Enter NERISSA with a Servant.

Neris. Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight : The Prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath,

And comes to his election presently.

Flourish of Cornets. Enter the Prince of ARRAGON, PORTIA, and their Trains.

Portia. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince; If you choose that wherein I am contain'd,

Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized;

But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,

You must be gone from hence immediately.

Arra. I am enjoin'd by oath t' observe three things:

First, never to unfold to any one

Which casket 'twas I chose; next, if I fail

Of the right casket, never in my life

To woo a maid in way of marriage; lastly,
If I do fail in fortune of my choice,

Immediately to leave you and be gone.

Portia. To these injunctions every one doth swear That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

Arra. And so have

To my heart's hope !

I address'd 1 me. Fortune now

Gold, silver, and base lead.

9 That is, enliven the sadness which he clings to or cherishes.

1 Address'd is prepared or made ready; a common usage of the time. So in The Winter's Tale, iv. 4: "Address yourself to entertain them sprightly."

Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.
You shall look fairer, ere I give or hazard.

What says the golden chest, ha? let me see:
Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.
What many men desire! That many may be meant
By 2 the fool multitude, that choose by show,

Not learning more than the fond3 eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.4

I will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump 5 with common spirits,
And rank me with the barbarous multitude.
Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house;
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear :
Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.
And well said too; for who shall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable

Without the stamp of merit?

To wear an undeservèd dignity.

Let none presume

O, that estates, degrees, and offices,

Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honour
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

How many then should cover that stand bare !6

2 By, again, where we should use of. See page 91, note 12. 3 Here, as commonly in Shakespeare, fond is foolish.

4 Where it is exposed to every accident or mischance.

5 Jump for agree. So in The Taming of the Shrew, i. 1: "Both our inventions meet and jump in one." And in 1 Henry the Fourth, i. 2: “Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour."

6" How many then would keep their hats on, who now stand bareheaded as before their masters or superiors." Another instance of the indiscriminate use of should and would.

How many be commanded that command!

How much low peasantry would then be glean'd

From the true seed of honour! and how much honour
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,

To be new-varnish'd! Well, but to my choice:

Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.
I will assume desert. Give me a key,

And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

[He opens the silver casket. Portia. Too long a pause for that which you find there. Arra. What's here? the portrait of a blinking idiot, Presenting me a schedule! I will read it.

How much unlike art thou to Portia !

How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.
Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?

Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?
Portia. T' offend, and judge, are distinct offices,
And of opposed natures.8

Arra.

What is here?

The fire seven times tried this :
Seven times tried that judgment is
That did never choose amiss.
Some there be that shadows kiss;
Such have but a shadow's bliss.
There be fools alive, I wis,

7 Ruin here means refuse or rubbish.

8 Portia is something of a lawyer, and she here has in mind the old legal axiom, that no man is a good judge in his own case.

9 To wis is to think, to suppose. Nares derives it from the Saxon wissan. The preterite occurs in St. Luke, ii. 49: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ? "

Silver'd o'er; and so was this.10
Take what wife you will to bed,11
I will ever be your head:

12

So be gone, sir; you are sped.13
Still more fool I shall appear

By the time I linger here:

With one fool's head I came to woo,

But I go away with two.

Sweet, adieu. I'll keep my oath,

Patiently to bear my wroth.14

[Exeunt ARRAGON and Train.

Portia. Thus hath the candle singed the moth. O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose, They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.15 Neris. The ancient saying is no heresy : Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

10 The idiot's portrait was enclosed in the silver casket, and in that sense was silver'd o'er.

་་

11 An apparent oversight of the Poet's: the Prince was sworn never to woo a maid in way of marriage." Perhaps, though, he might woo and marry a widow.

12 "You will always have a fool's head, whether married or not." 13 That is "your case is decided, or done for." So, in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1, Mercutio, when he has received his death-wound from Tybalt, exclaims, "A plague o' both your Houses! I am sped."

14 Wroth is used in some of the old writers for suffering. So in Chapman's 22d Iliad: "Born all to wroth of woe and labour." The original meaning of wrath is pain, grief, anger, any thing that makes one writhe; and the text exemplifies a common form of speech, putting the effect for the

cause.

15 They overreach themselves with their own shrewdness, as men are apt to do who undertake to be specially wise:

Disasters, do the best we can,
Will reach both great and small;
And he is oft the wisest man
Who is not wise at all.

Portia. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Where is my lady?

Portia.

Here: what would my

lord? 16

Serv. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify th' approaching of his lord,
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets; 17
To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,
Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen

So likely an ambassador of love :

A day in April never came so sweet,

To show how costly Summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

Portia. No more, I pray thee: I am half afeard

Thou'lt say anon he is some kin to thee,

Thou spend'st such high-day wit 18 in praising him.-
Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see

Quick Cupid's post 19 that comes so mannerly.

Neris. Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be! [Exeunt.

16 A sportive reply to the Servant's "Where is my lady?" So, in 1 Henry IV., ii. 4, the Hostess says to Prince Henry, "O Jesu! my lord, the Prince!" and he replies, "How now, my lady, the hostess!"

17 Sensible regreets are feeling salutations; or salutations that may be felt, such as valuable presents. See page 127, note 8.

So our

18 High-day is holiday; a time for finely-phrased speaking. Fourth of July is a high day; and we all know what Fourth-of-July eloquence is.

19 Post is postman, and so a quick traveller.