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Jef. When I was with him, I have heard him swear, To Tubal, and to Chus, his countrymen, That he would rather have Anthonio's flesh, Than twenty times the value of the fum That he did owe him; and I know, my lord, If law, authority, and power deny not, It will go hard with poor Anthonio.

Por. Is it your dear friend, that is thus in trouble?
Baff. The dearest friend to me, the kindeft man,
The beft condition'd and unweary'd fpirit
In doing courtefies; and one in whom
The ancient Roman honour more appears,
Than any that draws breath in Italy.
Por. What fum owes he the Jew?
Baff. For me, three thousand ducats.
Por. What, no more?

Pay him fix thousand, and deface the bond;
Double fix thousand, and then treble that,
Before a friend of this defcription

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

Baff. [reads.] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all mifcarry'd, my creditors grow cruel, my eftate is very low, my bond to the few is forfeit; and fince, in paying it, it is impoffible I should live, all debts are cleared between you and me, if I might but fee you at my death: notwithstand

ing, ufe your pleasure: if your love do not perfuade you to come, let not my letter.

Por. O love, dispatch all bufinefs, and be gone. Baff. Since I have your good leave to go away, I will make hafte: but, 'till I come again, No bed fhall e'er be guilty of my stay,

No reft be interpofer 'twixt us twain. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A Street in Venice.

Enter Shylock, Salanio, Anthonio, and the Gaoler.

Shy. Gaoler, look to him;-Tell not me of mercy;

This is the fool that lent out money gratis;-
Gaoler, look to him.

Anth. Hear me yet, good Shylock.

Shy. I'll have my bond; fpeak not against my bond:

I have fworn an oath, that I will have my bond:
Thou call'dft me dog, before thou had'ft a cause;
But, fince I am a dog, beware my fangs :
The duke fhall grant me juftice - I do wonder,
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art 3 fo fond
To come abroad with him at his request.
Anth. I pray thee hear me fpeak.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak :

I'll have my bond; and therefore fpeak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool 4,
To shake the head, relent, and figh, and yield

3 —fo fond] i. e. so foolish. See vol. ii. p. 148.

STEVEENS.

-dull-ey'd fool,] This epithet dull-ey'd is bestow'd on melancholy in Pericles Prince of Tyre. STEEVENS.

To Chriftian interceffors. Follow not;

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

[Exit. Shylock. Sl. It is the most impenetrable cur,

That ever kept with men.

Anth. Let him alone;

I'll follow him no more with bootlefs prayers.
He fecks my life; his reafon well I know;
1 oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

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

Sola. I am fure, the duke

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

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Anth. The duke cannot deny the courfe of law,
For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice; if it be deny'd,

Will much impeach the juftice of the ftate;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Confifteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
Thefe griefs and loffes have fo 'bated me,
That I fhall hardly fpare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
Well, gaoler, on:--- Pray God, Baffanio come
To fee me pay his debt, and then I care not!

[Exeunt.

5 The duke cannot deny &c.-] As the reafon here given feems a little perplex'd, it may be proper to explain it. If, fays he, the duke ftop the courfe of law it will be attended with this inconvenience, that stranger merchants, by whom the wealth and power of this city is fupported, will cry out of injuftice. For the known ftated law being their guide and fecurity, they will never bear to have the current of it stopped on any pretence of equity whatsoever. WARBURTON,

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Belmont.

Enter Portia, Neriffa, Lorenzo, Jeffica, and Balthazar,

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

Of god-like amity; which appears moft ftrongly
your lord.
In bearing thus the abfence of
But, if you knew to whom you fhew this honour,
How true a gentleman you fend relief,

How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
I know, you would be prouder of the work,
Than cuftomary bounty can enforce you.
Por. I never did repent for doing good,
Nor fhall not now: for in companions
That do converfe and wafte the time together,
Whofe fouls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must needs be a like proportion

Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit";

Which

6 Whofe fouls de bear an equal yoke, &c.] The folio 1623, reads gal, which I believe in Shakspeare's time was commonly used for equal. So it was in Chaucer's:

"I will prefume hym fo to dignifie
"Yet be not egall."

Again, in Gorboduc:

Prol, to the Remedy of Love.

"Sith all as one do bear you egall faith." STEEVENS. 7 Of lineaments, of manners, &c.-] The wrong pointing has made this fine fentiment nonfenfe. As implying that friendship could not only make a fimilitude of manners, but of faces. The true fenfeis, lineaments of manners, i. e. form of the manners, which, fays the fpeaker, muft needs be proportionate.

WARBURTON. The poet only means to fay, that correfponding proportions of body and mind are necessary for those who spend their time together. So, in K. Henry IV. Part II:

"Dol. Why doth the prince love him fo then? "Fal. Because their legs are both of a bigness, &c." Every one will allow that the friend of a toper fhould have a P 4

Strong

Which makes me think, that this Anthonio,
Being the bofom lover of my lord,
Muft needs be like my lord: If it be so,
How little is the coft I have bestow'd,
In purchafing the femblance of my foul
From out the state of hellifh cruelty?
This comes too near the praifing 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 fecret vow,
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Neriffa here,

Until her husband and my lord's return:
There is a monaftery two miles off,

strong head, and the intimate of a fportsman fuch an athletic conftitution as will enable him to acquit himself with reputation in the exercises of the field. The word lineaments was used with great laxity by our ancient writers. In The learned and true Affertion of the Original, Life, &c. of King Arthur, tranflated from the Latin of John Leland, 1582, it is used for the human frame in general. Speaking of the removal of that prince's bones,

he calls them Arthur's lineaments three times tranflated; and again, all the lineaments of them remaining in that most stately tomb, faving the fhin bones of the king and queen, &c.

Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: "Nature had focurioutly performed his charge in the lineaments of his body, &c." Again, in Chapman's tranflation of the twenty-third book of Homer's Iliad;

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"His goodly lineaments with chase of Hector, &c."

This comes too near &c.] In former editions:
This comes too near the praifing of myself;
Therefore no more of it; here other things,
Lorenzo, I commit, &c.

STEEVENS,

Portia finding the reflections he had made came too near selfpraife, begins to chide herfelf for it; fays, She'll fay no more of that fort; but call a new fubject. The regulation I have made in the text was likewise prescrib'd by Dr. Thirlby.

THEOBALD.

And

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