Consisteth of all nations. Therefore go, Well, jailer, on; pray heav'n Bassanio come SCENE-A Chamber in Portia's House. Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHAZAR, a man of Portia's. Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your pre- Por. I never did repent of doing good, Must needs be like my lord. If it be so, The husbandry and manage of my house, Only attended by Nerissa here, Until her husband and my lord's return. And there we will abide. I do desire you Not to deny this imposition: The which my love, and some necessity, Lor. Madam, with all my heart; I shall obey you in all fair commands. In place of lord Bassanio and myself. So, fare you well, 'till we shall meet again. [you! Lor. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on 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. Now, Balthazar. [Exeunt Jes. and Lor. As I have ever found thee honest, true, So let me find thee still. Take this same letter, In speed to Padua; see thou render this [Exit. Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand, you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands, Before they think of us. That Ner. Shall they see us? Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit, That they shall think we are accomplished, With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager, When we are both apparell'd like young men,(57) (27) Portia, habited as a boy, may be seen in the figure of Cupid, who had the same prototype, No. 22, ante. By conceiving the lights around her to constitute the skirts of her robe, it is not difficult to imagine her either in her proper character as a woman, or in a counsellor's robe, in I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two, And wear my dagger with the braver grace; I could not do with all; 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; That men shall swear I've discontinued school, But, come, I'll tell thee all my whole device, Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA. [Exeunt, Laun. Yes, truly; for look you, the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promise you, I fear you. I was always plain with which she appears hereafter. Neither is it difficult to fancy Nerissa, on viewing her prototype, to be in a male or female dress. you; and so now I speak my agitation of the matter: therefere be of good cheer; for truly, I think, you are damn'd. There is but one hopein 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 shall be visited upon me. Laun. Truly, then, I fear you are damn'd both father and mother: thus when you shun Scylla, your father, you 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 enough 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. |