Silver'd o'er; and so was this.10 By the time I linger here: With one fool's head I came to woo, But I go away with two. Sweet, adieu. I'll keep my oath, Patiently to bear my wroth.14 [Exeunt ARRAGON and Train. Portia. Thus hath the candle singed the moth. O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose, They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.15 Neris. The ancient saying is no heresy : Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. 10 The idiot's portrait was enclosed in the silver casket, and in that sense was silver'd o'er. " 11 An apparent oversight of the Poet's: the Prince was sworn never to woo a maid in way of marriage." Perhaps, though, he might woo and marry a widow. 12 " You will always have a fool's head, whether married or not." 13 That is "your case is decided, or done for." So, in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1, Mercutio, when he has received his death-wound from Tybalt, exclaims, "A plague o' both your Houses! I am sped." 14 Wroth is used in some of the old writers for suffering. So in Chapman's 22d Iliad: "Born all to wroth of woe and labour." The original meaning of wrath is pain, grief, anger, any thing that makes one writhe; and the text exemplifies a common form of speech, putting the effect for the cause. 15 They overreach themselves with their own shrewdness, as men are apt to do who undertake to be specially wise: Disasters, do the best we can, Who is not wise at all. Portia. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa. Serv. Madam, there is alighted at your gate A day in April never came so sweet, To show how costly Summer was at hand, As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord. Portia. No more, I pray thee: I am half afeard Thou spend'st such high-day wit 18 in praising him.— Quick Cupid's post 19 that comes so mannerly. Neris. Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be ! [Exeunt. 16 A sportive reply to the Servant's "Where is my lady?" So, in 1 Henry IV., ii. 4, the Hostess says to Prince Henry, "O Jesu! my lord, the Prince!" and he replies, "How now, my lady, the hostess!" 17 Sensible regreets are feeling salutations; or salutations that may be felt, such as valuable presents. See page 127, note 8. 18 High-day is holiday; a time for finely-phrased speaking. So our Fourth of July is a high day; and we all know what Fourth-of-July eloquence is. 19 Post is postman, and so a quick traveller. Solan. Now, what news on the Rialto? Salar. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd, that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins,1 I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip Report be an honest woman of2 her word. Solan. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapp'd ginger,3 or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband.4 But it is true, without any slips of prolixity, or crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,-O, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!Salar. Come, the full stop.5 Solan. Ha,-what say'st thou? —Why, the end is, he hath lost a ship. Salar. I would it might prove the end of his losses. 1 The Goodwin Sands, as they were called, lay off the eastern coast of Kent. The name was supposed to have been derived from Earl Godwin, whose lands were said to have been swallowed up there in the year 1100. In King John, v. 5, it is said that the supplies expected by the French “are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands." 2 Here, as often, of is equivalent to in respect of. 3 To knap is to snap, or to break into small pieces. So in 46th Psalm of The Psalter: "He knappeth the spear in sunder." 4 The presumption being that by that time she has got so used to the thing as not to mind it much. 5 That is, finish the sentence; or "say on till you come to a period." Solan. Let me say amen betimes, lest the Devil cross my prayer; for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.— Enter SHYLOCK. How now, Shylock ! what news among the merchants? Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight. Salar. That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.6 Solan. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. Shy. She is damn'd for it. Salar. That's certain, if the Devil may be her judge. Solan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years? Salar. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and Rhenish.8 But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? Shy. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; -a beggar, that was used to come so smug 9 upon the mart. Let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; - let 6 A sly allusion, probably, to the dress in which Jessica eloped. 7 Complexion was much used for nature, natural disposition, or temperament. So, in the old tale upon which Hamlet was partly founded, the hero is spoken of as being a "Saturnist by complexion." 8 Rhenish wines are called white wines; named from the river Rhine. 9 Smug is brisk, gay, or spruce; applied both to persons and things. Thus in King Lear, iv. 6: “I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom: what, I will be jovial." And in 1 Henry IV., iii. 1: 'Here the smug and silver Trent shall run in a new channel, fair and evenly." him look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy ; - let him look to his bond. Salar. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh what's that good for? Shy. To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hinder'd met half a million; 10 laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same Winter and Summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? if we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge if a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.11 Enter a Servant. Serv. Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house, and desires to speak with you both. Salar. We have been up and down to seek him. Solan. Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be match'd, unless the Devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt SOLANIO, SALARINO, and Servant. 10 "Hinder'd me to the extent of half a million"; ducats, of course. 11 "I will work mighty hard rather than fail to surpass my teachers." |