TUBAL, a Jew, his Friend.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Jus tice, Jailer, Servants, and other Attendants.

LAUNCELOT GOBEO, a Clown, Servant to Shylock. SCENE, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, OLD GOBBO, Father to Launcelot.

the Seat of Portia, on the Continent.

ACT 1.

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 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;

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

Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,-
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
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.
Salan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. 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.
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,
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 merchandise.
Ant. Believe me, no: I thank fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:
Therefore, my merchandise makes me not sad.
Salan. Why, then you are in love.
Ant.
Fye, fye!
Salan. Not in love neither? Then let's say, you
are sad,

my

1 This enumeration of the Dramatis Persona is by Mr. Rowe.

Because you are not merry: and 'twere as easy
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed
For you, to laugh, and leap, and say, you are merry,

Janus,

Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper;
And other of such vinegar aspect,
That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO.
Salan. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble
kinsman,

Gratiano, and Lorenzo: Fare you well;
We leave you now with better company.
Salar.

would have staid till I had made you merry,

If worthier friends had not prevented me.
I take it, your own business calls on you,
Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard,
And you embrace the occasion to depart.
Salar. Good morrow, my good lords.

Bass. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh?
say, when?

You grow exceeding strange: Must it be so?
Salar. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours.
[Exeunt SALAR. and SALAN.
Lor. My lord Bassanio, since you have found
Antonio,

We two will leave you: but, at dinner time,
pray you, have in mind where we must meet.
Bass. I will not fail you.

Gra. You look not well, signior Antonio;
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvellously chang'd.

Ant. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano
A stage, where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

Gra.
Let me play the fool:
And let my liver rather heat with wine,
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;

Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?
Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio,-
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks;-
There are a sort of men, whose visages
Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond;
And do a wilful stillness entertain,
With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion
As who should say, I am Sir Oracle,
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;

and this seems the more probable from Argis being used for a ship in low Latin.

3 To vail is to lower, to let fall. From the French

2 Argosies are large ships either for merchandise or The word has hoon supposed to be derived fruшaraler. the classical ship Argo, as a vessel eminently famous ;

war.

4 i. e. an obstinate silence.

And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!
O, my Antonio, I do know of these,
That therefore only are reputed wise,
For saying nothing; who, I am very sure,

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears,
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers
fools.

I'll tell thee more of this another time:
But fish not, with this melancholy bait,
For this fool's gudgeon, this opinion.-
Come, good Lorenzo:-Fare ye well, awhile;
I'll end my exhortation after dinner.

Lor. Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time:
I must be one of these same dumb wise men,
For Gratiano never lets me speak.

Gra. Well, keep me company but two years more,
Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.
Ant. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear.
Gra. Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only com-

mendable

In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt GRA. and LOR.

Ant. Is that any thing now?
Bass. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing,
more than any man in all Venice: His reasons are
as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff;
you shall seek all day ere you find them; and, when
you have them, they are not worth the search.

Ant. Well; tell me now, what lady is this same
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promis'd to tell me of?

Bass. "Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate,
By something showing a more swelling port2
Than my faint means would grant continuance :
Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd
From such a noble rate; but my chief care
Is, to come fairly off from the great debts,
Wherein my time, something too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged: To you, Antonio,
I owe the most in money, and in love;
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburthen all my plots, and purposes,
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

And she is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wondrous virtues: sometimes" from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages:
Her name is Portia ; nothing undervalued
To Cato's daughter, Brutus Portia.
Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors and her sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;
Which makes her seat of Belmont, Colchos' strand,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.
O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind presages me such thrift,
That I should questionless be fortunate.
Ant. Thou know'st, that all my fortunes are at

sea;

Neither have I money, nor commodity
To raise a present sum: therefore go forth,
Try what my credit can in Venice do;
That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
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.
SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Belmont. A Room in Portia's
House. Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.
Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is a-
weary of this great world.

Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are: And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, 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

Ant. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The

And, if it stand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honour, be assur'd,
My purse, my person, my extremest means,
Lie all unlock'd to your occasions.

Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight3
The selfsame way, with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; and, by advent'ring both,
oft found both: I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.
I owe you much: and, like a wilful youth,
That which I owe is lost but if you please
To shoot another arrow that self way
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
Or bring your latter hazard back again,
And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold degree; 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 fashion to choose me a husband:-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 curb'd 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; there fore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead (whereof who chooses his meaning, chooses you,) will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in

Ant. You know me well; and herein spend but your affection towards any of these princely suitors

time,

To wind about my love with circumstance;

And out of doubt, you do me now more wrong,
In making question of my uttermost,
Than if you had made waste of all I have:
Then do but say to me what I should do,
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak.
Bass. In Belmont is a lady richly left,

1 Gear usually signifies matter, subject, or business in general. It is here, perhaps, a colloquial expression of Do very determined import. It occurs again in this play, Act . Sc. 2: If Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear.

2 Port is state or equipage. So in the Taming of a Shrew, Act i. Sc. 1.

Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead, Keep house, and port, and servants, as I should," 3 This method of finding a lost arrow is prescribed by P. Crescentius in his treatise De Agricultura, lib. x.

that are already come?

Por. I pray thee over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will describe them; and, according to my description level at my affection.

Ner. First, there is the Neapolitan prince." Por. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he

c. xxviii. and is also mentioned in Howel's Letters, vol. i. p. 183, edit. 1655, 12mo.

4 Prest, that is, ready; from the old French word of the same orthography, now pret.

5 Formerly.

6 i. e. superfluity sooner acquires white hairs; becomes old. We still say, how did he come by it?

7 The Neapolitans, in the time of Shakspeare, were eminently skilled in all that belongs to horsemanship.

8 Colt is used for a witless heady gay youngster: whence the phrase used for an old man 100 jusuile, that he still retains his colt's tooth.

Per. If live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will; I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence, and II pray God grant them a fair departure.

Ner. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Mont

hate him for he is a Christian. for that, in low simplicity, He lends out money gratis, and brings down The rate of usance" here with us in Venice. Perhaps, in this enumeration of Portia's suitors, there may be some covert allusion to those of Queen Eliza beth. 6 i. e. the nature, disposition. So in Othello: and then of so gentle a condition!

7 It is almost incredible what gain the Venetians re travel-ceive by the usury of the Jews, both privately and in common. For in every city the Jews keep open shops of usury, taking gages of ordinary for xv. in the hun

5 The Duke of Bavaria visited London, and was dred by the yeare; and if at the year's end the gage be made a Knight of the Garter, in Shakspeare's time. I not redeemed, it is forfeit, or at least done away to a

say,

Directly interest: mark what Jacob did.
When Laban and himself were compromis'd,
That all the eanlings which were streak'd, and pied,
Should fall as Jacob's hire; the ewes, being rank,
In the end of autumn turned to the rams:
And when the work of generation was
Between these woolly breeders in the act,
The skilful shepherd peel'd me certain wands,
And in the doing of the deed of kind,

He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes;
Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time
Fall party-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's.
This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;
And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.

Ant. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd

for;

A thing not in his power to bring to pass,
But sway'd, and fashion'd, by the hand of heaven.
Was this inserted to make interest good?
Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams?

Shy. I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast:-
But note me, signior.

Ant.
Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul, producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek;

A goodly apple rotten at the heart;
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Shy. Three thousand ducats,-'tis a good round

sum.

Three months from twelve, then let me see ne rate.
Ant. Well, Shylock, shall we be beholden to you?

Shy. Signior Antonio, many a time and of,
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my monies, and my usances:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug;
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe:
You call me-misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears, you need my help:
Go to, then; you come to me, and you say,
Shylock, we would have monies; You say so;
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold; monies is your suit
What shall I say to you? Should I not say,
Hath a dog money? is it possible,

A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key
With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness,
Say this,-

Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn'd me such a day; another time
You call'd me-dog; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much monies?

Ant. I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends; (for when did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?)
But lend it rather to thine enemy;
Who, if he break, thou may'st with better face
Exact the penalty.

I

Shy.
Why, look you, how you storm!
would be friends with you, and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with,
Supply your present wants, and take no doit
Of usance for my monies, and you'll not hear me
This is kind I offer.

Ant.

This were kindness.

Shy. This kindness will I show:-
Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your single bond; and, in a merry sport,
If you repay me not on such a day,

In such a place, such sum, or sums, as are
Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound

Of

your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken In what part of your body pleaseth me.

Ant. Content, in faith; I'll seal to such a bond, And say, there is much kindness in the Jew.

Bass. You shall not seal to such a bond for me,
I'll rather dwell10 in my necessity.

Ant. Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it;
Within these two months, that's a month before
This bond expires, I do expect return
Of thrice three times the value of this bond.

Shy. O father Abraham, what these Christians

are;

Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others! Pray you, tell me this;
If he should break his day, what should I gain
By the exaction of the forfeiture?

A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man,
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say,
To buy his favour, Í extend this friendship:
If he will take it, so; if not, adieu;
And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not.
Ant. Yes, Shylock, I will seal unto this bond.

6 Fulsome,' says Mr. Douce, has, doubtless, the great disadvantage; by reason whereof the Jews are same signification with the preceding epithet rank. It out of measure wealthy in those parts.'-Thomas's His-is true that rank has sometimes the interpretation affix torye of Italye, 1561, 4to. f. 77. ed to it of rammish in old Dictionaries, but there is also another meaning of the word which may be found in Baret's Alvearie, 1573, viz. Fruitefull, ranck, batile, Lat. fertilis. This sense would also, I think, better ac cord with fulsome, if it could be shown to be a synonyme.

1 To catch, or have, on the hip, means to have at an entire advantage. The phrase seems to have originated from hunting, because, when the animal pursued is seized upon the hip, it is finally disabled from flight. 2 Wants come to the height, which admit no longer delay.

3 Informed.

7 Falsehood here means knavery, treachery, as truth is sometimes used for honesty.

8 Interest.

9 i. e. interest, money bred from the principat. 10 i. e. continue; to abide has both the senses of habi tation and continuance.