First, go with me to church, and call me wife:
And then away to Venice to your friend;
For never shall you lie by Portia's side
With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
To pay the petty debt twenty times over;
When it is paid, bring your true friend along:
My maid Nerissa and myself, mean time,
Will live as maids and widows. Come, away;
For you shall hence upon your wedding-day:
Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer 22
Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.-
But let me hear the letter of your friend.

22;

Bass. [Reads.] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since, in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but see you at my death: notwithstanding, use your pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter. Por. O love, despatch all business, and be gone. Bass. Since I have your good leave to go away, I will make haste: but, till I come again, No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay, Nor rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.

SCENE III. Venice. A Street.

[Exeunt.

Enter SHYLOCK, SALANIO, ANTONIO, and Gaoler. Shy. Gaoler, look to him;-Tell not me of mercy:This is the fool that lent out money gratis ;— Gaoler, look to him.

Ant.

Hear me yet, good Shylock.

Shy. I'll have my bond; speak not against my

bond;

I have sworn an oath, that I will have

22 i. e. air of countenance, look.

my bond:

Thou call'dst me dog, before thou hadst a cause:
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs :
The duke shall grant me justice.-I do wonder,
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond1
To come abroad with him at his request.
Ant. I pray thee, hear me speak.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak;
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To christian intercessors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond.

[Exit SHYLOCK. Salan. It is the most impenetrable cur,

That ever kept with men..

Let him alone;

Ant.
I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.
He seeks my life; his reason well I know;
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

Many that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.

Salan.

I am sure, the duke

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

Ant. The duke cannot deny the course of law; For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice, if it be denied,

Will much impeach the justice of the state2;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
These griefs and losses have so 'bated me,

1 Foolish.

2 As this passage is a little perplexed in its construction, it may not be improper to explain it :-If, says Antonio, the duke stop the course of law, the denial of those rights to strangers, which render their abode at Venice so commodious and agreeable to them, will much impeach the justice of the state, &c. In the Historye of Italye, by W. Thomas, 1567, there is a section On the libertie of straungers at Venice.'

That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.-

Well, gaoler, on:-Pray God, Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not!

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Belmont. A Room in Portia's House.

Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHAZAR.

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your presence, You have a noble and a true conceit

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly
In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But, if
you knew to whom you show this honour,
How true a gentleman you send relief,
How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
I know, you would be prouder of the work,
Than customary bounty can enforce you.

Por. I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now: for in companions
That do converse and waste the time together,
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must be needs a like proportion
Of lineaments1, of manners, and of spirit;
Which makes me think, that this Antonio,

1 The word lineaments was used with great laxity by our ancient writers. In Green's Farewell to follow 1617, and in other cotemporary writers, it is used for the human frame in general. 'Nature hath so curiously performed his charge in the lineaments of his body.' Again, in Chapman's version of the fifth Iliad : too the weariness of fight

From all his nerves and lineaments.'

Several other instances of a similar use of the word by Chapman are adduced by Steevens.

Being the bosom lover of my lord,
Must needs be like my lord: If it be so,
How little is the cost I have bestow'd,
In purchasing the semblance of my soul
From out the state of hellish cruelty?
This comes too near the praising of myself!
Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.—
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house,
Until

my lord's return; for mine own part,
I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Nerissa here,

Until her husband and my lord's return:

There is a monastery two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do desire you,
Not to deny this imposition;

The which my love, and some necessity,

Now lays upon you.

Lor.

Madam, with all my heart

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por. My people do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jessica

In place of lord Bassanio and myself.

So fare you well, till we shall meet again.

Lor. Fair thoughts, and happy hours, attend on

you.

Jes. I wish your ladyship all heart's content. Por. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica.[Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO.

2 This word was anciently applied to those of the same sex who had an esteem for each other. Ben Jonson concludes one of his letters to Dr. Donne, by telling him he is his true lover.' So in Coriolanus:

'I tell thee, fellow,

Thy general is my lover.'

See also Shakspeare's Sonnets, passim.

Now, Balthazar,

As I have ever found thee honest, true,

So let me find thee still: Take this same letter,
And use thou all the endeavour of a man,

In speed to Padua; see thou render this
Into my cousin's hand, doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee, Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed3 Unto the tranect 4, to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice-waste no time in words, But get thee gone: I shall be there before thee. Balth. Madam, I go with all convenient speed.

[Exit.

Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand, That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands, Before they think of us.

Ner.

Shall they see us?

Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit, That they shall think we are accomplished With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager, When we are both accouter'd like young men, I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,

And wear my dagger with the braver grace: And speak, between the change of man and boy, With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps

3 i. e. with the celerity of imagination. So in the Chorus preceding the third act of K. Henry V.:

'Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies.' Again in Hamlet: Swift as meditation.' We still say, ' as swift as thought.'

4 This word can only be illustrated at present by conjecture. It evidently implies the name of a place where the passage-boat set out, and is in some way derived from Tranáre, Ital. To pass or swim over:' perhaps, therefore, Tranetto signified a little fording place or ferry, and hence the English word Tranect, but no other instance of its use has yet occurred. Rowe substituted traject, but the old copies concur in reading tranect, and there is therefore no pretence for change.