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 bank-
rupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce shew 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.

a dia

Shy. Why there, there, there, there! mond 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 hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why, so:-and I know not what's

Salar. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt spent in the search. Why, thou loss upon loss!

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 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 will 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.

Solan. Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew.

[Exeunt SOLANIO, SALARINO, and Servant. Shy. How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter?

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.

me,

Tub. One of them shewed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a money. Shy. Out her! Thou torturest upon 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.

Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone.

Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit;

Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but for where he out of Venice, I can make what mercannot find her. chandise I will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at

our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our synagogue,
Tubal.
[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Belmont. A Room in PORTIA'S

House.

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 locked 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;

Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,

and Attendants. The caskets are 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 you venture for me.
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'erlooked me, and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours;
Mine own,
I would but if mine, then yours,
say;
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 't is to peize the time;

To eke it and to draw it out in length,

To stay you from election.

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 blearéd visages, come forth to view
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
Live thou, I live. - With much much more dis-

may

I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray!

Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself.

SONG.

Tell me, where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?

Reply, reply.

It is engendered 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 them-
selves.

The world is still deceived with ornament:
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,

Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her king.
Myself and what is mine, to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o'er myself: and even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself,
Are yours, my lord; — I give them with this ring:
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let it presage the ruin of your love,
And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Ner. Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.
Bass. And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
Gra. Yes, 'faith, my lord.

Bass. Our feast shall be much honored in your
marriage.

Gra. We'll play with them, the first boy for a thousand ducats.

Ner. What, and stake down?

Gra. No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and
stake down.

But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel?
What, my old Venetian friend, Solanio?

Bass. Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins:
And there is such confusion in my powers,
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleaséd multitude;
Where every something being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,
Expressed and not expressed:-but when this Sweet Portia, welcome.

ring

Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SOLANIO.
Bass. Lorenzo, and Solanio, welcome hither;
If that the youth of my new interest here
Have power to bid you
welcome. - By your leave,
I bid my very friends and countrymen,

Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence; They are entirely welcome.
O, then be bold to say, Bassanio's dead.

Lor. I thank your honor. For my part, my

lord,

My purpose was not to have seen you here,
But meeting with Solanio by the way,
He did entreat me, past all saying nay,
To come with him along.

Sola.

Ner. My lord and lady, it is now our time, That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper, To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady! Gra. My lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady, I wish you all the joy that you can wish; For I am sure you can wish none from me: And when your honors mean to solemnize The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you, Even at that time I may be married too. Bass. With all my heart, so thou canst get a I pray you tell me how my good friend doth. wife.

Signior Antonio

I did, my lord,
And I have reason for it.
Commends him to you. [Gives BASSANIO a letter.
Bass. Ere I ope his letter,

Sola. Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;

Gra. I thank your lordship; you have got me Nor well, unless in mind: his letter there

one.

My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;
You loved, I loved; for intermission
No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
Your fortune stood upon the caskets there;
And so did mine too, as the matter falls:
For wooing here until I sweat again,
And swearing till my very roof was dry
With oaths of love; at last (if promise last),
I got a promise of this fair one here,

To have her love, provided that your fortune
Achieved her mistress.

Some dear friend dead; else nothing in the world If law, authority, and power deny not,
Could turn so much the constitution
It will go hard with poor Antonio.

Of any constant man. What, worse and worse?
With leave, Bassanio: I am half yourself,
And I must freely have the half of anything
That this same paper brings you.