passion for Bassanio, and the uncertainty of the issue of her father's arbitrary will. Her manly determination is blended with womanly tenderness; and her modesty, though it allows her to show some partiality for Bassanio, is sufficiently strong to restrain her from revealing her love to him. She is musical and energetic, playful and serious, cheerful and devout. Her high sense of honour prompted her to save Antonio's life by a just and liberal discharge of her husband's debt rather than by a quibble of the law. In every point Portia is an example of a perfect gentlewoman.

Bassanio is presented as a young man of good birth, thoughtless and extravagant. His nature, however, is genuine and manly, and his sense of honour most praiseworthy. His own fortunate ventures do not make him forget his friend in adversity. He is also endowed with a wellgifted mind, and, in spite of the faults of youth, is altogether a suitable husband for the fair and gifted Portia. His speech on the worth and influence of show (Act III. ii. 73) is equal to anything in the play.

The other characters in the play lighten very much the melancholy interest which hangs about Antonio and Shylock. Throughout the whole composition we have a beautiful blending of light and shade, joy and sadness, wit and wisdom, excitement and repose. The tragic business of the drama ends with the trial scene, and the play then closes pleasantly with 'sweet music,' and soft moonlight scenes, and with mirth and laughter, attendant upon the re-union of friends. It is to this variety that the Merchant of Venice owes its great popularity.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

B

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-VENICE. A Street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO.
Ant. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad :
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me
That I have much ado to know myself.

Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies, with portly sail,-
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,-
Do overpeer the petty traffickers

5

That curtsy to them, do them reverence,

As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,

15

The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind;
Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt
Would make me sad.

Salar.
My wind, cooling my broth,
Would blow me to an ague when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
I should not see the sandy hour-glass run
But I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand,
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs,

20

25

To kiss her burial. Should I go to church,
And see the holy edifice of stone,

30

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,
And, in a word, but even now worth this,

35

And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
To think on this; and shall I lack the thought

That such a thing bechanced would make me sad?
But tell not me; I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

40

Ant. Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it,

Ant.

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year :

Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.
Solan. Why, then you are in love.

Fie, fie!

45

Solan. Not in love neither? Then let's say you are sad Because you are not merry: and 'twere as easy For you to laugh, and leap, and say you are merry,

Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper:
And other of such vinegar aspect,

50

That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

55

Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO.

Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,
Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare ye well;

We leave you now with better company.

Salar. I would have stay'd till I had made you merry, 60 If worthier friends had not prevented me.

Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard.

I take it, your own business calls on you,
And you embrace the occasion to depart.
Salar. Good-morrow, my good lords.

65

Bass. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when? You grow exceeding strange : must it be so? Salar. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours.

[Exeunt SALAR. and SOLAN.

Lor. My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,