What traitor hears me, and says not, amen? 1
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;
The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire;
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided, in their dire division. -

O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs, (God, if thy will be so)
Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace,
With smilling plenty, and fair prosperous days!
Abate 2 the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again,
And make poor England weep in streams of blood!
Let them not live to taste this land's increase,
That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!
Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again:
That she may long live here, God say amen!

1. Whoever hears me, and says not amen, is a traitor.

2. i. e. diminish, or take away.

[Exeunt.

3. To reduce, to bring back; an obsolete sense of the word, derived from its original reducere.

LEIPZIG: PRINTED BY FERBER & SEYDEL.

4

THE

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

A COMEDY

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES FOUNDED ON THE
BEST COMMENTATORS.

EDITED BY

R. H. WESTLEY.

LEIPZIG:

GUSTAVUS GRÆBNER.

PORTIA, a rich Heiress.

NERISSA, her Waiting-woman.

JESSICA, Daughter to Shylock.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Jailors, Servants, and other Attendants.

SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont.

ACT I.

SCENE I. - Venice. A Street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SALANIO.
Antonio. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me: you say, it wearies you;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 't is made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, 1
That I have much ado to know myself.

2

Salarino. Your, mind is tossing on the ocean,
There, where your argosies with portly sail,
Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood, 4
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,"

That curt'sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Salanio. Believe me, Sir, had I such venture forth,

The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
Would make me sad.

Salar.

My wind, cooling my broth, Would blow me to an ague, when I thought What harm a wind too great might do at sea.

6

I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,
But I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand,
Vailing her high top lower than her ribs, 2
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church
And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,
And, in a word, but even now worth this,

And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
To think on this, and shall I lack the thought,
That such a thing bechanc'd would make me sad?
But, tell not me: I know, Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandize.

Antonio. Believe me, no. I thank my fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom 5 trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:

Therefore, my merchandize makes me not sad.
Salanio. Why, then you are in love.

Ant.

Fie, fie!

Salan. Not in love neither? Then let's say, you are sad, Because you are not merry; and 't were as easy

For you to laugh, and leap, and say, you are merry,
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,"
Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,

1. This name for a ship it is not unlikely was derived from the famous naval hero Andrew Doria, who gained his first fame in the service of King Ferdinand of Naples, was afterwards, in 1513, commander of the Genoese fleet, and in 1528 admiral to Francis I. of France; he then went over to the Emperor Charles V. and drove the French out of Naples and Geneva, commanded the imperial expedition against Tunis, and died at the age of 92 years, in 1560.

2. Sinking her head lower than her sides. To vail, to lower, to let |

fall, from the French avaler; ribs is in Shakespear frequently used for sides generally.

3. Straight, immediately, directly. 4. It is no use trying to persuade me otherwise.

5. i. e. ship.

6. Janus, said to be the son of Apollo, was represented with two faces, the one youthful, the other aged. He was chiefly worshipped among the Romans, who built a temple to him, which was shut only during peace.

7. Evermore, always, eternally.