And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;
And, in a word, but even now worth this,

35

And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
To think on this, and shall I lack the thought
That such a thing bechanced would make me sad?
But tell not me: I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

Ant. Believe me, no. I thank my fortune for it,

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:

Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad,
Salar. Why, then you are in love.

Ant.

Fie, fie!

Then let's say you are sad,

Salar. Not in love neither?
Because you are not merry: and 'twere as easy
For you to laugh and leap, and say you are merry,
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes
And laugh, like parrots at a bag-piper;

40

45

50

And others of such vinegar aspect,

That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile

55

Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO.

Salan. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare ye well:

We leave you now with better company.

Salar. I would have stayed till I had made you merry, 60 If worthier friends had not prevented me.

50. Janus. He swears by that double-faced divinity who was represented as both laughing and sad. Look up Janus in Classical Dictionary." Classical allusions are frequent in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and illustrate the recent revival of interest in classical studies. The student should look them up as they occur thoughout the play, and find out how and why they are used.

61. Prevented.-Used in the old sense of anticipated. How derived ?

Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard.

I take it, your own business calls on you,

And you embrace the occasion to depart.

Salar. Good morrow, my good lords.

Bass. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say,
when?

You grow exceeding strange: must it be so?

65

Salar. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours.

[Exeunt SALARINO and SALANIO.

Lor. My lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,

We two will leave you; but at dinner-time,

70

I pray you, have in mind where we must meet.

Bass. I will not fail you.

Gra. You look not well, signior Antonio;

You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it that do buy it with much care.

75

Believe me, you are marvellously changed.

Ant. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano :
A stage where every man must play a part,

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come,
And let my liver rather heat with wine
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.

80

Why should a man whose blood is warm within
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?

Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice

85

By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio-
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks,-
There are a sort of men whose visages

79. Fool.-Not foolish person, but a professional Jester, a character often

found in old plays. See the Fool in

Lear," Touchstone in "As You

Like it," also Wamba in Scott's "Ivanhoe." The Jester formed a part of the household establishment of kings or nobles.

That therefore only are reputed wise,

For saying nothing; when, I am very sure,

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears,
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.

I'll tell thee more of this another time:

But fish not, with this melancholy bait
For this fool-gudgeon, this opinion.-

I'll end my exhortation after dinner.

100

Come, good Lorenzo.-Fare ye well awhile :

Lor. Well, we will leave you, then, till dinner-time.

105

I must be one of these same dumb wise men,
For Gratiano never lets me speak.

Gra. Well, keep me company but two years more,
Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.
Ant. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear.
Gra. Thanks, i' faith; for silence is only commendable
In a neat's tongue dried.

[Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO.

Ant. Is that anything now?

ΠΟ

Bass. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat 115 hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search. Ant. Well, tell me now, what lady is the same

To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promised to tell me of?

120

104. Exhortation.—Perhaps an allusion to a Puritan sermon, too long to be finished before dinner. Slurs upon Puritanism are frequent among the Elizabethan dramatists; See Malvolio in "Twelfth Night." Why was this? How did Puritans regard the stage?

110. Gear.-Purpose, matter, affair.

124. Continuance, i. e. continuance of.

125. To be abridged.—Infinitive used as a noun or gerund. Complain of the abridgement,

Wherein my time, something too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged. To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money, and in love;
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburthen all my plots and purposes,
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

130

Ant. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it;

And if it stand as you yourself still do,

135

Within the eye of honour, be assured,

My purse, my person, my extremest means,

Lie all unlocked to your occasions.

Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft I shot his fellow of the self-same flight

140

The self-same way, with more advised watch

To find the other forth, and by adventuring both,

I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.
I owe you much, and like a wilful youth,
That which I owe is lost; but if you please

145

To shoot another arrow that self way

Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,

As I will watch the aim, or to find both,

Or bring your latter hazard back again,

150

And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

Ant. You know me well, and herein spend but time

To wind about my love with circumstance;

And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong,

In making question of my uttermost,

155

Than if you had made waste of all I have:

Then do but say to me what I should do,

That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore speak.
Bass. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And she is fair and, fairer than that word,

Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;

159. Prest, ready, from Lat. praestus. Fr. pret.

For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors; and her sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,

Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strand,

170

And many Jasons come in quest of her.

O, my Antonio, had I but the means

To hold a rival place with one of them,

I have a mind presages me such thrift,

That I should questionless be fortunate.

175

Ant. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea;

Neither have I money nor commodity

To raise a present sum: therefore go forth

Try what my credit can in Venice do:

That shall be racked, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,

Where money is, and I no questions make

To have it of my trust, or for my sake. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Belmont. A Room in PORTIA'S House.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.

180

Por. By the troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this 185 great world.

Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are. And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. It is no small happiness, therefore, to 190 be seated in the mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.

Por. Good sentences, and well pronounced.

Ner. They would be better, if well followed.

Por. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, 195 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 o'er a cold 200 decree such a hare is madness, the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel, the cripple. But this reasoning is not in 182. Presently, i. e., immediately—at once.