Enter Ballanie, Lorenfe, and Graciano, Salan. Here comes Baffanie your most noble kinsman, Gratiano and Lorenfe: Faryewell, We leaue you now with better company. Salar. I would haue staide till I had made you merry, Anth. Your worth is very deere inmy regard.. Baff. Good figniors both, when Chall we laugh? fay, when? You grow exceeding ftrange: muft it be fo? Salar, Wee'l make our leyfures to attend on yours.. Exeunt Salaring and Salania, Lor. My Lord Bassanio,fince you have found Astbexið, Grat. You looke not well fignior Anthonia, Ant. I hold the world but as the world Gratiane, Gra. Let me play the foole, with mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; And let my Liver rather beate with wine, Then my heart coole with mortifying grones. Sleepe when he wakes and creepe into the Laundies. Exit Doe dreame and mantle like a standing pond, If they should fpeake, would almost dam those eares, Loren. Well, we will leaue you then till dinner time. Gra.Well,keepe me company but two yeares moe, Gra.Thanks ifaith,for filence is onely commendable In a neats tongue dried,and a maide not vendable. An.It is that any thing now. Exeunt, Baff. Gratiano fpeakes an infinite deale of nothing,more then any man in all Venice, his reafons are as two graines of wheate hid in two bushels of chaffe: you fhall feeke all day ere you finde them, and when you haue them, they are not worth the search. Ant.Well,tell me now what Lady is the fame Bal.Tis not vnknowne to you Anthonio, How much I haue difabled mine eftate, By By fomething fhewing a more fwelling port, Autho. I pray you good Bassanio,let me know it, Baff.In my fchoole dayes, when I had lost one shaft, Ant. You know me well, and heerein spend but time; And: And I am preft vato it, therefore fpeake Nor is the wide world ignorant ofher worth, Enter Portia with her wanting Woman Nerrissa. Fortia. By my troth Neriff, my little body is a wearie of this great world. Ner. You would be sweet Madam, if yous miferies were in the fame abundance as your good fortunes are: and yet for ought I fee,they are as fick that furfet with too much, as they that ftarue with nothing; it is no meane happineffe therefore to be feated in the meane, fuperfluity comes fooner by white haires, but competency liues longes Por. Portia.Good fentences,and well pronounced, Por. Ifto do, were as cafie as to know what were good to do, Chappels had beene Churches, and poore mens cottages, Princes Pallaces ; it is a good diuine that followes his owne inAructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to bee done, then to be one of the twenty to follow mine owne teaching : the braine may deuife lawes for the blood, but a hot temper leapes ore a colde decree, fuch a hare is madneffe the youth, to skip ore the meshes of good counfell the cripple; but this reafoning is not in the faflion to choose me a husband; Ome, the word choose,I may neyther choose who I would,nor refufe who I diflike, fois the will of a living daughter curbd by the will of a dead father: is it not hard Neriffa,that I cannot choose one,nor refufe none. : Ner. Your father was euer vertuous, and holy men at their death have good infpirations, therefore the lottry that he hath deuifed in these three chefts of gold, filuer, and leade, whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you,no doubt you wil neuer be chofen by any rightly, but one who fhall rightly loue: But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these Princely futers that are already come? Por. I prethee ouer-name them, and as thou nameft them, I will defcribe them, and according to my defcription, leuell at my affection. Ner.Firft,there is the Neapolitane Prince. Por. I that's a colt indeed, for hee doth nothing but talke of his horse,and he makes it a great appropriation, vnto his owne good parts,that he can fhoo himfelfe: I am much afeard my La dy his Mother plaid false with a fmith. Ner. Then there is the County Palatine. Por. He doth nothing but frowne (as who should say,if you will not haue me,choofe; he heares merry tales and fmiles not, I feare he will prooue the weeping Philofopher whe he growes old,being fo full of vnmannerly fadneffe in his youth.) I had ra ther be married to a deaths head with a bone in his mouth, then B |