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—Launcelet [handing him the letter]
8
And shall it please you to break the seal it shall tell you.

—Lorenzo
I know the handwriting° ‘tis a fair hand, {I know the hand, in faith} 9
And whiter than the paper ‘tis writ on
Is the fair hand that writ

—Gratziano
Love-news, I think. °° {in faith} / It must be love-news

—Launcelet
By your leave, sir. 10

—Lorenzo
Where° goest thou? {Whither}

—Launcelet
Well sir, to bid my old master the Jew to sup tonight with my new master the Christian. 11

—Lorenzo
Hold here, take this [gives him a coin]. Tell gentle Jessica,
12 13
I will not fail her. Speak it° privately. / Tell her

Exit Launcelet

o’clock, not six o’clock. [See Additional Notes, 2.4.9]
8. {And it shall please you to break up this, shall it seem to signify}
9. I know the hand: refers to Jessica’s beautiful handwriting.
10. / With your permission, sir, I now will leave
11. Jessica’s letter outlines her plan with a ‘go ahead’ for tonight. This confirmation, we must assume, is based upon
Jessica’s belief that her father will accept Bassanio’s invitation for dinner and be away that evening.
12. {Tell gentle Jessica | I will not fail her}
All Launcelet knows is that Lorenzo will not fail Jessica—he knows nothing about what Lorenzo is
referring to, nor anything about Lorenzo ‘coming by’ to Jessica’s house later that evening. However, in the next
scene, when Launcelet is bidding farewell to Shylock, his final words to Jessica are: Mistress, look out at window for
all this: | There will come a Christian by | Will be worth a Jewès eye. [2.5.39-42] As stated, he had no way of
knowing this.
One way to rectify this discrepancy would be to add a line whereby Lorenzo tells Launcelet something of
the plan:
Hold here, take this [gives him a coin]. Tell gentle Jessica,
+We’ll meet as planned,° beneath her balcony—,
I will not fail her.
The discrepancy is slight and need not be rectified; whereas Lorenzo telling the loose-lipped Launcelot of his plan
may be more problematic.
13.What we find is that Lorenzo does fail her, that he comes an hour late [2.6.2]—a delay which, in all likelihood,
would have blown the whole plan. This delay (which he attributes to having had to finish up some business) would
have given Shylock ample time to return from dinner—unless the ‘business’ which caused his delay was to wait at
Bassanio’s until he was sure that Shylock arrived (which meant that the coast was clear).