Page 424 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Hold here, take this, tell gentle Jessica
I will not fail her. Speak it privately. [20]
Exit Launcelot.
Go, gentlemen;

Will you prepare you for this masque tonight?
I am provided of a torchbearer.

SALERIO
Ay marry, I’ll be gone about it straight.

SOLANIO
And so will I.

LORENZO
Meet me and Gratiano [25]

At Gratiano’s lodging some hour hence.

SALERIO

’Tis good we do so.
Exit with Solanio.

GRATIANO
Was not that letter from fair Jessica?

LORENZO
I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed
How I shall take her from her father’s house, [30]

What gold and jewels she is furnished with,
What page’s suit she hath in readiness.
If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven,
It will be for his gentle daughter’s sake;

And never dare misfortune cross her foot, [35]
Unless she do it under this excuse,
That she is issue to a faithless Jew.
Come, go with me; peruse this as thou goest.

Fair Jessica shall be my torchbearer.
Exit with Gratiano.