IE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-A Street in Venice.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO, R. Ant. (c.) In sooth, I know not why I am so sad : wearies me; you say it wearies you;

t how I caught it, found it, or came by it, hat stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, am to learn;

nd such a want-wit sadness makes of me, hat I have much ado to know myself.

Sol. (R. c.) Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
here, where your argosies with portly sail,
ike signiors and rich burghers of the flood,
Do over-peer the petty traffickers,

That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Sala. (L. c.) Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, The better part of my affections would

Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still

Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind;

Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
Would make me sad.

Sol. My wind, cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,

But I should think of shallows and of flats;
And see my wealthy Andrew docked in sand,
Vailing her high top lower than her ribs,
To kiss her burial.

Shall I have the thought

To think on this? and shall I lack the thought,

That such a thing, bechanced, would make me sad?
But, tell not me; I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandize.

Ant. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,

Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:
Therefore my merchandize makes me not sad.
Sala. Why, then, you are in love.

Ant. Fie, fie!

Sala. Not in love neither? Then let's say you are sad, Because you are not merry and 'twere as easy For you to laugh, and leap, and say you are merry, Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time: Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper;

And others of such vinegar aspect,

That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Sol. (R.) Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kins

man,

Gratiano and Lorenzo: fare you well;

We leave you now with better company.

Sala. (R.) I would have stayed till I had made you

merry,

If worthier friends had not prevented me.

Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard.

I take it your own business calls on you,

And you embrace the occasion to depart.

Enter BASSANIO, GRATIANO, and Lorenzo, L.

Sala. Good morrow, my good lords.

Bass. (c.) Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? [Crosses to Sala,

say, when?

You grow exceeding strange: must it be so?

Sol. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours.

[Exeunt Sol. and Sala., R. Lor. My lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio, e two will leave you; but, at dinner-time,

ray you have in mind where we must meet. Bass. I will not fail you.

[Lor. and Bass. confer in back-ground. Gra. You look not well, signior Antonio: ou have too much respect upon the world: hey lose it, that do buy it with much care. elieve me, you are marvellously changed.

Ant. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; stage, where every man must play a part,

and mine a sad one.

Gra. (L. c.) Let me play the fool:

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;
And let my liver rather heat with wine,
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?

Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio,
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks;
There are a sort of men, whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond;
And do a wilful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be drest in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;
As who should say, "I am Sir Oracle,
And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!"
Oh, my Antonio, I do know of these,
That therefore only are reputed wise

For saying nothing: who, I am very sure,

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears,
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
I'll tell thee more of this another time;

But fish not with this melancholy bait,
For this fool's gudgeon, this opinion.-

Come, good Lorenzo: [They advance.] Fare ye well,

awhile

I'll end my exhortation after dinner.

Lor. (L. c.) Well, we will leave you, then, till dinner time:

I must be one of these same dumb wise men,
For Gratiano never lets me speak.

Gra. (L.) Well, keep me company but two years more, Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.

Ant. Farewell; I'll grow a talker for this year.

Gra. (L.) Thanks, i' faith; for silence is only commen

dable

In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible.

[Exeunt Gra. and Lor., L.

Ant. (R. c.) Is that any thing, now?

Bass. (R.) Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search.

Ant. Well: tell me, now, what lady is this same,
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promised to tell me of?

Bass. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate
By something showing a more swelling port
Than my faint means would grant continuance :
Nor do I now make moan to be abridged
From such a noble rate; but my chief care
Is, to come fairly off from the great debts,
Wherein my time, something too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged. To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money and in love;
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburthen all my plots and purposes,
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

Ant. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it:
And if it stand, as you yourself still do,

Within the eye of honour, be assured

My purse, my person, my extremest means,

Lie all unlocked to your occasions.

Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow of the self-same flight

The self-same way, with more advised watch,

To find the other forth; and by advent'ring both,
I oft found both: I this childhood proof,

urge

Because what follows is pure innocence.