Act 2, Scene 3

The same. A room in SHYLOCK's house.

[Enter JESSICA and LAUNCELOT.]
Jessica
716 I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so:
717 Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil,
718 Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.
719 But fare thee well; there is a ducat for thee;
720 And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see
721 Lorenzo, who is thy new master's guest:
722 Give him this letter; do it secretly.
723 And so farewell. I would not have my father
724 See me in talk with thee.
Launcelot Gobbo
725 Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful pagan,
726 most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave and get
727 thee, I am much deceived. But, adieu! these foolish drops do
728 something drown my manly spirit; adieu!
Jessica
729 Farewell, good Launcelot.
[Exit LAUNCELOT]
Jessica
730 Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
731 To be asham'd to be my father's child!
732 But though I am a daughter to his blood,
733 I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo!
734 If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
735 Become a Christian and thy loving wife.
[Exit]

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Notes

TLN 717cultural context
“Our house is hell”
Jessica calls Shylock's house 'hell' — the standard Christian symbol for a godless, tormented place — as her way of rejecting the life she has grown up in. For an Elizabethan audience primed to see a Jewish household as alien and threatening, the word naturalizes her desire to leave; for modern readers, it is part of the play's antisemitic framing that casts Shylock's home as inherently damned. The speech sets up Jessica's elopement and conversion as an escape from damnation.
historical The 'Jew' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 725archaic vocab
“tears exhibit my tongue”
Launcelot means 'inhibit' — suppress, choke off — not 'exhibit' (display). He is saying his tears are stopping him from speaking, but he uses the wrong word, a classic Launcelot-style malapropism. The joke is that the clown reaches for a formal Latin-derived word and grabs the wrong one; both 'exhibit' and 'inhibit' were legal-Latinate terms familiar to Elizabethan audiences.
TLN 725historical topical
“Most beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew”
'Pagan' in Elizabethan usage meant a heathen -- someone outside the Christian faith -- and 'Jew' identified Jessica by religion and ethnicity. Launcelot piles the two terms on her almost as endearments, but both mark her as standing outside the Christian community. The irony the audience catches is that Launcelot is predicting her conversion and marriage to a Christian in the very next breath, so even as he names what she is, he foreshadows what she is about to become.
historical The 'Jew' on the Elizabethan stage
TLN 732cultural context
“though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners”
Jessica draws a distinction between 'blood' — biological descent, which she cannot change — and 'manners,' meaning moral character and way of life, which she can. The argument is that kinship does not obligate her to share her father's values or religion. This was a recognizable Renaissance distinction: bloodline was fate, but 'manners' (from Latin mores) could be shaped by education, choice, and conversion. She is constructing a justification for leaving that will not damn her as a simple traitor to family.