fpent in the search: why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no ill luck stirring, but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs but o' my breathing, no tears but o' my shedding.

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too: Anthonio, as I heard in Genoua

Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tub. Hath an Argosie cast away, coming from Tripolis.

Shy, I thank God, I thank God; is it true? is it true?

Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal; good news, good news; ha, ha, where? in Genoua?

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoua, as I heard, one night, fourscore ducats.

Shy. Thou stick'st a dagger in me; I shall never see my gold again; fourscore ducats at a sitting, fourscore ducats!

Tub. There came divers of Anthonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot chuse but break.

Shy. I am glad of it, I'll plague him, I'll torture him ; I am glad of it.

Tub. One of them showed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a monky.

Shy. Out upon her! thou torturest me, Tubal; it was my Turquoise, I had it of Leah when I was a batchelor; I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies.

Tub. But Anthonio is certainly undone.

Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true; go fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will: go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE changes to Belmont.

Enter Baslanio, Portia, Gratiano, and attendants.
The Caskets are set out.

Por. Pray you, tarry; pause a day or two,
Before you hazard; for in chusing wrong
I lose your company; therefore forbear a while.
There's something tells me (but it is not love)
I would not lose you; and you know your self,
Hate counsels not in such a quality.

But lest you should not understand me well,
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,
I would detain you here some month or two,
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How to chuse right, but I am then forsworn:
So will I never be; so you may miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'erlook'd me, and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would fay: but if mine, then yours;
And so all yours. Alas! these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights:
And so tho' yours, not yours, prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.

I speak too long, but 'tis to peece the time,
To eche it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election,

Baj. Let me chuse:

For as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confers,
What treason there is mingled with your love:
Bass. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust,
Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love;
There may as well be amity and life

'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
Por. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack;
Where men enforced do speak any thing.
Bal. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
Por. Well then, confess and live.
Bass. Consess, and love,

Had

Had been the very sum of my consession.
O happy torment, when my torture
Doth teach me answers 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.
Nerissa, and the rest, stand all aloof,

Let musick found, while he doth make his choice
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in musick. That the comparison
May stand more just, my eye shall be the stream
And wat'ry death-bed for him: he may win,
And what is musick then? then musick is
Even as the flourish, when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: such it is,
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no less presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute, paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice;
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages come forth to view
The issue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules!
Live thou, I live; with much, much more dismay
I view the fight, than thou, that mak'st the fray.

[Musick within. A Song, whilst Bassanio comments en the caskets to

him felf.

All, Ding, dong, bell.

Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves:

The

The world is still deceiv'd with Ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But being season'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? in religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on its outward parts.
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
Who inward searcht, have livers white as milk ?
And these assume but valour's excrement,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight,
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest, that wear most of it.
So are those crispy snaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull, that bred them, in the sepulcher."
Thus Ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dang'rous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
T'entrap the wisest. 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 lead,
Which rather threatnest, than dost promise aught,
Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence;
And here chuse I; joy be the consequence!

Por. How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash embrac'd despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-ey'd jealousie.
O love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy ;
In measure rain thy joy, scant this excess,
I feel too much thy blessing, make it less,
For fear I surfeit.

Baff. What find I here?

[Opening the leaden casket.

Fair

Fair Portia's counterfeit ? what Demy-god
Hath come so near creation? move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? here are sever'd lips
Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends: here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
A golden mesh t'intrap the hearts of men.
Faster than gnats in cobwebs : but her eyes,
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it should have pow'r to steal both his,
And leave it self unsinish'd: yet how far

The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In underprizing it; so far this shadow

Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scrowl,
The continent and summary of my fortune.
You that chose not by the view,
Chance as fair, and chuse as true:
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content, and seek no new.
If you be well that 'd with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your Lady is,

And claim her with a loving kiss.

A gentle scrowl; fair lady, by your leave;

I come by note to give, and to receive.
Like one of two contending in a Prize,

[Kiffing her.

That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes;
Hearing applause and universal shout,
Giddy in spirit, gazing still in doubt,
Whether those peals of praise be his or no ;
So (thrice fair lady) stand I, even so,
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratify'd by you.

Por. You see me, lord Bassanio, where I stand,
Such as I am; tho' for my self alone,
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
To wish my self much better; yet for you,
I would be trebled twenty times my self,
A thousand times more fair; ten thousand times
More rich; that, to stand high in your account,

I might