Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) scene—Act 2, Scene 6—Lorenzo and his friends come to Shylock's house, and Jessica greets them from a window, dressed as a boy. She asks Lorenzo to confirm his identity before lowering a casket of her father's Ducats. Lorenzo bids her descend, but Jessica demurs, ashamed of her disguise. Lorenzo persuades her, and she goes inside to bring more of Shylock's Ducats. Lorenzo praises her to his friends: "For she is wise, if I can judge of her, / And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true, / And true she is, as she hath proved herself. / And
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) and classical comedies, who are only fit to be dupes of their children …." The first critical notice of Jessica in the 18th century was made by William Warburton, who commented on the line in Act 5, Scene 1: "Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way / Of starvèd people." Warburton's comment was that ""Shakespear" is not more exact in any thing, than in adapting his images with propriety to his speakers; of which he has here given an instance in making the young "Jewess" call good fortune, "Manna"." Unfortunately, as Samuel Johnson explains rather drily—in a note to