JACOB. To ask that question, father, what doth it need?
ISAAC. Come near, that I may feel, whether thou be he or not,
For Esau is rough of hair as any goat.
Let me feel thy hand; right! Esau, by the hair:
And yet the voice of Jacob soconeth in mine ear.
God bless thee, my son, and so will I do anon,
As soon as I have tasted of thy venison.
Come on, lead me in; I will eat a pittance:
A little thing, God wot, to me is suffisance.
[They go in.
MIDO. I may now go play; Jacob leadeth Isaac.
But I never saw such a pretty knack,
How Jacob beguiled his father, how sleightly:
Now I see it true, the blind eat many a fly!
I quaked once for fear, that Jacob would be caught,
But, as hap was, he had his lesson well taught.
But what will Esau say, when he cometh home?
Choose him; but for me to go in it is wisdom.
[Exit.
ACTUS QUARTI, SCAENA DECIMA.
REBECCA. ABRA.
REBECCA. Now I beseech the Lord prosper Jacob my son
In our hardy enterprise, which we have begun.
Isaac is eating such meat as he doth love,
Which thing to bless Jacob, I doubt not, will him move:
If he obtain the blessing, as I trust he shall,
Then shall my soul give to God laud perpetual.
But I will in to harken, how the thing doth frame.
ABRA.[274] Come in, dame Rebecca.
REBECCA. Who is it, that doth me name?
ABRA. My master Isaac is coming forth straightway.