The Merchant of Venice: ACT II
Introduction ACT I ACT II SCENE I. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house. SCENE II. Venice. A street. SCENE III. The same. A room in SHYLOCK'S house. SCENE IV. The same. A street. SCENE V. The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house. SCENE VI. The same. SCENE VII. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house. SCENE VIII. Venice. A street. SCENE IX. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house. ACT III ACT IV ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: 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!-- 5     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 10    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: 15    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 20    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 25    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: 30    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, 35    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; 40    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 45    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 50    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; 55    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. Exit Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene