Scene IV

Nay, we will slink away in supper-time,
Disguise us at my lodging and return,
All in an hour.

’Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order’d,
And better in my mind not undertook.

’Tis now but four o’clock: we have two hours
To furnish us.

I know the hand: in faith, ’tis a fair hand;
And whiter than the paper it writ on
Is the fair hand that writ.

Hold here, take this: tell gentle Jessica
I will not fail her; speak it privately.
Go, gentlemen, Exit Launcelot.
Will you prepare you for this masquea festive entertainment involving disguises or masks to-night?
I am provided of a torch-bearer.

Meet me and Gratiano
At Gratiano’s lodging some hour hence.

I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed
How I shall take her from her father’s house,
What gold and jewels she is furnish’d 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,
Unless she do it under this excuse,
That she is issuea child or descendant to a faithless Jew.
Come, go with me; peruse this as thou goest:
Fair Jessica shall be my torch-bearer. Exeunt.