dize I will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our fynagogue; go, good Tubal; at our fynagogue,

Tubal.

SCENE IL

BELMONT.

[Exeunt.

Enter Baffanio, Portia, Gratiano, and attendants.
The cafkets are fet out.

Por. I pray you, tarry;-paufe a day or two,
Before you hazard; for, in chufing wrong
I lofe your company; therefore, forbear a while.
There's fomething tells me, but it is not love,
I would not lofe you; and you know yourself,
Hate counfels not in fuch a quality.

But left you fhould not understand me well,
(And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought)
I would detain you here fome month or two,
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How to chufe right, but I am then forfworn,
So will I never be: fo you may miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a fin,
That I had been forfworn. Befhrew your eyes,
They have o'erlook'd me, and divided me;
One-half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would fay: but if mine, then yours;
And fo all yours. Oh! thefe naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights:
And fo though yours, not yours.-Prove it fo,
Let fortune go to hell for it,-Not I.!

I speak

And fo though yours, not yours.—Prove it fo.] It may be more grammatically read,

And fo though yours I'm not yours. JOHNSON. Let fortune go to bell for it, not I.] This line is very obfcure. The form of the expreffion alludes to what she had faid of being

M 2

forfworn.

I fpeak too long; but 'tis to piece the time,
To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.

Baff. Let me chuse;

For, as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por. Upon the rack, Baffanio? then confess What treason there is mingled with your love.

Baff. None, but that ugly treafon of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love: There may as well be amity and life

'Tween fnow and fire, as treason and my love. Pur. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do fpeak any thing.

Baff. Promise me life, and I'll confefs the truth.
Por. Well then, confefs and live.

Baff. Confefs, and love,

Had been the very fum of my confeffion.
O happy torment, when my torturer

forfworn. After fome struggle, fhe refolves to keep her oath: and then fays, Let fortune go to hell for it. For what! not for telling or favouring Baffanio, which was the temptation the then lay under for fortune had taken no oath. And, furely, for the more favouring a man of merit, fortune did not deferve (confidering how rarely the tranfgreffes this way) fo fevere a fentence. Much lefs could the fpeaker, who favour'd Baffanio, think fo. The meaning then must be, Let fortune rather go to hell for not favouring Baffanio, than I for favouring him. So loofely does our author fometimes ufe his pronouns- not I does not fignify

Let not I go to hell; for then it should be Let not me. But it is a diftinct fentence of itself: and is a very common proverbial fpeech, fignifying, I will have nothing to do with it. Which if the Oxford editor had confidered, he might have fpared his pains in changing into me. WARBURTON.

The meaning is, "If the worst I fear fhould happen, and it fhould prove in the event, that I, who am juftly yours by the "free donation I have made you of myself, fhould yet not be 66 yours in confequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to "hell for robbing you of your juft due, not I for violating my oath." REVISAL.

Doth

Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
Por. Away then! I am lock'd in one of them;
If you do love me, you will find me out.
Neriffa, and the reft, ftand all aloof-

Let mufick found, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in mufick. That the comparison
May stand more juft, my eye fhall be the stream.
And wat'ry death-bed for him.-He may win;
And what is mufick then? then mufick is
Even as the flourish, when the fubjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: fuch it is,
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And fummon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no lefs prefence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute, paid by howling Troy
To the fea-monfter: I ftand for facrifice,
The reft aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared vifages come forth to view
The iffue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
Live thou, I live.-With much, much more difmay 3
I view the fight, than thou that mak'ft the fray.

2

[Mufick within.

With no less prefence.] With the fame dignity of mien."

JOHNSON.

3 Live thou, I live.-With much, much more dismay
I view the fight, than thou, tha: mak'ft the fray.]

One of the quartos reads;

Live then, I live with much more difmay

To view the fight, than, &c,

The folio, 1623, thus ;

Live thou, I live with much more difmay

I view the fight, than, &c.

The other quartos give the prefent reading. JOHNSON.

A fong, whilft Baffanio comments on the cafkets to himself.

Tell me, where is fancy bred,
In the heart, or in the bead?
How begot, bow nourished?

It is engender'd in the eyes

}

}

All.

With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies ;
Let us all ring fancy's knell.
I'll begin it,Ding dong, bell.
Ding, dong, bell.

So may the outward fhows be leaft them-
felves;

The world is ftill deceiv'd with ornament.
In law, what plea fo tainted and corrupt,
But being feafon'd with a gracious voice,
Obfcures the fhow of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but fome fober brow
Will blefs it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the groffnefs with fair ornament?
There is no vice fo fimple, but affumes
Some mark of virtue on its outward parts.
How many cowards, whofe hearts are all as falfe
As ftairs of fand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
Who, inward fearch'd, have livers white as milk?
And these affume but valour's excrement,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you fhall fee 'tis purchas'd by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,

+ Reply.] Thefe words, reply, reply, were in all the late editions, except fir T. Hanmer's, put as a verfe in the fong, but in all the old copies ftand as a marginal direction. JOHNSON.

5 So may the outward fhors] He begins abruptly, the first part of the argument has paffed in his mind. JOHNSON.

-gracious voice.] Pleafing; winning favour. JOHNSON.

Making them lighteft that wear moft of it.
So are thofe crifped fnaky golden locks,

Which make fuch wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon fuppofed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a fecond head,

The skull, that bred them, in the fepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled fhore
To a most dangerous fea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty ;7 in a word,

The feeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wifeft. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:

Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead,
Which rather threatneft, than doft promife aught,
Thy plainnefs moves me more than eloquence;"
And here chufe I. Joy be the confequence!

Por. How all the other paffions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rafh-embrac'd despair,
And fhudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealoufy.
O love, be moderate, allay thy ecftafy,
In measure rain thy joy, fcant this excefs;
I feel too much thy bleffing, make it less,

7 Indian beauty.] Sir Tho. Hanmer reads,

-Indian doudy.

JOHNSON.

For

8 Thy palenefs, moves me more than eloquence ;] Baffanio is dif pleafed at the golden cafket for its gardiness, and the filver one for its palenefs; but, what! is he charm'd with the leaden one for having the very fame quality that difpleafed him in the filver? The poet certainly wrote,

Thy plainnefs moves me more than eloquence:

This characterizes the lead from the filver, which pal nefs does not, they being both pale. Befides, there is a beauty in the antithefis between plainnes and equence between palerefs and eloquence none. So it is faid before of the leaden cofket ;

WARB.

This third dull lead, with warning all as blunt.
Iz measure rain thy joy.- -] The first quarto edition reads,

In measure range thy joy.

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The