Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) intends to collect on the "pound of flesh". Jessica informs them that she has heard her father speaking with his fellows, saying he "would rather have Antonio's flesh / Than twenty times the value of the sum / That he did owe him." Portia dispatches Bassanio to Venice to assist his friend, pausing only long enough for them to be married. Then announces that she and Nerissa, her maid, will stay in a nearby convent while their husbands are away. In her absence she asks Lorenzo and Jessica to manage her estate. In Act 3, Scene 5, Jessica and Gobbo
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) Warburton's note—in his 1765 edition: "The commentator should have remarked, that this speech is not, even in his own edition, the speech of the "Jewess"." The lines in question are usually assigned Lorenzo. The next was by Edmond Malone in his 1790 edition. The editor of the "Second Folio" (1632) had emended the line "If a Christian do not / play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived", substituting "did" for "do". This changed the meaning, as an acerbic Malone points out: Malone's position turned out to be somewhat controversial. In his revised edition in 1821, multiple notes