Act III. Sec. 1.

Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.

O, that estates, degrees, and offices,

Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear honour
Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover, that stand bare?
How many be commanded, that command?
How much low peasantry would then be glean'd
From the true seed of honour? and how much honour
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,

To be new varnish'd?

LOVE MESSENGER COMPARED TO AN APRIL DAY.

I have not seen

So likely an ambassador of love:

A day in April never came so sweet,

To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

ACT III.

THE JEW'S REVENGE.

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 villany, you teach me, I will exccute: and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.

MUSIC.

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 wat'ry 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 the exploit.

THE DECEIT OF ORNAMENT OR APPEARANCES.

The world is still deceived with ornament; In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracioust 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,

* Dignity of mein. + Winning favour.

+ Curled

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

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull 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.

PORTIA'S PICTURE.

What find I here?

[Opening the leaden casket
Fair Portia's counterfeit? What demi-god
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider; and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs: But her eyes,-
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnish'd.

SUCCESSFUL LOVER COMPARED TO A CONQUEROR.

Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
Hearing applause and universal shout,

Giddy in spirit, still gazing, in a doubt

Whether those peals of praise be his or not;
So thrice fair lady, stand I.

HIS THOUGHTS TO THE INARTICULATE JOYS OF A

CROWD.

There is such confusion in my powers,

As, after some oration fairly spoke

By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleased multitude:

Where every something, being blent‡ together,
*Treacherous. + Likeness, portrait.

+ Blonded.