dize I will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our fynagogue; go, good Tubal; at our fynagogue, Tubal. SCENE IL BELMONT. [Exeunt. Enter Baffanio, Portia, Gratiano, and attendants. Por. I pray you, tarry;-paufe a day or two, But left you fhould not understand me well, I speak And fo though yours, not yours.—Prove it fo.] It may be more grammatically read, And fo though yours I'm not yours. JOHNSON. Let fortune go to bell for it, not I.] This line is very obfcure. The form of the expreffion alludes to what she had faid of being M 2 forfworn. I fpeak too long; but 'tis to piece the time, Baff. Let me chuse; For, as I am, I live upon the rack. Por. Upon the rack, Baffanio? then confess What treason there is mingled with your love. Baff. None, but that ugly treafon of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love: There may as well be amity and life 'Tween fnow and fire, as treason and my love. Pur. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do fpeak any thing. Baff. Promise me life, and I'll confefs the truth. Baff. Confefs, and love, Had been the very fum of my confeffion. forfworn. After fome struggle, fhe refolves to keep her oath: and then fays, Let fortune go to hell for it. For what! not for telling or favouring Baffanio, which was the temptation the then lay under for fortune had taken no oath. And, furely, for the more favouring a man of merit, fortune did not deferve (confidering how rarely the tranfgreffes this way) fo fevere a fentence. Much lefs could the fpeaker, who favour'd Baffanio, think fo. The meaning then must be, Let fortune rather go to hell for not favouring Baffanio, than I for favouring him. So loofely does our author fometimes ufe his pronouns- not I does not fignify Let not I go to hell; for then it should be Let not me. But it is a diftinct fentence of itself: and is a very common proverbial fpeech, fignifying, I will have nothing to do with it. Which if the Oxford editor had confidered, he might have fpared his pains in changing into me. WARBURTON. The meaning is, "If the worst I fear fhould happen, and it fhould prove in the event, that I, who am juftly yours by the "free donation I have made you of myself, fhould yet not be 66 yours in confequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to "hell for robbing you of your juft due, not I for violating my oath." REVISAL. Doth Doth teach me answers for deliverance! Let mufick found, while he doth make his choice; 2 [Mufick within. With no less prefence.] With the fame dignity of mien." JOHNSON. 3 Live thou, I live.-With much, much more dismay One of the quartos reads; Live then, I live with much more difmay To view the fight, than, &c, The folio, 1623, thus ; Live thou, I live with much more difmay I view the fight, than, &c. The other quartos give the prefent reading. JOHNSON. A fong, whilft Baffanio comments on the cafkets to himself. Tell me, where is fancy bred, It is engender'd in the eyes } } All. With gazing fed; and fancy dies So may the outward fhows be leaft them- The world is ftill deceiv'd with ornament. + Reply.] Thefe words, reply, reply, were in all the late editions, except fir T. Hanmer's, put as a verfe in the fong, but in all the old copies ftand as a marginal direction. JOHNSON. 5 So may the outward fhors] He begins abruptly, the first part of the argument has paffed in his mind. JOHNSON. -gracious voice.] Pleafing; winning favour. JOHNSON. Making them lighteft that wear moft of it. Which make fuch wanton gambols with the wind, To be the dowry of a fecond head, The skull, that bred them, in the fepulchre. The feeming truth which cunning times put on Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge Por. How all the other paffions fleet to air, 7 Indian beauty.] Sir Tho. Hanmer reads, -Indian doudy. JOHNSON. For 8 Thy palenefs, moves me more than eloquence ;] Baffanio is dif pleafed at the golden cafket for its gardiness, and the filver one for its palenefs; but, what! is he charm'd with the leaden one for having the very fame quality that difpleafed him in the filver? The poet certainly wrote, Thy plainnefs moves me more than eloquence: This characterizes the lead from the filver, which pal nefs does not, they being both pale. Befides, there is a beauty in the antithefis between plainnes and equence between palerefs and eloquence none. So it is faid before of the leaden cofket ; WARB. This third dull lead, with warning all as blunt. In measure range thy joy. M 4 The |