Jef. And what hope is that, I pray thee?

Laun. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter.

Jef. That were a kind of baftard hope, indeed; fo the fins of my mother should be vifited upon me.

Laun. Truly, then, I fear, you are damn'd both by father and mother; thus when you fhun Scylla, (23) your father, you fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways.

Jef. I fhall be faved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian.

Laun. Truly, the more to blame he; we were chriftians enough before, e'en as many as could well live one by another: this making of chriftians will raife the price of hogs; if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not fhortly have a rather on the coals for money.

Enter Lorenzo.

Jef. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you fay: here he comes.

Lor. I fhall grow jealous of you fhortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners.

Jef. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are out; he tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heav'n, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he fays, you are no good member of the common wealth; for, in converting Jews to chriftians, you raise the price of pork.

(23) Thus when you shun Scylla, your father,] By the allusion which Launcelot makes here, 'tis evident, Shakespeare was no ftranger to this Hexamiter, nor the application of it;

Incidit in Scyllum, cupiens vitare Charybdim.

Erafmus in his Adagies, quotes this verse as one very much in vogue with the Latines; but fays, he does not remember its author. I prefume, it might have been founded upon the Greek proverbial fentence, likewife quoted by him, Τὴν Χάρυβδιν ἐκφυγαν τη Σκύλλη περιέπεσον. This is one of thofe Iambics, he tells us, which were call'd, Dimetri x91. For my own part, (throwing out this cramp definition) I think it might have been a plain Iambic, as moft of the proverbial Gnomes were, and only difmounted from its numbers by the unneceflary infertion of the articles. I would read it:

Σκύλλη περιέπεσον, Χάρυβδιν ἐκφυγών.

Lor.

Lor. I fhall anfwer that better to the common-wealth, than you can the 'getting up of the negro's belly: the Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.

Laun. It is much, that the Moor fhould be more than reafon but if fhe be less than an honest woman, she is indeed more than I took her for.

Lor. How every fool can play upon the word! I think, the best grace of wit will fhortly turn into filence, and difcourfe grow commendable in none but parrots. Go in, firrah, bid them prepare for dinner.

Laun. That is done, Sir; they have all ftomachs. Lor. Good lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner.

Laun. That is done too, Sir; only cover is the word. Lor. Will you cover then, Sir?

Laun. Not fo, Sir, neither; I know my duty.

Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occafion! wilt thou fhew the whole wealth of thy wit in an inftant? I pray thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows, bid them cover the table, ferve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.

govern.

Laun. For the table, Sir, it shall be serv'd in: for the meat, Sir, it fhall be covered; for your coming in to dinner, Sir, why, let it be as humours and conceits fhall [Exit Laun. Lor. O dear difcretion, how his words are fuited! The fool has planted in his memory An army of good words; and I do know A many fools that ftand in better place, Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word Defy the matter: how far'ft thou, Feffica? And now, good fweet, fay thy opinion, How doft thou like the lord Balanio's wife? Jef. Paft all expreffing: it is very meet, The lord Bassanio 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 merit it,

In reafon he fhould never come to heav'n.

Why, if two Gods should play fome heav'nly match,

And

And on

the wager lay two earthly women,
And Portia one, there must be fomething else
Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow.

Lor. Even fuch a husband

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

Jef. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.
Lor. I will anon: first, let us go to dinner.

Jef. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a ftomach. Lor. No, pray thee, let it ferve for table-talk; Then, howfoe'er thou fpeak'ft, 'mong other things, I shall digeft it.

Jef. Well, I'll fet you forth.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE, the Senate-house in Venice.

Enter the Duke, the Senators; Anthonio, Baffanio. and Gratiano, at the Bar.

DUKE.

HAT, is Anthonio here?

WHAT,

Ant. Ready, fo please your Grace.

Duke. I'm forry for thee; thou art come to answer 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 rig❜rous courfe; but fince he ftands obdurate,

And that no lawful means can carry me

Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose

My patience to his fury; and am arm'd

To fuffer, with a quietness of spirit,

The

very tyranny and rage of his.

Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the Court. Sal. He's ready at the door: he comes, my lord. VOL. II.

G

Enter

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 fhew thy mercy and remorfe more strange,
Than is thy ftrange apparent cruelty.

And where thou now exact'ft the penalty,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
Thou wilt not only lofe 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,
Enough to prefs a royal merchant down;
And pluck commiferation of his state

From brafly bofoms, and rough hearts of flint;
From ftubborn 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 purpose. And by our holy Sabbath have I fworn, To have the due and forfeit of my bond. If you deny it, let the danger light Upon your charter, and your city's freedom. You'll ask me, why I rather chufe to have A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive Three thousand ducats? I'll not anfwer that. But fay, it is my humour, is it answer'd? What if my houfe be troubled with a rat, And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats To have it bane'd? what, are you answer'd yet? Some men there are, love not a gaping pig; Some, that are mad, if they behold a cat; And others, when the bag-pipe fings i' th' nofe, Cannot contain their urine for affection. (24)

(24) Cannot contain their urine for affection.

Masterless paffion fways it to the mood

Masterless

Of what it likes, or loaths.] Mafterless paffion was firft Mr. Rozve's

reading,

3

Masterless paffion fways it to the mood

Of what it likes, or loaths. Now for your answer:
As there is no firm reason to be render'd,

Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;

Why he, a harmless neceffary cat;

Why he, a woollen bag-pipe; but of force

reading, (on what authority, I am at a lofs to know;) which Mr.
Pope has fince copied. And tho' I have not difturb'd the text, yet, I
muft obferve, I don't know what word there is to which this relative
[it, in the 2d line] is to be referr'd. The ingenious Dr. Thirlby, there-
fore, would thus adjust the paffage.

Cannot cantain their urine; for affection,
*Mafter of paffion, Jays

it &c. * or, Miftrefs.
And then it is govern'd of paffion: and the two old Quartos and Folios
read
Mafters of paffion, &c.

It may be objected, that affection and passion are fynonomous terms, and mean the fame thing, I agree, they do at this time. But I obferve, the writers of our author's age made a fort of diftinction: confidering the one as the caufe, the other as the effet. And then, in this place, affection will stand for that fympathy or antipathy of foul, by which we are provok'd to fhew a liking or difguft in the working of our paffions, B. Jobnfon, in his Sejanus, feems to apply the terms thus:

He hath ftudied

Affection's paffions, knows their springs, their ends,
Which way, and whether they will work.

So much, in fupport of Dr. Thirlby's regulation of the paffage. My
ingenious friend Mr. Warburton is for pointing, and writing it, as in
the old editions: but for giving it a different turn in the poet's drift
and meaning. I come now to his reading and opinion.

Cannot contain their urine for affection.

Mafters of paffion sway it to the wood
Of what it likes, or loaths.

Obferve, he is here only speaking of the different power of founds,
and the influence they have upon the human mind: and then con-
cludes, the mafters of paffion (for fo he finely calls muficians) fway
the paffions, or affections, as they please: Our poet then having, no
doubt, in his mind the great effects that Timotheus, and other an-
cient musicians, are faid to have wrought by the power of mufick.
This puts me in mind of a paffage of Collier, in his essay on musick;
who fuppofes it poffible by a right chofen compofition (not, concord)
of founds to inspire affright, terror, cowardife, and confternation
in the fame manner that, now, chearfulness, and courage, is assisted
by contrary compofitions'.

Thus far Mr. Warburton. I fhall, fubmit the paffage, for the prefent, to the opinion and determination of the publick; upon which, I may hereafter venture with more safety to ascertain it.

G 2

Muft