Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content, and feek no new.
If you be well pleas'd with this,
And hold your fortune for
Turn you where your lady is,

your

bliss,

And claim her with a loving kiss.

A gentle fcrowl; fair lady, by your leave; [Kissing her.
I come by note to give, and to receive,

Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes;
Hearing applause and univerfal fhout,
Giddy in fpirit, gazing ftill in doubt,
Whether those peals of praise be his or no ;
So (thrice-fair lady) ftand I, even so,
As doubtful whether what I fee be true,
Until confirm'd, fign'd, ratified by you.

Por. You fee me, lord Baffanio, where I ftand,
Such as I am; tho' for myself alone,
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
To wish myself much better; yet for you,
I would be trebled twenty times myself,

A thousand times more fair; ten thousand times
More rich; that, to ftand high in your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account: but the full fum of me
Is fum of fomething, which, to term in grofs,
Is an unleffon'd girl, unfchool'd, unpractis'd:
Happy in this, he is not yet fo old

But the may learn; more happy then in this,
She is not bred fo dull but the can learn ;
Happieft of all, is, that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her King:
Myfelf, and what is mine, to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the Lord
Of this fair manfion, mafter of my servants,
Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
This houfe, thefe fervants, and this fame myfelf
Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring,
Which, when you part from, lofe or give away,

Let

Let it prefage the ruin of your love,

And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Baff. Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins ;
And there is fuch confufion in my pow'rs,
As, after fome oration fairly spoke
By a beloved Prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleafed multitude;
Where every fomething, being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, fave of joy
Expreft, and not expreft. But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence;
O, then be bold to fay, Bafanio's dead.

Ner. My lord and lady, it is now our time,
That have stood by, and feen our wishes profper,
To cry, good joy, good joy, my lord and lady!
Gra. My lord Baffanio, and my gentle lady,.
I wish you all the joy that you can wish ;
For, I am fure, you can with none from me:
And when your honours mean to folemnize
The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
Ev'n at that time I may be married too.

Baff. With all my heart, fo thou canst get a wife.
Gra. I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
My eyes, my lord, can look as fwift as yours;
You faw the miftrefs, I beheld the maid;
You lov'd, I lov'd: for intermiffion (18)

No

(18) You lov'd; I lov'd for intermiffion] Thus this paffage has been nonfenfically pointed thro' all the editions. If loving for intermiffion can be expounded into any fenfe, I confefs, I as yet am ignorant, and fhall be glad to be instructed in it. But till then I must beg leave to think, the fentence ought to be thus regulated;

You lov'd, I lov'd::
-For intermiffion

No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.

i. e. ftanding idle; a paufe, or difcontinuance of action. And fuch is the fignification of intermiffio and intermiffus amongst the Latines.--Neque alia ulla fuit caufa intermiffionis epiftolarum, nifi quod ubi effès plane nefciebam: fays Cicero to Trebatius. Nor was there any other reafon for my difcontinuing to write, but that I was abfolutely igno ⚫rant where you were.' And fo Pliny, of the Nightingale: Lafciniis diebus ac noctibus quindecim garrulus fine intermiffu Cantus. Nightin

gales

No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
Your fortune ftood upon the casket there ;
And fo did mine too, as the matter falls :
For wooing here until I fweat again,
And fwearing, till my very roof was dry
With oaths of love; at laft, if promise last,
I got a promise of this fair one here,

To have her love, provided that your fortune
Atchiev'd her mistress.

Por. Is this true, Neriffa?

Ner. Madam, it is, fo you ftand pleas'd withal.
Baff. And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
Gra. Yes, faith, my lord.

Buff. Our feaft fhall be much honour'd in your marriage. Gra. We'll play with them, the firft boy for a thousand ducats.

Ner. What, and stake down?

Gra. No, we fhall ne'er win at that sport, and ftakedown. But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel? What, and my old Venetian friend, Salanio?

Enter Lorenzo, Jeffica, and Salanio.

Baf. Lorenzo and Salanio, welcome hither;
If that the youth of my new interest here
Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,
I bid my very friends and country-men

(Sweet Portia) welcome.

Por. So do I, my lord; they are intirely welcome. Lor. I thank your honour; for my part, my lord, My purpose was not to have feen you here ;

But meeting with Salinio by the way,

He did intreat me, past all faying nay,

To come with him along.

gales hold their fong for fifteen days and nights together, without intermiffion. Our author uses this word again in his Lear: Deliver'd letters fpight of intermiffion,

Which presently they read.

i. e. in spight of any pause, 2 or delay. Sometimes, without intermiffion, is, without cellation : as in the Greek, αδιαλειπίως, ἀπάντως.

So in As you like it;

And I did laugh, fans intermiffion,
An hour by his dial.

Sal

Sal. I did, my lord,

And I have reafon for't; Signior Anthonio
Commends him to you.

Baff. Ere I ope his letter,

[Gives Baffanio a letter.

I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.
Sal. Not fick, my lord, unless it be in mind;
Nor well, unless in mind; his letter there

Will fhew you his estate.

[Baffanio opens the later Gra. Neriffa cheer yond ftranger: Bid her welcome, (19) Your hand, Salanio; what's the news from Venice? How doth that royal merchant good Anthonio?

I know he will be glad of our fuccefs:

We are the Jafons, we have won the fleece.

Sal. Would you had won the fleece, that he hath lot!
Por. There are some fhrewd contents in yond fame paper,
That fteal the colour from Bassanio's cheek:

Some dear friend dead; elfe nothing in the world
Could turn fo much the conftitution

Of any conftant man. What, worse and worse!
With leave, Bajanio, I am half yourself,
And I must have the half of any thing
That this fame paper brings you.

Baff. O fweet Portia !

Here are a few of the unpleasant'ft words,]
That ever blotted paper. Gentle lady,
When I did firft impart my love to you,
I freely told you, all the wealth I had
Ran in my veins, I was a gentleman;
And then I told you true; and yet, dear lady,
Rating myself at nothing, you fhall fee

How much I was a braggart: when I told you,
My ftate was nothing, I fhould then have told you,
That I was worse than nothing. For, indeed,

(19) Neriffa, cheer yond franger :] The poet has fhewn a fingular art here, in his conduct with relation to effica. As the audience were already appriz'd of her ftory, the opening it here to Portia would have been a fuperfluous repetition. Nor could it be done properly, while a letter of fuch hafte and confequence was to be deliver'd: and on which the main action of the play depended. Jeffica is therefore, artfully, complimented in dumb fhew; and no fpeech made to her, because the fcenei drawn out to a great length by more important business.

I

I have engag'd myself to a dear friend,
Engag'd my friend to his mere enemy,
To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady,
The paper, as the body of my friend;
And every word in it a gaping wound,
Iffuing life-blood. But is it true, Salanio ?
Have all his ventures fail'd? what, not one hit
From Tripolis, from Mexico, from England,
From Lisbon, Barbary, and India?

And not one veffel 'cap'd the dreadful touch
Of merchant-marring rocks?
Sal. Not one, my lord.

Be fides, it fhould appear, that if he had
The prefent money to difcharge the Jew,
He would not take it. Never did I know
A creature, that did bear the fhape of man,
So keen and greedy to confound a man.
He plies the Duke at morning and at night,
And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
If they deny him juftice. Twenty merchants,
The Duke himself, and the Magnificoes
Of greateft port, have all perfuaded with him;
But none can drive him from the envious plea
Of forfeiture, of juftice, and his bond.

Jef. When I was with him, I have heard him fwear, To Tubal and to Chus his country-men,

That he would rather have Anthonio's flesh,

Than twenty times the value of the fum
That he did owe him ; and I know, my lord,
If law, authority, and pow'r deny not,

It will go hard with poor Anthonio.

Por. Is it your dear friend, that is thus in trouble? Bal. The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, The best condition'd and unweary'd fpirit

In doing courtefies; and one in whom
The ancient Roman honour more appears,
Than any that draws breath in Italy.
Por. What fum owes he the Jew?
Baff. For me, three thousand ducats.
Por. What, no more?

Pay