That which I owe is loft: but if you please Anth. You know me well; and herein spend but time, To wind about my love with circumstance; Than if you had made wafte of all I have, Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth; Aath. Thou know'ft, that all my fortunes are at fea; 5-fometimes from her eyes.] So all the editions; but it certainly ought to be, femetime, i. e. formerly, fome time ago, at a certain time and it appears by the fubfequent fcene, that Baffanio was at Belmont with the Marquis de Montferrat, and faw Portią in her father's life time. THEOBALD. Nor Nor have I money, nor commodity To raise a prefent fum: therefore go forth; A Room in Portia's Houfe at Belmont. Enter Portia and Neriffa. [Exeunt. is aweary Por. By my troth, Neriffa, my little body of this great world. Ner. You would be, fweet madam, if your miferies were in the fame abundance as your good fortunes And yet, for aught I fee, they are as fick, that furfeit with too much, as they that ftarve with nothing: it is no mean happinefs therefore to be feated in the mean; fuperfluity comes fooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Por. Good fentences, and well pronounc'd. Ner. They would be better, if well follow'd. Por. If to do, were as eafy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor mens cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine, that follows his own inftructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow my own teaching. The brain may devife laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: fuch a hare is madnefs the youth, to fkip o'er the mefhes of good counfel the cripple. But this reafoning is not in fashion to chufe me a husband: O me, the word chufe! I may neither chufe whom I would, nor refufe whom I diflike; 1 4 like; fo is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Neriffa, that I cannot chufe one, nor refufe none? Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their death, have good infpirations: therefore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chefts of gold, filver, and lead, (whereof who chufes his meaning, chufes you) will, no doubt, never be chofen by any rightly, but one who fhall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely fuitors that are already come? Por. I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou nam'ft them, I will defcribe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection, Ner. Firft, There is the Neapolitan prince. Por. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his hotfe; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he can fhoe him himself. I am much afraid my lady, his mother, play'd falfe with a fmith. Ner. Then, there is the Count Palatine. 7 Por. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of bis horfe; Though all the editions agree in this reading, I can perceive neither humour, nor reafoning in it. How does talking of horfes, or knowing how to thee them, make a man e'er the more a colt? Or, if a faith and a lady of figure were to have an affair together, would a colt be the iffue of their careffes? The word word delt, which I have fubftituted, fignifies one of the moft fupid and blockifh of the vulgar. THEOBALD. : Mr. Theobald fays, be can perceive neither humour nor reasoning in this reading, and therefore alters colt to dolt; but whatever humour or reafoning there is in the one, there is in the other for the fignification is the fame in both. Hen. IV. ift part, Falftaff fays, What a plague mean you to colt me thus? And Fletcher conftantly uses colt for delt. WARBURTON. Colt is ufed for a witless, heady, gay youngfler, whence the phrafe ufed of an old man too juvenile, that he fill retains his Colt's tooth. See Hen. VIII. JOHNSON. 7-there is the Count Palatine.] I am always inclined to believe, that Shakespeare has more allufions to particular facts and perfons 8 Par. He doth nothing but frown; as who should lay, An if you will not have me, chufe. He hears merry tales, and fmiles not: I fear he will prove the weeping philofopher when he grows old, being fo full of unmannerly fadnefs in his youth. I had rather be married to a death's head with a bone in his mouth, than to either of these. God defend me from these two! Ner. How fay you by the French Lord, Monfieur Le Bon ? Por. God made him, and therefore let him pafs for a man. In truth, I know, it is a fin to be a mocker; But, he! why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine: he is every man in no man: if a throftle fing, he falls ftrait a capering; he will fence with his own fhadow: if I fhould marry him, I fhould marry twenty hufbands. If he would defpife me, I would forgive him; for if he loves me to madness, I fhall never requite him. Ner. What fay you then to Faulconbridge, the young baron of England? Por. You know, I fay nothing to him, for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, perfons than his readers commonly fuppofe. The count here mentioned was, perhaps, Albertus a Lafco, a Polish Palatine, who vifited England in our author's time, was eagerly carefied, and fplendidly entertained; but running in debt, at laft ftole away, and endeavoured to repair his fortune by enchantment. JOHNSON. He bears merry tales, and smiles not.] From a tranfcript made by the late Mr. G. Vertue, of the prices paid to the actors of this time for performing before the king, court, &c. I learn, that the Count Palatine was frequently a fpectator of the plays of Shakefpeare, who poffibly not finding him very much difpofed to enter into the mirth of his fcenes, might have dropped this ftroke of fatire on him, after he had quitted the kingdom in the manner de fcribed by Mr. Johnfon. But this is mere conjecture. STEEVES. French, French, nor Italian; and you will come into the court and swear, that I have a poor pennyworth in the English. He is a proper man's picture; but, alas! who can converfe with a dumb fhow? how oddly he is fuited! I think, he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hofe in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour every where. Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrow'd a box of the ear of the Englishman, and fwore he would pay him again when he was able; I think the Frenchman became his furety, and feal'd under for another. 3 2 Wer. How like you the young German, 3 the duke of Saxony's nephew? Por. Very vilely in the morning, when he is fober; and moft vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is beft, he is a little worfe than a man; and when he is worft, he is little better than a beast. An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope, I fhall make fhift to go without him. Ner. If he fhould offer to chufe, and chuse the 9 he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian ;] A fatire on the ignorance of the young English travellers in our author's time. WARBURTON. 1 -Scottish lord,] Scottish, which is in the quarto, was omitted in the first folio, for fear of giving offence to king James's countrymen. THEOBALD. 2 I think, the Frenchman became his furety.] Alluding to the conftant affiftance, or rather conftant promifes of affiftance, that the French gave the Scots in their quarrels with the English. This alliance is here humourously fatirized. WARBURTON. 3 How like you the young German,] In Shakespeare's time the duke of Bavaria vifited London, and was made knight of the garter. Perhaps in this enumeration of Portia's fuitors, there may be fome covert allufion to thofe of Queen Elizabeth. JOHNSON. |