If it be so,
How little is the cost I have bestowed
In purchasing the semblance of my soul,
From out the state of hellish cruelty.
This comes too near the praising of myself,
Therefore no more of it. [Hear] other things:
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands
The husbandry and manage of my house
Until my lord’s return. For mine own part,
I have toward heaven breath’d a secret vow
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Nerissa here,
Until her husband and my lord’s return.
There is a monast’ry two miles off,
And there we will abide. I do desire you
Not to deny this imposition,
The which my love and some necessity
Now lays upon you.
Lor.
Madam, with all my heart,
I shall obey you in all fair commands.
Por.
My people do already know my mind,
And will acknowledge you and Jessica
In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
So fare you well till we shall meet again.
Lor.
Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
Jes.
I wish your ladyship all heart’s content.
Por.
I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas’d
To wish it back on you. Fare you well, Jessica.
Exeunt [Jessica and Lorenzo].
Now, Balthazar,
As I have ever found thee honest-true,
So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,
And use thou all th’ endeavor of a man
In speed to [Padua]. See thou render this
Into my [cousin’s] hands, Doctor Bellario,
And look what notes and garments he doth give thee,
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin’d speed
Unto the [traject], to the common ferry
Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words,
But get thee gone. I shall be there before thee.
Balth.
Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
[Exit.]
Por.
Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand
That you yet know not of. We’ll see our husbands
Before they think of us.
Ner.
Shall they see us?
Por.
They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit
That they shall think we are accomplished
With that we lack. I’ll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutered like young men,
I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride; and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
How honorable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died.
I could not do withal. 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 have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practice.
Ner.
Why, shall we turn to men?
Por.
Fie, what a question’s that,
If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!
But come, I’ll tell thee all my whole device
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park-gate; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.
Exeunt.
¶
[Scene V]
Enter Clown [Launcelot] and Jessica.
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 you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter; therefore be a’ good cheer, for truly I think you are damn’d.
