6

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 hearsed 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, 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,

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

Tub. hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. 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 monkeys.

7

6 - would she were] The 4to. by Roberts reads, "O! would she were." I know not WHAT'S spent in the search:] This is the reading of both 4tos: the folio, more tamely, has how much is, &c.

WHERE? in Genoa?] All the old editions have "here, in Genoa?" which is evidently wrong.

1- it was my turquoise:] The Rev. Mr. Dyce (Few Notes, 65) recommends that an account should be inserted of the well-known virtues and magical properties formerly attributed to the turquoise. He also cites a passage from Greene's "Farewell to Folly," which Mr. Singer, in another note on this play (see his edit. II. p. 503) calls "Greene's Farewell to follow 1617," confounding title and date. Greene's "Farewell to Folly " was first printed in 1591, but there was a reimpression of it in 1617, which Mr. Dyce employed.

VOL. II.

X

Go, Tubal, fee me

Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone. Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true. an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue: go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Belmont. An Apartment in PORTIA'S House.

Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and their
Attendants. The caskets set out.

Por. I pray you tarry: pause a day or two
Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
I lose your company: therefore, forbear a while.
There's something tells me, (but it is not love)
I would not lose you, and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality.

But lest you should not understand me well,
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,
I would detain you here some month or two,
Before venture for me.
you
I could teach you
How to choose right, but then I am forsworn;
So will I never be so may you miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'erlook'd me', and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,-
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours. O! these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights;
And so, though yours, not yours.-Prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it,-not I.

I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,

2

Beshrew your eyes,

They have O'ER LOOK'D me,] "O'er-look'd me" is here used in the sense of enchanted or bewitched me. So in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. v. sc. 5, as referred to by Malone:

"Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even from thy birth."

3 but 'tis to PEIZE the time,] To peize is to poise, weigh, or balance, and, as Henley remarks, figuratively to keep in suspense, or to delay. The corrector of

Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confess What treason there is mingled with your love. Bass. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love. There may as well be amity and life

'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
Por. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack,
Where men enforced do speak any thing.

Bass. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
Por. Well then, confess, and live.

Bass.

Had been the

Confess, and love,

very sum of my confession. O, happy torment, when my torturer

Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

Por. Away then. I am lock'd in one of them:
If you do love me, you will find me out.-
Nerissa, and the rest, stand all aloof.-

Let music sound, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,

Fading in music: that the comparison

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream,
And watery death-bed for him. He may win,
And what is music then? then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: such it is,
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no less presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice,
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages, come forth to view
The issue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules!

the folio, 1632, has "to pause the time;" but the change is by no means required although was very likely the word of some old performer in the part of Portia.

Live thou, I live :—with much, much more dismay
I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray.

A Song, whilst BASSANIO 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 eyes,
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.

Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But being season'd with a gracious voice
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
And these assume but valour's excrement,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight;
'Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it :
So are those crisped snaky golden locks,

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

4

with much, MUCH more dismay] The necessary repetition of "much," for the sake of the verse, is obtained from the 4to. by Heyes. The 4to. by Roberts,

in the next line, has" To view the fight."

5 in the eyes.] So the folio, rightly: the 4tos. have eye, in the singular. There is no VICE]

The oldest copies read, voice. The emendation is in the

second folio.

The scull that bred them, in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore

To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian: beauty, in a word',

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold',
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 meagre lead,
Which rather threat'nest than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I. Joy be the consequence!
Por. How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac'd despair,
And shuddering fear and green-ey'd jealousy.
O love! be moderate; allay thy ecstasy;
In measure rein thy joy'; scant this excess:
I feel too much thy blessing; make it less,
For fear I surfeit!

7 Veiling an Indian: beauty, in a word,] This is the improved punctuation of the corr. fo. 1632, which at once removes a very old stumbling-block of commentators, who, reasonably enough, could not understand how " veiling an Indian beauty" could be right, since it seemed the very reverse of what the poet intended. Therefore, Sir T. Hanmer proposed to substitute dowdy for "beauty;" but the fact seems to be that "Indian" ought to stand alone as a substantive, implying, as it does, the necessary qualification of ugliness: placing a colon after it makes beauty" run on most naturally and properly to the next line. Two lines above, the foiio, 1623, and Roberts's 4to. have " 'guiled shore," and the folio, 1632, guilded shore," which last is certainly an error: the old corrector alters "guilded" to guiling, the active for the passive participle: it may have been the custom to use the word guiling in his time; but as Shakespeare and other writers of that period often employed the passive participle instead of the active, and vice versa, we have introduced no alteration: by "guiled" Shakespeare certainly meant guiling of that there is no question. Mr. Singer preserves the now exploded

66

absurdity of "Indian beauty."

• Therefore, thou gaudy gold,] The 4to. of Heyes, and the folio, 1623, read, "Therefore then, thou gaudy gold."

Thy PALENESS moves me more than eloquence,] Warburton proposed to read plainness for "paleness;" as silver had been termed "pale" three lines before. The emendation, to say the least of it, is plausible, but it ought not therefore to be adopted in preference to the reading of all the old copies, which is very intelligible, and is unaltered in the corr. fo. 1632: lead may be termed a pale metal as well as silver.

In measure REIN thy joy ;] The 4to. by Roberts has, "range thy joy," the other old editions raine, leaving it somewhat doubtful whether we should read "rein" or rain. Mr. Dyce for rain (Remarks, 57), and I was formerly of the same opinion; but Portia, I am convinced, means only curb your joys, restrain them, and she therefore follows up the exclamation by "scant this excess."