Sol. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the Duke, Sal. He came too late, the ship was under sail; Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter! Sal. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him, Sal. Sol. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear; Sal. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. I saw Bassanio and Antonio part. Bassanio told him he would make some speed Marry, 1 The Poet uses both reason and question in the sense of converse. as stated page 24, note 5, was a colloquial intensive, which probably grew into use from a custom of swearing by St. Mary the Virgin. 2 To slubber is to do a thing carelessly. Thus, in Fuller's Worthies of Yorkshire: " Slightly slubbering it over, doing something for show, and nothing to purpose." 3 Mind of love probably means loving mind, or mind full of love. The Poet elsewhere has mind of honour for honourable mind. Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts And even then, his eye being big with tears, Sal. Do we so. [Exeunt. SCENE VIII. Belmont. A Room in PORTIA'S House. Enter NERISSA, with a Servant. Ner. Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight: The Prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath, And comes to his election presently. Flourish of Cornets. Enter the Prince of Arragon, PORTIA, and their Trains. Por. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince: If you choose that wherein I am contain❜d, Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemniz'd; But if you fail, without more speech, my lord, You must be gone from hence immediately. Ar. I am enjoin'd by oath ť observe three things: First, never to unfold to any one Which casket 'twas I chose; next, if I fail Of the right casket, never in my life To woo a maid in way of marriage; lastly, Por. To these injunctions every one doth swear Ar. And so have I address'd me.1 Fortune now What says the golden chest, ha? let me see: 4 See page 120, note 25. 5 The heaviness he is fond of, or cherishes. 1 Address'd is prepared, made ready. See page 94, note 19. By the fool multitude,2 that choose by show, Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume O, that estates, degrees, and offices, Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear honour How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honour! and how much honour To be new-varnish'd! Well, but to my choice: Por. Too long a pause for that which you find there. Ar. What's here? the portrait of a blinking idiot, Presenting me a schedule! I will read it. How much unlike art thou to Portia ! How much unlike my hopes and my deservings! Ar. What is here? The fire seven times tried this: Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow's bliss. 2 By again for of. See page 106, note 7. Sweet, adieu. I'll keep my oath, [Exeunt Arragon and Train. Por. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose, They have the wisdom by their wit to lose. Ner. The ancient saying is no heresy: Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. Por. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa. Enter a Servant. A Serv. Where is my lady? Por. Here: what would Serv. Madam, there is alighted at your gate young Venetian, one that comes before To signify th' approaching of his lord, From whom he bringeth sensible regreets;7 To wit, besides commends and courteous breath, So likely an ambassador of love: A day in April never came so sweet, To show how costly Summer was at hand, 66 4 An apparent oversight of the Poet's: the Prince was sworn never to woo a maid in way of marriage." Perhaps, though, he might woo and marry a widow. 5 Wroth is used in some of the old writers for suffering. Thus, in Chapman's 22d Iliad: Born all to wroth of woe and labour." The original meaning of wrath is pain, grief, anger, any thing that makes one writhe; and the text exemplifies a common form of speech, putting the effect for the cause. 6 A merry reply to the Messenger's "Where is my lady?" So, in Richard II., Act v. scene 5, the Groom says to the King, Hail, royal prince!" and he replies, "Thanks, noble peer." And in 1 Henry IV., Act ii scene 4, the Hostess says to Prince Henry, "O Jesu! my lord, the prince;" and hẻ replies, "How now, my lady, the hostess!" 7 Sensible regreets are feeling salutations, or salutations that may be felt, such as valuable presents. Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him. - Ner. Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be! [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. Venice. A Street. Enter SOLANIO and SALARINO. Sol. Now, what news on the Rialto? Sal. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd, that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins,1 I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word. Sol. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapp'd ginger,2 or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity, or crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio, — Ö, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company! Sal. Come, the full stop. Sol. Ha, what say'st thou? Why, the end is, he hath lost a ship. Sal. I would it might prove the end of his losses. Sol. Let me say amen betimes, lest the Devil cross my prayer; for here hè comes in the likeness of a Jew. Enter SHYLOCK. How now, Shylock! what news among the merchants? Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight. Sal. That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.3 Sol. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.4 1 The Goodwin Sands, as they were called, lay off the eastern coast of Kent. The name was supposed to have been derived from Earl Godwin, whose lands were said to have been swallowed up there in the year 1100. In King John, v. 5, it is said that the supplies expected by the French " are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands." 2 To knap is to break short. The word occurs in the Book of Common Prayer: "He knappeth the spear in sunder." 8 Salarino probably has a sly allusion to the dress in which Jessica eloped. 4 Complexion was much used for natural temperament, or constitutional |