deserve much care; yet it may be proper to observe, that, by concluding the second act here, time is given for Bassanio's passage to Belmont. JOHNSON. 33-your mind of love.] So all the copies, but I suspect some corruption. JOHNSON. This imaginary corruption is removed by only putting a comma after mind. LANGTON. Of love, is an adjuration sometimes used by Shakspeare. So Merry Wives, Act II. Sc. 7. Quick. -desires you to send her your little page of all loves," i. e. she desires you to send him by all means. Your mind of love may however in this instance mean-your loving mind, or your mind which should now be intent only on love. STEEVENS. 34-embraced heaviness.] When I thought the passage corrupted, it seemed to me not improbable that Shakspeare had written entranced heaviness, musing, abstracted, moping melancholy. But I know not why any great efforts should be made to change a word which has no uncommodious or unusual sense. We say of man now, that he hugs his sorrows, and why might not Anthonio embrace heaviness? JOHNSON. 35 How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honour?] The meaning is, How much meanness would be found among the great, and how much greatness among the mean. But since men are always said to glean corn though they may pick chaff, the sentence had been more agreeable to the common manner of speech if it had been written thus, How much low peasantry would then be pick'd 36 Take what wife you will to bed.] Perhaps the poet had forgotten that he who missed Portia was never to marry any woman. 37 JOHNSON. -to bear my wroth.] The old editions read"to bear my wroath." Wroath is used in some of the old books for misfortune; and is often spelt like ruth, which at present signifies only pity, or sorrow for the misery of another. STEEVENS. 38—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. -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. 39 [It was my Turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor.] 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 Turky-stone, that it faded or brightened in its colour, as the health of the wearer increased or grew less. To this B. Jonson refers, in his Sejanus: "And true as Turkise in my dear lord's ring; Other superstitious qualities are imputed to it, all of which were either monitory or preservative to the wearer. STEKVENS. Put bars between the owners and their rights; The meaning is, "If the worst I fear should happen, and it should prove in the event, that I, who am justly yours by the free donation I have made you of myself, should yet not be yours in consequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to hell "for robbing you of your just due, not I for violating my oath." REVISAL. 41 With no less presence.J With the same dignity of mien. 42 In measure rain thy joy.] The first quarto edition reads, In measure range thy joy. I believe Shakspeare alluded to the well known proverb, It cannot rain but it pours. STEEVENS. 43 And leave itself unfurnish'd:] Some of the latter editions have alter'd unfurnish'd to unfinished. The amendment was needless; for unfurnished means destitute of a companion: i. e. "when the painter's eyes were stolen by the eye which he had created, he had not power to furnish it with a fellow." 44 IS SUM of something,-] We should read, SOME of something, i. e. only a piece, or part only of an imperfect account; which she explains in the following line. WARBURTON. Thus one of the quartos. The folio reads, STEEVENS. Is sum of nothing.— 45 You can wish none from me:] That is, none away from me: none that I shall lose, if you gain it. JOHNSON. 46 -so fond.] Fond here means foolish. 47 The duke cannot deny the course of law.] As the reason here given seems a little perplexed, it may be proper to explain it. If, says he, the duke stop the course of law it will be attended with this inconvenience, that stranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is supported, will cry out of injustice. For the known stated law being their guide and security, they will never bear to have the current of it stopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever. 48 Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit;] The WARBURTON. wrong pointing has made this fine sentiment nonsense. As implying that friendship could not only make a símilitude of manners, but of faces. The true sense is, lineaments of manners, i. e. form of the manners, which, says the speaker, must needs be propor tionate. WARBURTON. The poet only means to say, that corresponding proportions of body and mind are necessary for those who spend their time together. Every one will allow that the friend of a toper should have a strong head, and the intimate of a sportsman such an athletic constitution as will enable him to acquit himself with reputation in the exercises of the field. The word lineaments was used with great laxity by our ancient writers. In "The learned and true Assertion of the Original Life, &c. of King Arthur, translated from the Latin of John Leland, 1582," it is used for the human frame in general. Speaking of the removal of that prince's bones,-he calls them Arthur's lineaments three times translated; and again, all the lineaments of them remaining in that most stately tomb, saving the shin bones of the king and queen, &c. STEEVENS. 49 Unto the tranect-] Tranect appears to be derived from tranare, and was probably a word current in the time of our author. STEEVENS. Perhaps tranect is rather derived from trana, which in Italian is a term of encouragement, used by one person to induce another to go on, or proceed; and |