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.

Speculation more easy than Practice.

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.

Shylock's Malice towards Antonio.

How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him, for he is a Christian :
But more for that, in low simplicity,
He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well won thrift,
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive him.

Hypocrisy.

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!

Shylock's remonstrance with Antonio.
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft,
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,

66

;

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 should 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?"

ACT II.

Shylock's injunctions to his Daughter.

Lock up my

doors; and when you hear the drum, And the vile squeaking of the wry-neck'd fife,

Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street,
To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces:
But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements;
Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter
My sober house.

Portia's Suitors.

From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds Of wide Arabia, are as through-fares now, For princes to come view fair Portia : The watery kingdom* whose ambitious head Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar To stop the foreign spirits; but they come, As o'er a brook, to see fair Portia.

The Parting of Friends.

I saw Bassanio and Antonio part:
Bassanio told him he would make some speed
Of his return; he answered-❝ do not so,
Slubber† not business for my sake, Bassanio,
But stay the very riping of the time;

And for the Jew's bond, which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind of love:
Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship, and such fair ostents of love
As shall conveniently become you there: "
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he puts his hand behind him,

The ocean.

† Do not slur over the business. Signs, marks.

And with affection wondrous sensible,

He wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted.

Honour should be conferred on Merit only.

For who shall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable

Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity!

O, that estates, degrees, and offices,

Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honour
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer !
How many then should cover, that stand bare?
How many be commanded, that command?
How much low peasantry would then be glean'd
From the true seed of honour? and how much honour
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,
To be new varnish'd?

ACT III.

Shylock's Revenge.

If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of 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 u's, 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.

Shylock's Anguish at the loss of his Jewels.

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.

Music.

Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,

Fading in music; that the comparison

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream,
And wat❜ry death-bed for him. He may win;
And what is music then? then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: such it is,
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage.