You shall look fairer, ere I give, or hazard. What says the golden chest? ha ! let me see : Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach ; I will not choose what many men desire, Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity : O, that estates, degrees, and offices, Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear honour How many be commanded that command! How much low peasantry would then be glean'd To be new varnish'd! Well, but to my choice : I will assume desert :-Give me a key for this, And instantly unlock my fortunes here. POR. Too long a pause for that which you find there. ARR. What's here? the portrait of a blinking idiot, Presenting me a schedule! I will read it. How much unlike art thou to Portia ! How much unlike my hopes and my deservings! Who chooseth me, shall have as much as he deserves. Is that my prize? are my deserts no better? POR. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices, And of opposed natures. The fire seven times tried this; By the time I linger here : With one fool's head I came to woo, But I go away with two. Sweet, adieu! I'll keep my oath, Patiently to bear my wroth.* [Exeunt ARRAGON and Train. POR. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. Enter a Messenger. Here; what would my MESS. Where is my lady? POR. MESS. Madam, there is alighted at your gate A young Venetian, one that comes before lord? To signify the approaching of his lord; From whom he bringeth sensible regreets ; + To wit, besides commends and courteous breath, * Misfortune. G 2 Salutations. So likely an ambassador of love : A day in April never came so sweet, To show how costly summer was at hand, POR. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard, [Exeunt. SALAR. Why, yet it lives there unchecked, that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrack'd on the narrow seas,-the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip, report, be an honest woman of her word. * SOLAN. I would she were as lying a gossip in that, as ever knapped ginger, or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true,- without any slips of prolixity, or crossing the plain highway of talk,—that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,-O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company! SALAR. Come, the full stop. SOLAN. Ha,--what sayest thou?-Why the end is, he hath lost a ship. SALAR. I would it might prove the end of his losses! SOLAN. Let me say Amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.— : Enter SHYLOCK. How now, Shylock? what news among the merchants ? SHY. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight. SALAR. That's certain. I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal. SOLAN. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. SHY. She is damn'd for it. SALAR. That's certain if the devil may be her judge. SHY. My own flesh and blood to rebel! SOLAN. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years? SALAR. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers, than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods, than there is between red wine and Rhenish :- but tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? SHY. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond he was wont to call me usurer ;-let him look to his bond he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy ;-let him look to his bond. * Broke. |