How much I was a braggart: When I told you, And not one veffel 'fcap'd the dreadful touch Sal. Not one, my lord. Befides, it fhould appear, that if he had Jef. When I was with him, I have heard him fwear, Por. Is it your dear friend, that is thus in trouble? The The best condition'd:-an unweary'd fpirit Pay him fix thousand, and deface the bond Shall lofe a hair through my Baffanio's fault. 5 The best condition'd AND unweary'd Spirit To be read and pointed thus, The best condition'd: AN unweary'd fpirit. WARBURTON: Per Por. O love, difpatch all business, and be gone. Baff. Since I have your good leave to go away, I will make hafte: but, 'till I come again, No bed fhall e'er be guilty of my stay, No reft be interpofer 'twixt us twain. SCENE III. Changes to a Street in Venice. [Exeunt. Enter Shylock, Solarino, Anthonio, and the Gaoler. Shy. Gaoler, look to him;--Tell not me of mercy ; This is the fool, that lent out money gratis ;- Anth. Hear me yet, good Shylock. Sky. I'll have my bond; fpeak not against my bond: I have fworn an oath, that I will have my bond. Thou call'dft me dog, before thou had'st a cause; But, fince I am a dog, beware my fangs. The duke fhall grant me juftice. I do wonder, Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art fo fond To come abroad with him at his request. Anth. I pray thee, hear me fpeak. 6 Shy. I'll have my bond;--I will not hear thee speak: I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more. I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond. Sola. It is the most impenetrable cur, [Exit Shylock. That ever kept with men. fo fond,] i. e. fo foolif. STEEVENS. Anth Anth. Let him alone; I'll follow him no more with bootlefs prayers: He seeks my life; his reafon well I know: Many that have at times made moan to me. Sola. I am fure, the duke Will never grant this forfeiture to hold. Anth. The duke cannot deny the course of law;? For the commodity that strangers have With us in Venice, if it be deny'd, Will much impeach the juftice of the ftate; Well, gaoler, on-Pray God, Baffanio come SCENE IV. BELMONT. Enter Portia, Nerissa, Lorenzo, Jeffica, and Balthazar. Lor. Madam, although I fpeak it in your prefence, You have a noble and a true conceit Of God-like amity; which appears most strongly ? The duke cannot deny, &c.-] As the reafon here given feems a little perplexed, it may be proper to explain it. If, fays he, the duke ftop the courfe of law it will be attended with this inconvenience, that ftranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is fupported, will cry out of injuftice. For the known ftated law being their guide and fecurity, they will never bear to have the current of it stopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever. WARBURTON. How 5 How true a gentleman you send relief, Por. I never did repent of doing good, Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit; Muft needs be like my lord. If it be fo, How little is the coft I have beftow'd, Whofe fouls do bear an equal yoke, &c] The folio 1623, reads egal, which I believe in Shakespeare's time was commonly ufed for equal. So it was in Chaucer's. "I will prefume hym fo to dignifie So in Gorboduc: Prol. to the Remedy of Love. "Sith all as one do bear you egall faith." STEEVENS. 9 Of lineaments, of manners, &c.—] The wrong pointing has made this fine fentiment nonsense. As implying that friendship could not only make a fimilitude of manners, but of faces. The true fenfe is, lineaments of manners, i. e. form of the manners, which, fays the fpeaker, muft need be proportionate. WARBURTON. The poet only means to fay, that correfponding proportions of body and mind are neceffary for those who end their time together. Every one will allow that the friend of a toper should have a ftrong head, and the intimate of a fportsman fuch an athletic conftitution as will enable him to acquit himself with reputation in the exercises of the field. The word lineaments was ufed with great laxity by our ancient writers. In "The learned and true Affertion of the Original, Life, &c. of King Arthur, tranflated from the Latin of John Leland, 1582," it is ufed for the human frame in general. Speaking of the removal of that prince's bones, -he calls them Arthur's lineaments three times tranflated; and again, all the lineaments of them remaining in that most stately tomb, Javing the fhin bones of the king and queen, &c. STEEVENS. VOL. III. N In |