Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 5
The same. Before SHYLOCK’S house.
Shylock : Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge,
[p]The difference
of old Shylock and Bassanio:--
[p]What, Jessica!--thou shalt not
gormandise,
[p]As thou hast done with me:--What, Jessica!--
[p]And
sleep and snore, and rend apparel out;--
[p]Why, Jessica, I say!
Launcelot Gobbo : Why, Jessica!
Shylock : Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call.
Launcelot Gobbo : Your worship was wont to tell me that
[p]I could do nothing without
bidding.
Jessica : Call you? what is your will?
Shylock : I am bid forth to supper, Jessica:
[p]There are my keys. But wherefore
should I go?
[p]I am not bid for love; they flatter me:
[p]But yet
I'll go in hate, to feed upon
[p]The prodigal Christian. Jessica, my
girl,
[p]Look to my house. I am right loath to go:
[p]There is some
ill a-brewing towards my rest,
[p]For I did dream of money-bags
to-night.
Launcelot Gobbo : I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect
[p]your reproach.
Shylock : So do I his.
Launcelot Gobbo : An they have conspired together, I will not say you
[p]shall see a
masque; but if you do, then it was not
[p]for nothing that my nose
fell a-bleeding on
[p]Black-Monday last at six o'clock i' the
morning,
[p]falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four
[p]year,
in the afternoon.
Shylock : What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica:
[p]Lock up my doors;
and when you hear the drum
[p]And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd
fife,
[p]Clamber not you up to the casements then,
[p]Nor thrust your
head into the public street
[p]To gaze on Christian fools with
varnish'd faces,
[p]But stop my house's ears, I mean my
casements:
[p]Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter
[p]My sober
house. By Jacob's staff, I swear,
[p]I have no mind of feasting forth
to-night:
[p]But I will go. Go you before me, sirrah;
[p]Say I will
come.
Launcelot Gobbo : I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at
[p]window, for all this,
There will come a Christian
[p]boy, will be worth a Jewess' eye.
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;
[p]Snail-slow in profit,
and he sleeps by day
[p]More than the wild-cat: drones hive not with
me;
[p]Therefore I part with him, and part with him
[p]To one that
would have him help to waste
[p]His borrow'd purse. Well, Jessica, go
in;
[p]Perhaps I will return immediately:
[p]Do as I bid you; shut
doors after you:
[p]Fast bind, fast find;
[p]A proverb never stale in
thrifty mind.
Jessica : Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost,
[p]I have a father, you a
daughter, lost.
Previous: Act 2 - Scene 4
Next: Act 2 - Scene 6
