To come abroad with him at his request.
ANT. I pray thee, hear me speak.

SHr. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:

I'll have my bond; and therefore fpeak no more.
I'll not be made a foft and dull-ey'd fool,
To shake the head, relent, and figh, and yield
To chriftian interceffors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond.
[Exit SHYLOCK.
SALAN. It is the most impenetrable cur,
That ever kept with men.

Let him alone;

ANT.
I'll follow him no more with bootlefs prayers.
He feeks my life; his reafon well I know;
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

Many that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.

SALAN.

I am fure, the duke

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

ANT. The duke cannot deny the courfe of law; For the commodity that ftrangers have

With us in Venice, if it be denied,'

8 dull-ey'd fool,] This epithet dull-ey'd is bestowed on melancholy in Pericles, Prince of Tyre. STEEVENS.

9 The duke cannot deny, &c.] As the reafon here given feems a little perplex'd, it may be proper to explain it. If, fays he, the duke ftop the courfe of law, it will be attended with this inconvenience, that stranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is fupported, will cry out of injuftice. For the known ftated law being their guide and fecurity, they will never bear to have the current of it flopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever. WARBURTON.

2 For the commodity that ftrangers have

With us in Venice, if it be denied, &c.] i. e. for the denial of thofe rights to strangers, which render their abode at Venice fo

Will much impeach the justice of the state;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Confifteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
These griefs and loffes have fo 'bated me,
That I fhall hardly spare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.-
Well, gaoler, on:-Pray God, Bassanio come
To fee me pay his debt, and then I care not!
[Excúnt.

2

SCENE

IV.

Belmont. A Room in Portia's Houfe.

nter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHAZAR.

LOR. Madam, although I fpeak it in your prefence, You have a noble and a true conceit'

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly
In bearing thus the abfence of
your lord.
But, if you knew to whom you fhow this honour,
How true a gentleman you send relief,

How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
I know, you would be prouder of the work,
Than customary bounty can enforce you.

POR. I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now: for in companions
That do converfe and waste the time together,

commodious and agreeable to them, would much impeach the juftice of the state. The confequence would be, that ftrangers would not refide or carry on traffick here; and the wealth and itrength of the ftate would be diminished. In The Hiftorye of Italye, by W. Thomas, quarto, 1567, there is a section On the libertee of firaun gers at Venice. MALONE.

Whofe fouls do bear an equal yoke of love,*
There must be needs a like proportion
Of lineaments, of manners,' and of spirit;
Which makes me think, that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,*

2 Whofe fouls do bear an equal yoke, &c.] The folio, 1623, reads-egal, which, I believe, in Shakspeare's time was commonly ufed for equal. So it was in Chaucer's:

"I will prefume hym fo to dignifie
"Yet be not egall."

Again, in Gorboduc:

Prol. to The Remedy of Love.

"Sith all as one do bear you egall faith." STEEVENS.

3 Of lineaments, of manners, &c.] The wrong pointing has made this fine fentiment nonfenfe. As implying that friendship could not only make a fimilitude of manners, but of faces. The true fenfe is, lineaments of manners, i. e. form of the manners, which, fays the speaker, muft needs be proportionate. WARBURTON.

The poet only means to fay, that corresponding proportions of body and mind are neceffary for those who spend their time together. So, in K. Henry IV. P. II:

"Dol. Why doth the prince love him fo then?

"Fal. Because their legs are both of a bigness," &c. Every one will allow that the friend of a toper fhould have a Arong head, and the intimate of a fportfman fuch an athletic con. ftitution as will enable him to acquit himfelf with reputation in the exercises of the field. The word lineaments was ufed with great laxity by our ancient writers. In The learned and true Affertion of the Original, Life, &c. of King Arthur, tranflated from the Latin of John Leland, 1582, it is ufed for the human frame in general. Speaking of the removal of that prince's bones,—he calls them Arthur's lincaments three times tranflated; and again, all the lineaments of them remaining in that most fately tomb, faving the fin bones of the king and queen, &c.

Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: "Nature hath fo curioufly performed his charge in the lineaments of his body," &c. Again, in Chapman's tranflation of the twenty-third book of Homer's Iliad:

fo over-labour'd were

"His goodly lineaments with chafe of Hector," &c.

STEEVENS.

the bofom lover of my lord.] In our author's time this term was applied to thofe of the fame fex who had an esteem for each other. Ben Jonfon concludes one of his letters to Dr. Donne, by

Muft needs be like my lord: If it be so,
How little is the coft I have beftow'd,
In purchasing the semblance of my foul
From out the ftate of hellish cruelty?
This comes too near the praifing of myself;
Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.-
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house,
Until my lord's return: for mine own part,
I have toward heaven breath'd a fecret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Neriffa here,

Until her husband and my lord's return:
There is a monaftery two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do defire you,
Not to deny this impofition;

The which my love, and fome neceflity,

Now lays upon you.

LOR.

Madam, with all my heart;

I fhall obey you in all fair commands.

POR. My people do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jeffica

In place of lord Baffanio and myself.

So fare you well, till we fhall meet again.

LOR. Fair thoughts, and happy hours, attend on you!

telling him," he is his true lover." So, in Coriolanus: " I tell thee, fellow, thy general is my lover." Many more inftances might be added. See our author's Sonnets, paffim. MALONE,

hear other things.] In former editions:

This comes too near the praising of myself;
Therefore no more of it: here other things,
Lorenzo, I commit, &c.

Portia finding the reflections fhe had made came too near selfpraife, begins to chide herself for it; fays, She'll fay no more of that fort; but call a new fubject. The regulation I have made in the text was likewife prefcribed by Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD.

JES. Lewith your ladyfhip all heart's content. POR.I thank you for your with, and am well pleas'd To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jeffica.1 ~ [Exeunt, JESSICA and LORENZO.

Now, Balthazar,

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee ftill: Take this fame letter,
And use thou all the endeavour of a man,
In fpeed to Padua ; fee thou render this
Into my cousin's hand, doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,

Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed'
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry
Which trades to Venice:-wafte no time in words,

In fpeed to Padua;] The old copies read-Mantua; and thus all the modern editors implicitly after them. But 'tis evident to any diligent reader, that we muft reftore, as I have done,-In speed to Padua: for it was there, and not at Mantua, Bellario liv'd. So afterwards;-A messenger, with letters from the Doctor, new from Padua-And again, Came you from Padua, from Bellario?And again, It comes from Padua, from Bellario.-Befides, Padua, not Mantua, is the place of education for the civil law in Italy, THEOBALD.

come

with imagin'd speed—] i. e. with celerity like that of imagination. So, in the Chorus preceding the third act of K. Henry V "Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies." Again, in Hamlet: "-fwift as meditation" STEEVENS.

Unto the tranet,] The old copies concur in this reading, which appears to be derived from tranare, and was probably a word current in the time of our author, though I can produce no example of it. STEEVENS.

Mr. Rowe reads-traject, which was adopted by all the subfequent editors,-Twenty miles from Padua, on the river Brenta there is a dam or fluice, to prevent the water of that river from mixing with that of the marthes of Venice. Here the paffage-boat is drawn out of the river, and lifted over the dam by a crane. From hence to Venice the diftance is five miles. Perhaps fome novel-writer of Shakspeare's time might have called this dam by the name of the tranect, See Du Cange in v. Trana, MALONE