AR. What is here? The fire feven times tried this; So begone, fir, you are Sped. Still more fool I fhall appear By the time I linger here: With one fool's head I came to woo, But I go away with two. Sweet, adieu! I'll keep my oath, Patiently to bear my wroth.' [Exeunt Arragon and train. POR. Thus hath the candle fing'd the moth. O these deliberate fools! when they do choose, They have the wifdom by their wit to lofe. I wis,] I know. Wiffen, German. So, in K. Henry VI: "I wis your grandame had no worfer match.' Again, in the comedy of king Cambyfes: “ Yea, I wis, shall you, and that with all speed.” Sidney, Afcham and Waller ufe the word. STEEVENS. 7 Take what wife you will to bed,] Perhaps the poet had forgotten that he who miffed Portia was never to marry any woman. JOHNSON. 8 So begone, fir,] Sir, which is not in the old copies, was fupplied by the editor of the second folio, for the fake of the metre. MALONE. to bear my wroth.] The old editions read-" to bear my wreath." Wreath is ufed in fome of the old books for misfortune; and is often fpelt like ruth, which at prefent fignifies only pity, or forrow for the miferies of another. Caxton's Recuyell of the bifloryes of Troye, &c. 1471, has frequent intances of wrath. The modern editors read-my wrath. STEEVENS. NER. The ancient faying is no heresy ;- Enter a Servant. SERV. Where is my lady? POR. Here; what would my lord? 9 SERV. Madam, there is alighted at your gate A young Venetian, one that comes before To fignify the approaching of his lord: From whom he bringeth fenfible regreets ;' To wit, befides commends, and courteous breath, Gifts of rich value; yet I have not feen So likely an embassador of love: A day in April never came fo fweet, To fhow how coftly fummer was at hand, As this fore-fpurrer comes before his lord. POR. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard, Thou wilt fay anon, he is fome kin to thee, Thoufpend'ft fuch high-day wit' in praifing him.— Come, come, Neriffa; for I long to fee Quick Cupid's poft, that comes fo mannerly. NER. Baffanio, lord love, if thy will it be! [Exeunt. Por. Here; what would my lord?] Would not this fpeech to the fervant be more proper in the mouth of Neriffa? TYRWHITT. regreets;] i. e. falutations. So, in K. John, A& III. 9 fc.i: high-day wit] So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: he fpeaks boliday." STEEVENS. ACT III. SCENE I. Venice. A Street. Enter SALANIO and SALARINO. SALAN. NOW, what news on the Rialto? SALAR. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd, that Antonio hath a fhip of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow feas; the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcafes of many a tall fhip lie buried, as they say, if my my goffip report be an honeft woman of her word. SALAN. I would fhe were as lying a goffip in that, as ever knapp'd ginger,' or made her neighbours believe the wept for the death of a third husband: Bus it is true, without any flips of prolixity, or croffing the plain high-way of talk,-that the good Antonio, the honeft Antonio,—O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company !— SALAR. Come, the full ftop. SALAN. Ha,-what fay'ft thou?-Why the end is, he hath loft a ship. SALAR. I would it might prove the end of his loffes! 4 SALAN. Let me fay amen betimes, left the devil cross my prayer; for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. 3 -knapp'd ginger;] To knap is to break fhort. The word occurs in the Common Prayer: “He knappeth the spear in funder.” STEEVENS. my prayer;] i. e. the prayer or with, which you have juft now uttered, and which I devoutly join in by saying amen to it. Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton unneceffarily, I think, read-thy prayer. MALONE. Enter SHYLOCK. How now, Shylock? what news among the merchants? SHY. You knew, none fo well, none fo well as you, of my daughter's flight. SALAR. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings the flew withal. SALAN. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. SHY. She is damn'd for it. SALAR. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge. SHY. My own flesh and blood to rebel! SALAN. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at thefe years? SHY. I fay, my daughter is my flesh and blood. SALAR. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers, than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods, than there is between red wine and rhenish:-But tell us, do you hear, whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? SHY. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal,' who dare fcarce fhow his head The people pray as well as the priest, though the latter only pronounces the words, which the people make their own by faying Amen to them. It is, after this, needlefs to add, that the Devil (in the fhape of a Jew) could not crofs Salarino's prayer, which as far as it was fingly his, was already ended. HEATH. 5a bankrupt, a prodigal,] This is fpoke of Antonio. But why a prodigal? his friend Baffanio indeed had been too liberal; and with this name the Jew honours him when he is going to fup with him: on the Rialto;-a beggar, that used to come so fmug upon the mart;-let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me ufurer;-let him look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy ;-let him look to his bond. SALAR. Why, I am fure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh; What's that good for? SHY. To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing elfe, it will feed my revenge. He hath difgraced me, and hindered me of half a million; laughed at my loffes, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reafon? I am a Jew: Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimenfions, fenfes, affections, paffions? fed with the fame food, hurt with the fame weapons, fubject to the fame difeafes, healed by the fame means, warmed and cooled by the fame winter and fummer, as a Christian is? if you prick us, do we not bleed?" if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if I'll go in hate to feed upon The prodigal Chriftian But Antonio was a plain, referved, parfimonious merchant; be affured therefore we fhould read-a bankrupt FOR a prodigal, i. e. he is become bankrupt by supplying the extravagancies of his friend Baffanio. WARBURTON. There is no need of alteration. There could be, in Shylock's opinion, no prodigality more culpable than fuch liberality as that by which a man exposes himself to ruin for his friend. JOHNSON. His lending money without intereft," for a chriftian courtesy," was likewise a reafon for the Jew to call Antonio prodigal. EDWARDS. —if you prick us, do we not bleed?] Are not Jews made of the fame materials as Chriftians, fays Shylock; thus in Plutarch's life of Cæfar, p. 140. 4to. v. iv: " Cæfar does not confider his fubjects are mortal, and bleed when they are pricked," " 80% DATO TW! τραυμαίων λογίσεται Καισαρ ετι θνητῶν μὲν ἀρκεῖ.” S. W. |