Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship. Salar. He came too late, the ship was under

sail : But there the duke was given to understand, That in a gondola were seen together Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica: Besides, Anthonio certify'd the duke, They were not with Bassanio in his ship.

Salan. I never heard a passion so confus'd, So strange, outrageous, and so variable, As the dog Jew did utter in the streets : My daughter!-O my ducats !-O my daugh

ter ! Fled with a Christian !m-O my Christian

ducats ! Justice! the law ! my ducats, and my daughter! A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, Of double ducats, stoln from me by my

daughter ! And jewels too, stones, rich and precious stones, Stol'n by my daughter! -Justice! find the girl! She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats ! Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow

him, Crying-His stones, his daughter, and his du

cats ! Salan. Let good Anthonio look he keep his

day, Or he shall pay for this.

Salar Salar.

Marry, well remember'd : I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday ;' Who told me,-in the narrow seas, that part The French and English, there miscarried A vessel of our country, richly fraught : I thought upon Anthonio, when he told me; And wish'd in silence, that it were not his.

Salan. You were best to tell Anthonio what

you hear;

Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him. Salar. A kinder gentleman treads not the

earth. I saw Bassanio and Anthonio

part: Bassanio, told him he would make some speed Of his return; he answer'd,-Do not so, Slubber not a business for my sake, Bassanio,

But

1 I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday ;] i.e. I conversed. So, in King John :

“ Our griefs, and not our manners reason now."

Again, in Chapman's translation of the fourth book of the Odyssey :

« The morning shall yield time to you and me, “ To do what fits, and reason mutually.”

ŠTEEVENS. This is an arrant Gallicism ; used, as the French do their Je raisonnois, for-" I talked,” simply.

CAPELL. The Italian ragionare is used in the same sense.

J. M. Mason. 2 Slubber not] To slubber is to do any thing carelessly, imperfectly. So, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

-they 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 ;3

Be

3

66 - they slubber'd thee over so negligently." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money : “ I am as haste ordain'd me, a thing slubber'd.”

STEEVENS. in your

mind of love ;] There ought to have been a comma after the word, mind, for the sense is—" Let me entreat you by our mutual love, 6 that

you take not the least thought of it.” Heath. I once fancied, that another sense was intended, inconsistent with this pointing ; namely,—" in your “ mind that is and should be engaged by love and “ love-matters :" but as this anticipates somewhat the thoughts that follow, the other meaning, which is besides more pathetic, is to be preferred : of love, is every day used by us in the sense of_" for love's " sake.” CAPELL.

Of love, is an adjuration sometimes used by Shakspeare. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Scene 7 : " Quick desires you to send her

your

little page,

of all loves :" i.e. she desires you to send him by all means. Your mind of love may, however, in this instance,

your loving mind.” So, in the Tragedie of Cræsus, 1604: a “mind of treason," is a treasonable snind. “ Those that speak freely, have no mind of treason.”'

STEEVENS. Agreeably to the latter mode of explanation, it may be, without any reference to love as a passion,

-Your

mean

Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts4
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.
Salan. I think, he only loves the world for

him.
I pray thee, let us go, and find him out,
And quicken his embraced heaviness6

With

4

apply. Dodd.

" Your mind that is full of affectionate regard and “ tender solicitude for your friends, and, therefore,

more liable to be rendered unhappy by the appre“ hension of any danger likely to befasthem." E.

-and employ your chiefest thoughts] The sense seems here evidently to require we should read

5 And even there, his eye being big with tears,] The description here given of the parting of two friends, would make a beautiful and affecting subject for the pencil. Mrs. GRIFFITH.

So curious an observer of nature was our author, and so minutely had he traced the operation of the passions, that many passages of his works might furnish hints to painters. In the passage before us, we have the outline of a beautiful picture. MALONE,

It may be matter of surprise that the foregoing remarks did not attract the attention of some of the artists who furnished designs for Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery. E.

-embraced heaviness] Dr. Warburton, with that grossness of taste which characterizes so many

of

6

With some delight or other.
Salar.

Do we so.

(Exeunt.

of his observations, stiles this an “unmeaning epi. " thet." E.

-embraced heaviness) i.e. The heaviness which he indulges, and is fond of. EDWARDS. We say

of a man now, that “ he hugs his sorrows," and why might not Anthonio embrace heaviness? So, in Much Ado about Nothing, Scene 1:

- You embrace your charge too willingly," Again, in this play of the Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Scene 2: " -doubtful thoughts and rash-embrac'd despair."

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

SCENE