A golden mind ftoops not to fhows of drofs;
I'll then nor give, nor hazard, aught for lead.
What fays the filver, with her virgin hue?
Who choofeth me, fhall get as much as he deferves.
As much as he deferves?-Pause there, Morocco,
And weigh thy value with an even hand:
If thou be'ft rated by thy eftimation,
Thou doft deserve enough; and yet enough
May not extend fo far as to the lady;
And yet to be afeard of my deferving,
Were but a weak difabling of myself.
As much as I deferve!-Why, that's the lady:
I do in birth deferve her, and in fortunes,
In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
But, more than thefe, in love I do deferve,
What if I ftray'd no further, but chofe here?-
Let's fee once more this faying grav'd in gold.
Who choofeth me, shall gain what many men defire.
Why, that's the lady; all the world defires her:
From the four corners of the earth they come,
To kifs this fhrine, this mortal breathing faint.
The Hyrcanian deferts, and the vafty wilds
Of wide Arabia, are as through-fares now,
For princes to come view fair Portia :
The watry kingdom, whofe ambitious head
Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar
To stop the foreign fpirits; but they come,
As o'er a brook, to fee fair Portia.

One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is't like, that lead contains her? Twere damna-

tion,

To think fo bafe a thought; it were too grofs

8

To rib her cerécloth in the obfcure grave.

8 To rib- -] i. e. inclofe, as the ribs inclofe the vifcera. So, in Cymbeline:

-ribb'd and paled in

"With rocks unfcaleable, and roaring waters."STEVENS.

Or fhall I think, in filver fhe's immur'd,
Being ten times undervalued to try'd gold?
O finful thought! Never fo rich a gem

Was fet in worse than gold. They have in England

A coin, that bears the figure of an angel
Stamped in gold; but that's infculp'd upon;
But here an angel in a golden bed

Lies all within.-Deliver me the key;

Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!

POR. There, take it, prince, and if my form lie

there,

Then I am yours.

MOR.

[He unlocks the golden cafket.

O hell! what have we here?

A carrion death, within whofe empty eye

There is a written fcroll? I'll read the writing.

All that glifters is not gold,
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath fold,
But my outfide to behold:

Gilded tombs do worms infold.

8 infculp'd upon;] To infculp is to engrave. So, in a comedy called A new Wonder, a Woman never Vex'd, 1632:

in golden text

"Shall be infculp'd" STEEVENS.

The meaning is that the figure of the angel is raifed or emboffed on the coin, not engraved on it. TUTET.

9 Gilded tombs do worms infold.] In all the old editions this line is written thus:

Gilded timber do worms infold.

From which Mr. Rowe and all the following editors have made: Gilded wood may worms infold.

A line not bad in itfelf, but not fo applicable to the occafion as that which, I believe, Shakspeare wrote:

Gilded tombs do worms infold.

A tomb is the proper repofitory of a death's-head. JOHNSON.

Had you been as wife as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgement old,
Your answer had not been infcrol'd:*
Fare you well; your fuit is cold.

Cold, indeed; and labour loft:

Then, farewel, heat; and, welcome, froft.Portia, adieu! I have too griev'd a heart

To take a tedious leave: thus lofers part. [Exit. POR. A gentle riddance :-Draw the curtains,

go;

Let all of his complexion choose me fo.3 [Exeunt.

The thought might have been fuggested by Sidney's Arcadia, Book I:

"But gold can guild a rotten piece of wood." STEEVENS. Tombes (for fuch was the old spelling) and timber were easily confounded. Yet perhaps the old reading may be right. The conftruction may be-Worms do infold gilded timber. This, however, is very harth, and the car is offended. In a poem entitled, Of the Silke Wormes and their flies, 4to. 1599, is this line:

"Before thou waft, were timber-worms in price." MALONE. More than the ear, I think, would be offended on this occafion; for how is it poffible for worms live bred within timber, to infold it? STEEVENS.

Dr. Johnson's emendation is fupported by Shakspeare's 101ft Sonnet :

"To make thee much out-live a gilded tomb." MALONE. 2 Your answer had not been infcrol'd:] Since there is an answer inferol'd or written in every cafket, I believe for your we should read-this. When the words were written y' and y3, the mistake was eafy. JOHNSON.

3

11

chocfe me fo.] The old quarto editions of 1600 have no diftribution of acts, but proceed from the beginning to the end in an unbroken tenour. This play, therefore, having been probably divided without authority by the publishers of the first folio, lies open to a new regulation, if any more commodious divifion can be propofed. The ftory is itfelf fo wildly incredible, and the changes of the fcene fo frequent and capricious, that the probability of action does not deferve much care; yet it may be proper to obferve, that, by concluding the fecond act here, time is given for Baflanio's paffage to Belmont. JOHNSON.

SCENE VIII.

Venice. A Street.

Enter SALARINO and SALANIO.

SALAR. Why man, I faw Baffanio under fail, With him is Gratiano gone along;

And in their fhip, I am fure, Lorenzo is not.

SALAN. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the duke;

Who went with him to fearch Baffanio's fhip.
SALAR. He came too late, the fhip was under
fail:

But there the duke was given to understand,
That in a gondola were feen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jeffica:
Besides, Antonio certify'd the duke,
They were not with Baffanio in his fhip.
SALAN. I never heard a paffion fo confus'd
So ftrange, outrageous, and fo variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
My daughter!-O my ducats!-O my daughter!
Fled with a Chriftian?-O my chriftian ducats!
Juftice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter &
A fealed bag, two fealed bags of ducats,

Of double ducats ftol'n from me by my daughter!
And jewels; two fomes, two rich and precious ftones,
Stol'n by my daughter!-Juftice! find the girl!
She bath the flones upon her, and the ducats!

SALAR. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him
Crying, his ftones, his daughter, and his ducats.
SALAN. Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
Qr he fhall pay for this.

SALAR.

Marry, well remember'd e

I reafon'd with a Frenchman yesterday; 4
Who told me,-in the narrow feas, that part
The French and English, there mifcarried
A veffel of our country, richly fraught:
I thought upon Antonio, when he told me;
And with'd in filence, that it were not his.

SALAN. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;

Yet do not fuddenly, for it may grieve him.

SALAR. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. I faw Baffanio and Antonio part:

Baffanio told him, he would make some speed
Of his return; he answer'd-Do not fo,
Slubber not business for my fake, Bassanio,
But ftay 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:"
Be merry; and employ your chiefeft thoughts
To courtship, and fuch fair oftents of love
As fhall conveniently become
you there:

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

Our griefs, and not our manners reafon now." Again, in Chapman's Tranflation of the fourth book of the Odyffey:

"The morning fhall yield time to you and me,

"To do what fits, and reafon mutually." STEEVENS. The Italian ragionare is used in the fame fenfe. M. MASON. 5 Slubber not -] To fubber is to do any thing carelessly, imperfectly. So, in Nafh's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

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

STEEVENS.

6 your mind of love:] So all the copies, but I fufpect fome corruption. JOHNSON.

This imaginary corruption is removed by only putting a comma after mind.

LANGTON.