the court and swear, that I have a poor penny-worth in the English. He is a proper man's picture. But, alas! who can converse with a dumb show? How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doubiet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonset in Germany, and his behaviour every where.

Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour?

Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him again, when he was able: I think the Frenchman became his surety, and seal'd under for another.

8

Ner. How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew?

Por. Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober; and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk when he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast: An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.

Ner. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should refuse to accept him.

Por. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket: for, if the devil be within, and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge.

A proper man is a handsome man.

So in the quartos. In the folio Scottish was changed to other; doubtless on account of King James.

H.

The Duke of Bavaria visited London, and was made a Knight of the Garter, in Shakespeare's time. Perhaps, in this enumeration of Portia's suitors, there may be some covert allusion to those of Queen Elizabeth.

Ner. You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords: they have acquainted me with their determination; which is, indeed, to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's imposition, depending on the caskets.

Por. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant them a fair departure.

Ner. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat?

Por. Yes, yes; it was Bassanio: as I think, so was he call'd.

Ner. True, madam : he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes look'd upon, was the best deserv ing a fair lady.

Por. I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy praise. How now! what news?

Enter a Servant.

Serv. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of Morocco; who brings word, the prince, his master, will be here to-night.

Por. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of a saint, and the complexion of a

9

That is, temper, disposition. So, in Othello: "And then of so gentle a condition!" Likewise, in Tyndall's Works: "Let every man have his wyfe, and thinke her the fayrest and the best conditioned, and every woman her nusband so too."

H

devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive

nie.

Come, Nerissa.

Sirrah, go before.—

Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.

[Exeunt

SCENE III. Venice. A public Place.

Enter BASSANIO and SHYLOCK.

Shy. Three thousand ducats, — well.

Bass. Ay, sir, for three months.

Shy. For three months,

well.

Bass. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.

Shy. Antonio shall become bound, — well.

Bass. May you stead me? Will you pleasure me ? Shall I know your answer?

Shy. Three thousand ducats, for three months, and Antonio bound.

Bass. Your answer to that.

Shy. Antonio is a good man.

Bass. Have you heard any imputation to the contrary?

Shy. Ho! no, no, no, no :- my meaning, in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me, that he is sufficient. Yet his means are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; I understand moreover upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England; and other ventures he hath, squandered abroad: But ships are but boards, sailors but men:

1 Squandered is not to be taken in a bad sense here: it means simply scattered, dispersed. Thus, in Howell's Letters: The Duke of Savoy, though he pass for one of the princes of Italy, yet the least part of his territories lie there, being squander'd up

there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves; I mean, pirates: and then, there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks. The man is notwithstanding, sufficient: :- -three thousand ducats; -I think I may take his bond.

Bass. Be assured you may.

Shy. I will be assured I may; and that I may be assured, I will bethink me: May I speak with Antonio ?

Bass. If it please you to dine with us.

Shy. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto? - Who is he comes here?

Enter ANTONIO.

Bass. This is signior Antonio.

Shy. [Aside.] How like a fawning publican he looks!

I hate him for he is a Christian;

But more, for that, in low simplicity,

He lends out money gratis, and brings down

2

The rate of usance here with us in Venice.

If I can catch him once upon the hip,3

and down amongst the Alps." And, again, he speaks of the Jews as a people "squander'd all the earth over."

H.

"It is almost incredible what gain the Venetians receive by the usury of the Jews, both privately and in common. For in every city the Jews keep open shops of usury, taking gages of ordinary for fifteen in the hundred by the yeare; and if at the year's end the gage be not redeemed, it is forfeit, or at least done away to a great disadvantage; by reason whereof the Jews are out of measure wealthy in those parts."-Thomas's History of Italy 1561.

This phrase seems to have originated from hunting, because

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,

On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,

4

Which he calls interest: Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive him!

Bass.

Shylock, do you hear?

Shy. I am debating of my present store; And, by the near guess of my memory,

I cannot instantly raise up the gross

Of full three thousand ducats: What of that?
Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe,

Will furnish me: But soft! how many months
Do you desire? [To ANT.] Rest you fair, good

signior;

Your worship was the last man in our mouths. Ant. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow,

when the animal pursued is seized upon the hip, it is finally disa bled from flight. Dr. Johnson once thought the phrase was taken from the art of wrestling, but he corrected his opinion at a subsequent period, and in his Dictionary derives it from hunting.

Usance, usury, and interest were all terms of precisely the same import in Shakespeare's time; there being then no such law or custom whereby usury has since come to mean the taking of interest above a certain rate. How the taking of interest, at what soever rate, was commonly esteemed, is shown in Lord Bacon's Essay of Usury, where he mentions the popular arguments against it: "That the usurer is the greatest Sabbath-breaker, because his plough goeth every Sunday; that the usurer breaketh the first law that was made for mankind after the fall, which was, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;' that usurers should have orange. tawny bonnets, because they do Judaize; that it is against nature for money to beget money, and the like." The words in Italie show that usury was regarded as a badge of Judaism; and perhaps nothing but the popular hatred of the Jews on other scores could account for the fast-rooted prejudice against a thing so firmly grounded in the laws of trade. These laws, like others, of course benefit those who observe them; and as no trading com. munity could thrive unless they were observed, and as none but Jews would observe them, they of course had a monopoly of the benefit arising therefrom.

H.