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Por. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth.
O these deliberate fools! when they do choose,
They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.
Ner. The ancient saying is no heresy ;-
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
Por. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.
Enter a Servant.

Serv. Where is my lady?

Por.

my lord?

Here; what would
Serv. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify the approaching of his lord:
From whom be bringeth sensible regreets;9
To wit, besides commends, and courteous breath,
Gifts of rich value; yet I have not seen
So likely an embassador of love:

A day in April never came so sweet,
To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

Por. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard,
Thou wilt say anon, he is some kin to thee,

Thou spend'st such high-day wit1 in praising him.— Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see

Quick Cupid's post, that comes so mannerly.

Ner. Bassanio, lord love, if thy will it be! [Exeunt.

and is often spelt like ruth, which at present signifies only pity, or sorrow for the miseries of another. Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, &c. 1471, has frequent instances of wroth. Thus also, in Chapman's version of the 22nd Iliad:

66

born to all the wroth,

"Of woe and labour."

The modern editors read-my wrath. Steevens.

8 Por. Here; what would my lord?] Would not this speech to the servant be more proper in the mouth of Nerissa? Tyrwhitt. 9 regreets;] i. e. salutations. So, in K. John, Act III, sc. i:

66

11

"Unyoke this seizure, and this kind regreet." Steevens. -high-day wit-] So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: he speaks holiday." Steevens.

ACT III.....SCENE I.

Venice. A Street.

Enter SALANIO and SALARINO.

Salan. 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, 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 of her word.

Salan. I would she were as lying a gossip in that, as ever knapp'd ginger,2 or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband: 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.

Salan. 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! Salan. Let me say amen, betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer;3 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.

2

knapp'd ginger;] To knap is to break short. The word occurs in The Common Prayer: "He knappeth the spear in sunder." Steevens.

3

my prayer; i. e. the prayer or wish, which you have just now uttered, and which I devoutly join in by saying amen to it. Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton unnecessarily, I think, readthy prayer. Malone.

The people pray as well as the priest, though the latter only pronounces the words, which the people make their own by saying Amen to them. It is, after this, needless to add, that the Devil (in the shape of a Jew) could not cross Salarino's prayer, which as far as it was singly his, was already ended. Heath.

Salar. That 's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

Salan. 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. Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel!

Salan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years? Shy. I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.

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 ;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 used to come so smug upon the mart; -let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; let 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 hindered me of half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and

a bankrupt, a prodigal,] This is spoke of Antonio. But why a prodigal? his friend Bassanio indeed had been too liberal; and with this name the Jew honours him when he is going to sup with him:

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-I'll go in hate to feed upon

"The prodigal Christian

But Antonio was a plain, reserved, parsimonious merchant; be assured, therefore, we should read-a bankrupt FOR a prodigal, i. e. he is become bankrupt by supplying the extravagancies of his friend Bassanio. Warburton.

There is no need of alteration. There could be, in Shylock's opinion, no prodigality more culpable than such liberality as that by which a man exposes himself to ruin for his friend. Johnson. His lending money without interest, "for a Christian courtesy," was likewise a reason for the Jew to call Antonio prodigal.

Edwards

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.

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.

Enter TUBAL.

Salan. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt SALAN. SALAR. and Serv. Shy. How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter?

Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

Shy. Why there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now:-two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels.-I would, my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! 'would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them?-Why, so:-and I know not what 's spent in the search: Why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief;

5 if you prick us, do we not bleed?] Are not Jews made of the same materials as Christians? says Shylock; thus in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar, p. 140, 4to. V. IV: "Cæsar does not consider his subjects are mortal, and bleed when they are pricked," σε ουδε από των τραυματων λογισεται Καίσαρ ετι θνητων μεν αρκεί.” S.W.

VOL. IV.

I i

and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring, but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs, but o'my breathing; no tears, but o' my shedding.

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too; Antonio, as I heard in Genoa,

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Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tub.

polis.

hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tri

Shy. I thank God, I thank God:-Is it true? is it true? Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal;-Good news, good news: ha! ha!-Where? in Genoa?

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourscore ducats.

Shy. Thou stick'st a dagger in me:-I shall never see my gold again: Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

Tub. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.

Shy. I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture him; I am glad of it.

Tub. One of them showed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

Shy. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies.

6 it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor:] A turquoise is a precious stone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia to the east, subject to the Tartars. As Shylock had been married long enough to have a daughter grown up, it is plain he did not value this turquoise on account of the money for which he might hope to sell it, but merely in respect of the imaginary virtues formerly ascribed to the stone. It was said of the Turkey-stone, that it faded or brightened in its colour, as the health of the wearer increased or grew less. To this Ben Jonson refers, in his Sejanus: "And true as Turkise in my dear lord's ring,

"Look well, or ill with him."

Again, in The Muses Elysium, by Drayton:
"The turkesse, which who haps to wear,

"Is often kept from peril."

Again, Edward Fenton, in Secrete Wonders of Nature, bl. 1.

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