Sweet, adieu! I'll keep my oath,

Patiently to bear my wroath."

[Exeunt ARRAGON and Train.

Por. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. O these deliberate fools! when they do choose, They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.

Ner. The ancient saying is no heresy ;Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

Enter BALTHAZAR.

Ser. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify the approaching of his lord:
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets;

To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,
Gifts of rich value; yet I have not seen
So likely an ambassador of love.

Por. No more, I pray thee.

Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see
Quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly.
Ner. Bassanio, lord love, if thy will it be!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. RIALTO BRIDGE (^), AND GRAND

CANAL.

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.

Sal. 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 :

But there the duke was given to understand,
That in a gondola were seen together

Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica:

-to bear my wroath.] Misfortune.

-regreets ; ] i. e., salutations.

Besides, Antonio certified the duke,
They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Sal. I never heard a passion so confus'd,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets;

"My daughter!-O, my ducats!-O, my daughter!
Fled with a Christian !—O, my Christian ducats!-
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!"
Let good Antonio look he keep his day,

Or he shall pay for this.

Sular. Marry, well remember'd: I reason'd' with a Frenchman yesterday, who told me that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas that part the French and English,-the Goodwins, I think they call the place-a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip report be an honest woman of her word.

Sal. I would she were as lying a gossip in that, as ever knapp'd ginger, or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband: But it is true, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,-O, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!

Salar. Come, the full stop.

Sal. Why, the end is, he hath lost a ship.

Salar. I would it might prove the end of his losses! Sal. Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer; for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.

Enter SHYLOCK.

Salar. How now, Shylock? what news among the merchants?

Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight.

Sal. That's certain. I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

Salar. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

7 I reason'd] Id est, I conversed.

8

-knapp'd ginger,] To knap is to break short. The word occurs in the common prayer-“He knappeth the spear in sunder.”

Shy. She is damn'd for it.

Sal. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.
Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel!

Salar. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no?

Shy. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that used to come so smug upon the mart.Let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer ;let him look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy ;-let him look to his bond.

Sal. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh? What's that good for?

Shy. To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge: If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge. The villany you teach me I will execute: and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction

Salar. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew.

[Exeunt SALANIO, SALARINO, and Servant.

Enter TUBAL.

Shy. How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter?

Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

Shy. Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now:two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels.-I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! 'would she were hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them?-Why, so:and I know not what's spent in the search: Why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs but o' my breathing; no tears but o' my shedding.

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck, too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa,→→→

Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tub. Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. Shy. I thank God, I thank God:-Is it true? is it true? Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal;-Good news, good news: ha ha!-Where? in Genoa?

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourscore ducats!

Shy. Thou stick'st a dagger in me:-I shall never see my gold again: Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

Tub. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.

Shy. I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture him; I am glad of it.

Tub. One of them showed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

Shy. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

9

turquoise ;] A precious stone found in the veins of the mountains on the confines of Persia to the east, subject to the Tartars. Many superstitious qualities were imputed to it, all of which were either monitory or preservative to the wearer.

Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone.

Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true: Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight before: I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue: go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.-SALOON OF THE CASKETS, IN
PORTIA'S HOUSE, AT BELMONT.

BASSANIO, PORTÍA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and Attendants.
Por. I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two,
Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong
I lose your company; I could teach you
How to choose right, but then I am forsworn;
So will I never be so may you miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,`
That I had been forsworn.

Bas.

Let me choose; For, as I am, I live upon the rack.

Come, let me to my fortune and the caskets.

If

Por. Away then: I am lock'd in one of them
you do love me, you will find me out.

Let music sound, while he doth make his choice:
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music. (B)-That the comparison

;

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
And wat❜ry death-bed for him.

[Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the Caskets
to himself.

SONG.10

1. Tell me where is fancy bred.
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished

Reply, reply.

Sung by Miss POOLE, and Chorus of Ladies.