Venice. A Street. | |
| |
Enter SALARINO and SALANIO. | |
| Salar. Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail: | |
| With him is Gratiano gone along; | 4 |
| And in their ship I’m sure Lorenzo is not. | |
| Salan. The villain Jew with outcries rais’d the duke, | |
| Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship. | |
| Salar. He came too late, the ship was under sail: | 8 |
| But there the duke was given to understand | |
| That in a gondola were seen together | |
| Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica. | |
| Besides, Antonio certified the duke | 12 |
| They were not with Bassanio in his ship. | |
| Salan. I never heard a passion so confus’d, | |
| So strange, outrageous, and so variable, | |
| As the dog Jew did utter in the streets: | 16 |
| ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! | |
| Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! | |
| Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter! | |
| A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, | 20 |
| Of double ducats, stol’n from me by my daughter! | |
| And jewels! two stones, two rich and precious stones, | |
| Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! find the girl! | |
| She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats.’ | 24 |
| Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him, | |
| Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats. | |
| Salan. Let good Antonio look he keep his day, | |
| Or he shall pay for this. | 28 |
| Salar. Marry, well remember’d. | |
| I reason’d with a Frenchman yesterday, | |
| Who told me,—in the narrow seas that part | |
| The French and English,—there miscarried | 32 |
| A vessel of our country richly fraught. | |
| I thought upon Antonio when he told me, | |
| And wish’d in silence that it were not his. | |
| Salan. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear; | 36 |
| Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him. | |
| Salar. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. | |
| I saw Bassanio and Antonio part: | |
| Bassanio told him he would make some speed | 40 |
| Of his return: he answer’d ‘Do not so; | |
| Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, | |
| But stay the very riping of the time; | |
| And for the Jew’s bond which he hath of me, | 44 |
| Let it not enter in your mind of love: | |
| Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts | |
| To courtship and such fair ostents of love | |
| As shall conveniently become you there:’ | 48 |
| And even there, his eye being big with tears, | |
| Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, | |
| And with affection wondrous sensible | |
| He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted. | 52 |
| Salan. I think he only loves the world for him. | |
| I pray thee, let us go and find him out, | |
| And quicken his embraced heaviness | |
| With some delight or other. | 56 |
| Salar. Do we so. [Exeunt. | |