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now :-two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels.-I would, my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! 'would she were hears'd at my foot, with the ducats in her coffin! No news of them ?-Why, so :-and I know not what's spent in the search: Why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring, but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs, but o' my breathing; no tears, but o' my shedding.

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too; Antonio, as I heard in Genoa,

Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tub. -hath an argosy cast away,coming from Tripolis. Shy. I thank God, I thank God:-Is it true? is it true? Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal ;-Good news, good news ha ha ?-Where? in Genoa !

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourscore ducats.

Shy. Thou stick'st a dagger in me :——— -I shall never see my gold again: Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

Tub. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my compamy to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.

Shy. I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture him; I am very glad of it.

Tub. One of them showed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

Shy. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor :4 I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies.

Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone.

[4] A turquoise is a precious stone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia to the east, subject to the Tartars As Shylock had been married long enough to have a daughter grown up, it is plain he did not value this turquoise on account of the money for which he might hope to sell it, but merely in respect of the imaginary virtues formerly ascribed to the stone. It was said of the Turkey-stone, that it faded or brightened in its colour, as the health of the wearer increased or grew less. To this Ben Jonson refers, in his Sejanus:

"And true as Turkise in my dear lord's ring,

Look well or ill with him."

Other superstitious qualities are imputed to it, all of which were either monitory or preservative to the wearer. The same quality was supposed to be resident in coral. STEEVENS.

Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true: Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight before: I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will: Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal." [Exeunt.

Belmont.

SCENE II.

+

A Room in PORTIA's House. Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and Attendants. The caskets are set out.

Por. I pray you, tarry ;-pause a day or two,
Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
I lose your company; therefore, forbear a while :
There's something tells me, (but it is not love,)
I would not lose you; and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality :

But lest you should not understand me well,
(And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,)
I would detain you here some month or two,
Before you venture for me. I could teach you,
How to choose right, but then I am forsworn;
So will I never be so may you miss me ;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'er-look'd me, and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours: O! these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights;
And so, though yours, not yours.-Prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it,-not I.5

I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time ;6
To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.

Bass. Let me choose;

For, as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confess

[5] The meaning is, "If the worst I fear should happen, and it should prove in the event, that I, who am justly yours by the free donation I have made you of myself, should yet not be yours in consequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to hell for robbing you of your just due, not I for violating my oath." HEATH.

[6] To peize, is to weigh, or balance; and figuratively, to keep in suspense, to delay. HENLEY.

What treason there is mingled with your love.

Bass. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love: There may as well be amity and life

"Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
Por. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack,
Where men enforced do speak any thing.

Bass. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth:
Por. Well then, confess, and live.

Bass. Confess, and love,

Had been the very sum of my confession :
O happy torment, when my torturer

Doth teach me answers for deliverance !

But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

Por. Away then I am lock'd in one of them; If you do love me, you will find me out.

Nerissa, and the rest, stand all aloof.

Let music sound, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,

Fading in music: that the comparison

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream,

And wat❜ry death-bed for him: He may win ;

And what is music then? then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: such it is,
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no less presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice,
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages, come forth to view
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!

Live thou, I live :-With much much more dismay
I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray.
Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to
himself.

SONG.

1. Tell me, where is fancy bred,
In the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?

Reply. 2. It is engender'd in the eyes,

All.

With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies:

Let us all ring fancy's knell;
I'll begin it,Ding dong, bell.
Ding, dong, bell.

XBas. So may the outward shows be least themselves;

The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being reason'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it7 with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars;
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk?
And these assume but valour's excrement, 8
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight;9
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks,

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull that bred them, in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore

To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf

Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threat'nest, than dost promise aught,
Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence,

[6] He begins abruptly; the first part of the argument had passed in his mind. JOHNSON. [7] i.e. justify it. STEEVENS. [8] i.e. what a little higher is called the beard of Hercules. MALONE. [9] i.e. artificial beauty is purchased so; as, false hair, &c. STEEVENS

And here choose I; Joy be the consequence!
Por. How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac'd despair,
And shudd'ring fear and green-ey'd jealousy.
O love be moderate, allay thy extasy,

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In measure rain thy joy, scant this excess;
I feel too much thy blessing, make it less,
For fear I surfeit !

Bass. What find I here? [Opening the leaden casket. Fair Portia's counterfeit ?2 What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider; and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs But her eyes,-
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnish'd: Yet look, how far
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In underprizing it, so far this shadow

Doth limp behind the substance.-Here is the scroll,
The continent and summary of my fortune.

You that choose not by the view,
Chance as fair, and choose as true!
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content, and seek no new.
If you be well pleas'd with this,

And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,

And claim her with a loving kiss.

A gentle scroll;-Fair lady, by your leave; [Kissing her. I come by note, to give and to receive.

Like one of two contending in a prize,

That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,

[1] I once believed Shakspeare wrote-In measure rein thy joy. The words rain and rein were not in these times distinguished by regular orthography. JOHNS.I believe Shakspeare alluded to the well known proverb, It cannot rain, but it pours. STEEVENS.

[2] Counterfeit, which is at present used only in a bad sense, anciently signified a likeness, a resemblance, without comprehending any idea of fraud. So Hamlet calls the picture he shows his mother

"The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." STEEVENS.

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