We two will leave you: but, at dinner time,
I pray you, have in mind where we must meet.
Baf. I will not fail
you.

;

Gra. You look not well, fignior Antonio
You have too much refpect upon the world:
They lofe it, that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvellously chang'd.
Ant. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A ftage, where every man muft play a part,
And mine a fad one.

Gra.
Let me play the Fool: 5
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;
And let my liver rather heat with wine,
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Why fhould a man, whofe blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandfire cut in alabaster?

Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio,-
I love thee, and it is my love that fpeaks ;-
There are a fort of men, whofe vifages

Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond;
And do a wilful stillness 7 entertain,

With purpose to be drefs'd in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;
As who fhould fay, I am Sir Oracle,

And,

Raffanio, till he should find Antonio) prepares now to leave Bassanio to his bufinefs; but is detained by Gratiano, who enters into a conversation with Antonio. TYRWHITT.

I have availed myfelf of this judicious correction, by restoring the speech to Lorenzo, and marking the exits of Salarino and Salanio at the end of the preceding fpeech. STEEVENS.

5 Alluding to the common comparison of human life to a ftage play. So that he defires his may be the fool's or buffoon's part, which was a conftant character in the old farces; from whence came the phrafe, to play the fool. WARBURTON.

The poet here alludes to the manner in which the film extends itfelf over milk in fcalding; and he had the fame appearance in his eye when writing a foregoing line:

"With mirth and laughter let old zurinkles come."

So alfo, the author of Buffy d'Ambois :

"Not any wrinkles creaming in their faces." HENLEY. 7 i. e. an obftinate filence. MALONE.

And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark! 8 °
O, my Antonio, I do know of thefe,
That therefore only are reputed wife,
For faying nothing; who, I am very fure,

If they fhould fpeak, would almost damn those ears,
Which hearing them, would call their brothers, fools.
I'll tell thee more of this another time:

But fifh not, with this melancholy bait,
For this fool's gudgeon, this opinion.-
Come, good Lorenzo:- Fare ye well, a while;
I'll end my exhortation after dinner.9

Lor. Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time:
I must be one of these fame dumb wife men,

For Gratiano never lets me speak.

Gra. Well, keep me company but two years more, Thou shalt not know the found of thine own tongue. Ant. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear.2 Gra. Thanks, i'faith; for filence is only commendable In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO.

Ant. Is that any thing now? 3

Bal. Gratiano fpeaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice His reafons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall feek all day ere you find them; and, when you have them, they are not worth the fearch.

8 This feems to be a proverbial expreffion, STEEVENS.

Ant.

9 The humour of this confifts in its being an allufion to the practice of the puritan preachers of thofe times; who, being generally very long and tedious, were often forced to put off that part of their fermon called the exkortation, till after dinner. WARBURTON.

2 In Act II. fc. ii. the fame phrafe occurs again: "If fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this geer." This is a colloquial expreffion perhaps of no very determined import. STEEVENS.

3 All the old copies read, is that any thing now? I suppose we should read-is that any thing new? JOHNSON.

The fenfe of the old reading is,-Does what he has juft faid amount to any thing, or mean any thing? STEEVENS.

an

infinite deal

Surely the reading of the old copies is right. Antonio afks: Is that any thing now? and Baffanio anfwers, that, Gratiano fpeaks of nothing-the greatest part of his difcourfe is not any thing.

TYRWHITT.

Ant. Well; tell me now, what lady is this fame
To whom you swore a fecret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promis'd to tell me of?

Baff. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate,
By fomething fhowing a more fwelling port
Than my faint means would grant continuance :
Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd
From fuch a noble rate; but my chief care
Is, to come fairly off from the great debts,
Wherein my time, fomething too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged: To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money, and in love;
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburthen all my plots, and purposes,
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

Ant. I pray you, good Baffanio, let me know it;
And, if it ftand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honour, be affur'd,

My purfe, my perfon, my extremest means,
Lie all unlock'd to your occafions.

Ba. In my fchool-days, when I had loft one shaft,
I fhot his fellow 3 of the felf-fame flight

The felf-fame way, with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; and by advent'ring both,
I oft found both: I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.

I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth,4
That which I owe is loft: but if you please

Το

3 This method of finding a loft arrow is prescribed by P. Crefcentius in his Treatife de Agricultura, Lib. X. cap. xxviii. and is alfo mentioned in Howel's Letters, Vol. I. p. 183. edit. 1655. 12mo. DOUCE.

4 This does not at all agree with what he had before promised, that what followed fhould be pure innocence. For wilfulness is not quite so pure. We should read-witless, i. e. heedlefs; and this agrees exactly to that to which he compares his cafe, of a school-boy; who, for want of advised watch, loft his first arrow, and fent another after it with more attention. But wilful agrees not at all with it. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton confounds the time paft and prefent. He has formerly loft his money like a wilful youth; he now borrows more in pure innocence, without difquifing his former faults, or his prefent defigns. JOHNSON

To shoot another arrow that felf way

Which you did fhoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
Or bring your latter hazard back again,
And thankfully reft debtor for the firft.

Ant. You know me well; and herein spend but time.
To wind about my love with circumftance;
And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong,
In making question of my uttermoft,

eyes

Than if you had made waste of all I have:
Then do but fay to me what I should do,
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am preft unto it: 5 therefore, fpeak.
Ba. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And the is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wond'rous virtues; fometimes from her
I did receive fair fpeechlefs meffages:
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 coaft
Renowned fuitors: and her funny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;
Which makes her feat of Belmont, Colchos' ftrand,
And many Jafons come in queft of her.
O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind prefages me fuch thrift,
That I fhould queftionless be fortunate.

Ant. Thou know'ft, that all my fortunes are at sea ; Nor have I money, nor commodity

To raise a present fum: therefore go forth,

Try

5 Preft may not here fignify imprefs'd, as into military fervice, but ready. Pret. Fr. STEEVENS.

So all the editions; but it certainly ought to be, fometime, i. e. formerly, fome time ago, at a certain time: and it appears by the fubfequent scene, that Baffanio was at Belmont with the Marquis de Montferrat, and faw Portia in her father's life time. THEOBALD.

It is ftrange, Mr. Theobald did not know, that in old English, fometimes is fynonymous with formerly. Nothing is more frequent in title-pages, than "fometimes fellow of fuch a college." FARMER.

Try what what my credit can in Venice do;
That fhall be rack'd, even to the uttermoft,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, prefently inquire, and fo will I,
Where money is; and I no queftion make,
To have it of my truft, or for my fake.

SCENE II.

Belmont. A Room in Portia's House.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.

[Exeunt,

Por. By my troth, Neriffa, my little body is aweary of this great world.

Ner. You would be, fweet madam, if your miseries were in the fame abundance as your good fortunes are: And, yet, for aught I fee, they are as fick, that furfeit with too much, as they that ftarve with nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore, to be feated in the mean; fuperfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.

Por. Good fentences, and well pronounced.

Ner. They would be better, if well followed.

Por. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own inftructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devife laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree: fuch a hare is madness the youth, to fkip o'er the meshes of good counfel the cripple. But this reafoning is not in the fashion to choose me a huf band:-O me, the word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refufe whom I diflike; fo is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father:-Is it not hard, Neriffa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none? Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at

their

7 Superfuity fooner acquires white hairs; becomes old, We ftill fay, How did he come by it? MALONE

3