Enter Baffanio, Portia, Gratiano, and attendants.
Por. 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 should 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 with 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, th' other half yours,
Mine own, I would fay: but if mine, then yours;
And fo all yours. Alas! thefe naughty times.
Put bats between the owners and their rights:
And fo though yours, not yours.-Prove it fo,
Let fortune go to hell for it-Not I. 2
1 And fo though yours, not yours. Prove it fo.] It may
fhe refolves to keep her oath : And then fays, Let fortune go to hell for it. For what! not for
be more grammatically read, And fo though yours I'm not yours.teling or favouring Befanio, * Let fortune go to hell for it. which was the temptation the Not I.] This line is very obfcure. then lay under: for fortune had The form of the expreffion al- taken no oath. And, furely, for Judes to what she had faid of be- the more favouring a man of ing forfworn. After fome struggle, merit, fortune did not deferve VQL. L (confidering
1 fpeak too long, but 'tis to piece the time,
To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
To ftay you from election.
Baff. Let me chufe:
For as I am, I live upon the rack.
Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confefs, What treason there is mingled with your love. Baff. None, but that ugly treafon of mistrust, Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love: There may as well be amity and life "Tween fnow and fire, as treafon and my love.
Por. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack; Where men enforced do fpeak any thing.
Baf. Promife me life, and I'll confefs the truth.
Pur. Well then, confefs and live.
Baff. Confefs, and love,
Had been the very fum of my confeffion.
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me anfwers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
Por. Away then I am lockt in one of them;
If you do love me, you will find me out.
Neriffa, and the reft, ftand all aloof,
Let mufic found, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a fwan-like end,
Fading in mufick. That the comparison
May ftand more juft, my eye fhall be the ftream
And wat❜ry death-bed for him.-He may win:
And what is mufick then? then mufick is
(confidering how rarely fhe tranf-
greffes this way) fo fevere a fen-
tence. Much lefs could the
speaker, who favour'd Baffanio,
think fo. The meaning then
must be, Let fortune rather
go to
hell for not favouring Ballanio,
than I for favouring him. So
loosely does our author fometimes
ufe his pronouns. not I does
rot fignify, Let not I go to bell; for then it fhould be Let not me. But it is a distinct fentence of itfelf. 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 spared his pains in changing I into me. WARBURTON.
Even as the flourish, when true fubjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: fuch it is,
As are those dulcet founds 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 Trey
To the fea monster; I ftand for facrifice,
The reft aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bloated vifages come forth to view
The iffue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules!
Live thou, I live.-With much, much more difmay
I view the fight, than thou, that mak'ft the fray.
A Song, whilft Baffanio comments on the cafkets to
Baff. So may the outward fhows be leaft themselves;
The world is fill 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 sober brow
Will blefs it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grofsnefs 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 fearcht, have livers white as milk?
And thefe 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,
Making them lighteft, that wear most of it.
So are thefe crifpy 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 fkull, that bred them, in the fepulchre.
Thus Ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dang'rous fea; the beauteous fcarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The feeming truth which cunning times put on
T'entrap the wifeft. Then, 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
6 So may the outward shows.] He begins abruptly, the nrit part of the argument has paffed in his mind.
7-gracious voice.] Pleafing;
8-Indian beauty.] Sir Tha Hanmer reads,
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 defpair,
And fhudd'ring fear, and green ey'd jealousy.
O love, be moderate, allay thy ecftafy;
In measure rain thy joy, fcant this excels,
I feel too much thy bleffing, make it lefs,
For fear I furfeit.
[Opening the leaden cafket.
Ball. What find I here?
Fair Portia's counterfeit ? what Demy-god
Hath come fo near creation? move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are fever'd lips
Parted with fugar breath; fo fweet a bar
Should funder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
The painter lays the fpider, and hath woven
A golden mesh t'intrap the hearts of men,
Fafter than gnats in cobwebs. But her eyes,
How could he fee to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it fhould have pow'r to fteal both his,
And leave itfelf unfurnifh'd.
9 Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;] Baffanio is difpleas'd at the golden casket for its gawdinefs, and the filver one for its paleness; but, what! is he charm'd with the leaden one for having the very fame quality that difpleas'd him in the filver? The Foet certainly wrote,
Thy Plainnefs moves me more than eloquence: This characterizes the lead from the filver, which palenefs does not, they being both pale. Befides, there is a beauty in the antithefis between plainness and eloquence; between paleness and eloquence none. So it is fad
before of the leaden-cafket.
This third dull lead, with warning all is blunt. WARBURTON.
In meafure rain thy joy,-] I. reads, In meafure ange thy joy. II, and III. In measure raine thy joy
IV. In measure rain.
I believe Shakespeare meant,
In meafure rein thy joys. The words rain and rein were not in thee times diftinguished by regular orthography.
Methinks it fhould have pow'r to fteal both his, And leave itself unfurnish`d:—] I know not how unfinish'd has inFf3 truded
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