Shy. She is damn'd for it. Sal. That's certain, if the Devil may be her judge. Sol. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years? Sal. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and Rhenish.5 But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? Shy. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that us'd to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy ; - let him look to his bond. - let him Sal. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: What's that good for? Shy. To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgrac'd me, and hinder'd me half a million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same Winter and Summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? if we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge: if a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.8 Enter a Servant. Serv. Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house, and desires to speak with you both. texture and grain. In the old tale upon which Hamlet was partly founded, the hero is spoken of as being a "Saturnist by complexion," referring to his melancholy disposition. 5 Rhenish wines are called white wines; named from the river Rhine. 6 Smug is brisk, gay, or spruce; applied both to persons and things. Thus, in King Lear, iv. 6: I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom: what, I will be jovial." And in 1 Henry IV., iii. 1: "Here the smug and silver Trent shall run in a new channel, fair and evenly." 7 Hinder'd me to the extent of half a million; ducats, of course. 8 I will work mighty hard rather than fail to surpass my teachers. Sal. We have been up and down to seek him. Sol. Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be match'd, unless the Devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt SOLAN., SALAR., and Servant. Enter TUBAL. Shy. How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter? Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her. Shy. Why there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now: - two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels.— I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! 'would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why, so; and I know not what's spent in the search: Why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs but o' my breathing; no tears but o' my shedding. Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too. heard in Genoa, – Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck? Tub. Antonio, as I - hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. Shy. I thank God, I thank God! Is it true, is it true? Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck. Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal: — Good news, good news! ha, ha! Where? in Genoa? Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night fourscore ducats. Shy. Thou stick'st a dagger in me: I shall never see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats! Tub. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break. Shy. I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture him: I am glad of it. Tub. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey. 9 Shy. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. 9 The Turquoise is a precious stone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia to the east. In old times its value was much en Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone. Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Belmont. A Room in PORTIA'S House. Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and Attendants. The caskets are set out. Por. I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two, Let Fortune go to Hell for it, not I. I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,3 To stay you from election. hanced by the magic properties attributed to it in common with other precious stones, one of which was that it faded or brightened as the health of the wearer increased or grew less. 1 To be o'erlook'd, forelvoked, or eye-bitten, was a term for being bewitched by an evil eye. 2 If it prove so. Portia here means a good deal more than meets the ear; that if it prove so, the fault will be Fortune's, yet she herself will have to bear the pain. 8 To peize is from peser, French; to weigh or balance. So, in Richard III.: "Lest leaden slumber peize me down to-morrow." In the text it is used figuratively for to suspend, to retard, or delay the time. Mr. Dyce changes peize to piece, which may be right. Bass. Let me choose; For, as I am, I live upon the rack. Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess Bass. None but that ugly treason of mistrust, Por. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, Bass. Confess, and love, Had been the very sum of my confession. Let music sound, while he doth make his choice; : May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream League, 4 Fear in the sense of doubt; fear the not enjoying of my love. in the next line, Mr. Walker's correction of life, the old reading. 5 Alluding to the opinion which long prevailed, that the swan uttered a plaintive musical sound at the approach of death. 6 It is an old custom in English coronations to have the putting on of the crown announced by a flourish of trumpets. 7 The story, as told by Ovid, is, that Hesione, daughter of the Trojan King, being demanded by the Sea-monster, and being bound to a rock, Hercules slew the monster, and delivered her. Bassanio" goes with much more love," because Hercules went, not from love of the lady, but to gain the reward offered by Liomedon. Live thou, I live. With much, much more dismay Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the Caskets to himself. Song. All. Bass. So Tell me, where is fancy bred,s Or in the heart, or in the head? It is engender'd in the eyes, Let us all ring fancy's knell; may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceiv'd with ornament. 9 In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, 8 Fancy is often used by the Poet for love; but that can hardly be the meaning here. Probably it refers to the illusion which has misled the other suitors, who, as Portia says, "have the wisdom by their wit to lose." And that illusion" dies in the cradle where it lies," as soon as it is brought to the test of experience by opening the wrong casket. Perhaps the song is meant as a sort of riddle, to start Bassanio on the right track, or to make him distrustful of such shows as catch the fancy. 9 To approve it is to make it good, to prove it true; often so used. 10 Perhaps the Poet had in mind the saying of the Son of Sirach: "As hills of sand are to the steps of the aged, so is one of many words to a quiet man." Perhaps it should be "stays of sand," or stayers; that is, props, or supports. 11 Cowards were commonly spoken of as having white livers. Shakespeare has lily-livered and milk-livered and milksop in the same sense; and Falstaff instructs us that "the second property of your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice." 12 Excrement, fro excresco, is used for every thing which appears to grow or vegetate upon the human body, as the hair, the beard, the nails. |