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Intreat fome Pow'r to change this currifh Jew.
Ner. 'Tis well, you offer it behind her back;
The wish would make elfe an unquiet house.

Shy. These be the chriftian husbands. I've a daughter; Would any of the ftock of Barrabas

Had been her husband, rather than a chriftian! [Afide., We trifle time; I pray thee, purfue fentence.

Por. A pound of that fame merchant's flesh is thine, The Court awards it, and the law doth give it. Shy. Moft rightful judge!

Por. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast; The law allows it, and the Court awards it.

Shy. Moft learned judge! a sentence: come, prepare.
Por. Tarry a little, there is fomething elfe,
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood,
The words exprefly are a pound of flesh.
Then take thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if thou doft shed

One drop of chriftian blood; thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confifcate

Unto the ftate of Venice.

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Gra. O upright judge! mark, Jew, O learned judge!. Shy. Is that the law?

Por. Thyfelf fhalt fee the Act:

For as thou urgeft juftice, be affu: 'd,

Thou shalt have justice, more than thou defir'ft.

Gra. O learned judge! mark, Jew, a learned judge! Shy. I take this offer then, pay the bond thrice, And let the christian go.

Baff. Here is the money.

Por. The few hall have all justice; foft! no hafte; He fhall have nothing but the penalty.

Gra. O few! an upright judge, a learned judge! Por. Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh; Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou lefs, nor more, But just a pound of flefh: if thou tak'it more Or less than a juft pound, be't but so much As makes it light or heavy in the fubftance, On the divifion of the twentieth part Of one poor fcruple; nay, if the scale turn.

But

But in the estimation of a hair,

Thou dieft, and all thy goods are confifcate.
Gra. A fecond Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip.

Por. Why doth the Jew paufe? take the forfeiture.
Shy. Give me my principal, and let me go.
Baff. I have it ready for thee; here it is.
Por. He hath refus'd it in the open Court;
He fhall have merely justice, and his bond.
Gra. A Daniel, ftill fay I; a fecond Daniel!
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
Shy. Shall I not barely have my principal?

Por. Thou fhalt have nothing but the forfeiture, To be fo taken at thy peril, Jew.

Shy. Why then the devil give him good of it! I'll ftay no longer question.

Por. Tarry, Jew.

The law hath yet another hold on you:

It is enacted in the laws of Venice,

If it be prov'd against an alien,

That by direct, or indirect, attempts
He feek the life of any citizen,

The party, 'gainft which he doth contrive,
Shall feize on half his goods; the other half
Comes to the privy coffer of the state;
And the offender's life lies in the mercy
Of the Duke only, 'gainft all other voice:
In which predicament, I fay, thou ftand it.
For it appears by manifeft proceeding,
That indirectly, and directly too,
Thou haft contriv'd against the very
Of the defendant; and thou haft incurr'd

life

The danger formerly by me rehears'd.

Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.

Gra. Beg, that thou may'ft have leave to hang thyfelf; And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the ftate, Thou haft not left the value of a cord;

Therefore, thou must be hang'd at the ftate's charge.

Duke. That thou may'ft fee the diff'rence of our fpirit, I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:

For

For half thy wealth, it is Anthonio's
The other half comes to the general state,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.

Por. Ay, for the ftate; not for Anthonio.
Shy. Nay, take my life and all: pardon not that.
You take my house, when you do take the prop
That doth fuftain my houfe: you take my life,
When you do take the means whereby I live.

Por. What mercy can you render him, Anthonio? Gra. A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's fake. Ant. So please my lord the Duke, (29) and all the Court, To quit the fine for one half of his goods,

I am content; fo he will let me have

The other half in ufe, to render it
Upon his death unto the gentleman,
That lately ftole his daughter.

Two things provided more, that for this favour
He prefently become a christian ;

The other, that he do record a gift

Here in the Court, of all he dies poffefs'd,
Unto his fon Lorenzo and his daughter.

Duke. He fhall do this, or else I do recant
The pardon that I late pronounced here.

Por. Art thou contented, Jew? what doft thou fay? (29) So please my lord the Duke,] The terms, which Anthonio prefcribes to be comply'd with by the Jew, have been reckon'd intricate and corrupt; and a different regulation has been advis'd: But, if I am not mistaken, they are to be thus understood. The Jew had forfeited his whole fubitance; one moiety thereof to go to the ftate, and the other to the defendant. Anthonio proposes, that the state should be content with fining him only that moiety, which was confifcated to them; that, as to the other, which Anthonio equally might claim to himself, he only defires to hold the benefit, paying intereft for it to the few during his life: and, upon the Jew's demise, to have it immediately vested in his fon and daughter. Nor does Anthonio propele any thing mean and ungenerous in this; he quits that right and property, which the law gave him, in the Jew's fubftance; and (with regard to his own great loffes,) is content to ftand only as a borrower of it, upon the general foot of paying intereft: nor are the fon and daughter robb'd in this; fince, fetting afide Anthonio's claim by the Jew's forfeiture, their pretenfions could not take place, till the Jew's death: and he takes care, their reverfionary right in it should be fecur'd by the Jew's recording a deed of gift to that purpose.

Sky

Shy. I am content.

Por. Clerk, draw a Deed of gift.

Shy. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well; fend the Deed after me,

And I will fign it.

Duke. Get thee gone, but do it.

Gra. In chrift'ning thou fhalt have two godfathers. Had I been judge, thou should'st have had ten more, (30) To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.

[Exit Shylock. Duke. Sir, I intreat you home with me to dinner. Por. I humbly do defire your Grace of pardon; I muft away this night to Padua,

And it is meet, I presently set forth.

Duke. I'm forry, that your leisure serves you not. Anthonio, gratify this gentleman;

For, in my mind, you are much bound to him. [Exit Duke and his train

(30)

thou should't have had ten more,] 1. e. a jury of twelve men, to condemn thee to be hang'd. So, in Measure for Mcasure»,

-I not deny,

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The fcenes of thefe two plays are respectively laid in Venice and Vienna; and yet 'tis obfervable, in both the poet alludes to the cuftom of fentencing by Juries, as in England This is not to be imputed to him as ignorance: The licence of the ftage has allow'd it, not only at home; but likewife the tragic and comic poets of antiquity indulg'd them felves in tranfplanting their own customs to other nations. Æfcbylus, for inftance, in his Choephora, makes EleƐra, who is in Argos, talk of the customs us'd in purifications, and prescrib'd by law, as the scholiaft obferves, at Athens. Τῦτο πρὸς τὸ παρ' Αθηναίοις ἔθα πρὸς Tov 'Abhvnos vómov. Suphocles, in his Laocoon, the scenary of which is laid in Troy, talks of erecting altars, and burning incense before their doors, as was practis'd on joyful occafions at Athens: therein tranfplanting the Arbenian manners, as Harpocratian has noted, to Troy. Μετάγων τὰ ̓Αθηναίων ἤθη εἰς Τροίαν. And fo Αriftophanes, in his Frog, when the fcene is in the infernal regions, makes acus talk of an edict pafs'd in hell for granting artifts a fubfiftance out of the pry taneum. In this, fays the fcholiaft, a cufiom is transferr'd to the lower regions, which was establish'd in Athens. Ταῦτα μεταφέρει από ταῖς εν Αττικῇ ἐθῶν, εἰς τὰ καθ' άλε. A number of infiances more, of this fort, might be amafs'd from the antient ftage-writers.

Baf

Ba. Moft worthy gentleman! I and my friend
Have by your wifdom been this day acquitted
Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof,
Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew,
We freely cope your courteous pains withal.
Ant. And ftand indebted, over and above,
In love and fervice to you evermore.

Por. He is well paid that is well fatisfy'd;
And I, delivering you, am fatisfy'd;
And therein do account myfelf well paid;
My mind was never yet more mercenary.
I pray you, know me, when we meet again;
my leave.
I wish you well, and fo I take
Baff. Dear Sir, of force I must attempt you
Take fome remembrance of us for a tribute,
Not as a fee: grant me two things, I pray you,
Not to deny me, and to pardon me.

further.

Por. You prefs me far, and therefore I will yield.
Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your fake,
And, for your love, I'll take this ring from you.
Do not draw back your hand, I'll take no more;
And you în love shall not deny me this.

Baff. This ring, good Sir, alas, it is a trifle;
I will not fhame myfelf to give you this.

Por. I will have nothing elfe but only this, And now, methinks, I have a mind to it.

Baff. There's more depends on this, than is the value. The dearest ring in Venice will I give you, And find it out by proclamation; Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.

wife.

Por. I fee, Sir, you are liberal in offers ;
You taught me firft to beg, and now, methinks,
You teach me how a beggar fhould be anfwer'd.
Ba Good Sir, this ring was giv'n me by my
And, when he put it on, the made me vow,
That I should neither fell, nor give, nor lose it.
Por. That 'fcure ferves many men to fave their gifts;
And if your wife be not a mad woman,

And know how well I have deferv'd the ring,

She wou'd not hold out enmity for ever,

For

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