I pray you, have in mind where we must meet.
Baff. I will not fail you. [Exeunt Solar. and Sala.

Gra. You look not well, Signior Anthonio;
You have too much refpect upon the world:
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvellously chang'd.

Anth. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage, where every man muft play his part, And mine's a fad one.

Gra. Let me play the Fool;

❝ With mirth, and laughter, let old wrinkles come; And let my liver rather heat with wine, Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. "Why fhould a man, whose blood is warm within, "Sit like his grandfire cut in Alabaster?

Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice "By being peevish? I tell thee what, Anthonio, "(I love thee, and it is my love that speaks:) "There are a fort of men, whofe vifages "Do cream and mantle like a standing pond; "And do a 'wilful ftillness entertain, "With purpose to be dreft in an opinion "Of wildom, gravity, profound conceit "As who fhould fay, I am Sir Oracle, "And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark! "O my Anthonio, I do know of those, That therefore only are reputed wife, "For faying nothing;" who, I'm very fure, If they should speak, would almost damn those ears,

5 Let me play the Fool;-] Alluding to the common comparison of human lite to a stage play. So that he defires his may be the fool's or buffoon's part, which was a conitant character in the old farces: From whence came the phrase, to play the Fool. Which always fignifies the acting abfurdly out of mere wantonnels. But that, as we observed, is not the fense here.

6 With mirth, and laughter, let old wrinkles come ;] Because they come cafier, and are longer before they come than when brought by Care.

Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
I'll tell thee more of this another time:
But fish not with this melancholy bait,
For this fool's gudgeon, this opinion.
Come, good Lorenzo; fare ye well a while;
7 I'll end my exhortation after dinner.

Lor. Well, we will leave you then 'till dinner-time.
I must be one of these fame dumb wife men;
For Gratiano never lets me fpeak.

Gra. Well, keep me company but two years more, Thou shalt not know the found of thine own tongue. Anth. Fare well; I'll grow a talker for this gear. Gra. Thanks, i'faith; for filence is only commendable

In a neats tongue dry'd, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt Gra. and Loren.

Anth. Is that any thing now?

Baff. Gratiano Speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reafons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you fhall feek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the fearch.

Anth. Well; tell me now, what lady is the fame,
To whom you swore a fecret pilgrimage,
That you to day promis'd to tell me of?

Bal. 'Tis not unknown to you, Anthonio,
How much I have difabled mine eftate,
By fhewing something a more fwelling port,
Than my faint means would grant continuance;
Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd
From fuch a noble rate; but my chief care
Is to come fairly off from the great debts,

7 I'll end my exhortation after dinner.] The humour of this confifts in its being an allufion to the practice of the puritan preachers of thofe times; who being generally very long and tedious, were often forced to put off that part of their fermon called the exhortation till after dinner.

Wherein my time, fomething too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged; to you, Anthonio,
I owe the most in mony, and in love;
And from your love I have a warranty
T' unburthen all my plots and purposes,
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.
Anth. I pray you, good Baffanio, let me know it
And if it ftand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honour; be affur'd,
My purse, my perfon, my extreameft means
Lye all unlock'd to your occafions.

Ball. In my fchool-days, when I had loft one fhaft, I thot his fellow of the felf-fame flight

8

The felf-fame way, with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; by ventring both,
I oft found both. I urge this child-hood proof,
Bacaufe what follows is pure innocence.
I owe you much, and, like a witless youth,
That which I owe is loft; but if you please
To fhoot another arrow that self way
Which you did fhoot the firft, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
Or bring your latter hazard back again,

And thankfully reft debtor for the firft.

Anth. You know me well; and herein fpend but time,

To wind about my love with circumstance;
And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong,
In making queftion of my uttermoft,

Than if you had made wafte of all I have.

8 like a WILFUL youth,] This does not at all agree with what he just before promised, that, what follow'd, fhould be pure innocence. For wilfulness is not quite so pure. We should read WITLESS, i. e. heedlefs; and this agrees exactly to that to which he compares his cafe, of a school-boy, who, for want of advised watch, loft his first arrow, and fent another after it with more attention. But wilful agrees not at all with it.

Then

Then do but say to me, what I should do,
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am preft unto it: therefore, fpeak.

Baff. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And the is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wond'rous virtues; fometimes from her
I did receive fair speechless meffages;
Her name is Portia, nothing undervalu'd
To Cato's daughter, Brutus Portia :

eyes

Nor is the wide world ign'rant of her worth;
For the four winds blow in from every coast,
Renowned fuitors; and her funny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;
Which makes her feat of Belmont, Colchos' ftrond;
And many Fafons come in queft of her.
O my Anthonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind prefages me fuch thrift,
That I fhould queftionless be fortunate.

Anth. Thou know'ft, that all my fortunes are at
fea,

Nor have I mony, nor commodity

To raise a prefent fum; therefore, go forth;
Try what my credit can in Venice do;
That fhall be rack'd even to the uttermoft,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia:
Go, presently enquire, and fo will I,
Where mony is, and I no queftion make,
To have it of my truft, or for my fake.

[Exeunt.

9-in your knowledge-] i. e. Agreeable to your knowledge and

care of my honour.

1 Thrift for thriving.

Changes to BELMONT.

Three Caskets are fet out, one of gold, another of filver, and another of lead.

Enter Portia and Neriffa.

Por.BY my troth, Nerissa, my little body is weary

of this great world.

Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miferies were in the fame abundance as your good fortunes are; and yet, for aught I fee, they are as fick, that furfeit with too much, as they that ftarve with nothing; therefore it is no mean happiness to be feated in the mean; fuperfluity comes fooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.

Por. Good fentences, and well pronounc'd.

Ner. They would be better, if well follow'd.

Por. If to do, were as cafie as to know what were good to do, chappels had been churches; and poor mens cottages, Princes' palaces. He is a good divine, that follows his own inftructions; I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow my own teaching. The brain may devife laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree; fuch a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple! But this reasoning is not in fashion to chufe me a huf band: O me, the word, chufe! I may neither chufe whom I would, nor refuse whom I diflike; fo is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father is it not hard, Neriffa, that I cannot chuse one, nor refuse none?

Ner. Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their death have good infpirations; therefore, the

lottery,