Jef. I'm never merry, when I hear sweet 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 fhall perceive them make a mutual ftand;
Their favage eyes turn'd to a modeft gaze,
By the fweet power of mufic. Therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, ftones, and floods;
Since nought fo ftockifh, 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 fpirits are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.

Let no fuch man be trufted. Mark the mufic.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.

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.

Lor. That is the voice,

Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia.

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

Lor. Dear lady, welcome home.

[cuckow,

Por. We have been praying for our husbands healths, Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.

Are they returned ?

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. [ATrumpet founds.
Lor. Your hufband is at hand, I hear his trumpet;

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

Ente

Enter BASSANIO, ANTHONIO, GRATIANO, and their followers.

Por. You are 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 sense, be much bound to him; -

For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.

Anth. No more than I am well acquitted of.
Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house ;
It muft appear in other ways than words;
Therefore, I fcant this breathing courtesy.
Gra. By yonder moon, I fwear, you do me wrong
[To Neriffa,

In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk.
Would he were hang'd 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 she did give me, whofe poefy 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 fhould lie with you in your grave:
Tho' not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
You should have been refpective, and have kept it.
Give 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, and 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,
F

Nor

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, Ifhould be mad at it..

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

[Afide..

Gra. My lord Baffanio 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 5.
And neither man nor master 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 Heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed.
Until I fee the ring.

Ner. Nor I in yours,

If you did know to whom I

gave

the ring,

gave

the ring,

If you did know for whom I

And would conceive for what I gave
And how unwillingly I left the ring,

the ring,.

When nought would be accepted but the ring,
You would abate the ftrength of your difpleafure..
Por. If you had known the virtue of the ring,
Or half her worthiness 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 the thing held as a ceremony
urge

Neriffa teaches me what to believe;

?

I'll die for't but fome woman had the ring.

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

No woman had it, but a civil doctor;

E 'n he that did uphold the very life.

Of my dear friend.

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

Por.

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

houfe ;

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, nor 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.

Anth. I am th' unhappy fubject of thefe quarrels.. Por. Sir, grieve not you, you are welcome, notwithstanding.

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

Anth. I once did lend my body for his weal; Which but for him, that had your husband's ring,

[T Portia. Had quite mifcarry'd. I dare be bound again, My foul upon the forfeit, that your lord Will never more break faith advisedly.

Por. Then thou shalt be his furety. Give him this, And bid him keep it better than the other.

Anth. 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, Bassanio;

For by this ring, the doctor lay with me.

Ner. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano,
For that fame fcrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
In lieu of this, last night did he with me.

Gra. Why, this is like the mending of highways.
In fummer, where the ways are fair enough.
What! are we cuckolds, ere we have deferv'd it?
Por. Speak not fo grofly. You are all amaz’d.
Here is a letter, read it at your leifure ;

It comes from Padua, from Bellario.

There you thall find, that Portia was the doctor;
Nera, there, her clerk. Lorenza, here,
Shall witnefs I set forth as foon as you,

And

And even but now return'd: I have not yet
Enter'd my houfe. Anthonio, you are welcome :
And I have better news in ftore for you,
Than you expect. Unfeal this letter foon,
There you fhall find, three of your Argofies,
Are richly come to harbour, fuddenly.
You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.

Anth. I am dumb.

Baff. Were you the doctor and I knew you not? Gar. Were you the clerk, that is to make me a cuckold?

Ner. Ay, but the clerk, that never means to do it, Unless he live until he be a man.

Baff. Sweet doctor, you fhall be my bedfellow; When I am abfent, then lie with my wife.

Anth. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;; For here, I read for certain, that my ships

Are fafely come to road.

Por. How now, Lorenzo ?

My clerk hath fome good comforts too, for you.
Ner. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.
There do I give to you and feica,

From the fich Jew, a fpecial deed of gift,
After his death, of all he dies poffeft of.

Lor. Fair ladies, you drop Manna in the ways

Of ftarved people.

Por. It is almost morning,

C

And yet, I'm fure, you are not fatisfy'd
Of these events at full. Let us go in,
And charge us there, upon interr'gatories,
And we will answer all things faithfully.

Gra. Let it be fo: the first interr❜gatory,
That my Neria fhall be fworn on, is,
Whether till the next night, fhe had rather stay,.
Or
go to bed now, being two hours to day.
But were the day come, I should with it dark,
'Till I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
"Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing,

So fore, as keeping fafe Neriffa's ring. [Exeunt omnes.

*This ACT, though it falls infinitely below the Fourth, yet is fupported by a confiderable share of fpirit; what it wants in ftrength, it has in pleasantry.

THE END.