An age of poverty: from which lingering penance
Of such a misery doth she cut me off.
Commend me to your honorable wife;
Tell her the process of Antonio's end,
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;
And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge,
Whether Bassanio had not once a iove.
Repent not you that you shall lose your friend,
And he repents not that he pays your debt;
For, if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I'll pay it instantly with all my heart.
BASS. Antonio, I am married to a wife
Which is as dear to me as life itself;
But life itself, my wife and all the world,
Are not with me esteemed above thy life:
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil to deliver you.

GRA. I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love;
I would she were in heaven, so she could
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.

SHY. These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter, Would any of the stock of Barabbas

Had been her husband, rather than a Christian! [Aside.

We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.

POR. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine, The court awards it, and the law doth give it.

SHY. Most rightful judge!

POR.

And you must cut this flesh from off his breast; The law allows it, and the court awards it.

SHY. Most learned judge!-A sentence! come, prepara YOR. Tarry a little:-there is something else. This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;

[All assume an attitude of astonishment—a pause.]

The words expressly are, a pound of flesh;
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh:
But, in the cutting of it, if thou dost shed

One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate

Unto the state of Venice.

GRA. O upright judge!-Mark, Jew:-a learned judge SHY. Is that the law?

POR. Thyself shall see the act:

For as thou urgest justice, be assured

Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir❜st.

GRA. O learned judge!--Mark, Jew:-a learned judge! SHY. I take this offer, then;-pay the bond thrice, And let the Christian go.

The Jew shall have all justice!-soft!-no haste;-
He shall have nothing but the penalty.

GRA. O Jew! an upright judge-a learned judge!
POR. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood; nor cut thou less nor more,
But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak'st more
Or less than just a pound,—be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part

Of one poor scruple; nay if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,-

Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.
GRA. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!

Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip.

POR. Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture. SHY. Give me my principal, and let me go. BASS. I have it ready for thee: here it is. POR. He hath refused it in the open court; He shall have merely justice, and his bond. GRA. A Daniel, still say I! a second Daniel!— I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. SHY. Shall I not barely have my principal? POR. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture, To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.

SHY. Why then, the devil give him good of it! I'll stay no longer question.

POR. Tarry, Jew;

The law hath yet another hold on you.

It is enacted in the laws of Venice,

If it be proved against an alien,

That by direct or indirect attempts

He seek the life of any citizen,

The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive,
Shall seize on half his goods: the other half

Comes to the privy coffer of the State;
And the offender's life lies in the mercy
Of the Duke only, 'gainst all other voice.
In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st:
For it appears by manifest proceeding,

[Going

That indirectly and directly too,

Thou hast contrived against the very life
Of the defendant; and thou hast incurred
The danger formerly by me rehearsed.
Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.

GRA. Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself: And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the State,

Thou hast not left the value of a cord;

Therefore, thou must be hanged at the State's charge.
DUKE. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit,
I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's;
The other half comes to the general State,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.

POR. Ay, for the State; not for Antonio.
SHY. Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that:
You take my house, when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house: you take my life,
When you do take the means whereby I live.

POR. What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
GRA. A halter gratis; nothing else, for Heaven's sake.
ANT. So please my lord the Duke, and all the court,
To quit the fine for one half of his goods,

I am content, so he will let me have

The other half in use,-to render it,
Upon his death, unto the gentleman

That lately stole his daughter:

Two things provided more-that, for this favor,
He presently become a Christian;

The other, that he do record a gift,

Here in the court, of all he dies possessed,

Unto his son Lorenzo, and his daughter.

DUKE. He shall do this; or else I do recant

The pardon that I late pronounced here.

POR. Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say? SHY. I am content.

POR. Clerk, draw a deed of gift.

SHY. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;

I am not well; send the deed after me,

And I will sign it.

DUKE. Get thee gone, but do it.

[Shylock starts off.

GRA. In christening, thou shalt have two god-fathers; Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,

To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.

[Shylock gives a look and shrug of malignity, and exits.]

QUARREL SCENE FROM "SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL." R. B. SHERIDAN.

SIR PETER. Lady Teazle, Lady Teazle, I'll not bear it! LADY TEAZLE. Sir Peter, Sir Peter, you may bear it or not, as you please; but I ought to have my own way in everything; and what's more, I will too. What! though I was educated in the country, I know very well that women of fashion in London are accountable to nobody after they are married.

SIR P. Very well, ma'am, very well-so a husband is to have no influence-no authority?

LADY T. Authority! No, to be sure. If you wanted authority over me, you should have adopted me, and not mar ried me; I am sure you were old enough.

SIR P. Old enough!-ay-there it is. Well, well, Lady Teazle, though my life may be made unhappy by your tem per, I'll not be ruined by your extravagance.

LADY T. My extravagance! I'm sure I'm not more extravagant than a woman ought to be.

SIR P. No, no, madam, you shall throw away no more sums on such unmeaning luxury. 'Slife! to spend as much to furnish your dressing-room with flowers in winter as would suffice to turn the Pantheon into a green-house.

LADY T. Lord! Sir Peter, am I to blame because flowers are dear in cold weather? You should find fault with the climate, and not with me. For my part, I'm sure I wish it was spring all the year round, and that roses grew under our feet!

SIR P. Zounds! madam-if you had been born to this, I shouldn't wonder at you talking thus; but you forget what your situation was when I married you.

LADY T. No, no, I don't; 'twas a very disagreeable one, or I should never have married you.

SIR P. Yes, yes, madam, you were then in somewhat a humbler style,-the daughter of a plain country squire. Recollect, Lady Teazle, when I saw you first sitting at your tambour, in a pretty figured linen gown, with a bunch of keys at your side; your hair combed smooth over a roll, and your

apartment hung round with fruits in worsted of your own working.

LADY T. Oh yes! I remember it very well, and a curious life I led, my daily occupation to inspect the dairy, superintend the poultry, make extracts from the family receiptbook, and comb my aunt Deborah's lap-dog.

SIR P. Yes, yes, ma'am, 'twas so indeed.

LADY T. And then, you know, my evening amusements, -to draw patterns for ruffles, which I had not materials to make up; to play Pope Joan with the curate; to read a novel to my aunt; or to be stuck down to an old spinet to strum my father to sleep after a fox chase.

SIR P. I am glad you have so good a memory. Yes, madam, these were the recreations I took you from; but now you must have your coach-vis-a-vis - and three powdered footmen before your chair; and, in the summer, a pair of white cats to draw you to Kensington Gardens. No recollection, I suppose, when you were content to ride double, behind the butler, on a docked coach horse.

LADY T. No I never did that: I deny the butler and the coach horse.

SIR P. This, madam, was your situation; and what have I done for you? I have made you a woman of fashion, of fortune, of rank; in short, I have made you my wife.

LADY T. Well, then; and there is but one thing more you can make me to add to the obligation, and that is SIR P. My widow, I suppose?

LADY T. Hem! hem!

SIR P. I thank you, madam; but don't flatter yourself; for though your ill conduct may disturb my peace of mind, it shall never break my heart, I promise you: however, I am equally obliged to you for the hint.

LADY T. Then why will you endeavor to make yourself so disagreeable to me, and thwart me in every little elegant expense?

SIR P. 'Slife, madam, I say, had you any of these little elegant expenses when you married me?

LADY T. Lud, Sir Peter! would you have me be out of the fashion?

SIR P. The fashion, indeed! What had you to do with the fashion before you married me?