One half of me is your's, the other half your's,
Mine own, I would fay: but if mine, then your's;
And fo all your's. Alas! these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights:
And fo tho' your's, not your's, prove it fo,
Let fortune go to hell for it. Not I.
I speak too long, but 'tis to peece the time,
To eche it, and to draw it out in length,
To ftay you from election.

Baff. Let me chufe:

For as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por. Upon the rack, Baffanio? then confefs, What treason there is mingled with your love. Baff. None, but that ugly treafon of miftruft, Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love. There may as well be amity and life

'Tween fnow and fire, as treason and my love.
Por. Ay, but, I fear, you fpeak upon the rack;
Where men enforced do speak any thing.

Bal. Promife me life, and I'll confefs the truth.
Por. Well, then, confefs, and live.
Baff. Confefs, and love,

Had been the very fum of my confeffion.
O happy torment, when my torturer

Doth teach me anfwers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the cafkets.

Por. Away then! I am lock'd in one of them;
If you do love me, you will find me out.
Neriffa, and the reft, ftand all aloof,

Let music found, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lofe, he makes a fwan-like end,
Fading in mufic. That the comparison

May ftand more juft, my eye fhall be the stream
And wat'ry death-bed for him: he may win,
And, what is mufic then? then mufic is
Even as the flourish, when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: fuch it is,
As are thofe dulcet founds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And fummon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no lefs presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem

The virgin-tribute, paid by howling Troy
To the fea-monster: I ftand for facrifice;
The reft aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared vifages come forth to view
The iffue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules !
Live thou, I live; with much, much more difmay
I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray.

[Mufic within.

A fong, whilft Baffanio comments on the caskets to himself.

Tell me, where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished ?
Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies:
Let us all ring fancy's knell.
I'll begin it.

Ding, dong, bell.

All, Ding, dong, bell.

Bass. So may the outward shows be leaft themselves :

The world is ftill deceiv'd with ornament.

In law, what plea fo tainted and corrupt,
But being feafon'd with a gracious voice,
Obfcures the fhow of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but fome fober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the groffnefs with fair ornament ?
There is no vice fo fimple, but affumes
Some mark of virtue on its outward parts.
How many cowards, whofe hearts are all as falfe
As ftairs of fand, wear yet upon their chins

The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;

Who, inward fearch'd, have livers white as milk?
And thefe affume but valour's excrement*,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you fhall fee 'tis purchas'd by the weight,
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lighteft that wear most of it.
That is, a beard.

So are those crifpy fnaky golden locks,

Which make fuch wanton gambols with the wind
Upon fuppofed fairnefs, often known

To be the dowry of a fecond head,

The fcull, that bred them, in the fepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guilty shore
To a moft dang'rous fea; the beauteous scarf
Vailing an Indian beauty; in a word,

The feeming truth which cunning times put on
T'intrap the wifeft. Then, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
"Tween man and man: But thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threat'neft, than doft promise aught,
Thy plainnefs moves me more than eloquence;
And here chufe I; joy be the confequence !

Por. How all the other paffions feet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac'd despair,
And fhudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealousy.
O love, be moderate, allay thy ecftafy;
In measure rain thy joy, fcant this excefs,
I feel too much thy bleffing, make it lefs,
For fear I furfeit.

Baff. What find I here?

[Opening the leaden cafket

Fair Portia's counterfeit? What demy-god
Hath come fo near creation? Move thefe eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are fever'd lips
Parted with fugar breath; fo fweet a bar
Should funder fuch fweet friends: here in her hairs
The painter plays the fpider, and hath woven
A golden mesh t' intrap the hearts of men,

Fafter than gnats in cobwebs : but her

eyes,

How could he fee to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itfelf unfinifh'd. Yet how far

The fubftance of my praise doth wrong this fhadow
In underprizing it, fo far this fhadow

Doth limp behind the fubftance. Here's the fcrowl, The continent and fummary of my fortune.

VOL. II.

K

You that chufe not by the view,
Chance as fair, and chufe as true:
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content, and feek no new.
If you be well pleas'd with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,

And claim her with a loving kifs.

A gentle fcrowl; fair Lady, by your leave;

[Kiffing her.

I come by note to give, and to receive.
Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes;
Hearing applaufe and univerfal fhout,
Giddy in fpirit, gazing still in doubt,
Whether thofe peals of praise be his or no ;
So (thrice fair Lady) ftand I, even fo,
As doubtful whether what I fee be true,
Until confirm'd, fign'd, ratify'd by you.

Por. You fee me, Lord Baffanio, where I ftand,
Such as I am tho' for myself alone,

:

I would not be ambitious in my wish,

To wish myself much better; yet for you,
I would be treble twenty times myself,

A thoufand times more fair; ten thousand times
More rich; that, to ftand high in your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account: but the full fum of me
Is fome of fomething, which, to term in grofs,
Is an unleffon'd girl, unfchool'd, unpractis'd:
Happy in this, fhe is not yet fo old

But the may learn; more happy then in this,
She is not bred fo dull but fhe can learn ;
Happiest of all, is, that her gentle fpirit
Commits itself to your's to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her king:
Myfelf, and what is mine, to you and your's
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair manfion, mafter of my fervants,
Queen o'er myfelf; and even now, but now,
This houfe, these fervants, and this fame myself,

Are your's, my Lord: I give them with this ring,
Which when you part from, lofe or give away,
Let it prefage the ruin of your love,

And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Baff. Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;
And there is fuch confufion in my pow'rs,
As, after fome oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleafed multitude;
Where every fomething, being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, fave of joy
Exprefs'd, and not exprefs'd. But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence;
O, then be bold to fay, Baffanio's dead.

Ner. My Lord and Lady, it is now our time,
That have ftood by, and feen our wishes profper,
To cry, Good joy, good joy, my Lord and Lady!
Gra. My Lord Baffanio, and my gentle Lady,
I wish you all the joy that you can wifh;
For, I am fure, you can wish none from me
And when your Honours mean to folemnize
The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
Ev'n at that time I may be married too.

*

:

Baff. With all my heart, fo thou canst get a wife.
Gra. I thank your Lordship, you have got me one.
My eyes, my Lord, can look as fwift as your's;
You faw the miftrefs, I beheld the maid;

You lov'd, I lov'd; for intermiffion

No more pertains to me, my Lord, than you.
Your fortune ftood upon the casket there;
And fo did mine too, as the matter falls:
For wooing here until I fweat again,
And fwearing, till my very roof was dry
With oaths of love; at laft, if promife laft,
I got a promife of this fair one here,

To have her love, provided that your fortune
Atchiev'd her mistress.

Por. Is this true, Neriffa?

Ner. Madam, it is, so you ftand pleas'd withal.

*that is, distinct from me and my wishes.