From their abominable and beastly touches ACT IV. SONG. Take, oh take, those lips away, GREATNESS SUBJECT TO CENSURE. O place and greatness, millions of false eyes, Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report Run with these false and most contrarious quests Upon thy doings! thousand 'scapes of wit Make thee the father of their idle dream, And rack thee in their fancies. SOUND SLEEP. As fast lock'd up in sleep, as guiltless labour When it lies starklyf in the traveller's bones. ACT V. CHARACTER OF AN ARCH HYPOCRITE. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st There is another comfort than this world, That thou neglect me not, with that opinion That I am touch'd with madness: make not impos sible That which but seems unlike 'Tis not impossible. But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, In all his dressings,* characts, titles, forms, MERCHANT OF VENICE. ACT I. MIRTH AND MELANCHOLY. NOW, by two-headed Janus, Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, WORLDLINESS. You have too much respect upon the world: They lose it, that do buy it with much care. THE WORLD'S TRUE VALUE I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part. CHEERFULNESS. Let me play the Fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come: Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice By being peevish? *Habits and characters of office AFFECTED GRAVITY. I tell thee what, Antonio, I love thee, and it is my love that speaks;- LOQUACITY. 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. MEDIOCRITY. For aught I see, they are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. SPECULATION MORE EASY THAN PRACTICE. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree; such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. * Obstinate silence. THE JEW'S MALICE. Bass. This is signior Antonio. Shy. [Aside.] How like a fawning publican he looks! I hate him, for he is a Christian: But more, for that, in low simplicity, He lends out money gratis, and brings down I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him Even there where merchants most do congregate, HYPOCRISY. Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. THE JEW'S EXPOSTULATION. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft, * Interest. Hath a dog money? is it possible, A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? or Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; ACT II. GRAVITY ASSUMED. Signior Bassanio, hear me: Talk with respect, and swear but now and then, Like one well studied in a sad ostent* To please his grandam, never trust me more. THE JEW'S COMMANDS TO HIS DAUGHTER. Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum, And the vile squeaking of the wry-neck'd fife, Clamber not you up to the casements then, Nor thrust your head into the public street, To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces: But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements, Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter My sober house. POSSESSION MORE LANGUID THAN EXPECTATION. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont, To keep obliged faith unforfeited! Who riseth from a feast, With what keen appetite that he sits down? |