do not,

And that which you did swear to keep for me,
I will become as liberal as you.
I'll not deny him any thing I have,
No, not my body, nor my husband's bed.
Know him I shall, I am well sure of it.
Lie not a night from home; watch me, like Argus:
If

you not, if I be left alone,
Now, by mine honor, which is yet my own,
I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow.

Ner. And I his clerk ; therefore be well advised, How you

do leave me to mine own protection. Gra. Well, do you so; let not me take him then; For if I do, I'll mar the young

clerk's

pen. Ant. I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels. Por. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwith

standing.
Bass. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
And, in the hearing of these many friends,
I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes, ,
Wherein I see myself,
Por.

Mark you but that!
In both my eyes he doubly sees himself:
In each eye one.-Swear by your double self,
And there's an oath of credit.
Bass.

Nay, but hear me.
Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear,
I never more will break an oath with thee.

Ant. I once did lend my body for his wealth ;?
Which, but for him that had your husband's ring,

[To PORTIA Had quite miscarried. I dare be bound again, My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord Will never more break faith advisedly.

Por. Then you shall be his surety. Give him this; And bid him keep it better than the other.

Ant. Here, lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring. Bass. By Heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!

1 Double is here used for deceitful, full of duplicity.

2 i. e. for his advantage. VOL. II.

32

Por. I had it of him. Pardon me, Bassanio, For by this ring the doctor lay with me.

Ner. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano; For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk, In lieu of this, last night did lie with me.

Gra. Why, this is like the mending of highways In summer, where the ways are fair enough; What! are we cuckolds, ere we have deserved it?

Por. Speak not so grossly.—You are all amazed. Here is a letter; read it at your leisure; It comes from Padua, from Bellario; There

you

shall find, that Portia was the doctor ;
Nerissa there, her clerk. Lorenzo here
Shall witness, I set forth as soon as you,
And but even now returned. I have not yet
Entered my house.—Antonio, you are welcome,
And I have better news in store for you,
Than you expect. Unseal this letter soon;
There you shall find, three of your argosies
Are richly come to harbor suddenly;
You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.
Ant.

I am dumb.
Bass. Were you the doctor, and I knew you not ?
Gra. Were you the clerk, that is to make me

cuckold? Ner. Ay; but the clerk that never means to do it; Unless he live until he be a man. Bass. Sweet doctor, you shall be my

bedfellow ; When I am absent, then lie with my wife. .

Ant. Sweet lady, you have given me life, and living; For here I read for certain, that my ships Are safely come to road. Por.

How now, Lorenzo ? My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.

Ner. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.There do I give to you, and Jessica, From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, After his death, of all he dies possessed of.

Lor. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.

Por. It is almost morning,
And yet, I am sure, you are not satisfied
Of these events at full. Let us go in;
And charge us there upon inter'gatories,
And we will answer all things faithfully.

Gra. Let it be so. The first intergatory
That my Nerissa shall be sworn on, is,
Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
Or

go to bed now, being two hours to day;
But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
That I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing
So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. [Exeunt.

Of the Merchant of Venice the style is even and easy, with few pe

culiarities of diction, or anomalies of construction.

The comic part

raises laughter, and the serious fixes expectation. The probability of either one or the other story cannot be maintained. The union of two actions in one event is in this drama eminently happy. Dryden was much pleased with his own address in connecting the two plots of his Spanish Friar, which yet, I believe, the critic will find excelled by this play.

JOHNSON.

AS YOU LIKE IT.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

DR. GREY and Mr. Upton asserted that this play was certainly borrowed from the Coke's Tale of Gamelyn, printed in Urry's Chaucer; but it is hardly likely that Shakspeare saw that in manuscript, and there is a more obvious source from whence he derived his plot, viz. the pastoral romance of “ Rosalynde, or Euphues' Golden Legacy,” by Thomas Lodge, first printed in 1590. From this he has sketched his principal characters, and constructed his plot; but those admirable beings, the melancholy Jaques, the witty Touchstone, and his Audrey, are of the poet's own creation. Lodge's novel is one of those tiresome (I had almost said unnatural) pastoral romances, of which the Euphues of Lyly and the Arcadia of Sidney were also popular examples. It has, however, the redeeming merit of some very beautiful verses interspersed ;* and the circumstance of its hav

* The following beautiful stanzas are part of what is called “Rosalynd's Madrigal,” and are not unworthy of a place even in a page devoted to Shakspeare :

Love in my bosom like a bee

Doth suck his sweet:
Now with his wings he plays with me,

Now with his feet.
Within mine eyes he makes his nest,
His bed amidst my tender breast;
My kisses are his daily feast ;
And yet he robs me of my rest

Ah, wanton, will ye?
And if I sleep, then percheth he

With pretty flight,
And makes a pillow of my knee

The livelong night.
Strike I my lute, he tunes the string ;
He music plays, if so I sing;
He lends me every lovely thing;
Yet, cruel, he my heart doth sting.

Whist, wanton, still ye?