Hath a dog money? is it possible, A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? or Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; ACT II. GRAVITY ASSUMED. Signior Bassanio, hear me: Talk with respect, and swear but now and then, Like one well studied in a sad ostent* THE JEW'S COMMANDS 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, Το gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces: POSSESSION MORE LANGUID THAN EXPECTATION. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont, To keep obliged faith unforfeited! Who riseth from a feast, With what keen appetite that he sits down? * Show of staid and serious demeanour. That he did pace them first? All things that are, The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails, 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: He wrung Bassanio's hand and so they parted. HONOUR TO BE CONFERRED ON MERIT ONLY. For who shall go about To cozen fortune, and be honourable * Decorated with flags. + To slubber is to do a thing carelessly. Shows, tokens. Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume O, that estates, degrees, and offices, Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear honour To be new varnish'd? LOVE MESSENGER COMPARED TO AN APRIL DAY. So likely an ambassador of love: A day in April never came so sweet, To show how costly summer was at hand, ACT III. THE JEW'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 us, 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. MUSIC. Let music sound, while he doth make his choice; May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream, THE DECEIT OF ORNAMENT OR APPEARANCES. The world is still deceived with ornament; In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracioust voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars; Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk? And these assume but valour's excrement, To render them redoubted. Look on beauty, And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight; Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it: So are those crisped‡ snaky golden locks, * Dignity of mein. + Winning favour. + Curled, Which make such wanton gambols with the wind, Upon supposed fairness, often known To be the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them, in the sepulchre. To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf The seeming truth which cunning times put on PORTIA'S PICTURE. What find I here? [Opening the leaden casket. Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her hairs SUCCESSFUL LOVER COMPARED TO A CONQUEROR. Giddy in spirit, still gazing, in a doubt Whether those peals of praise be his or not; HIS THOUGHTS TO THE INARTICULATE JOYS OF A CROWD. There is such confusion in my powers, As, after some oration fairly spoke Where every something, being blent‡ together, *Treacherous; † Likeness, portrait. + Blended. |