Enter ANTONIO. Ant. Who's there? Gra. Signior Antonio? Ant. Fye, fye, Gratiano! where are all the rest? I have sent twenty out to seek for you. Gra. I am glad on 't; I desire no more delight, Than to be under sail, and gone to-night. SCENE VII. Belmont. A Room in Portia's House. [Exeunt. Flourish of Cornets. Enter PORTIA, with the Prince of Morocco, and both their Trains. Por. Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover The several caskets to this noble prince: Now make your choice. Mor. The first, of gold, who this inscription bears;— Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men désire. The second, silver, which this promise carries;— Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves. This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt;2Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath. How shall I know if I do choose the right? If Por. The one of them contains my picture, prince; you choose that, then I am yours withal. Mor. Some god direct my judgment! Let me see, I will survey the inscriptions back again: What says this leaden casket? Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath. A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross; 2 as blunt;] That is, as gross as the dull metal. Johnson. And weigh thy value with an even hand: As much as I deserve!-Why, that's the lady: To stop the foreign spirits; but they come, One of these three contains her heavenly picture. Is 't like, that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation, Was set in worse than gold. They have in England 3 To rib-i. e. inclose, as the ribs inclose the viscera. in Cymbeline: 66 -ribb'd and paled in So, "With rocks unscaleable, and roaring waters." Steevens. - insculp'd upon;] To insculp is to engrave. So, in a comedy called A new Wonder, a Woman never vex'd, 1632: 4 "Shall be insculp'd-" Steevens. The meaning is, that the figure of the angel is raised or cmbossed on the coin, not engraved on it. Tutet. But here an angel in a golden bed Lies all within.-Deliver me the key; Por. There, take it, prince, and if my form lie there, Then I am yours. Mor. [He unlocks the golden casket. O hell! what have we here? A carrion death, within whose empty eye Often have you heard that told: 5 Gilded tombs do worms infold.] In all the old editions this line is written thus: Gilded timber do vorms infold. From which Mr. Rowe and all the following editors have made : Gilded wood may worms infold. A line not bad in itself, but not so applicable to the occasion as that which, I believe, Shakspeare wrote: Gilded tombs do worms infold. A tomb is the proper repository of a death's-head. Johnson. The thought might have been suggested by Sidney's Arcadia, B. I: "But gold can guild a rotten piece of wood." Steevens. Tombes (for such was the old spelling) and timber were easily confounded. Yet perhaps the old reading may be right. The construction may be-Worms do infold gilded timber. This, however, is very harsh, and the ear is offended. In a poem intitled, of the Silke Wormes and their Flies, 4to. 1599, is this line: "Before thou wast, were timber-worms in price." Malone. More than the ear, I think, would be offended on this occasion; for how is it possible for worms that live bred within timber, to infold it? Steevens. Dr. Johnson's emendation is supported by Shakspeare's 101st Sonnet: it lies in thee "To make thee much outlive a gilded tomb." Malone. 6 Your answer had not beeen inscrol'd:] Since there is an answer inscrol'd or written in every casket, I believe for your we should read-this. When the words were written yr and ys, the mistake was easy. Johnson. MERCHANT OF VENICE. Cold, indeed; and labour lost: Then, farewel, heat; and, welcome, frost. Portia, adieu! I have too griev'd a heart To take a tedious leave: thus losers part. 355 [Exit. Por. A gentle riddance:-Draw the curtains, go;Let all of his complexion choose me so.7 SCENE VIII. Venice. A Street. Enter SALARINO and SALANIO. Salar. Why man, I saw Bassanio under sail; With him is Gratiano gone along; And in their ship, I am sure, Lorenzo is not. [Exeunt. Salan. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the duke; Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship. Salar. He came too late, the ship was under sail: Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica: Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter! 7 choose me so.] The old quarto editions of 1600 have no distribution of Acts, but proceed from the beginning to the end in an unbroken tenour. This play, therefore, having been probably divided without authority by the publishers of the first folic, lies open to a new regulation, if any more commodious division can be proposed. The story is itself so wildly incredible, and the changes of the scene so frequent and capricious, that the probability of action does not deserve much care; yet it may be proper to observe, that, by concluding the second act here, time is given for Bassanio's passage to Belmont. Johnson. 356 MERCHANT OF VENICE. Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him, Salar. Salan. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear; Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him. Salar. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. Bassanio told him, he would make some speed 8 I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday;] i. e. I conversed. So, in King John: "Our griefs, and not our manners reason now." Again, in Chapman's translation of the fourth Book of the Odyssey: "The morning shall yield time to you and me, "To do what fits, and reason mutually." Steevens. The Italian ragionare is used in the same sense. M. Mason. 9 Slubber not -] To slubber is to do any thing carelessly, imperfectly. So, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599: 66 they slubber'd thee over so negligently.". Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money: "I am as haste ordain'd me, a thing slubber'd." Steevens. ・your mind of love:] So all the copies, but I suspect some corruption. Johnson. 1 This imaginary corruption is removed by only putting a comma after mind. Langton. Of love, is an adjuration sometimes used by Shakspeare. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, sc. vii: "Quick. desires you to send her your little page, of all lovesi. e. she desires you to send him by all means. Your mind of love may, however, in this instance, mean-your loving mind. So, in The Tragedie of Grasus, 1604: "A mind of treason is a treasonable mind. |