Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck,

Sby. I thank thee, good Tubal ;-Good news, good news : ha! ha!- Where? in Genoa ?

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourscore ducats.

Sby. Thou stick'ít a dagger in me:-I shall never see my gold again : Fourscore ducats at a sitting ! fourscore ducats !

Tub. There came divers of Anthonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot chuse but break.

Sby. I am glad of it ; I'll plague him; I'll torture him ; I am glad of it.

Tub. One of them shewed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

Shy. Ouc upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal : it was my turquoise ; I had it of Leah, when I was a batchelor : I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies.

Tub. But Anthonio is certainly undone.

Sby. Nay, that's true, that's very true: Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, befpeak him a fortnight before: I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit ; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will : Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.

[Exeunt.

Enter Bassanio, Portia, Gratiano, and attendants.

The caskets are set out.
Por. I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two,
Before you hazard; for, in chusing wrong,

I loose

I lose your company; therefore, forbear a while :
There's something tells me, (but it is not love)
I would not lose you ; and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality :
But left you should not understand me well,
(And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought)
I would detain you here some month or two,
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How to chuse right, but I am then forsworn;
So will I never be : so you may miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me with a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'er-look'd me, and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other yours,—
Mine own, I would say ; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours : Oh! these naughty times
Puc bars between the owners and their rights ;
And so, though yours, not yours.—Prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it, -not I.
I speak too long; but 'tis to 6 peize the time ;
To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.

Baf. Let me chuse;
For, as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio ? then confess
What treason there is mingled with your

love. Bas. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my

love: There may as well be amity and life 'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my

love. Por. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack,

may oath.

* Prove it fo, &c.]-Should you chance to lose me, let fortune rather go to bell for depriving you of your deserts, than I for a breach of

& peize)-delay, retard, piece. VOL. II.

K

Where

Where men enforced do speak any thing.

Baf. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
Por. Well then, confess and live.

Bas. Confess, and love,
Had been the very sum of my confeffion :
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me answers for deliverance !
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

Por. Away then : I am lock'd in one of them;
If you do love me, you will find me out.-
Neriffa, and the rest, stand all aloof.
Let musick sound, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in musick: 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 mufick then ? then musick is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch : such it is,
As are those dulce 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. Go, Hercules !
Live thou, I live:—With much much more dismay
I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray.

[Mufick witbin. * With no less presence.)-With like intrepidity.

virgin tribute] - Hefione daughter of Laomedon king of Troy defined to be devoured by a fea-monfter, but delivered by Hercules.

A song,

i

A fong, whilft Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself.

Tell me, where is fancy bred,
Or in the beart, or in the bead?
How begot, bow nourished?

Reply

It is engender'd in the eyes,
Witb gazing fed ; * and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies :

Let us all ring fancy's knell.

I'll begin it,Ding dong, bell. All.

Ding, dong, bell. Bas.—'So may the outward shows be least themselves; The world is still deceiv'd with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being 'season'd with a gracious 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 grofsness 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 fand, 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 fancy dies &c. )-alluding to love's changeableness, being excited by one object, and extinguilhed by another.

So may &c.]-part of the argument had already passed in his mind.

season'd with a gracious voice,]- set off with the charms of oratory: * beautyl-artificial.

And you shall see 'tis purchas'd ° by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them P lightest that wear most of it:
So are those ? crisped Inaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of 'a second head,
The scull 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. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee :
Nor none of thee, thou ' ftale and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead,
Which rather threatnest, than dost promise aught,
Thy "paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here chuse 1; Joy be the consequence !

Por. How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rafh-embrac'd despair,
And shudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealousy.
O love, be moderate, allay thy ecitaly,
In measure * rain thy joy, scant this excess;
I feel too much thy blesling, make it less,
For fear I surfeit !

[Opening the leaden casket. Bal. What find I here? Fair Portia's 'counterfeit? What demy-god

• by the weight ; ]-of false hair, paint, &c. p lightest]-elteemed as wantons. 9 criped snaky)-curled in ringlets. "a fecond another's. * guiled )--treacherous, deceitful-gildid. i Indian beauty ;]-deformity. w plainness. s counterfeit?]-resemblance, picture.

upale.

x rein.

Hath