Senators of Venice, Officers, Jailer, Servants, and other Attendants. SCENE I. A Street in Venice. ACT I. Enter Anthonio, Salarino, and Salanio. And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, Sal. Your mind is tossing on the ocean: 1 Sal. My wind, cooling my broth, 10 And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks? 15 And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought 20 Is sad to think upon his merchandize. [it, Anth. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for Ships so named from Ragusa. The name of the ship. hat, to strike sail, to give sign of submission. 3 To vail, means to put off the Sala, Sala. Not in love neither? Then let's say, you are sad, 5 Because you are not merry: and 'twere as easy Enter Bassanio, Lorenzo, and Gratiano. Sala. I would have staid till Ihad made youmerry, Anth. Your worth is very dear in my regard. [tools 2. (That therefore only are reputed wise, more, [time. Gra. Well, keep me company but two years [tongue. 15 Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own Anth. Fare well; I'll grow a talker for this 20 You Lor. My lord Bassanio, since you have found We two will leave yoù; but at dinner-time, Gra. You look not well, signior Anthonio; Anth. Ihold theworld but as the world, Gratiano, Gra. Let me play the fool': gear. [mendable Gra. Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only comIn a neat's tongue dry'd, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt Gra. and Lor. Anth. Is that any thing now? Bass. 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. Anth. Well; tell me now, what lady is the same, Buss. 'Tis not unknown to you, Anthonio, From such a noble rate; but my chief care Anch. I pray yon, good Bassanio, let me know it; [shaft, Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one 50I shot his fellow of the self-same flight 155 The self-same way, with more advised watch, I oft found both: I urge this childhood proof, Because what follows is pure innocence. 1 This alludes to the common comparison of human life to a stage-play. So that he desires his may be the fool's or buffoon's part, which was a constant character in the old farces; from whence came the phrase, to play the fool. 2 Our author's meaning is, that some people are thought wise whilst they keep silence; who, when they open their mouths, are such stupid praters, that the hearers cannot hep calling them tools, and so incur the judgment denounced in the gospel. The humour of this cousists in its being an allusion to the practice of the puritan preachers of those times; who being generally very long and tedious, were often forced to put off that part of their sermon called the cahortation, till after dinner. 3 That That which I owe is lost: but if you please blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to chuse me a husband: 5-O me, the word chuse! I may neither chuse whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father:-Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot chuse one, nor refuse none? 10 Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their death, have good inspirations; therefore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead, (whereof who chuses his meaning, chuses you) 15wili, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely suitors that are already come? Por. I pray thee, over-name them; and, as thou 20nam'st them, I will describe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection. Bass. In Belmont is a lady richly left, A Room in Portia's House in Belmont. Enter Portia and Nerissa. Ver. First, there is the Neapolitan prince. Por. Ay, that's a colt', indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he can shoe him himself: I am much afraid my lady his mother played false with a smith. Ner. Then, there is the County Palatine. Por. He doth nothing but frown; as, who 30 should say, An if you will not have me, chuse : he hears merry tales and smiles not: I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows fold, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a death's35 head with a bone in his mouth, than to either of these. God defend me from these two! Ner. How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon? Por. God made him, and therefore let him pass 40 for a man. In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mockJer; But, he! why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine: he is every man in no man: if a throstle sing, he falls strait a-capering; he will fence with his own shadow if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands: If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he love me to madness, I shall never requite him. Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is a-45 weary of this great world. Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are: And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve 50 with nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Por. Gocd sentences, and well pronounc'd. Ner. They would be better, if well follow'd. Por. 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, 60 than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the That is, ready to do it. youngster. Ner. What say you then to Faulconbridge, the young baron of England? Por. You know I say nothing to him; for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian; and you will come into the court and swear, that I have a poor pene 55 ny-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 doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour every-where. Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? Sometimes here means formerly. i. e, a thoughtless, gidly, gay Por. Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrow'd 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. Ner. How like you the young German, the duke of Saxony's nephew? 5 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 10 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 chuse, and chuse the right casket, you should refuse to perform your 15 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 chuse it. 20 I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I will be marry'd to a spunge. 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 25 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 Sybilla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the 30 manner of my father's will: I am glad this parcel of wooers are so very 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 fa-35 ther's time, a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier, that came hither in company of the marquis of Montserrat? Por. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, so he was call'd. Ner. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes look'd upon, was the best deserving a fair lady. Por. I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy praise.-How now! what news? Enter a Servant. Shy. For three months,—well. Bass. For the which, as I told you, Anthonio shall be bound. Shy. Anthonio 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 Anthonio bound. Bass. Your answer to that. Shy. Anthonio 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 tothe Indies; I understand moreover upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath, squander'dabroad: But ships are but boards, sailors but men: 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. I Bass. Be assur'd, you may. [be assur'd, 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 Anthonio. Bass. This is signior Anthonio. Shy. [Aside.] How like a fawning publican he But more, for that, in low simplicity, Ser. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a fore-runner come from the fifth, the prince of Morocco; who brings word, the prince, his master, will be here to-night. 50 Por. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I can bid the other four farewell, 1 should be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of a saint, and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive 55 me. Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.-Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A publick Place in Venice. Enter Bassanio and Shylock. Shy. Three thousand ducats,-well. Buss. Ay, sir, for three months. Bass. Shylock, do you hear? Shy. I am debating of my present store; This is a phrase taken from the practice of wrestlers. I'll break a custom :--Is he yet possess'd, How much you would? Shy. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats. Anth. And for three months. [so. You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, Shy. I had forgot-three months, you told me 5" Hath a dog money? Is it possible Well then, your bond; and, let me see, -But hear you; [row, Methoughts, you said, you neither lend nor bor- Anth. I do never use it. Shy. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's Anth, And what of him? did he take interest? say, 10 "A cur can lend three thousand ducats ?" or "You sporn'd me such a day; another time Anth. I am as like to call thee so again, Directly interest: mark what Jacob did. 6 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, Forget the shames that you have stained me with, 25 Supply your present wants, and take no doit Ofusance for my monies, and you'll not hear me; This is kind I offer. Should fall as Jacob's hire; the ewes, being rank, [for: Shy. I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast :— Anth. Mark you this, Bassanio. The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. 40 O, what a goodly outside falshood hath! [sum. 45 In the Rialto you have rated me 3 Anth. This were kindness. Shy. This kindness will I show: Anth. Content, in faith; I'll seal to such a bond, Anth. Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it: Of thrice three times the value of the bond. [are; Shy. O father Abraham, what these Christians A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, 4 i. e. lambs just dropt. 3. e. of nature. Meaning, lascivious, obscene. Use and usance were both words formerly employed for usury. A gaberdine means a course frock. That is, interest money bred from the principal. To dwell, here seems to mean the same as to continue. See |