Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Laun, Sola! where? where ?

Lor. Here.

Laun. Tell him, there's a poft come from my master, with his horn full of good news. My mafter will be here ere morning.

Lor. Sweet love, let's in, and there expect their coming.
And yet no matter why should we go in ?
My friend Stephano, fignify, I pray you,
Within the house, your miftrefs is at hand;

[ocr errors]

[Exit Stephano.
And bring your musick forth into the air.
How fweet the moon-light fleeps upon this bank!
Here will we fit, and let the founds of mufick
Creep in our ears; foft ftillness, and the night
Become the touches of fweet harmony.
Sit, Fefica look, how the floor of heav'n
Is thick inlay'd with patterns of bright gold;
There's not the fmalleft orb, which thou behold't,
But in his motion like an angel fings,

Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubims;
Such harmony is in immortal founds! (19)
But whilft this muddy vefture of decay
Doth grofly clofe us in, we cannot hear it.
Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
And draw her home with mufick.

(1) Such Harmony is in immortal Souls ;] But the Harmeny here defcribed is that of the Spheres, fo much celebrated by the Ancients. He fays, the falleft Orb fings like an Argel; and then fubjoins, Such Harmony is in immortal Souls: But the Harmony of the Angels not here meant, but of the Orbs.

Nor are

we to think, that here the Poet alludes to the Notion, that each Orb has its Intelligence or Angel to direct it; for then with no Propriety could he fay, the Orb fung like an Angel: he fhould rather have faid, the Angel in the Orb fung. We must therefore correct the Line thus ;

Such Harmony is in immortal Sounds:

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

2

Jef. I'm never merry, when I hear sweet mufick.

Lor. The reafon is, your spirits are attentive;
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,

[Mufick

Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
(Which is the hot condition of their blood)
If they perchance but hear a trumpet found,
Or any air of mufick touch their ears,
You fhall perceive them make a mutual stand;
Their favage eyes turn'd to a modeft gaze,

By the fweet power of mufick. Therefore, the Poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, ftones, and foods;
Since nought fo flockish, hard and full of rage,
But mufick for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no mufick in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of fweet founds,
Is fit for treafons, ftratagems, and fpoils;
The motions of his fpirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no fuch man be trufted-Mark the mufick.

Enter Portia and Neriffa.

Por. That light we fee, is burning in my hall: How far that little candle throws his beams!

So fhines a good deed in a naughty world.

Ner. When the moon fhone, we did not fee the candle. Por. So doth the greater glory dim the less ; A fubftitute fhines brightly as a King, Until a King be by; and then his ftate Empties itself, as doth an inland brook Into the main of waters. Mufick, hark!

[Mufick.

Ner. It is the mufick, Madam, of your houfe.
Por. Nothing is good, I fee, without refpe&t:
Methinks, it founds much sweeter than by day.
Ner. Silence beflows the virtue on it, Madam.
Por. The crow doth fing as fweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if the fhould fing by day,

When

When every goofe is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.
How many things by feafon feafon'd are.
To their right praife, and true perfection?
Peace! how the moon fleeps with Endymion,
And would not be awaked!

Lor. That is the voice,

Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia.

[Mufick ceafes.

Por He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckow, By the bad voice.

Lor. Dear lady, welcome home.

Por. We have been praying for our husbands' healths, Which speed, we hope, the better for our words. Are they return'd?

Lor. Madam, they are not yet;

But there is come a meffenger before,
To fignify their coming.

Por. Go, Neriffa,..

Give order to my fervants, that they take

No note at all of our being abfent hence;
Nor you, Lorenzo; Jeffica, nor you.

[A Tucket founds.

Lor. Your husband is at hand, I hear his trumpet:

We are no tell-tales, Madam, fear you not.

[ocr errors]

Por. This night, methinks, is but the day-light fick ;

It looks a little paler; 'tis a day,

Such as the day is when the fun is hid.

Enter Baffanio, Anthonio, Gratiano, and their followers.

Baff. We fhould hold day with the Antipodes,
If you would walk in abfence of the fun.

Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light;
For a light wife doth make a heavy husband ;
And never be Baffanio fo from me;

But God fort all! you're welcome home, my lord.
Baff. I thank you, Madam: give welcome to my
This is the man, this is Anthonio,

To whom I am fo infinitely bound.

friend;

Por. You fhould in all fenfe be much bound to him; For, as I hear, he was much bound for you..

Anth.

Anth. No more than I am well acquitted of. Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house; It must appear in other than words; Therefore I fcant this breathing courtesy..

ways

1

Gra. By yonder moon, I fwear, you do me wrong;
In faith, gave it to the judge's clerk. [To Neriffa.
Would he were gelt that had it, for my part,
Since you do take it, love, fo much at heart.
Por. A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter?
Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring,
That fhe did give me, whofe poely was
For all the world like cutler's poetry
Upon a knife; Love me, and leave me not.

Ner. What talk you of the poefy, or the value?
You fwore to me, when I did give it you,
That you would wear it 'till your hour of death.
And that it should lie with you in your grave:
Tho' not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
You should have been refpective, and have kept it.
Gave it a Judge's clerk! but well I know,
The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it.
Gra. He will, an' if he live to be a man.
Ner. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.
Gra. Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,

A kind of boy, a little fcrubbed boy,

No higher than thyfelf, the Judge's clerk;
A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee:

I could not for my heart deny it him.

Por. You were to blame, I must be plain with you, To part fo flightly with your wife's first gift; A thing ftuck on with oaths upon your finger, And riveted with faith unto your flesh. I gave my love a ring, and made him fwear Never to part with it; and here he stands, I dare be fworn for him, he would not leave it, Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth That the world mafters. Now, in faith, Gratiano, You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief; An 'twere to me, I fhould be mad at it.

Baff. Why, I were beft to cut my left hand off,

And

And fwear, I loft the ring defending it.

Gra. My lord Bassanio gave his ring away
Unto the Judge that begg'd it, and, indeed,
Deferv'd it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
That took fome pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
And neither man nor mafter, would take aught
But the two rings.

Per. What ring gave you, my lord?

Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me.
Baf. If I could add a lye unto a fault,
I would deny it; but you fee my finger
Hath not the ring upon it, it is gone.

Per. Even fo void is your falfe heart of truth.
By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed
Until I fee the ring.

Ner. Nor I in yours,
'Till I again fee mine.
Baf Sweet Portia,

[ocr errors]

If

gave

If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
you
did know for whom I gave the ring,
And would conceive for what I
the ring,
And how unwillingly I left the ring,
When nought would be accepted but the ring,
You would abate the ftrength of your displeasure.
Por. If you had known the virtue of the ring,
Or half her worthinefs that gave the ring,
Or your own honour to retain the ring,
You would not then have parted with the ring..
What man is there fo much unreasonable,
If you had pleas'd to have defended it
With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
Neriffa teaches me what to believe;
I'll die for't, but fome woman had the ring.

[Afide.

Baff. No, by mine honour, Madam, by my foul,

No woman had it, but a Civil Doctor,

Who did refufe three thousand ducats of me,

And begg'd the ring; the which I did deny him,
And fuffer'd him to go difpleas'd away;

Ev'n he, that did uphold the very life

Of

« PredošláPokračovať »