35 40 Por. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, Bass. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth. Confess, and love Had been the very sum of my confession : If Por. Away, then :] I am locked in one of them ;| Let music sound, | while he doth make his choice ; | 45 Fading in music :) that the comparison May stand more proper, | my eye shall be the stream, And what is music then? then music is 50 To a new-crowned monarch: | such it is, | 55. Than young Alcides, i.e., Hercules. 57. The allusion is to a myth of Hercules and Hesione, daughter of Laomedon, King of Troy. This myth is merely another version of that of Perseus and Andromeda. 58. Wives. This word was formerly not restricted to mean a married woman, but, like the German weib, signified woman in general; remnants of this use are the expressions fishwife, housewife. See Shakspere's Julius Cæsar, iii. 1,-" Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run." 59. Come forth.-The Past Partic. of an Intr. Verb without having. See Cowper's Task, i. 4, note. Live thou, I live :|-With much much more dismay Music whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself. Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves | The world is still deceiv'd with ornament. [ 65 In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,] But, being season'd with a gracious voice, To render them redoubted | Look on beauty,] *Fancy is here error, illusion, not, as is generally thought, love. 74. Stayers, i.e., props. 77. Excrement.-This word comes from ex and cresco, to grow out; and was used formerly of the hair, whiskers, nails,-anything growing out of the surface of the body. We should now say excrescence instead. 79. And you shall see.-Fut. tense. See Act 1. Scene 3, 83, note. Making them lightest | that wear most of it :| 85 To be the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.) To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf 90 The seeming truth | which cunning times put on Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge And here choose I. Joy be the consequence !] Por. How all the other passions fleet to air, For fear] I surfeit hat find I here? Bass. [Opening the leaden casket. Move these eyes? | 105 Fair Portia's counterfeit ?] What demi-god 86. This line is a Nominative Absolute. 87. Guiled.-For guiling, deceiving. The active and passive sense of the Partic. are often interchanged in Shakspere. See Iv. 1, 166, "It is twice blessed. It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." 89. Indian.-The context shows that by Indian beauty is meant the reverse of beauty. A dark complexion is to be considered as incompatible with beauty. 92. Midas.-King of Phrygia, who prayed that everything he touched might turn to gold, and was starved in consequence 93. Pale and common drudge, i e., Silver. 94. But thou.-The construction changes in line 96 to the possessive form thy. 107. Whether is now obsolete in Principal Interrogative Sentences. Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips, Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar 110 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, How could he see to do them? But her eyes, having made one, 115 [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's the scroll, 120 The continent and summary of my fortune. "You that choose not by the view, * Chance as fair, and choose as true! Be content, and seek no new. If you be well pleas'd with this, And claim her with a loving kiss." A gentle scroll.-Fair lady, by your leave : That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes, 125 Hearing applause and universal shout, 110. Hairs.-The singular would be used now. 114. Having made one, must be connected logically with the Personal Pronoun involved in his in the next line, though the construc [Kissing her. tion is at best but loose. See Act. 11. Scene 2, 2, note. 116. Unfurnished, scil., with the other. 120. Continent.-Contents. As fair, scil., as those who do. Por. You see, my Lord Bassanio, | where I stand, To wish myself much better; yet for you, 135 I would be trebled twenty times myself; A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times That only to stand high in your account, I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends, But she may learn ; | happier) than this,] As from her lord, her governor, her king. | And be my vantage to exclaim on you.] Bass. Madam, you have bereft me of all words, 160 As, after some oration, fairly spoke By a beloved prince, there doth appear 131. Where I stand.-Alluding to "So stand I," 128. 149. Lord, master.-See 11. 6, 52, note. 154. Sentences beginning with which when must be classed, not as Adj. sentences but as Adverbial. |