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Por. Well then, confefs and live.
Baff. Confefs, and love,

Had been the very fum of my

confeffion.

O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me anfwers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the cafkets.

Por. Away then! I am lockt in one of them;
do love me, you will find me out.

If you

Neriffa, and the reft, ftand all aloof,

Let mufick found, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lofe, he makes a fwan-like end,.
Fading in mufick. That the comparison
May ftand more juft, my eye fhall be the stream
And wat❜ry death-bed for him: he

may win,
And what is mufick then? then mufick is
Even as the flourish, when true fubjects bow
To a new crowned monarch: fuch it is,
As are thofe dulcet founds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And fummon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no less prefence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The vigin-tribute, paid by howling Troy
To the fea-monfter: I ftand for facrifice;
The reft aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared vifages come forth to view
The iffue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules!
Live thou, I live; with much, much more difmay
I view the fight, than thou, that mak'ft the fray.

[Mufick within.

A Song, whilst Baffanio comments on the caskets to himself.

Tell me, where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished ?
Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eye,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies:
Let us all ring fancy's knell.

I'll begin it.

Ding, dong, bell.

All. Ding, dong, bell.

Baff. So may the outward fhows be leaft themselves: The world is ftill deceiv'd with Ornament. In law, what plea fo tainted and corrupt, But being feafon'd with a gracious voice, Obfcures the show of evil? in religion, What damned error, but fome fober brow Will blefs it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grofsnefs with fair ornament ? There is no vice fo fimple, but affumes Some mark of virtue on its outward parts. How many cowards, whofe hearts are all as falfe As ftairs of fand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars; Who, inward fearcht, have livers white as milk? And these affume but valour's excrement, To render them redoubted. Look on beauty, And you' fhall fee 'tis purchas'd by the weight, Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lighteft, that wear most of it: So are thofe crifped fnaky golden locks, Which make fuch wanton gambols with the wind Upon fuppofed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The fkull, that bred them, in the fepulchre.
Thus Ornament is but the guiled fhore (16)
To a moft dàng'rous fea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The feeming truth which cunning times put on
T'entrap the wifeft. Then thou gaudy gold,

(16)-is but the gilded fore] I have reftor'd, on the authority of the old 4to's and Folio impreffions, guiled, i. e. guily, furnish'd for deceit, made to betray. The poet ufes the participle paffive in an active fignification; as, vice verfa, it will be found, upon obfervation, that he employs the active participle passively. To give a fingle inftance from K. Lear;

Who, by the art of known and feeling forrows,

Am pregnant to good pity.

For feeling forrows here means forrows that make themselves felt.

Hard

Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:

Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead,
Which rather threatneft, than doft promife ought, (17)
Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence;
And here chufe I; joy be the confequence!

Por. How all the other paffions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac'd despair,
And fhudd'ing fear, and green-ey'd jealoufy,
O love, be mod'rate, allay thy ecftafy;
In measure rain thy joy, fcant this excefs,
I feel too much thy bleffing, make it lefs,
For fear I furfeit.

[Opening the leaden casket,

eyes ?

Baff. What find I here?
Fair Portia's counterfeit ? what Demy-god
Hath come fo near creation? move these
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? here are fever'd lips
Parted with fugar breath; so sweet a bar
Should funder fuch fweet friends: here in her hairs
The painter plays the fpider, and hath woven
A golden mesh t' intrap the hearts of men,
Fafter than gnats in cobwebs: but her eyes,
How could he fee to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it fhould have pow'r to steal both his,
And leave itself unfinish'd: yet how far

The fubftance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In underprizing it; fo far this fhadow

Doth limp behind the fubftance. Here's the fcrowl,
The continent and fummary of my fortune.

You that chufe not by the view,
Chance as fair, and chufe as true:

(17) Thy palenefs moves me more than eloquence ;] Bassanio is difpleas'd at the golden casket for its gawdinefs, and the filver one for its palenefs; but, what! is he charm'd with the leaden one for having the very fame quality that difpleas'd him in the filver? The poet never intended fuch an abfurd reasoning. He certainly wrote,

Thy plainnefs moves me more than eloquence; This characterizes the lead from the filver, which palenefs does not, they being both pale. Befides, there is a beauty in the antithefis between plainress and eloquence; between palenefs and eloquence, none. Mr. Warburton.

Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content, and feek no new.
If you be well pleas'd with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,

And claim her with a loving kiss.

A gentle fcrowl; fair lady, by your leave; [Kissing her.
I come by note to give, and to receive.

Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes;
Hearing applause and univerfal fhout,
Giddy in fpirit, gazing ftill in doubt,
Whether those peals of praise be his or no;
So (thrice-fair lady) ftand I, even fo,
As doubtful whether what I fee be true,
Until confirm'd, fign'd, ratify'd by you.

Por. You fee me, lord Bafanio, where I stand,
Such as I am; tho' for myfelf alone,

I would not be ambitious in my wish,
To with myself much better; yet for you,
I would be trebled twenty times myfelf,

A thousand times more fair; ten thousand times
More rich; that, to ftand high in your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,

Exceed account: but the full fum of me
Is fum of fomething, which, to term in grofs,
Is an unleffon'd girl, unfchool'd, unpractis'd:
Happy in this, fhe is not yet fo old

But the may learn; more happy then in this,
She is not bred fo dull but the can learn ;
Happieft of all, is, that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her King:
Myfelf, and what is mine, to you
and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the Lord
Of this fair manfion, mafter of my fervants,
Queen o'er myfelf; and even now, but now,
This houfe, these fervants, and this fame myfelf
Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring,
Which, when you part from, lofe or give away,

Let

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Let it prefage the ruin of your love,

And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Baff. Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins ;
And there is fuch confufion in my pow'rs,
As, after fome oration fairly spoke
By a beloved Prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleased multitude;
Where every fomething, being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, fave of joy
Expreft, and not expreft. But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence;
O, then be bold to fay, Baffanio's dead.

Ner. My lord and lady, it is now our time,
That have stood by, and feen our wishes profper,
To cry, good joy, good joy, my lord and lady!
Gra. My lord Baffanio, and my gentle lady,
I wish you all the joy, that you can wish;
For, I am fure, you can with none from me:
And when your honours mean to folemnize
The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
Ev'n at that time I may be married too.

Baff. With all my heart, fo thou canst get a wife.
Gra. I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
My eyes, my lord, can look as fwift as yours;
You faw the miftrefs, I beheld the maid;
You lov'd, I lov'd: for intermiffion (18)

No

(18) You lov'd; I lov'd for intermiffion] Thus this paffage has been nonfenfically pointed thro' all the editions. If loving for intermission. can be expounded into any fenfe, I confefs, I as yet am ignorant, and fhall be glad to be inftructed in it. But till then I must beg leave to think, the fentence ought to be thus regulated;

You lov'd, I lov'd:-. For intermiffion

No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.

i. e. ftanding idle; a paufe, or difcontinuance of action. And fuch is the fignification of intermiffio and intermiffus amongst the Latines.Neque alia ulla fuit caufa intermiffionis epiftolarum, rifi quod ubi effes plane nefciebam: fays Cice o to Trebatius. Nor was there any other

reafon for my difcontinuing to write, but that I was abfolutely ignorant where you were'. And fo Pliny, of the Nightingale: Lufciniis diebus ac noctibus quindecim garrulus fine intermiflu Cantus. Nightin

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