Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;
With fweeteft touches pierce your miftrefs' ear,
And draw her home with mufic.

Jef. I'm never merry when I hear sweet mufic.

[Mufic Lor. The reafon is, your fpirits are attentive; For do but note a wild and wanton herd, 'Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, 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 mufic touch their ears,

You thall perceive them make a mutual ftand;
Their favage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze,

By the fweet power of mufic. Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, ftones, and floods;
Since nought fo ftockish, hard, and full of rage,
But mufic for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no mufic 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,
6 And his affections dark as Erebus:

'Let no fuch man be trufted-Mark the music.' 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 substitute fhines brightly as a King, Until a King be by; and then his state Empties itfelf, as doth an inland brook Into the main of waters. Mufic, hark!

[Mufic

Ner. It is the mufic, Madam, of your house.
Por: Nothing is good, I fee, without respect:
Methinks it founds much fweeter 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 mufician 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 awak'd!

Lor. That is the voice,

Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia.

[Mufic ceafes.

Por. He knows me as the blind man knows the cuc

By the bad voice.

Lor. Dear Lady, welcome home.

[kow,

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.

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 Baflinio fo from me;

But God fort all! You're welcome home, my Lord.
Bal. I thank you, Madam: give welcome to my
This is the man, this is Anthonio,
[friend;

To whom I am fo infinitely bound.

Por. You fhould in all fenfe be much bound to him; For, as I hear, he was much bound for you. Ant. No more than I am well acquitted of. Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house;

It must appear in other ways than words;
Therefore I fcant this breathing courtesy.
Gra. By yonder moon I fwear you do me wrong;
In faith, I 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 poesy was,
For all the world, like cutlers 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 fhould lie with you in your grave:
Though 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 pratting 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 ftands,

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 caufe of grief;
An 'twere to me, I fhould be mad at it.

Bal. Why, I were beft to cut my left hand off,
And fwear I loft the ring defending it.

Gra. My Lord Baffanio gave his ring away Unto the judge that begg'd it, and indeedDeferv'd it too; and then the boy his clerk, VOL. II.

S

[Afide,

That

That took fome pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
And neither man nor mafter would take aught
But the two rings.

Por. What ring gave you, my Lord?
Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me.
Baff. If I could add a lie unto a fault,
I would deny it; but you fee my finger
Hath not the ring upon it, it is gone.

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

Ner. Nor I in your's,

Till I again fee mine.

Baff. Sweet Portia,

If you

Idid know to whom I

gave

the ring,

the ring,

gave

the ring,

If
you
And would conceive for what I

did know for whom I gave

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.

Bal. 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 my dear friend. What should I fay, fweet Lady?
I was enforce'd to fend it after him;
I was befet with fhame and courtesy;
My honour would not let ingratitude

So much befmear it. Pardon me, good lady;
And by these bleffed candles of the night,

Had

Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd The ring of me to give the worthy Doctor.

Por. Let not that Doctor e'er come near my house, Since he hath got the jewel that I lov'd,

And that which you did fwear to keep for me:
I will become as liberal as you;

I'll not deny him any thing I have,

No, not my body, nor my husband's bed;
Know him I fhall, I am well fure of it.

Lie not a night from home; watch me, like Argus:
If you do not, if I be left alone,

Now, by mine honour, which is yet my own,
I'll have that Doctor for my bedfellow.

Ner. And I his clerk; therefore be well advis'd,
How you do leave me to mine own protection.
Gra. Well, do you fo; let me not take him then :
For, if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen.
Ant. I am th' unhappy fubject of thefe quarrels.
Por. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome, not]
withstanding.

Baff. Portia, forgive me this inforced wrong.
And in the hearing of thefe many friends,
I fwear to thee, ev'n by thine own fair eyes,
Wherein I see myself..

Por. Mark you but that!

In both mine eyes he doubly fees himself;
In each eye one; fwear by your double felf,
And there's an oath of credit!

Baff. Nay, but hear me :

Pardon this fault, and by my foul I fwear
I never more will break an oath with thee.

Ant. I once did lend my body for his weal;
Which, but for him that had your husband's ring,
[To Portia.
Had quite miscarry'd. I dare be bound again,
My foul upon the forfeit, that your Lord
Will never more break faith advisedly.

Por. Then you fhall be his furety; give him this, And bid him keep it better than the other.

Ant. Here, Lord Baffanio, fwear to keep this ring. Baff. By heav'n, it is the fame I gave the Doctor. Por. I had it of him: pardon me, Baffanio;

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