10 To come abroad with him at his request.

Ant. I pray thee hear me speak.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak :
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool

15 To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond.

[Exit. SHYLOCK.

20 I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.
He seeks my life; his reason well I know ;
I oft delivered from his forfeitures

Many that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.

25 Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

Ant. The Duke cannot deny the course of law,
For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice; if it be denied,

"Twill much impeach the justice of the state; 30 Since that the trade and profit of the city Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go: These griefs and losses have so bated me, That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh To-morrow to my bloody creditor.

35 Well, gaoler, on :-Pray God, Bassanio come To see me pay his debt, and then I care not!

27. Commodity, i.e., intercourse.

[Exeunt.

30. Since that.-See p. 8. note 4.

SCENE IV.

Belmont.-A Room in PORTIA'S House.

Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHAZAR.

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your presence,

You have a noble and a true conceit

Of godlike amity; which appears most strongly
In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

5 But, if you knew to whom you show this honour,
How true a gentleman you send relief,

10

How dear a lover of my lord, your husband,
I know you would be prouder of the work,
Than customary bounty can enforce you.

Por. I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now for in companions
That do converse and waste the time together,
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must be needs a like proportion
15 Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit;
Which makes me think, that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,

Must needs be like my lord: If it be so,
How little is the cost I have bestow'd,
20 In purchasing the semblance of my soul
From out the state of hellish cruelty!
This comes too near the praising of myself;
Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands,

25 The husbandry and manage of my house,

2. A noble and a true conceit of godlike amity, i.e., a high idea of true Divine benevolence. Conceit is originally the same as conception. Compare deceit, deception.

4. In bearing.-Another instance of a faulty participial construction. See also below, 71.

7. Lover. The same as friend, as below,

17, bosom lover for bosom friend. This use of the word lover was common in Shakspere's time. Brutus, in Julius Cæsar, addresses the people as countrymen and lovers." See also Psalm xxxviii. 11.

12. Converse here means associate; and waste simply spend.

25. Husbandry, i.e., stewardship.

Until my lord's return for mine own part,
I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,

Only attended by Nerissa here,

30 Until her husband and my lord's return:
There is a monastery two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do desire you
Not to deny this imposition;

The which my love, and some necessity,

35 Now lays upon you.

Lor.

Madam, with all my heart,

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por. My people do already know my mind,
And will acknowledge you and Jessica

In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.

40 So fare you well, till we shall meet again.

Lor. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.
Jes. I wish your ladyship all heart's content.
Por. I thank you for the wish, and am well pleas'd
To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica.

45 Now, Balthazar,

[Exeunt Jes. and LOR.

As I have ever found thee honest, true

So let me find thee still Take this same letter,
And use thou all the endeavour of a man

In speed to Padua ; see thou render this

50 Into my cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice-waste no time in words, 55 But get thee gone; I shall be there before thee.

30 Until her husband and my lord's return.-As husband and lord are here two different persons, we should now give the mark of the Genitive to both words, and say, "her husband's and my lord's return."

35. Lays.-The singular, though joined to two subjects.

52. Imagined, i.e., all imaginable.

53. Tranect. The ferry boat that leads over to Venice from the mainland.

60

Balth. Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand,
That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands
Before they think of us.

Ner.

Shall they see us?
Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
That they shall think we are accomplished
With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutred like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
65 And wear my dagger with the braver grace;

And speak, between the change of man and boy,
With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride; and speak of frays,

:

Like a fine bragging youth and tell quaint lies, 70 How honourable ladies sought my love,

Which I denying they fell sick and died;

I could not do withal; then I'll repent,

And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them :
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,

75 That men shall swear I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth :-I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
80 When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Scene V. gives us simply a humorous conversation between Launcelot, Lorenzo, and Jessica, in the garden at Belmont. It is admirably adapted to enliven the play on the stage; but does not serve at all to develop the plot.

61. Accomplished in that we lack, ie., in manly bearing, which is not the province of women.

72. I could not do withal-I did not like them.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-Venice.--A Court of Justice.

Enter the DUKE, the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BASSANIO,
GRATIANO, SALARINO, SOLANIO, and others.

Duke. What, is Antonio here?

Ant. Ready, so please your grace.

Duke. I am sorry for thee; thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch

5 Uncapable of pity, void and empty

From any dram of mercy.

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

10 Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose

15

My patience to his fury, and an 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.
Solan. 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]

:

ACT IV.-5. Void and empty.-See Cowper, Task, 1. 684, note.

9. The conjunction that, which (according to note 4, page 8) might have been placed after since, in the preceding line, stands here as part of the complete conjunction, since that, which might have been repeated. This is analogous to a rule of French syntax, which requires the repetition, not of the complete conjunction (for

instance, parceque) but only that of the que (that) in a subjoined sentence.

10. Envy's reach.-Envy is here used in the sense of hatred, as below, 123, and as envious, Act III. Scene 2, "But none can drive him from the envious plea of forfeiture." See also Mark xv. 10.

12. A quietness. The article would be left out in modern English.