SCENE V. The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house. The Merchant of Venice  Shakespeare homepage  |  Merchant of Venice  | Act 2, Scene 5 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE V. The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house. 

 Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT  SHYLOCK  Well, 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! 

 LAUNCELOT  Why, Jessica! 

 SHYLOCK  Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call. 

 LAUNCELOT  Your worship was wont to tell me that 

 I could do nothing without bidding. 



 Enter Jessica  JESSICA  Call you? what is your will? 

 SHYLOCK  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. 

 LAUNCELOT  I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect 

 your reproach. 

 SHYLOCK  So do I his. 

 LAUNCELOT  An 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. 

 SHYLOCK  What, 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. 

 LAUNCELOT  I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at 

 window, for all this, There will come a Christian 

 boy, will be worth a Jewess' eye. 



 Exit  SHYLOCK  What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha? 

 JESSICA  His words were 'Farewell mistress;' nothing else. 

 SHYLOCK  The 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  JESSICA  Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost, 

 I have a father, you a daughter, lost. 



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