To wind about my love with circumstance;

And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong

In making question of my uttermost,

Than if you had made waste of all I have.
Then do but say to me what I should do,
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore speak.
BASS. In Belmont is a lady richly left,

And she is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wond'rous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages:
Her name is Portia; nothing undervalued

To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.

Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors: and her sunny locks

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;

Which makes her seat of Belmont, Colchos' strand,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.

O, my Antonio! had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,

I have a mind presages me such thrift,
That I should questionless be fortunate.

ANT. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea;
Neither have I money, nor commodity

To raise a present sum: therefore go forth,
Try what my credit can in Venice do;
That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,
Where money is; and I no question make,
To have it of my trust, or for my sake.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Belmont. A Room in Portia's House.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.

POR. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is a-weary of this great world. NER. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are: And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that

• Me now.
The words are found in the quartos, but are omitted in the folio.
Prest-ready.
• Sometimes-formerly.

th too much, as they that starve with nothing: It is no small a therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by s, but competency lives longer.

entences, and well pronounced.

ould be better, if well followed.

were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that s own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain e laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: e is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband :e word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse islike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a er:-Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse

:

ather was ever virtuous; and holy men at their death have good ns; therefore, the lottery that he hath devised in these three chests, Iver, and lead, (whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you,) will, never be chosen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love. warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely at are already come?

thee, overname them; and as thou namest them I will describe d according to my description level at my affection.

here is the Neapolitan prince.

t's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse; and it a great appropriation to his own good parts that he can shoe him I am much afraid my lady his mother played false with a smith. s there the County Palatine.

1 nothing but frown; as who should say, “An you will not have me, he hears merry tales, and smiles not: I fear he will prove the hilosopher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness th. I had rather to be married to a death's head with a bone in , than to either of these. God defend me from these two!

y you by the French lord, monsieur le Bon?

In truth, I know

de him, and therefore let him pass for a man. to be a mocker. But he! why, he hath a horse better than the n's; a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine: he is 1 in no man: if a throstle sing he falls straight a capering; he will his own shadow: if I should marry him I should marry twenty : If he would despise me I would forgive him; for if he love me is I shall never requite him.

ay you then to Faulconbridge, the young baron of England?

Small, in the folio; the quartos, mean.

POR. You know I say nothing to him; for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian"; and you will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English. He is a proper man's picture. But, alas! who can converse with a dumb show? How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere. NER. What think you of the Scottish lorda, his neighbour? POR. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him again when he was able: I think the Frenchman became his surety, and sealed under for another. NER. How like you the young German, the duke of Saxony's nephew? POR. Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober; and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is best he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst he is little better than a beast: an the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.

NER. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will if you should refuse to accept him.

POR. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee set a deep glass of Rhenish

wine on the contrary casket: for, if the devil be within, and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do anything, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge.

NER. You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords: they have acquainted me with their determinations: which is, indeed, to return to their home and to trouble you with no more suit; unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's imposition, depending on the caskets. POR. If I live to be as old as Sibylla I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be

obtained by the manner of my father's will: I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I wish them a fair departure.

NER. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier, that came hither in company of the marquis of Montferrat? POR. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think so was he called.

NER. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.

POR. I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy praise". How now! what news?

Enter a Servant.

SERV. The four strangers seek you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the prince of Morocco; who brings word the prince, his master, will be here to-night.

Scottish lord. The folio reads other lord; the quartos of 1600, Scottish. The sarcasm against the political conduct of Scotland was suppressed upon the accession of James.

Worthy of thy praise. In the folio the sentence here concludes. In the quartos, Portia, addressing the Servant, says, "How now! what news?"

d bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I can bid the other 11, I should be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than

issa. Sirrah, go before.

shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the doora.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Venice. A public Place.

Enter BASSANIO and SHYLOCK".

ousand ducats,—well.

for three months.

e months,-well.

which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.

shall become bound,-well.

stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your answer? ousand ducats, for three months, and Antonio bound.

swer to that.

is a good man.

ou heard any imputation to the contrary?

o, no, no;—my meaning in saying he is a good man is, to have tand me that he is sufficient: yet his means are in supposition: argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; I understand pon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England; entures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships are but boards, men: there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and landmean, pirates; and then, there is the peril of waters, winds, and e man is, notwithstanding, sufficient;-three thousand ducats ;—I ■y take his bond.

red you may.

assured I may; and that I may be assured I will bethink me: ak with Antonio?

ease you to dine with us.

mell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet, the Naza

ted the conclusion of this scene as verse. The doggrel line is not inconsistent ess of the preceding dialogue.

broad. In a letter published by Mr. Waldron, in Woodfall's 'Theatrical Reperstated that "Macklin, mistakenly, spoke the word with a tone of reprobation ntonio had, as we say of prodigals, unthriftly squandered his wealth." The y scattered; of which Mr. Waldron gives an example from Howell's 'Letters:' an elect people, but now grown contemptible, and strangely squander'd up and In Dryden's Annus Mirabilis' we have the same expression applied to ships:"They drive, they squander, the huge Belgian fleet.”

rite, conjured the devil into! I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.-What news on the Rialto?-Who is he comes here?

a

Enter ANTONIO.

BASS. This is signior Antonio.

SHY. [Aside.] How like a fawning publican he looks!

I hate him for he is a Christian :

But more, for that, in low simplicity,

He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice".
If I can catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest: Cursed be my tribe
If I forgive him!

BASS.

Shylock, do you hear?

SHY. I am debating of my present store:

And, by the near guess of my memory,

I cannot instantly raise up the gross
Of full three thousand ducats: What of that?
Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe,

Will furnish me: But soft: How many months
Do you desire?-Rest you fair, good signior:
Your worship was the last man in our mouths.
ANT. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow,
By taking, nor by giving of excess,

SHY.

Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend,
I'll break a custom :-Is he yet possess'd
How much you would?

Ay, ay, three thousand ducats.

ANT. And for three months.

SHY. I had forgot,—three months, you told me so.
Well then, your bond; and, let me see.

But hear you:

Methought you said, you neither lend nor borrow,

Upon advantage.

[TO ANTONIO.

On the Rialto. The old copies have on. (See Illustration.) The Rialto meaning the island,

it is indifferent whether we say on, upon, or in, as we find in the text.

b

Upon the hip. We have the same expression in 'Othello:

"I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip." Johnson says the expression is taken from the practice of wrestling.

• Possess'd-informed.