Jes. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo: Launcelot and I are out: He tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter and he says you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the price of pork.

Lor. I shall answer that better 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 should be more than reason; but if she be less than an honest woman, she is, indeed, more than I took her for.

Lor. How every fool can play upon the word ' I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots.2 - Go in, sirrah: bid them prepare for dinner.

Laun. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs. Lor. Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then, bid them prepare dinner.

Laun. That is done too, sir: only, cover is the word.

Lor. Will you cover, then, sir?

Laun. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.

Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.

Laun. For the table, sir, it shall be serv'd in; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your

A shrewd proof that the Poet rightly estimated the small wit, the puns and verbal tricks, in which he so often indulges. He dia it to please others, not himself.

H.

coming in to dinner, sir, why, let it be as humours and conceits shall govern. [Exit LAUNCELOT Lor. O, dear discretion, how his words are suited The fool hath planted in his memory

An army of good words: and I do know

A many fools, that stand in better place,
Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter.3 How cheer'st thou, Jessica?
And now, good sweet, say thy opinion;
How dost thou like the lord Bassanio's wife?
Jes. Past all expressing: It is very meet
The lord Bassanio live an upright life;
For, having such a blessing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
And, if on earth he do not mean it, then,
In reason he should never come to heaven.*
Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match,
And on the wager lay two earthly women,
And Portia one, there must be something else
Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow.

Lor.

Even such a husband

Hast thou of me, as she is for a wife.

Jes. Nay, but ask my opinion, too, of that.

3 Probably an allusion to the habit of wit-snapping, the constant straining to speak out of the common way, which then filled the highest places of learning and of the state. One could scarce come at the matter, it was so finely flourished in the speaking. But such an epidemic was easier to censure than to avoid Launcelot is a good satire upon the practice, though the satire rebounds upon the Poet himself. See our Introduction to Love's Labour's Lost.

H.

4 Such is the reading of one of the quartos. The commor reading is that of the folio:

"And, if on earth he do not mean it, it

Is reason he should never come to heaven."

The meaning is the same either way.

Lor I will anon; first let us go to dinner. Jes. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a stomach.

Lor. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things I shall digest it.

Jes.

Well, I'll set you forth. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Venice. A Court of Justice.

Enter the DUKE; the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BAS SANIO, GRAȚIANO, SALARINO, SOLANIO, and others. Duke. What, is Antonio here?

Ant. Ready, so please your grace.

Duke. I am sorry for thee: thou art come to

answer

A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch

Uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy.

Ant.

I have heard,

Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify

His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate,
And that no lawful means can carry me
Out of his envy's' reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury; and am arm'd
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his

1 Enry in this place mens hatred or malice; a frequent use of the word in Shakespeare's time, as every reader of the English Bible ought to know

H

Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. Sol. He's ready at the door: he comes, my lord

Enter SHYLOCK.

Duke. Make room, and let him stand before our

Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice
To the last hour of act; and then, 'tis thought,
Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse, more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty:

2

And where thou now exact'st the penalty,

Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,

Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,'

But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal;

Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back;
Enough to press a royal merchant down,
And pluck commiseration of his state

From brassy bosoms, and rough hearts of flint,
From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd
To offices of tender courtesy.

We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.

Shy. I have possess'd your grace of what I pur

pose;

And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn,

2 Remorse in Shakespeare's time generally signified pity, tenderness; the relentings of compassion.

3 Whereas.

So in the old copies, but generally printed lose. plainly used in the sense of release.

Loose is
H.

5 This epithet was striking and well understood in Shakespeare's time, when Gresham was dignified with the title of the royal merchant, both from his wealth, and because he constantly transacted the mercantile business of Queen Elizabeth. And there were similar ones at Venice, such as the Giustiniani and the Grimaldi. The "princely merchants of Boston" are well known ju

our time

H.

6

To have the due and forfeit of my bond:
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter, and your city's freedom.
You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive
Three thousand ducats? I'll not answer that:
But, say, it is my humour: is it answer'd?
What if my house be troubled with a rat,
And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats
To have it ban'd? What, are you answer'd yet?
Some men there are love not a gaping pig;
Some, that are mad, if they behold a cat;
And others, when the bag-pipe sings i'the nose,
Cannot contain their urine: for affection,"

8

The Jew, being asked a question which the law does not require him to answer, stands upon his right and refuses; but afterwards gratifies his own maliguity by such answers as he knows will aggravate the pain of the inquirer.

7 In Shakespeare's time the word humour was used, much as Conscience often is now, to excuse or justify any eccentric impulse of vanity, opinion, or self-will, for which no common ground of reason or experience could be alleged. Thus, if a man had an individual crotchet which he meant should override the laws and conditions of our social being, it was his humour. Corporal Nym is a burlesque on this sort of affectation. And the thing is well illustrated in one of Rowland's Epigrams:

8

"Aske Humors, why a fether he doth weare?
It is his humour, by the Lord, heele sweare."

H.

A pig prepared for the table is most probably meant, for in that state is the epithet gaping most applicable to this animal. So, in Fletcher's Elder Brother: "And they stand gaping like a roasted pig." And in Nashe's Peirce Pennylesse: "The causes conducting unto wrath are as diverse as the actions of a man's life. Some will take on like a madman if they see a pig come to the table." This passage has occasioned a vast deal of controversy. 'he old copies it is printed thus:

"And others, when the bag-pipe sings i'the nose,

Cannot contain their urine for affection.

Masters of passion sways it to the mood," &c.

In

Where the discrepancy of masters and sways is obvious enough. There had been a very general agreement in the reading we have

7