Arn. The sweet war man is dead and rotten; Arm. I do adore thy sweet grace's slipper. Dum. He may not by the yard. Arm. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal,— Cost. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone she is two months on her way. Arm. What meanest thou ? Cost. Faith, unless you play the honest Trojan, the poor wench is cast away: she's quick; the child brags in her belly already; 'tis yours. Arm. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? Thou shalt die. Cost. Then shal! Hector be whipp'd, for Jaquenetta that is quick by him; and hang'd, for Pompey that is dead by him. Dum. Most rare Pompey! | And though the mourning brow of progeny Prin. I understand you not, my griets are double. And by these badges understand the king. Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours As love is full of unbefitting-strains; All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain; Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Put on by us, if in your heavenly eyes, Dum. Hector trembles. Have misbecomed our oaths and gravities, Biron. Pompey is moved:-More Atés, more Suggested us to make: therefore, ladies, Dum. Hector will challenge him. Biron. Ay, if he have no more man's blood in's belly than will sup a flea. Arm. By the north pole, I do challenge thee. Cost. I will not fight with a pole, like a northern mant; I'll slash; I'll do it by the sword:-1 pray you, let me borrow my arms again. Dum. Room for the incensed worthies. Dum. Most resolute Pompey! Arm. Gentlemen, and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my shirt. Dum. You may not deny it; Pompey hath made the challenge. Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. Boyet. True, and it was enjoin'd him in Rorie for want of linen: since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none, but a dish-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that 'a wears next his heart, for a favour. Enter MERCADE. Mer. God save you madam! Prin. Welcome, Mercade; But that thou interrupt'st oar merriment. Mer. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring, Is heavy in my tongue. The king your fatherPrin. Dead, for my life. Mer. Even so; my tale is told. Biron. Worthies, away; the scene begins to cloud. King. How fares your majesty? Our love being yours, the error that love makes Your favours, the ambassadors of love; Long. So did our looks. + Ros. We did not quote them so. King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves. Prin. A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in : Change not your offer made in heat of blood; For the remembrance of my father's death. me? Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are rank; King. The extreme parts of tine extremely form A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, All causes to the purpose of his speed; That which long process could not arbitrate: Até was the goddess of discord. + A clown. Free to excess. But seek the weary beds of people sick. Dum. But what to me, my love? But what to me? + Regard. Kath. Not so, my lord ;-a twelvemonth and a day I'll mark no words that smooth-faced wooers say: Come when the king doth to my lady come, Then, if I have much love, I'll give you some. Dum. I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then. Kath. Yet, swear not, lest you be forsworn again. Long. What says Maria? Mar. At the twelvemonth's end, I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend. Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Birón, To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain; You shal! this twelvemonth term from day to day Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. Ros. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit, Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Biron. A twelvemonth? Well, befal what will I'll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. Prin. Ay, sweet my lord; and so I take my leave. [To the King. King. No, madam: we will bring you on your way. Biron. Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill; these ladies' courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy. King. Come, Sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, And then 'twill end. Biron, That's too long for a play. Enter ARMADO. Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me, Prin. Was not that Hector? Dum. The worthy knight of Troy. Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave: I am a votary; I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years. But, most esteem'd greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled, in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? It should have follow'd in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly, we will do so. Enter HOLOFERNES, NATHANIEL, MOTH, COSTARD and others. This side is Hiems, winter; this Ver, the spring; the one maintain'd by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. -Ver. begin. SONG. • Cool. DUKE OF VENICE. PRINCE OF MOROCCO, PRINCE OF ARRAGON, S ANTONIO, the Merchant of Venice: BASSANIO, his friend. SALANIO, SALARINO, Friends to Antonio and Bassanio. LORENZO, in love with Jessica. SHYLOCK, a Jew. TUBAL, a Jew, his friend. PORTIA, a rich Heiress. NERISSA, her Waiting-maid. JESSICA, Daughter to Shylock. Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a Clown, Servant to Shylock. Scene, partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the SALERIO, a Messenger from Venice. Seat of Portia, on the Continent. ACT I. SCENE 1.-Venice.-A Street. Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SALAN10. And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still Salar. My wind, cooling my broth, 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 merchandize. Salan. Not in love neither? Then let's say, you are sad, Because you are not merry: and 'twere as easy Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time: That they'll not shew their teeth in way of smile, Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO, Salan. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, Gratiano, and Lorenzo: fare you well; merry, If worthier friends had not prevented me. You grow exceeding strange; Must it be so? We two will leave you: but, at dinner time, Gra. You look not well, signior Antonio; A stage, where every man must play a part, Gra. Let me play the Fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; Ant. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it, Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, No to one place; nor is my whole estate Therefore my merchandize makes me not sad. Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster? Sleep when he wakes? And creep into the jaundice 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 Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond; Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit; 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: Lor. Well, we will leave you then till dinnertime: I must be one of these same dumb wise men, Gra. Well, keep me company but two years In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt Gratiano and Lorenzo. Ant. Is that any thing now? Bass. Gratianio speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice his reasons are as two grains of wheat 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 this same Bass. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, Ant. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight To hold a rival place with one of them, To raise a present sum: therefore go forth, [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Belmont.-A Room in PORTIA's House. Enter PORTIA and NERISSA. Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world. Ner. You would be, sweet madan, 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 mean happiness, therefore, to 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, 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 over a cold 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 the fashion to choose me a husband:-0 me, the word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father :-Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none? Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy unen, at their death, have good inspirations; therefore, the lottery that he hath devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead, (whereof who chooses his meaning, chooses you,) will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly, but one who you shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely suitors that are already come? Por. I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will describe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection. Ner. First, there is the Neapolitan prince. Por. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he can shoe him himself: I am much afraid, my lady his mother, played false with a smith. Ner. Then, is there the county Palatine. Por. He doth nothing but frown; as who should say; An if you will not have me, choose: he hears merry tales, and smiles not: I fear, he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a death's head with a bone in Ant. You know me well; and herein spend but his mouth, than to either of these. God defend me time, To wind about my love with circumstance; And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong, In making question of my uttermost, 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, Of wond'rous virtues; sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages: Her name is Portia; nothing undervalued To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia. Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth: 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, And many Jasons come in quest of her. O my Antonio, had I but the means • Ready. from these two! Ner. How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon ? Por. God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker: but, he why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning than the count Palatine: he is every man in no man: if a throstle sing, he falls straight a capering; he will fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands: if he would de spise me, I would forgive him; for if he love me to madness, I shall never requite him. Ner. What say you then to Faulconbridge, the young baron of England? Por. You know, I say nothing to him; for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, court and swear, that I have a poor penny-worth in French, nor Italian; and you will come into the the English. He is a proper man's picture; but, alas! who can converse with a dumb show? How ddly he is suited! I think, he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour every where. Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? | of waters, winds, and rocks:-The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient:-Three thousand ducats:-1 think, I may take his bond. Bass. Be assured you may. Shy. I will be assured, I may; and, that I may be assured, I will bethink me:-May I speak with Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrow'd a box of the ear of the English-Antonio ? man, and swore he would pay him again, when he was able: I think, the Frenchman became his surety, and seal'd under for another. Ner. How like you the young German, the duke of Saxony's nephew? Por. Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober; and most vileiy in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast; an the worst fall that ever fell, I hope, I shall make shift to go without him. Ner. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should refuse to accept him. Por. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket: for, if the devil be within, and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a spunge. Ner. You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords; they have acquainted me with their determinations: which is indeed, to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more suit: unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's imposition, depending on the caskets. Por. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtain'd by the manner of my father's will: I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant them a fair departure. Ner. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier, that came hither in company with the Marquis of Montferrat? Por. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, so was he called. Ner. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes look'd upon, was the best deserving a fair lady. Por. I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy praise.-How now! what news! Enter a SERVANT. Serv. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to SCENE III.-Venice.-A public Place. Shy. Three thousand ducats,-well. Bass. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. Shy. Antonio shall become bound,-well. Shy. Three thousand ducats, for three months, and Antonio bound. Bass. Your answer to that. hass. Have you heard any imputation to the con trary ? Shy. Ho, no, no, no, no;-my meaning, in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me, that he is sufficient: yet his means are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; I understand moreover upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England,and other ventures he hath, squander'd abroad: but ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be Jand-rats, and water rats, water-thieves, and landthieves; I mean pirates; and then, there is the peril Temper, qualities. Bass. If it please you to dine with us. Shy. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into: I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto?-Who is he comes here ? Enter ANTONIO. Bass. This is signior Antonio. Shy. [Aside.] How like a fawning publican he I hate him, for he is a Christian : Bass. Shylock, do you hear? Shy. I am debating of my present store; [To Antonie. Your worship was the last man in our mouths, Shy. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats. Shy. I had forgot,-three months, you told me so, Shy. When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep, Ant. And what of him? Did he take interest ? Ant. This was a venture, Sir, that Jacob served Ant. Mark you this, Bassanio, sum. Three months from twelve, then let me see the rate. • Lambs just dropped. |