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ing in to dinner, fir, why, let it be as humours and
conceits fhall govern.
[Exit LAUNCELOT.
LOR. O dear difcretion, how his words are
fuited!?

The fool hath planted in his memory
An army of good words; And I do know
A many fools, that stand in better place,
Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter. How cheer'ft thou, Jeffica?
And now, good sweet, fay thy opinion,
How doft thou like the lord Baffanio's wife?
JES. Paft all expreffing: It is very meet,
The lord Baffanio live an upright life;
For, having fuch a bleffing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
And, if on earth he do not mean it, it
Is reafon he should never come to heaven.
Why, if two gods fhould play fome heavenly match,
And on the wager lay two earthly women,

And Portia one, there must be something else
Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow.

.

LOR.

Even fuch a husband

-how his words are fuited!] I believe the meaning is-What a feries or fuite of words he has independent of meaning; how one word draws on another without relation to the matter. JOHNSON.

I cannot think either that the word fuited is derived from the word fuite, as Johnson supposes, as that, I believe, was introduced into our language long fince the time of Shakspeare; or that Launcelot's words were independent of meaning. Lorenzo expreffes his furprize that a fool fhould apply them fo properly. So Jaques fays to the Duke in As you like it:

"I met a fool

"That laid him down and baik'd him in the fun,
"And rail'd at Lady Fortune in good terms,

"In good set terms:"

That is, in words well fuited. M. MASON.

Haft thou of me, as fhe is for a wife.

JES. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.
LOR. I will anon; first, let us go to dinner.
JES. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a sto-
mach.

LOR. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; Then, howfoe'er thou speak'ft, 'mong other things I shall digeft it.

JES.

Well, I'll fet you forth. [Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Venice. A Court of Juice.

Enter the Duke, the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALARINO, SALANIO, and others.

DUKE. What, is Antonio here?

ANT. Ready, fo please your grace.

DUKE. I am forry for thee; thou art come to anfwer

A ftony adverfary, an inhuman wretch

Uncapable of pity, void and empty

From any dram of mercy.

ANT.

I have heard,

Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify

His rigorous courfe; but fince he ftands obdurate, And that no lawful means can carry me

Out of his envy's reach,' I do oppofe

3 his envy's reach,] Envy in this place means hatred or

My patience to his fury; and am arm'ded To fuffer, with a quietnefs of fpirit, of The very tyranny and rage of his

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DUKE. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. SALAN. He's ready at the door: he comes my lord.

Enter SHYLOCK.

DUKE. Make room, and let him ftand before our face.

Shylock, the world thinks, and I think fo too,
That thou but lead'ft this fashion of thy malice
To the laft hour of act; and then, 'tis thought,
Thou'lt fhow thy mercy, and remorfe, more ftrange,
Than is thy ftrange apparent cruelty:

6

And, where thou now exact'st the penalty,
(Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,)
Thou wilt not only loofe the forfeiture,
But touch'd with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal;

Glancing an eye of pity on his loffes,
That have of late fo huddled on his back;

malice. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 16214 he never looks on her (his wife) with affection, but entydi P. 109. edit. 1679. So alfo (as Mr. Malone obferves) in Lazarus. Pyot's Orator, &c. [See the notes at the end of this play.]they had flaine him for verie envie." STEEVENS.

S

remorfe,] i. e. pity. So, in Othello:
"And to obey fhall be in me remorje." STELTENS

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apparent] That is, feeming not real. JOHNSON... where] For wherean. JouxsON,

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"And where I thought the remnant of mine age

"Should have been cherith'd by her child-like duty," &c.

STBEVENS.

Enough to prefs a royal merchant down," ~
And pluck commiferation of his ftate

From braffy bofoms, and rough hearts of flint,
From stubborn: Turks, and Tartars, never train'd
To offices, of tender courtesy.

We all expect a gentle anfwer, Jew.

SHY. I have poffefs'd your grace of what I

pose;

And by our holy Sabbath have I fworn,
To have the due and forfeit of my bond:

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7 Enough to prefs a royal merchant down,] We are not to imagine the word royal to be only a ranting founding epithet. It is ufed with great propriety, and hows the poet well acquainted with the hiftory of the people whom he here brings upon the ftage. For when the French and Venetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had won Conftantinople, the French under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquefts into the provinces of the Grecian empire on the Terra firma, while the Venetians, who were mafters of the fea, gave liberty to any fubjects of the republick, who would fit out veffels, to make themfelves mafters of the ifles of the Archipelago, and other maritime places; and to enjoy their conquefts in fovereignty; only doing homage to the republick for their feveral principalities. By virtue of this licence, the Sanudo's, the Juftiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo's, and others, all Venetian merchants, erected principalities in feveral places of the Archipelago, (which their defcendants enjoyed for many generations) and thereby became truly and properly royal merchants. Which indeed was the title generally given them all over Europe. Hence, the moff eminent of our own merchants (while publick fpirit refided among them, and before it was aped by faction) were called royal merchants. WARBURTON.

This epithet was in our poet's time more ftriking and better un derftood, because Grefham was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal merchant. JOHNSON.

Even the pulpit did not difdain the ufe of this phrafe. I have now before me" The Merchant Royal a Sermon, preached af Whitehall, before the king's majeftie, at the nuptialls of the right honourable the Lord Hay and his lady, upon the twelfe day last, being Jan. 6, 1607." STEEVENS.

If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter, and your city's freedom.
You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive
Three thousand ducats: I'll not answer that:
But, fay, it is my humour; Is it anfwer'd?
What if my houfe be troubled with a rat,
And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?
Some men there are, love not a gaping pig;'

9 I'll not answer that:

But, fay, it is my humour:] The few being afked a queftion which the law does not require him to anfwer, ftands upon his right, and refufes; but afterwards gratifies his own malignity by fuch anfwers as he knows will aggravate the pain of the enquirer. I will not anfwer, fays he, as to a legal or ferious queftion, but fince you want an anfwer, will this ferve you? JOHNSON.

2

fay, it is my humour;] Suppofe it is my particular fancy.

HEATH. ------- a gaping pig ;] So, in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623: "He could not abide to fee a pig's head gaping ; "I thought your grace would find him out a Jew." Again, in The Maftive, &c. or, A Collection of Epigrams and Satires:

"Darkas cannot endure to fee a cat,

"A breast of mutton, or a pig's head gaping." STEEVENS. Shakspeare might have read of fuch another antipathy [to a pigge ftufte"] in Goulart's Hiftories, of which there was an earlier edition than that of 1607. RITSON.

By a gaping pig, Shakspeare, I believe, meant a pig prepared for the table; for in that ftate is the epithet, gaping, moft applicable to this animal. So, in Fletcher's Elder Brother:

"And they ftand gaping like a roasted pig.”

A paffage in one of Nafhe's pamphlets (which, perhaps furnished our author with his inftance) may ferve to confirm the obfervation : "The causes conducting unto wrath are as diverfe as the actions of a man's life. Some will take on like a madman, if they fee a pig come to the table. Sotericus the furgeon was cholerick at the fight of sturgeon," &c. Pierce Penny lefje bis Supplication to the Devil. 1592. MALONE.

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