You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last: Ant. I am as like to call thee so again, But lend it rather to thine enemy; Who if he break, thou may'st with better face Shy. Why, look you, how you storm ! I would be friends with you, and have your love, Of usance for my monies, and you'll not hear me : Ant. This were kindness. Shy. This kindness will I show : • A breed for barren metal of his friend?] A breed, that is, interest money bred from the principal. By the epithet barren, the author would instruct us in the argument on which the advocates against usury went, which is this; that money is a barren thing, and cannot, like corn and cattle, multiply itself. And to set off the absurdity of this kind of usury, he put breed and barren in opposition.-WARBURTON. Go with me to a notary, seal me there Ant. Content, in faith; I'll seal to such a bond, Bass. You shall not seal to such a bond for me, Ant. Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it; Shy. O father Abraham, what these Christians are ; And, for my love, I pray you, wrong me not. I will be with you. Ant. Hie thee, gentle Jew. [Exit. This Hebrew will turn Christian; he grows kind. ACT II. SCENE I. Belmont. A Room in Portia's House. Flourish of Cornets. Enter the Prince of Morocco, and his Train; PORTIA, NERISSA, and other of her Attendants. Mor. Mislike me not for my complexion, As any comer I have look'd on yet, For my affection. Mor. Even for that I thank you; Therefore, I pray you, lead me to the caskets, • To prove whose blood is reddest, his, or mine.] To understand how the tawny prince, whose savage dignity is very well supported, means to recommend himself by this challenge, it must be remembered that red blood is a traditionary sign of courage: Thus Macbeth calls one of his frighted soldiers, a lily-liver'd boy; again, in this play, cowards are said to have livers as white as milk; and an effeminate and timorous man is termed a milksop.-JOHNSON. It is customary in the east for lovers to testify the violence of their passion by cutting themselves in the sight of their mistresses.-HARRIS. f fear'd-] i. e. Terrify'd. To try my fortune. By this scimitar,- And die with grieving. Por. You must take your chance; And either not attempt to choose at all, Or swear, before you choose, if you choose wrong, Never to speak to lady afterward In way of marriage; therefore be advised.h Mor. Nor will not; come, bring me unto my chance. Por. First, forward to the temple; after dinner Your hazard shall be made. Laun. Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew, my master: The fiend is at mine elbow; and tempts me, saying to me, Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good Launcelot, or good Gobbo, or good Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away: My conscience says, -no; take heed, honest Launcelot; take heed, honest Lichas,] An attendant of Hercules. advised.] Well considered. This word is the opposite to rash. Gobbo; or as aforesaid, honest Launcelot Gobbo; do not run; scorn running with thy heels: Well, the most courageous fiend bids me pack; via! says the fiend: away! says the fiend, for the heavens ; rouse up a brave mind, says the fiend, and run. Well, my conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says very wisely to me,my honest friend Launcelot, being an honest man's son, or rather an honest woman's son ;-for, indeed, my father did something smack, something grow to, he had a kind of taste;-well, my conscience says, Launcelot, budge not; budge, says the fiend; budge not, says my conscience: Conscience, say I, you counsel well; fiend, say I, you counsel well: to be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who, (God bless the mark!) is a kind of devil; and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil himself: Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incarnation; and, in my conscience, my conscience is but a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew: The fiend gives the more friendly counsel: I will run, fiend; my heels are at your commandment, I will run. Enter Old Gовво, with a Basket. Gob. Master, young man, you, I pray you; which is the way to master Jew's? Laun. [Aside.] O heavens, this is my true begotten father! who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not :- I will try conclusionsm with him. Gob. Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way to master Jew's? Laun. Turn up on your right hand, at the next turning, but, at the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at the very next turning, turn of no hand, but turn down indirectly to the Jew's house. k for the heavens;] This petty oath, which has much perplexed the commentators, means neither more nor less than by heaven, as Mr. Gifford has proved by several apposite quotations. - Ben Jonson, vol. ii. 67. 1 sand-blind,] Having an imperfect sight as if there were sand in the eye.-NARES. m try conclusions-] Try experiments. |