But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, In all his dressings,* characts, titles, forms, MERCHANT OF VENICE. ACT I. MIRTH AND MELANCHOLY. NOW, by two-headed Janus, Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, WORLDLINESS. You have too much respect upon the world: They lose it, that do buy it with much care. THE WORLD'S TRUE VALUE. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part. CHEERFULNESS. Let me play the Fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come: And let my liver rather heat with wine, Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster? Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice By being peevish? *Habits and characters of office AFFECTED GRAVITY. I tell thee what, Antonio, I love thee, and it is my love that speaks;- LOQUACITY. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and, when you have them, they are not worth the search. MEDIOCRITY. For aught I see, they are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. SPECULATION MORE EASY THAN PRACTICE. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree; such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. * Obstinate silence. THE JEW'S MALICE. 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 I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him Even there where merchants most do congregate, HYPOCRISY. Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. THE JEW'S EXPOSTULATION. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft, * Interest. Hath a dog money? is it possible, A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? or Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; ACT II. GRAVITY ASSUMED. Signior Bassanio, hear me: Talk with respect, and swear but now and then, Like one well studied in a sad ostent* THE JEW'S COMMANDS TO HIS DAUGHTER. Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum, And the vile squeaking of the wry-neck'd fife, Clamber not you up to the casements then, Nor thrust your head into the public street, To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces: But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements; Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter My sober house. POSSESSION MORE LANGUID THAN EXPECTATION. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont, To keep obliged faith unforfeited! Who riseth from a feast, With what keen appetite that he sits down? * Show of staid and serious demeanour. That he did pace them first? All things that are, The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, PORTIA'S SUITORS. From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds Of wide Arabia, are as through-fares now, For princes to come view fair Portia : The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar To stop the foreign spirits; but they come, As o'er a brook, to see fair Portia. THE PARTING OF FRIENDS. I saw Bassanio and Antonio part: Bassanio told him he would make some speed Of his return; he answer'd-Do not so, Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, But stay the very riping of the time; And for the Jew's bond, which he hath of me, Let it not enter in your mind of love: Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts To courtship, and such fair ostents‡ of love As shall conveniently become you there: And even there, his eye being big with tears, Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, And with affection wondrous sensible He wrung Bassanio's hand and so they parted. HONOUR TO BE CONFERRED ON MERIT ONLY. For who shall go about To cozen fortune, and be honourable * Decorated with flags. To slubber is to do a thing carelessly. |