| ACT III SCENE V | The same. A garden. | |
| | Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA. | |
| LAUNCELOT | Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father | |
| | are to be laid upon the children: therefore, I | |
| | promise ye, I fear you. I was always plain with | |
| | you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter: | 5 |
| | therefore be of good cheer, for truly I think you | |
| | are damned. There is but one hope in it that can do | |
| | you any good; and that is but a kind of bastard | |
| | hope neither. | |
| JESSICA | And what hope is that, I pray thee? | 10 |
| LAUNCELOT | Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you | |
| | not, that you are not the Jew's daughter. | |
| JESSICA | That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed: so the | |
| | sins of my mother should be visited upon me. | |
| LAUNCELOT | Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and | 15 |
| | mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I | |
| | fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are | |
| | gone both ways. | |
| JESSICA | I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a | |
| | Christian. | 20 |
| LAUNCELOT | Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians | |
| | enow before; e'en as many as could well live, one by | |
| | another. This making 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. | 25 |
| | Enter LORENZO. | |
| JESSICA | I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say: here he comes. | |
| LORENZO | I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if | |
| | you thus get my wife into corners. | |
| JESSICA | Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo: Launcelot and I | |
| | are out. He tells me flatly, there is no mercy for | 30 |
| | me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he | |
| | says, you are no good member of the commonwealth, | |
| | for in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the | |
| | price of pork. | |
| LORENZO | I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than | 35 |
| | you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the | |
| | Moor is with child by you, Launcelot. | |
| LAUNCELOT | It is much that the Moor should be more than reason: | |
| | but if she be less than an honest woman, she is | |
| | indeed more than I took her for. | 40 |
| LORENZO | How every fool can play upon the word! I think the | |
| | best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, | |
| | and discourse grow commendable in none only but | |
| | parrots. Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner. | |
| LAUNCELOT | That is done, sir; they have all stomachs. | 45 |
| LORENZO | Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid | |
| | them prepare dinner. | |
| LAUNCELOT | That is done too, sir; only 'cover' is the word. | |
| LORENZO | Will you cover then, sir? | |
| LAUNCELOT | Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty. | 50 |
| LORENZO | Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show | |
| | the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray | |
| | tree, understand a plain man in his plain meaning: | |
| | go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve | |
| | in the meat, and we will come in to dinner. | 55 |
| LAUNCELOT | For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the | |
| | meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in | |
| | to dinner, sir, why, let it be as humours and | |
| | conceits shall govern. | |
| | Exit | |
| LORENZO | O dear discretion, how his words are suited! | 60 |
| | The fool hath planted in his memory | |
| | An army of good words; and I do know | |
| | A many fools, that stand in better place, | |
| | Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word | |
| | Defy the matter. How cheerest thou, Jessica? | 65 |
| | And now, good sweet, say thy opinion, | |
| | How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife? | |
| JESSICA | Past all expressing. It is very meet | |
| | The Lord Bassanio live an upright life; | |
| | For, having such a blessing in his lady, | 70 |
| | He finds the joys of heaven here on earth; | |
| | And if on earth he do not mean it, then | |
| | In reason he should never come to heaven | |
| | Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match | |
| | And on the wager lay two earthly women, | 75 |
| | And Portia one, there must be something else | |
| | Pawn'd with the other, for the poor rude world | |
| | Hath not her fellow. | |
| LORENZO | Even such a husband | |
| | Hast thou of me as she is for a wife. | 80 |
| JESSICA | Nay, but ask my opinion too of that. | |
| LORENZO | I will anon: first, let us go to dinner. | |
| JESSICA | Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach. | |
| LORENZO | No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; | |
| ' | Then, howso'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things | 85 |
| | I shall digest it. | |
| JESSICA | Well, I'll set you forth. | |
| | Exeunt | |
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