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ANT. Is that any thing now?"

BASS. Gratiano fpeaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: His reafons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bufhels of chaff; you fhall feek all day ere you find them; and, when you have them, they are not worth the fearch.

ANT. Well; tell me now, what lady is this fame To whom you fwore a fecret pilgrimage, That you to-day promis'd to tell me of?

BASS. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, How much I have difabled mine eftate, By fomething fhowing a more fwelling port Than my faint means would grant continuance: Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd From fuch a noble rate; but my chief care Is, to come fairly off from the great debts, Wherein my time, fomething too prodigal, Hath left me gaged: To you, Antonio, I owe the most, in money, and in love; And from your love I have a warranty To unburthen all my plots, and purposes, How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

ANT. I pray you, good Baffanio, let me know it; And, if it stand, as you yourself still do,

Is that any thing now?] All the old copies read, is that any thing now? I fuppofe we should read—is that any thing new? JOHNSON.

The fenfe of the old reading is,-Does what he has just faid amount to any thing, or mean any thing? STEEVENS.

Surely the reading of the old copies is right. Antonio afks: Is that any thing now? and Baffanio anfwers, that, Gratiano peaks an infinite deal of nothing- — the greatest part of his difcourfe is not any thing. TYRWHITT.

So, in Othello: "Can any thing be made of this?" The old copies, by a manifeft error of the prefs, read-It is that, &c. Corrected by Mr. Rowe, MALONE.

Within the eye of honour, be affur'd,

My purfe, my perfon, my extremeft means,
Lie all unlock'd to your occafions.

BASS. In my fchool-days, when I had loft one fhaft,

I fhot his fellow' of the felf-fame flight
The self-fame way, with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; and by advent'ring both,
I oft found both: I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.

I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth,
That which I owe is loft: but if you please
To fhoot another arrow that felf way

Which you did fhoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both,

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when I had left one shaft,

I shot his fellow, &c.] This thought occurs alfo in Decker's Villanies difcovered by Lanthorne and Candlelight, &c. 4to. bl. 1. " And yet I have feene a Creditor in Prifon weepe when he beheld the Debtor, and to lay out money of his owne purfe to free him : he foot a fecond arrow to find the first." I learn, from a MS. note by Oldys, that of this pamphlet there were no lefs that eight editions; the last in 1638. I quote from that of 1616, STEEVENS.

This method of finding a loft arrow is prefcribed by P. Crefcentius in his Treatife de Agricultura, Lib. X. cap. xxviii. and is also mentioned in Howel's Letters, Vol. I. p. 183. edit, 1655. 12m0. DOUCE.

8 - like a wilful youth,] This does not at all agree with what he had before promised, that what followed fhould be pure innocence. For wilfulness is not quite so pure, We fhould read witless, i. e. heedlefs; and this agrees exactly to that to which he compares his cafe, of a school-boy; who, for want of advised watch, loft his first arrow, and fent another after it with more attention. But nwilful agrees not at all with it. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton confounds the time paft and prefent. He has formerly loft his money like a wilful youth; he now borrows more in pure innocence, without difguifing his former faults, or his present defigns. JOHNSON.

Or bring your latter hazard back again,
And thankfully reft debtor for the first.

ANT. You know me well; and herein spend but time,

To wind about my love with circumstance;
And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong,
In making question of my uttermoft,
Than if you had made wafte of all I have:
Then do but fay to me what I fhould do,
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am preft unto it: therefore, speak.
BASS. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And the is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wond'rous virtues; fometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechlefs meffages:
Her name is Portia; nothing undervalued
To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.

9-preft unto it] Preft may not here fignify imprefs'd, as into military fervice, but ready. Pret, Fr. So, in Cajar and Pompey, 1607:

"What must be, muft be; Cæfar's preft for all."

Again, in Hans Beer-pot, &c, 1618:

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your good word

"Is ever preft to do an honeft man good."

Again, in the concluding couplet of Churchyard's Warning to the Wanderers abroad, 1593:

"Then fhall my mouth, my mufe, my pen and all,

"Be preft to ferve at each good fubject's call,"

I could add twenty more inftances of the word being used with this fignification. STEEVENS.

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fometimes from her eyes-] So all the editions; but it certainly ought to be, fometime, i. e. formerly, fome time ago, at a certain time and it appears by the fubfequent fcene, that Baffanio was at Belmont with the Marquis de Montferrat, and faw Portia in her father's life time. THEOBALD.

It is ftrange, Mr. Theobald did not know, that in old English, fometimes is fynonymous with formerly. Nothing is more frequent in title-pages, than " Jometimes fellow of fuch a college."

FARMER.

Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned fuitors: and her funny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;
Which makes her feat of Belmont, Colchos' ftrand,
And many Jafons come in queft of her.
O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind prefages me fuch thrift,
That I fhould questionless be fortunate.

ANT, Thou know'ft, that all my fortunes are at
fea;

Nor have I money, nor commodity

To raise a prefent fum: therefore go forth,
Try what my credit can in Venice do ;
That fhall be rack'd, even to the uttermoft,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, presently inquire, and fo will I,
Where money is; and I no queftion make,
To have it of my trust, or for my fake.

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SCENE II,

Belmont. A Room in Portia's House.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.

[Exeunt.

POR. By my troth, Neriffa, my little body is aweary of this great world.

NER. You would be, fweet madam, if your miseries were in the fame abundance as your good fortunes are: And, yet, for aught I fee, they are as fick, that surfeit with too much, as they that ftarve with nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore,

to be feated in the mean; fuperfluity comes fooner by white hairs,' but competency lives longer. POR. Good fentences, and well pronounced. NER. They would be better, if well followed. POR. If to do were as eafy 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 inftructions: 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 devife laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree: fuch a hare is madness the youth, to fkip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband:-O me, the word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I diflike; fo is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father:Is it not hard, Neriffa, that I cannot choofe one, nor refuse none?

NER. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their death, have good infpirations; therefore, the lottery, that he hath devifed in these three chefts, of gold, filver, and lead, (whereof who choofes his meaning, chooses you,) will, no doubt, never be chofen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of thefe princely fuitors that are already come?

POR. I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou nameft them, I will defcribe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection.

3-fuperfluity comes fooner by white hairs,] i. e. Superfluity fooner acquires white hairs; becomes old. We ftill fay, How did he some by it? MALONE,

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