Christians enough before; e'en as many as could well live, one by another: This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.

Enter LORENZO.

JES. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say; here he comes.

LOR. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners.

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.

6

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.—Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner.

LAUN. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs.

It is much, that the MOOR should be MORE, &c.] This reminds us of the quibbling epigram of Milton, which has the same kind of humour to boast of:

“Galli ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori,
Quis bene moratam, morigeramque neget?"

So, in The Fair Maid of the West, 1631:

And for you Moors thus much I mean to say,
"I'll see
if more I eat the more I may." STEEVENS.

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 served in; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your 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 !

8

The fool hath planted in his memory

An army of good words; And I do know

A many fools, that stand in better place,

7 Goodly lord,] Surely this should be corrected Good lord, as it is in Theobald's edition. TYRWHITT.

It should be-Good ye Lord! FARMER.

8-how his words are suited!] I believe the meaning is— What a series or suite of words he has independent of meaning; how one word draws on another without relation to the matter. JOHNSON.

I cannot think either that the word suited is derived from the word suite, as Johnson supposes, as that, I believe, was introduced into our language long since the time of Shakspeare; or that Launcelot's words were independent of meaning. Lorenzo expresses his surprise that a fool should apply them so properly. So Jaques says to the Duke in As You Like It:

66 met a fool

"That laid him down and bask'd him in the sun,

"And rail'd at Lady Fortune in good terms,

66

In good set terms."

Suited means suited to each other, arranged. BosWELL.

Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word

Defy the matter. 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, it

Is 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.
LOR. I will anon; first, let us go to dinner.
JES. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a sto-
mach.

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, GRATIANO, SALARINO, SILANIO, and others.
DUKE. What, is Antonio here?
ANT. Ready, so please your grace.

* Quarto R. far'st.

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.

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

Enter SHYLOCK.

DUKE. Make room, and let him stand before our face.

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:

3

2

And where thou now exact'st the penalty,

66

9

- his ENVY's reach,] Envy in this place means hatred or malice. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 1621 : he never looks on her (his wife) with affection, but envy,' p. 109, edit. 1679. So also, (as Mr. Malone observes,) in Lazarus Pyot's Orator, &c. [See the notes at the end of this play,] -they had slaine him for verie envie." STEEVENS.

I

remorse,] Remorse in our author's time generally signified pity, tenderness. MALONE.

So, in Othello:

2

3

66

And to obey shall be in me remorse." STEEVENS. apparent] That is, seeming; not real.

where] For whereas. JOHNSON.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

JOHNSON.

And where I thought the remnant of mine age

Should have been cherish'd by her child-like duty," &c.

STEEVENS.

(Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,)
Thou wilt not only lose 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.

*So quarto R.; folio and quarto H. flints.

4 Enough to press a ROYAL merchant down,] We are not to imagine the word royal to be only a ranting sounding epithet. It is used with great propriety, and shows the poet well acquainted with the history of the people whom he here brings upon the stage. For when the French and Venetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had won Constantinople, the French under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquests into the provinces of the Grecian empire on the Terra firma ; while the Venetians, who were masters of the sea, gave liberty to any subjects of the republick, who would fit out vessels, to make themselves masters of the isles of the Archipelago, and other maritime places; and to enjoy their conquests in sovereignty only doing homage to the republick for their several principalities. By virtue of this licence, the Sanudo's, the Justiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo's, and others, all Venetian merchants, erected principalities in several places of the Archipelago, (which their descendants enjoyed for many generations) and thereby became truly and properly royal merchants. Which indeed was the title generally given them all over Europe. Hence the most eminent of our own merchants (while publick spirit resided amongst them, and before it was aped by faction,) were called royal merchants. WARBURTON.

This epithet was in our poet's time more striking and better understood, because Gresham was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal merchant. JOHNSON.

Even the pulpit did not disdain the use of this phrase. I have now before me "The Merchant Royal, a Sermon, preached at Whitehall, before the king's majestie, at the nuptialls of the right honourable the Lord Hay and his lady, upon the twelfe day last, being Jan. 6, 1607." STEEVENS.