Before they think of us. Ner. Shall they fee us? Por. They fhall, Neriffa; but in fuch a habit, That men fhall fwear, I've difcontinued school Ner. Shall we turn to men? Por. Fie, what a queftion's that, If thou wert near a lewd Interpreter ! SCENE VI. Enter Launcelot and Jeffica. [Excunt. Laun. Yes, truly--for look you, the fins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promife you, I fear you. I was always plain with you; and fo now I fpeak my agitation of the matter: therefo e be of good cheer; for truly, I think you are damn'd: Ι damn'd: there is but one hope in it that can do you any good, and that is but a kind of baftard hope nei ther. Jef. And what hope is that, I pray thee? Laun. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter. Jef. That were a kind of bastard hope indeed. So the fins of my mother fhould be vifited upon me. Laun. Truly, then, I fear, you are damn'd both by father, and mother; thus when you fhun Scylla, your father, you fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways. Jef. Ifhall be faved by my husband; he hath made me a chriftian. Laun. Truly, the more to blame he; we were chriftians enough before, c'en as many as could well live one by another: this making of chriftians will raise the price of hogs: if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we fhall not shortly have a rafher on the coals for mony. Enter Lorenzo. Jef. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you fay. Here he comes. Lor. I fhall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners. Jef. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are out; he tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heav'n, because I am a Jew's daughter; and he says, you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to chriftians, you raife the price of pork. Lor. I fhall anfwer that beter to the commonwealth, than you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the Moor is with child by you, Launcelot. Laun. It is much, that the Moor fhould be more than reafon but if fhe be less than an honeft woman, fhe is indeed more than I took her for. VOL. I. Gg Lor. Lor. How every fool can play upon the word! 1 think, the best grace of wit will shortly turn into filence, and difcourfe grow commendable in none but parrots. Go in, firrah, bid them prepare for dinner. Laun. That is done, Sir; they have all ftomachs. Lor. Good lord! what a wit-fnapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner. Laun. That is done too, Sir; only cover is the word. Laun. Not fo, Sir, neither; I know my duty. Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occafion! wilt thou fhew the whole wealth of thy wit in an inftant? I pray thee understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows, bid them cover the table, ferve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner. Laun. For the table, Sir, it fhall be ferv'd in ; for In reafon he should never come to heav'n. How his words are fuited.] I believe the meaning is. What a feries or fuite of words he has independent of meaning; how one word draws on another without relation to the matter. And And Portia one, there must be something else Lor. Ev'n fuch a husband Haft thou of me, as fhe is for a wife, Jef. Nay, but afk my opinion too of that. Lor. I will anon. Jef. Nay, let me mach. First let us go to dinner, praise you, while I have a sto Lor. No, pray thee, let it ferve for table-talk; Then, howfoe'er thou fpeak'ft, 'mong other things, I fhall digeft it. Jef. Well, I'll fet you forth. [Exeunt, A C T IV. SCENE I, The Senate-boufe in Venice, Enter the Duke, the Senators; Anthonio, Baffanio, and Gratiano, at the Bar. DUKE. WHAT, is Anthonio here? Anth. Ready, fo please your Grace, Duke. I'm forry for thee; thou art come to answer A ftony adverfary, an inhuman wretch Uncapable of pity, void and empty From any dram of mercy. Anth. I have heard, Your Grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify Gg 2 Το To fuffer with a quietness of fpirit, Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the Court. Enter Shylock. Duke. Make room, and let him ftand before our face. Shylock, the world thinks, and I think fo too, And, where thou now exact'ft the penalty, And 9 Apparent.] That is, fecming; Grecian empire on the Terra fir not real. 1 Where for whereas. 2 Enough to prefs a royal mercbant down.] We are not to imagine the word royal to be only a ranting founding Epithet. It is ufed with great propriety, and fhews the Poet well acquainted with the hiftory of the People whom he here brings upon the ftage For when the French and the Venetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had won Conftantinople, the French, under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquefts into the provinces of the ma; while the Venetians, who were masters of the fea, gave liberty to any fubject of the Republic, who would fit out reffels, to make themselves matters of the ifles of the Archipelago, and other maritime places; and to enjoy their conquests in fovereignty, only doing homage to the Republic for their several principalities. By virtue of this licence, the Sanudo's, the Jufiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo's, and others, all Venetian merchants, erected_principalities in feveral places of the Archipe lago (which their defcendants en joyed |