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To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia Go, presently inquire, and so will I, Where money is; and I no question make To have it of my trust, or for my sake.9

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SCENE II.*

A Room in Portia's House at Belmon

Enter Portia and Nerissa.

Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little b is aweary of this great world.

Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if y miseries were in the same abundance as y good fortunes are: And yet, for aught I they are as sick, that surfeit with too mu as they that starve with nothing: it is no m happiness therefore, to be seated in the me

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*SCENE II.-The time is the same day contin and not yet very far advanced. E.

9 To have it of my trust, or for my sake.] Me as I conceive it, either to raise it upon my cr or, obtain it, on account of the esteem and affed entertained for me by the lender. E.

I It is no mean happiness therefore, &c.]" No s "happiness." is the reading of the folios, R Pope, and Hanmer. CAPELL.

superfluity comes sooner by white hairs,2 but competency lives longer.

Por. Good sentences, and well pronounced. Ner. They would be better, if well followed. Por. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree: such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion3 to choose me a husband: O me,

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2 Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs,] i.e. Superfluity sooner acquires white hairs; becomes old. We still say, How did he come by it? MALONE.

This observation may have respect to the well known consequence both of extraordinary anxiety and solicitude, the usual attendants upon great riches, and likewise of that luxury and intemperance, which the wealthy are under the strongest temptation to indulge in. E.

3 But this reasoning is not in the fashion] Folio.— But this reason is not in fashion. MALONE.

I believe we should read,

"This reasoning is not the fashion to choose," &c.. That is, not the way to choose, &c. J. M. MASON.

The connexion between this remark and what went immediately before is, at first view, by no

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-O me, the word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father:-Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?

Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their death, have good inspirations; therefore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead, (whereof who chooses his meaning,4 chooses you,) will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love.5 But what warmth is there in your affection towards

means very apparent. Perhaps she designs to insinuate that maxims of prudence, such as those uttered at first by Nerissa, relative to the insufficiency of superabundant wealth to procure happiness to the possessor, and afterwards expressed by herself upon the difference between speculative and practical wisdom, might, indeed, be of use to others, by inspiring them with caution in the choice of a husband, but could afford no advantage of such a nature to her, who is precluded, by the determination of her father, from any exercise of her judgment upon that subject. E. -whereof who chooses his meaning, &c.] The word whereof might in this place be intended to signify-in respect of which, and chooses his meaning, be put for-shows by his choice, that he has discovered his meaning. E.

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-but one who you shall rightly love.] Some of the modern editors have altered this to-" whom you shall rightly love;" the sense of which must

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