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LAUN. Sola! where? where?

LOR. Here.

LAUN. Tell him, there's a poft come from my master, with his horn full of good news. My mafter will be here ere morning.

[Exit Stephano.

LOR. Sweet love, lets in, and there expect their coming.
And yet no matter-why should we go in ?
My friend Stephano, fignify, I pray you,
Within the house, your mistress is at hand;
And bring your mufick forth into the air.
How sweet the moon-light fleeps upon this bank!
Here will we fit, and let the sounds of mufick
Creep in our ears; foft ftillnefs, and the night
Become the touches of fweet harmony.
Sit, Jeffica: look, how the floor of heav'n
Is thick inlay'd with pattens of bright gold;
There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel fings,

Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubims;
Such harmony is in immortal fouls!
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grofly close us in, we cannot hear it.

Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
And draw her home with mufick.

JES. I'm never weary, when I hear fweet mufick.

LOR. The reafon is, your fpirits are attentive;

For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,

Which is the hot condition of their blood,

[Mufick

If they perchance but hear a trumpet found,
Or any air of musick touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand;
Their favage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze,

By the fweet power of mufick. Therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, ftones and floods;
Since nought fo ftockish, hard and full of rage,
But mufick for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no-mufick in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet founds,
Is fit for treafons, ftratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his fpirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no fuch man be trusted.- -Mark the mufick.
Enter Portia and Neriffa at a distance.

POR. That light we fee, is burning in my hall :
-How far that little candle-throws his beams!

So fhines a good deed in a naughty world.

NER. When the moon fhone, we did not fee the candle. POR. So doth the greater glory dim the less:

A fubftitute fhines brightly as a king,

Until a king be by; and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters.-Mufick, hark!

NER. It is your musick, madam, of the house.
POR. Nothing is good, I fee, without respect:
Methinks, it founds much sweeter than by day.
NER. Silence bestows the virtue on it, madam.
POR. The crow doth fing as fweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if she should fing by day,
When ev'ry goose is cackling, would be thought

No better a mufician than the wren.

How many things by season season'd are
To their right praise, and true perfection?
-Peace! how the moon fleeps with Endymion,
And would not be awaked!

LOR. That is the voice,

Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia.

[Mufick ceases.

POR. He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuc

kow,

By the bad voice.

LOR. Dear lady, welcome home.

POR. We have been praying for our husband's healths; Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.

Are they return'd?

LOR. Madam, they are not yet;

But there is come a meffenger before,

To fignify their coming.

POR. Go, Nerissa,

Give order to my fervants, that they take

No note at all of our being abfent hence,

-Nor you, Lorenzo; Jeffica, nor you. [A tucket sounds. LOR. Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet:

-We are no tell-tales, madam, fear you not.

POR. This night methinks is but the day-light fick;

It looks a little paler; 'tis a day,

Such as the day is when the fun is hid.

Enter Baffanio, Anthonio, Gratiano, and their followers. BASS. We should hold day with the Antipodes,

If you would walk in absence of the fun.

POR. Let me give light, but let not me be light;
For a light wife doth make a heavy husband;
And never be Baffanio fo for me;

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But God fort all!-you're welcome home, my lord.

BASS. I thank you, madam, give welcome to my friend. This is the man, this is Anthonio,

To whom I am so infinitely bound.

POR. You should in all fense be much bound to him; For, as I hear, he was much bound for

you.

ANTH. No more than I am well acquitted of. POR. Sir, you are very welcome to our house. It must appear in other ways than words; Therefore I fcant this breathing courtesy.

[Gratiano and Neriffa seem to talk apart. GRA. By yonder moon, I fwear, you do me wrong; In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk.

Would he were gelt that had it for my part,

Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

POR. A quarrel, ho-already! what's the matter?
GRA. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring,
That she did give me, whofe poefy was
For all the world like cutler's poetry

Upon a knife; "Love me, and leave me not."
NER. What talk you of the poefy; or the value?
You fwore to me, when I did give it you,

That
you would wear it 'till your hour of death,
And that it fhould lie with you in the grave.
Tho' not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
You should have been refpective, and have kept it.
Gave it a judge's clerk!--but well I know,
The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face, that had it,
GRA. He will, an' if he live to be a man.

NER. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.
GRA. Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth,

A kind of boy -a little fcrubbed boy,

No higher than thyfelf-the judge's clerk-
A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee.

I could not for my heart deny it him.

POR. You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
To part fo flightly with your wife's first gift;
A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger,
And rivetted with faith unto your flesh.

1 gave my love a ring, and made him fwear
Never to part with it; and here he stands,

I dare be sworn for him, he would not leave it,
Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
That the world mafters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,
You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief;
An' 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

BASS. Why, I were beft to cut my left hand off,
And fwear, I loft the ring defending it.

GRA. My lord Baffanio gave his ring away

Unto the judge that begg'd it, and, indeed,
Deferv'd it too. And then the boy, his clerk,

That took fome pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
And neither man, nor master, would take aught
But the two rings.

POR. What ring gave you, my lord?
Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me.
BASS. If I could add a lie unto a fault,

I would deny it; but you fee my finger
Hath not the ring upon it, it is gone.

POR. Even fo void is your false heart of truth,
By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed

Until I fee the ring.

NER. Nor I in yours, "Till I again fee mine.

[Afide.

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