loving wife. Exit.
The same. A street.
Enter Gratiano, Lorenzo, Salarino, and Salanio. LorenzoNay, we will slink away in supper-time,
Disguise us at my lodging and return,
All in an hour.
’Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order’d,
And better in my mind not undertook.
’Tis now but four o’clock: we have two hours
To furnish us.
I know the hand: in faith, ’tis a fair hand;
And whiter than the paper it writ on
Is the fair hand that writ.
Hold here, take this: tell gentle Jessica
I will not fail her; speak it privately.
Go, gentlemen, Exit Launcelot.
Will you prepare you for this masque to-night?
I am provided of a torch-bearer.
Meet me and Gratiano
At Gratiano’s lodging some hour hence.
I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed
How I shall take her from her father’s house,
What gold and jewels she is furnish’d with,
What page’s suit she hath in readiness.
If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven,
It will be for his gentle daughter’s sake:
And never dare misfortune cross her foot,
Unless she do it under this excuse,
That she is issue to a faithless Jew.
Come, go with me; peruse this as thou goest:
Fair Jessica shall be my torch-bearer. Exeunt.
The same. Before Shylock’s house.
Enter Shylock and Launcelot. ShylockWell, 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!
I 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.
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