And speak between the change of man and boy,
With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly ftride; and fpeak of frays,
Like a fine bragging youth: and tell quaint lies
How honourable ladies fought my love,
Which I denying, they fell fick and dy'd ;
I could not do with all :-then I'll repent,
And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them;
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,

That men fhall fwear, I have difcontinued school
Above a twelvemonth :-I have in my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks,
Which I will practise.

Ner. Why, fhall we turn to men?
Por. Fie! what a question's that,
If thou wert near a lewd interpreter ?
But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park gate; and therefore hafte away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

SCENE V.

Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA.

[Exeunt.

Laun. Yes, truly :-for, look you, the fins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promife you I fear for you. I was always plain with you, and fo now I fpeak my agitation of the matter: Therefore be of good cheer for, truly, I think you are damn'd. There is but one hope in it that can do you any good; and that is but a kind of a bastard hope neither.

Jef. And what hope is that, I pray thee?

Laun. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter.

Jef. That were a kind of baftard hope, indeed. So the fins of my mother shall be vifited upon me.

Laun. Truly then I fear you are damn'd both by father and mother: thus when I fhun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are gone both ways.

Jef. I fhall be fav'd by my husband; he hath made me a Chriftian.

Laun. Truly, the more to blame he: we were Chrif

.tians enough before: e'en as many as could well live one by another: This making of Chriftians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we fhall not shortly have a rafher on the coals for money.

Enter LORENZO.

Jef. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you fay: here he comes.

Lor. I fhall grow jealous of you fhortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners.

Jef. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are out: he tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he says, you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to Chriftians, you raise the price of pork.

Lor. I fhall anfwer that better to the commonwealth, than you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.

Laun. It is much, that the Moor should be more than reafon but if fhe be lefs than an honeft woman, fhe is indeed, more than I took her for.

Lor. How every fool can play upon the word! I think the beft grace of wit will fhortly turn into filence; and difcourfe grow commendable in none but parrots.-Go in, firrah: bid them prepare for dinner.

Laun. That is done, fir; they have all stomachs.

Lor. Goodly lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner.

Laun. That is done too, fir: only, cover is the word. Lor. Will you cover then, fir?

Laun. Not fo, fir, neither: I know my duty.

Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occafion! wilt thou fhew the whole wealth of thy wit in an inftant? I pray thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning; go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.

Laun. For the table, fir, it fhall be ferv'd in ; for the meat, fir, it shall be covered; for your coming in to dinner, fir, why let it be as humours and conceits shall gov [Exit LAUNCELOT.

ern.

Lor. O dear difcretion, how his words are fuited ![5]

[5] I believe the meaning is: What a feries or fuite of words he has, independent of meaning; how one word draws on another without relation

to the matter.

JOHNS.

The fool hath planted in his memory
An army of good words; and I do know
A many fools, that stand in better place,
Garnish'd like him, that for a trickly word
Defy the matter.-How far'ft thou, Jeffica?
And now, good fweet, fay thy opinion,
How doft thou like the lord Baffanio's wife?
Jef. Paft all expreffing: It is very meet
The lord Baffanio live an upright life;
For, having fuch a bleffing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
And, if on earth he do not mean it, then
In reafon he should never come to heaven.
Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match,
And on the wager lay two earthly women,
And Portia one, there must be something else
Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow.

Lor. Even fuch a husband

Haft thou of me, as fhe is for a wife.

Jef. Nay, but afk my opinion too of that. Lor. I will anon: firft, let us go to dinner. Jef. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a ftomach.. Lor. No, pray thee, let it ferve for table-talk; Then, howfoe'er thou speak'ft, 'mong other things I fhall digeft it.

Jef. Well, I'll fet you forth.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Senate-boufe in Venice. Enter the Duke, the Senators; ANTHONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, and others.

Duke.

WHAT, is Anthonio here?

Anth. Ready, fo please your grace.

Duke. I am forry for thee; thou art come to answer

A ftony adverfary, an inhuman wretch

Uncapable of pity, void and empty

From any dram of mercy.

Anth. I have heard,

Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify
His rigorous course; but fince he stands obdurate,
And that no lawful means can carry me

Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury; and am arm'd
To fuffer, with a quietnefs of spirit,

The very tyranny and rage of his.

Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. Sal. He's ready at the door: he comes, my lord., Enter SHYLOCK.

Duke. Make room, and let him ftand before our face.-
Shylock, the world thinks, and I think fo too,
That thou but lead'ft this fashion of thy malice
To the laft hour of act; and then, 'tis thought,
Thou'lt fhew thy mercy, and remorfe, more strange
Than is thy ftrange apparent cruelty ;

And, where thou now exact'ft the penalty,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
Thou wilt not only lofe the forfeiture,

But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal;

Glancing an eye of pity on his loffes,
That have of late fo huddled on his back,
Enough to prefs a royal merchant down,[6]
And pluck commiferation of his state

From brafly bosoms, and rough hearts of flint ;
From ftubborn Turks, and Tartars, never train'd
To offices of tender courtesy.

We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.

Shy. I have poffefs'd your grace of what I purpose ;;

[6] We are not to imagine the word Royal to be only a ranting founding epithet. It is ufed with great propriety, and fhews the poet well acquainted with the hiftory of the people whom he here brings upon the ftage. For when the French and Venetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had won Conftantinople, the French, under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquefts into the provinces of the Grecian empire on the terra firma; while the Venetians, who were matters of the fea, gave liberty to any fubject of the republic, who would fit out veffels, to make themselves matters of the ifles of the Archipelago, and other maritime places; and to enjoy their conquefts in fovereignty; only doing homage to the republic for their feveral principalities. By virtue of this license, the Sanudo's, the Juftiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo's, and others, all Venetian Merchants, erected principalities in feveral places of the Archipelago, (which their defcendants enjoyed for many generations) and thereby became truly and properly Royal Merchants. Which indeed was the title generally given them all over Europe. Hence, the most eminent of our own merchants (while public fpirit refided amongst them, and before it was aped by taction) were called Royal Merchants. WARB.

And by our holy fabbath have I fworn,
To have the due and forfeit of my bond:
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter, and your city's freedom.
You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive
Three thousand ducats: I'll not anfwer that;
But fay, it is my humour; Is it answered?
What if my house be troubled with a rat,
And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you anfwer'd yet?
Some men there are, love not a gaping pig;
Some, that are mad, if they behold a cat;
And others, when the bag-pipe fings i' the nofe,
Cannot contain their urine for affection,
Mafters of paffion, fway it to the mood

Of what it likes, or lothes.[7] Now, for your anfwer:
As there is no firm reason to be render'd,
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;
Why he, a harmlefs, neceffary cat ;
Why he, a wooden bag-pipe; but of force
Muft yield to fuch inevitable fhame,
As to offend himself, being offended;
So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodg'd hate, and a certain loathing
I bear Anthonio, that I follow thus

A lofing fuit against him. Are you anfwer'd?
Baff. This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
To excufe the current of thy cruelty.

Shy. I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
Baff. Do all men kill the thing they do not love?
Shy. Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
Baff. Every offence is not a hate at firft.

Shy. What, would'st thou have a ferpent fting thee twice?

Anth. I pray you, think you queftion with the Jew: You may as well go ftand upon the beach, And bid the main flood 'bate his ufual height; You may as well ufe queftion with the wolf, Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;

[7] He is fpeaking of the power of found over the human affections, and concludes, very naturally, that the matters of paffion' (for fo he finely calls the muficians) fway the paffions or affections as they pleafe. Alluding to what the ancients tell us of the feats that Timotheus and other muficians worked by the power of mufic. WARB.