I am fent, with broom, before, To fweep the duft behind the door. Enter King and Queen of Fairies, with their Train. 06. Through this house give glimmering light, By the dead and drowsy fire: Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier; And this ditty, after me, Tit. First, rehearse this fong by rote: Ob. Now, until the break of day, Despised in nativity, And the owner of it bleft. Trip away; Meet me all by break of day. [Exeunt King, Queen, and Tra Puck. If we shadows bave offended, Zi. c. portentous. 2 i. e, take his way. MERCHANT Senators of Venice, Officers, Failer, Servants, and other Attendants. Sai. Your mind is toffing on the ocean: Would fcatter all her fpices on the stream; There, where your argofies with portly fail, - Enrobe the roaring waters with my filks; Like figniors and rich burghers on the flood, And, in a word, but even now worth this, Or as it were the pageants of the fea, Do over-peer the petty traffickers, Tast curtfy to them, do them reverence, And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought As they fly by them with their woven wings. Sala. Believe me, fir, had I fuch ventures forth, The better part of my affections would Anth. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still My ventures are not in one bottom trufted, Therefore my merchandize makes me not fad. Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt, Sala. Why then you are in love? Would make me fad. Anth. Fie, fie! 1 Ships, fo named from Ragufa. 2 The name of the ship. 3 To vail, means to put off the hat, to ke the fail, to give fign of fubmiffion. 03 Sola. Sala. Not in love neither? Then let's say, you That therefore only are reputed wife, are fad, Recause you are not merry: and 'twere as easy Enter Baffanio, Lorenzo, and Gratians. Sala. I would have staid till I had made you merry, If worthier friends had not prevented me. Anth. Your worth is very dear in my regard. I take it, your own business calls on you, And you embrace the occafion to depart. Sal. Good morrow, my good lords. Baff. Good figniors both, when shall we laugh? fay, when? www You grow exceeding strange; Muft it be so? Sal. We'll make our leifures to attend on yours. [Exeunt Sal. and Sala. Lor. My lord Baffanio, fince you have found We two will leave you; but at dinner-time, Anth. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; Gra. Let me play the fool: Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice 1 gear. Anth. Is that any thing now? Baff. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reafons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall feek all day ere you find them; and, when you have them, they are not worth the fearch. Anth. Well; tell me now, what lady is the fame, Baff. 'Tis not unknown to you, Anthonio, Anth. I pray you, good Baffanio, let me know it; [shaft, Baff. In my school-days, when I had loft one I shot his fellow of the felf-fame flight The felf-fame way, with more advited watch, To find the other forth; and by advent'ring both, I oft found both: I urge this childhood proof, Because what follows is pure innocence. I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth, I This alludes to the common comparison of human life to a stage-play. So that he defires his may be the fool's or butloon's part, which was a conftant character in the old farces; from whence came the phiale, to play the foot. 2 Our author's meaning is, that some people are thought wife whiift they keep filence; who, when they open their mouths, are such stupid praters, that the hearers not help calling them fools, and tu incur the judgment denounced in the gofpel. 3 The humour of this confins in its being an allusion to the practice of the puritan preachers of those times; who being generally very long and tedious, were often forced to put off that part of their fermon called the exhortation, till after dinner. can That That which I owe is loft: but if you please [time, blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree fuch a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the methes of good counsel the cripple. But this reafoning is not in the fashion to chuse me a husband: -O me, the word chufe! I may neither chuse whom I would, nor refuse whom I diflike; fo is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of dead father:-Is it not hard, Neriffa, that I can not chuse one, nor refuse none? Then do but fay to me what I should do, And the is fair, and, fairer than that word, Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their death, have good infpirations; there. fore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chetts, of gold, filver, and lead, (whereof who chuses his meaning, chufes you) will, no doubt, never be chofen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection Of wond'rous virtues: fometimes 2 from her eyes towards any of these princely fuitors that are al I did receive fair fpeechless meilages: ready come? Her name is Portia; nothing undervalu'd To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia. Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth; Por. I pray thee, over-name them; and, as thou nam'ft them, I will defcribe them; and, according to my defcription, level at my affection. For the four winds blow in from every coaft Ner. First, there is the Neapolitan prince. Resowned fuitors: and her funny locks Hang on her temples like a golden Acece; Por. Ay, that's a colt 3, indeed, for he doth no thing but talk of his horse; and he makes it a great Which makes her feat of Belmont, Colchos' ftrand, appropriation to his own good parts, that he can Nor have I money, nor commodity Nor. Then, there is the County Palatine. Por. He doth nothing but frown; as, who should fay, An if you will not have me, chuje: he hears Auth. Thou know'st, that all my fortunes are at fea; merry tales, and smiles not: I fear, he will prove To raife a prefent fum: therefore go forth, Try what my credit can in Venice do; [Exeunt. A Room in Portia's House at Belmont. Por. By my troth, Neriffa, my little body is a weary of this great world. Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miferes were in the fame abundance as your good bines are: And yet, for aught I fee, they are as fsck, that furfeit with too much, as they that ftarve wch nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore, to be feated in the mean; fuperfluity comes fooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Por. Good fentences, and well pronounc'd. Nr. They would be better, if well follow'd. Por. If to do, were as eafy as to know what the weeping philofopher when he grows old, be ing fo full of unmannerly fadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth, than to either of these. God defend me from thefe two! Ner. How fay you by the French lord, Monfieur Le Bon? Por. God made him, and therefore let him pafs for a man. In truth, I know it is a fin to be a mocker; But, he! why, he hath a horfe better than the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine: he is every man in no man; if a throftle fing, he fells ftrait a capering; he will fence with his own fhadow: if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands: If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he love me to mad nefs, I shall never requite him. Ner. What fay you then to Faulconbridge, the young baron of England? Por. You know, I say nothing to him; for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you will come into the court and fwear, that I have a poor penny worth in the English. He is a proper man's pic ture, But, alas! who can converfe with a dumb were good to do, chapels had been churches, and show How oddly he is fuited! I think, he poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good bought his doublet in Italy, his round hofe in evine, that follows his own instructions. I can France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour cafier teach twenty what were good to be done, every-where. than be one of the twenty to follow mine own Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his Raching. The brain may devise laws for the neighbour? : That is, ready to do it. 2 Sometimes here means formerly. 3 i. e. a thoughtless, giddy, gay youngher. Shy. For three months,-well. Baf. For the which, as I told you, Anthonio shall Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrow'd a box of the ear of the Englishman, and fwore he would pay him again, when he was be bound. able: I think, the Frenchman became his surety, and feal'd under for another. Ner. How like you the young German, the duke of Saxony's nephew? Por. Very vilely in the morning, when he is fober; and moft vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is beft, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beaft: an the worst fall that ever fell, I hope, I shall make shift to go without him. Ner. If he should offer to chuse, and chuse the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should refuse to accept him. Sby. Anthonio shall become bound, well. Baff. May you ftead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your answer? Sby. Three thousand ducats, for three months, and Anthonio bound. Baff. Your anfwer to that. Shy. Anthonio is a good man. Baff. Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? Sby. Ho, no, no, no, no; -my meaning, in faying he is a good man, is, to have you understand me, that he is sufficient: yet his means are in fupposition: he hath an argofy bound to Tripolis, anoPor. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, ther to the Indies; I understand moreover upon fet a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for casket; for, if the devil be within, and that tempt- England, and other ventures he hath, squander'd ation without, I know he will chuse it. I will abroad: But ships are but boards, failors but men; do any thing, Nerissa, ere I will be marry'd to a there be land-rats, and water-rats, water-thieves, spunge. and land-thieves; I mean, pirates; and then, there Ner. You need not fear, lady, the having any of is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks: The man thefe lords; they have acquainted me with their determinations: which is, indeed, to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more fuit; unlefs you may be won by fome other fort than your father's impofition, depending on the caskets. Por. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chafte as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will: I am glad this parcel of wooers are fo very reafonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very abfence, and I pray God grant them a fair departure. Ner. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar, and a foldier, that came hither in company of the marquis of Montferrat? Por. Yes, yes, it was Baffanio; as I think, fo he was call'd. Ner. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes look'd upon, was the best deserving a fair ladv. Por. I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy traise.-How now! what news? Enter a Servant. is, notwithstanding, fufficient:-three thousand ducats;-I think, I may take his bond. [afford, Baff. Be affur'd, you may. Shy. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into: I will buy with you, fell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and fo following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto?-Who is he comes here? Enter Anthonio. Baff. This is fignior Anthonio. Sby. [Afide.] How like a fawning publican he lookst I hate him for he is a Christian: But more, for that, in low fimplicity, He lends out money gratis, and brings down Ser. The four strangers feek for you, madam, to Por. If I could bid the fifth welcome with fo Baff. Shylock, do you hear? good heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I Shy. I am debating of my present store; should be glad of his approach: if he have the And, by the near guess of my memory, condition of a faint, and the complexion of a devil, I cannot instantly raise up the gross I had rather he should shrive me than wive me. Of full three thousand ducats: What of that? Come, Neriffa. Sirrah, go before.Whales we Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe, shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at Will furnish me But foft; How many months the door. [Exeunt. Do you defire?-Rest you fair, good fignior; SCENE III. Shy. Three thousand ducats, well. To Anthonio. Your worship was the last man in our mouths. 1 This is a phrafe taken from the practice of wrestlers. _ |