SALAR. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; That curt'sy to them, do them reverence, As they fly by them with their woven wings. SOLAN. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, The better part of my affections would Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt, SALAR. My wind, cooling my broth, Would blow me to an ague, when I thought And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks, And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought Is sad to think upon his merchandise. ANT. Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it, My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate * Large Merchant Vessels. + Lowering. Upon the fortune of this present year : SALAR. Why, then you are in love. SALAR. Not in love neither? Fie, fie! Then let's say, you are sad Because you are not merry and 'twere as easy For you to laugh, and leap, and say you are merry, And laugh, like parrots, at a bagpiper; And other of such vinegar aspéct, That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. SOLAN. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, Gratiano, and Lorenzo : Fare you well ; We leave you now with better company. SALAR. I would have stay'd till I had made you merry, If worthier friends had not prevented me. I take it, your own business calls on you, Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO. SALAR. Good morrow, my good lords. BASS. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when? You grow exceeding strange : must it be so ? SALAR. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours. [Exeunt SALARINO and SOLANIO. LOR. My lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio, We two will leave you; but at dinner-time, I pray you have in mind where we must meet. BASS. I will not fail you. GRA. You look not well, signior Antonio ; You have too much respect upon the world : Believe me, you are marvellously chang'd. ANT. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one. GRA. Let me play the Fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice Do cream and mantle like a standing pond; With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion As who should say, I am sir Oracle, For saying nothing; who, I am very sure, If they should speak, would almost damn those ears But fish not with this melancholy bait, For this fool-gudgeon, this opinion. Come, good Lorenzo :-Fare ye well, awhile; LOR. Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time : For Gratiano never lets me speak. GRA. Well, keep me company but two years more, [Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO. *Matter, subject. BASS. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice his reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them they are not worth the search. ANT. Well; tell me now, what lady is the same To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, That you to-day promis'd to tell me of? BASS. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, ANT. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; Within the eye of honour, be assur'd, My purse, my person, my extremest means, Lie all unlock'd to your occasions. BASS. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same way, with more advisèd watch, To find the other forth; and by adventuring both I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth, That which I owe is lost but if you please To shoot another arrow that self way Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,— As I will watch the aim,-or to find both, Or bring your latter hazard back again, And thankfully rest debtor for the first. ANT. You know me well, and herein spend but time, To wind about my love with circumstance; And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong In making question of my uttermost, Than if you had made waste of all I have. Then, do but say to me what I should do, *Bound. |