How many be commanded, that command!

How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honour! and how much honour

Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,

To be new varnish'd! Well, but to my choice:
"Who chooseth me shall get as much as he de-
serves."

I will assume desert: - Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

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! "Who chooseth me shall have as much as he de serves."

Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?

Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?
Por. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices,
And of opposed natures.

Ar.

What is here?

The fire seven times tried this:
Seven times tried that judgment is,

That did never choose amiss:
Some there be that shadows kiss;

Such have but a shadow's bliss.

There be fools alive, I wis,

Silver'd o'er; and so was this.

Take what wife you will to bed,"

I will ever be your head:

So be gone; you are sped.

The Poet had forgotten that he who missed Portia was never

to marry any other woman.

Still more fool I shall appear
By the time I linger here:

With one fool's head I came to woo,
But I go away with two.-

Sweet, adieu ! I'll keep my oath,

Patiently to bear my wroath."

[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 Messenger.

Mess. Where is my lady?

Por.

Here; what would my lord?'
Mess. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify the approaching of his lord,
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets;
To wit, (besides commends, and courteous breath,)
Gifts of rich value; yet I have not seen

So likely an ambassador of love.

A day in April never came so sweet,

6 Wroath is used in some of the old writers for misfortune. Thus, in Chapman's Version of the 22d Iliad: Born all to wroth of woe and labour.'" So says the Chiswick. But indeed the original meaning of wrath is pain, grief, anger, any thing that makes one writhe; and the text but exemplifies a common form of speech, putting the effect for the cause.

H.

7 An humorous reply to the Messenger's "Where is my lady. " So, in Richard II., Act v. sc. 5, the Groom says to the King,Hail, royal prince!" and he replies, "Thanks, noble peer." And in 1 Henry IV., Act ii. sc. 4, the Hostess says to Prince Henry, "O Jesu! my lord, the prince ;" and he replies, "How now, my lady, the hostess'"

8 Salutations

H.

To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

Por. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard, Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee, Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him.— Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see Quick Cupid's post, that comes so mannerly. 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, 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, 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, - O, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!

To knap is to break short. The word occurs in the Book of Common Prayer: "He knappeth the spear in sunder."

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 he comes in the likeness of a Jew.

Enter SHYLOCK.

flow 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.

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.

Shy. She is damnn'd for it.

Sal. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.

Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel!

Sol. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years?

Shy. I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.

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-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;-let him look to his bond:

he was wont to lend money for a Christian courte- let him look to his bond.

sy;

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.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house, and desires to speak with you both.

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.

So in all the old copies. Modern editions generally encum her the passage by thrusting in of before half.