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SCENE III.

Venice. A Street.

Enter SHYLOCK, SALANIO, ANTONIO, and Gaoler.

Shy. Gaoler, look to him;-Tell not me of mercy;

This is the fool that lent out money gratis ;

Gaoler, look to him.

Ant.

Hear me yet, good Shylock.

Shy. I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond;
I have sworn an oath, that I will have my bond:
Thou call'dst me dog, before thou had'st a cause:
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:

The duke shall grant me justice.—I do wonder,
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond
To come abroad with him at his request.

Ant. I pray thee, hear me speak.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.

I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool,9

To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield

To christian intercessors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond. [Exit SHY. Salan. It is the most impenetrable cur,

That ever kept with men.

Ant.

Let him alone;

I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.
He seeks my life; his reason well I know;

I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

Many that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.

Salan.
I am sure, the duke
Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.
Ant. The duke cannot deny the course of law;1

8 -so fond-] i. e. so foolish. So, in the old comedy of Mother Bombie, 1594, by Lyly: "- that the youth seeing her fair cheeks, may be enamoured before they hear her fond speech." Steevens.

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dull-ey'd fool,] This epithet dull-ey'd is bestowed on melancholy in Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Steevens.

The duke cannot deny &c.] As the reason here given seems a little perplex'd, it may be proper to explain it. If, says he, the

For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice, if it be denied,2
Will much impeach the justice of the state;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
These griefs and losses have so 'bated me,
That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.

Well, gaoler, on:-Pray God, Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Belmont. A Room in Portia's House.

Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and

BALTHAZAR.

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your presence, You have a noble and a true conceit

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly
In bearing thus the absence of your lord.
But if you knew to whom you show this honour,
How true a gentleman you send relief,
How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
I know, you would be prouder of the work,
Than customary bounty can enforce you.
Por. I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now: for in companions
That do converse and waste the time together,
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,3

duke stop the course of law, it will be attended with this inconvenience, that stranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is supported, will cry out of injustice. For the known stated law being their guide and security, they will never bear to have the current of it stopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever. Warburton.

2 For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice, if it be denied, &c.] i. e. for the denial of those rights to strangers, which render their abode at Venice so commodious and agreeable to them, would much impeach the justice of the state. The consequence would be, that strangers would not reside or carry on traffick here; and the wealth and strength of the state would be diminished. In The Historye of Italye, by W. Thomas, quarto, 1567, there is a section On the li bertee of straungers at Venice. Malone.

There must be needs a like proportion
Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit;
Which makes me think, that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,5

3 Whose souls do bear an equal yoke &c.] The folio, 1623, reads -egal, which, I believe, in Shakspeare's time was commonly used for equal. So it was in Chaucer's:

"I will presume hym so to dignifie
"Yet be not egall."

Again, in Gorboduc:

Prol. to The Remedy of Love.

"Sith all as one do bear you egall faith." Steevens.

4 Of lineaments, of manners, &c.] The wrong pointing has made this fine sentiment nonsense. As implying that friendship could not only make a similitude of manners, but of faces. The true sense is, lineaments of manners, i. e. form of the manners, which, says the speaker, must needs be proportionate. Warburton.

The poet only means to say, that corresponding proportions of body and mind are necessary for those who spend their time together. So, in King Henry IV, P. II:

"Dol. Why doth the prince love him so then?

"Fal. Because their legs are both of a bigness," &c. Every one will allow that the friend of a toper should have a strong head, and the intimate of a sportsman such an athletic constitution as will enable him to acquit himself with reputation in the exercises of the field. The word lineaments was used with great laxity by our ancient writers. In The learned and true Assertion of the Original, Life, &c. of King Arthur, translated from the Latin of John Leland, 1582, it is used for the human frame in general. Speaking of the removal of that prince's bones,-he calls them Arthur's lineaments three times translated; and again, all the lineaments of them remaining in that most stately tomb, saving the shin bones of the king and queen, &c.

Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: "Nature hath so curiously performed his charge in the lineaments of his body,” &c.

Again, in Chapman's version of the fifth Iliad:

- took the weariness of fight

"From all his nerves and lineaments, 99

Again, in the thirteenth Iliad:

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"Of his illustrious lineaments so out of nature bound,
"That back nor forward he could stir, "

Steevens.

the bosom lover of my lord,] In our author's time this term was applied to those of the same sex who had an esteem for each other. Ben Jonson concludes one of his letters to Dr. Donne, by telling him: "he is his true lover." So, in Coriolanus: "I tell thee, fellow, thy general is my lover." Many more instances might be added. See our author's Sonnets, passim.

Malone.

Must needs be like my lord: If it be so,
How little is the cost I have bestow'd,
In purchasing the semblance of my soul
From out the state of hellish cruelty?
This comes too near the praising of myself;
Therefore, no more of it: hear other things."-
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house,
Until my lord's return: for mine own part,
I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Nerissa here,

Until her husband and my lord's return:
There is a monastery two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do desire you,
Not to deny this imposition;

The which my love, and some necessity,
Now lays upon you.

Lor.

Madam, with all my heart;

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por. My people do already know my mind,
And will acknowledge you and Jessica
In place of lord Bassanio and myself.

So fare you well, till we shall meet again.

Lor. Fair thoughts, and happy hours, attend on you! Jes. I wish your ladyship all heart's content.

Por. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica.[Exeunt JEs. and LOR.

Now, Balthazar,

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee still: Take this same letter,
And use thou all the endeavour of a man,

In speed to Padua;7 see thou render this

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-hear other things.] In former editions:
This comes too near the praising of myself;
Therefore no more of it: here other things,
Lorenzo I commit &c.

Portia finding the reflections she had made came too near selfpraise, begins to chide herself for it; says, She'll say no more of that sort; but call a new subject. The regulation I have made in the text was likewise prescribed by Dr. Thirlby. Theobald.

7 In speed to Padua ;] The old copies read-Mantua; and thus

Into my cousin's hand, doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed3
Unto the tranect,9 to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice:-waste no time in words,
But get thee gone: I shall be there before thee.

Balth. Madam, I go with all convenient speed. [Exit.
Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand,
That you yet know not of: we 'll see our husbands,
Before they think of us.

Ner.

Shall they see us?
Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
That they shall think we are accomplished
With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accouter'd1 like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace;
And speak, between the change of man and boy,

all the modern editors implicitly after them. But 'tis evident to any diligent reader, that we must restore, as I have done,-In speed to Padua: for it was there, and not at Mantua, Bellario liv'd. So, afterwards:-A messenger, with letters from the Doctor, new come from Padua-And again: Came you from Padua, from Bellario? And again, It comes from Padua, from Bellario.-Besides, Padua, not Mantua, is the place of education for the civil law in Italy. Theobald.

8 with imagin'd speed-] i. e. with celerity like that of imagination. So, in the Chorus preceding the third Act of King Henry V:

"Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies."

Again, in Hamlet: " - swift as meditation-" Steevens.

9 Unto the tranect,] The old copies concur in this reading, which appears to be derived from tranare, and was probably a word current in the time of our author, though I can produce no example of it. Steevens.

Mr. Rowe reads—traject, which was adopted by all the subsequent editors.-Twenty miles from Padua, on the river Brenta there is a dam or sluice, to prevent the water of that river from mixing with that of the marshes of Venice. Here the passageboat is drawn out of the river, and lifted over the dam by a crane. From hence to Venice the distance is five miles. Perhaps some novel-writer of Shakspeare's time might have called this dam by the name of the tranect. See Du Cange in v. Trana. Malone. accouter'd-] So, the earliest quarto, and the folio. The other quarto-apparel'd. Malone.

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