6 NER. First, there is the Neapolitan prince.+ POR. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horfe;' and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he can fhoe him himself: I am much afraid, my lady his mother played false with a smith. NER. Then, is there the county Palatine." POR. He doth nothing but frown; as who should fay, An if you will not have me, choose: he hears merry tales, and smiles not: I fear, he will prove the weeping philofopher when he grows old, being fo full of unmannerly fadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a death's head with a bone in his mouth, than to either of these. God defend me from these two! the Neapolitan prince.] The Neapolitans in the time of Shakspeare, were eminently skilled in all that belongs to horfemanfhip; nor have they, even now, forfeited their title to the fame praife. STEEVENS. Though our author, when he compofed this play, could not have read the following paffage in Florio's tranflation of Montaigne's Effaies, 1603, he had perhaps met with the relation in fome other book of that time: "While I was a young lad, (fays old Montaigne,) I faw the prince of Salmona, at Naples, manage a young, a rough, and fierce horfe, and fhow all manner of horsemanship; to hold teftons or reals under his knees and toes fo faft as if they had been nayled there, and all to fhow his fure, steady, and unmoveable fitting." MALONE, 5 Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse;} Colt is ufed for a witlefs, heady, gay youngfter, whence the phrafe used of an old man too juvenile, that he ftill retains his colt's tooth. See Henry VIII. Act I. fc. iii. See alfo Vol. V. p. 227. JOHNSON. 6 is there the county Palatine.] I am almoft inclined to believe, that Shakspeare has more allufions to particular facts and perfons than his readers commonly fuppofe. The count here mentioned was, perhaps, Albertus a Lafco, a Polish Palatine, who vifited England in our author's life-time, was eagerly careffed, and fplendidly entertained; but running in debt, at laft ftole away, and endeavoured to repair his fortune by enchantment. JOHNSON. County and Count in old language were fynonymous.-The Count Alafco was in London in 1583. MALONE, NER. How fay you by the French lord, Món, fieur Le Bon? POR. God made him, and therefore let him pafs for a man. In truth, I know it is a fin to be a mocker; 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' fing, he falls ftraight a capering; he will fence with his own fhadow: if I fhould marry him, I should marry twenty husbands: If he would defpife me, I would forgive him; for if he love me to madness, I shall never requite him. NER. What say you then to Faulconbridge, the young baron of England? 8 POR. You know, I fay 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 pennyworth in the English. He is a proper man's picture; But, alas! who can converfe with a dumb fhow? How oddly he is fuited! I think, he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hofe in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour every where. 7if a throstle-] Old Copies traffel, Corrected by Mr. Pope. The throfile is the thrush. The word occurs again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "The throftle with his note fo true-." MALONE. That the throfile is a diftinct bird from the thrush, may be known from T. Newton's Herball to the Bible, quoted in a note on the foregoing paffage in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Vol. V. p. 81. STEEVENS. 8 he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian ;] A fatire on the ignorance of the young English travellers in our author's time, Othello: WARBURTON, a proper man's picture;] Proper is handsome. So, in "This Ludovico is a proper man." STEEVENS. T NER. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? POR. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrowed 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 furety,' and fealed under for another. NER. How like you the young German, the duke of Saxony's nephew? POR. Very vilely in the morning, when he is fober; and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is beft, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worft, he is little better than a beast an the worst fall that ever fell, I hope, I fhall make shift to go without him. NER. If he should offer to choose, and choofe the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should refufe to accept him. POR. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, fet a deep glass of Rhenifh wine on the contrary cafket: for, if the devil be within, and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Neriffa, ere I will be married to a fpunge. 2 NER. You need not fear, lady, the having any of Scottish lord,] Scottish, which is in the quarto, was omitted in the firft folio, for fear of giving offence to king James's countrymen. THEOBALD. 3 I think, the Frenchman became his furety,] Alluding to the conftant affiftance, or rather conftant promifes of affiftance, that the French gave the Scots in their quarrels with the English. This alliance is here humorously fatirized. WARBURTON. 4 How like you the young German, &c.] In Shak fpeare's time the duke of Bavaria vifited London, and was made knight of the garter. Perhaps in this enumeration of Portia's fuitors, there may be fome covert allufion to thofe of queen Elizabeth, JOHNSON. thefe lords; they have acquainted me with their determinations: which is indeed, to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more fuit; unless you may be won by fome other fort than your father's impofition, depending on the caskets. POR. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chafte as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will: I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very abfence, and I pray God grant them a fair departure. NER. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a fcholar, and a foldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat? POR. Yes, yes, it was Baffanio; as I think, fo was he called. NER. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes look'd upon, was the beft deferving a fair lady. POR. I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy praife.-How now! what news? Enter a Servant. SERV. The four ftrangers feek for you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a fore-runner come from a fifth, the prince of Morocco; who brings word, the prince, his mafter, will be here to-night. POR. If I could bid the fifth welcome with fo good heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I fhould be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of a faint, and the complexion of a devil, 3 the condition] i. e. the temper, qualities. So, in Othello: “—and then, of fo gentle a condition!" MALONE. I had rather he fhould fhrive me than wive me. Come, Neriffa.-Sirrah, go before.-Whiles we fhut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door. [Exeunt. Enter BASSANIO and SHYLOCK. SHY. Three thousand ducats,—well. BASS. For the which, as I told you, Antonio fhall be bound. SHY. Antonio fhall become bound,-well. BASS. May you ftead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your answer. SHY. Three thousand ducats, for three months, and Antonio bound. BASS. Your answer to that. SHY. Antonio 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 fufficient: yet his means are in fuppofition: he hath an argofy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; I understand moreover upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath, fquander'd abroad: But fhips are but boards, failors but men : there be land-rats, and water-rats, water-thieves, and land-thieves; I mean, pirates; and then, there |