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- Act 2 Scene 5
-
- Shylock instructs Jessica to lock up the house
- carefully; he then goes off to have dinner with
- Bassanio.
- 2 of: between.
- 3 gormandize: over-eat.
- 5 rend apparel out: wear holes in your
- clothes.
- 8 wont: accustomed.
- 11 bid forth: invited out.
- 12 wherefore: why.
- 15 prodigal: wasteful; see note to 1, 1, 129.
- 16 Look to: take care of.
- right loath: very reluctant.
- 17 There is some evil being plotted against
- my peace of mind.
- 20 reproach: Lancelot means ôapproachö.
- 21 So do I his: i.e. his reproach; Shylock
- takes LancelotÆs word, not his meaning.
- 23 it was . . . afternoon: LancelotÆs nonsense,
- making fun of prophesying by omens: Black
- Monday is Easter Monday, and Ash Wednesday
- the first day of Lent.
- 30 wry-neckÆd fife: a fife is a small pipe
- which is played sideways, giving the player a
- twisted (ôwryö) neck.
- 31 casements: windows.
- 33 varnishÆd: painted, or wearing masks.
- 35 shallow foppÆry: frivolity.
- 36 JacobÆs staff: in Genesis 32: 10 Jacob
- boasts that he had only his staff when he crossed
- the river Jordan, yet he returned with two
- companies of men.
- 37 forth: away from home.
- 42 ôWorth a JewÆs eyeö was a proverbial
- expression to indicate great value.
- 43 Hagar: the maid to AbrahamÆs wife.
- Abraham was the father of her son, but he rejected
- the boy and sent him with his mother into the
- wilderness (Genesis, chapter 21).
- 45 patch: fool.
- huge feeder: he eats a lot.
- 46 Snail-slow: as slow as a snail.
- profit: learning his job.
- 47 drones: bees who do no work.
- hive: live (as in a bee-hive).
- 49 waste: ruin.
- 53 He who takes care of what he has will
- prosper.
- 55 crossÆd: thwarted.
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