If thou be'st rated by thy estimation,3
Thou dost deserve enough; and yet end
May not extend so far as to the lady;
And yet to be afeard of my deserving,4
Were but a weak disabling of myself.
As much as I deserve! Why, that's the
I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes
In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
But, more than these, in love I do deser
What if I stray'd no farther, but chose he
Let's see once more this saying grav'd in
Who chooseth me, shall gain what many
desire.

Why, that's the lady; all the world d her :6

3 If thou be'st rated by thy estimation,] i. e thy value, upon this occasion, be rated acco "to the estimation in which thou hast generally held;" &c. E.

4

-to be afeard of my deserving,] Afra the quartos of 1637 and 1652. CAPELL.

5 But more than these, in love I do deserve.] is, either "more than these deserve," the word being a nominative, or, " more than I deserve in "in love I do deserve," the preposition in bein derstood. Mr. Capell supposes that the or might have been "in love I do deserve her."

6 Why, that's the lady; all the world desires In this, and what follows, almost to the end o speech, there is a very gallant, romantic, and tiful extravagance. E.

From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing

saint :7

The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds
Of wide Arabia, are as thorough-fares now,
For princes to come view fair Portia.
The watry 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 ;
One of these three contains her heavenly

picture.

Is't like that lead contains her? "Twere dam

nation,

To think so base a thought; it were too gross To rib her cerecloths in the obscure grave. Or shall I think, in silver she's immur'd, Being ten times under-valu'd to try'd gold? O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem

7

Was

this mortal breathing saint.] In opposition to the inanimate representations of saints enshrined. The shrine and the saint seem to be confounded in this line, but shrine may have a reference to the place of her residence wherein the Scene lies. E.

8 To rib her cerecloth, &c.] To rib, is here to inclose as within ribs; cerecloth is,-cloth smeared over with wax or other glutinous matter such as dead bodies were shrouded in when they were embalmed. JOHNS. DICT.

Was set in worse than gold. They ha
England9

A coin, that bears the figure of an angel
Stamped in gold; but that's insculp'd up
But here an angel in a golden bed
Lies all within.-Deliver me the key;
Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may
Por. There, take it, prince, and if my
lie there,

Then I am yours.

Mor:

[He unlocks the golden co O hell! what have we he A carrion death, within whose empty eye There is a written scroll! I'll read the wri

9 They have in England, &c.] The thought turns upon a very whimsical circumstance bo resemblance and of contrast, and is manage think, with no extraordinary dexterity. It se as if Morochius, at first view, imagined that he found out the subject of an ingenious and re compliment, which, the next moment, he disco to be incapable of producing the effect he expe from it. E.

I

-insculp'd upon;] To insculp is to eng So, in A Woman never Vexed, 1632:

in golden text "Shall be insculp'd

"" STEEVENS

The meaning is, that the figure of the ange raised or embossed on the coin, not engraved on

Tu

2

All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold,
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms infold.3
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old,

Your

2 Many a man his life hath sold, &c.] This and the following line are obscure, as well as lame and imperfect; the deficiency may, perhaps, be supplied by a paraphrase of this kind; "But there is nothing peculiar in your case; the error is common of rating by a false estimate the value of that "substance in which I am inclosed, inasmuch as many a man has been obliged to forfeit his life "in consequence either of unlawful practices, or "hazardous enterprizes, undertaken for the privilege of contemplating it." The words,

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"But my outside to behold:" &c.

may, possibly, be allusive to the fanciful and arbitrary price set upon that, which, however distinguished by its external lustre, possesses no essential and inherent utility beyond that of inferior metals; the extraordinary fondness manifested for it may, therefore, be considered as arising from the gratification men feel in looking at it. E.

3 Gilded tombs do worms infold.] In all the old editions this line is written thus:

Gilded timber do worms infold." From which Mr. Rowe and all the following editors have made:

"Gilded wood may worms infold." A line not bad in itself, but not so applicable to the occasion as that which, I believe, Shakspeare wrote: "Gilded

Your answer had not been insc Fare you well; your suit is col Cold, indeed; and labour lost :

Then, farewel, heat; and, welcome Portia, adieu! I have too griev'd a he To take a tedious leave: thus losers part. Por. A gentle riddance:-Draw t tains, go:

Let all of his complexion choose me so

[E

"Gilded, tombs do worms infold."

A tomb is the proper repository of a death's

The thought might have been suggested ney's Arcadia, Book 1:

Jo

"But gold can guild a rotten piece of wo STE

Tombs, (or, as written formerly,-tombes) very readily imagine to have been mistaken timber. Tombs, richly gilded, are the ornam many old churches at this day. CAPELL. Doctor Johnson's emendation is support Shakspeare's 101st sonnet:

66

-it lies in thee

"To make thee much outlive a gilded

M

4 Your answer had not been inscrol'd;] Since is an answer inscrol'd or written in every cas believe for your we should read this. Whe words were written yr and ys, the mistake was

Jo

Undoubtedly "This answer had not," &c. have been more proper, but "Your answer,' signify, "Such an answer as you have now r "ed." E.