two scales, and may thus give rise to a kind of plural meaning. There is sometimes, also, a confusion of number when a noun ends, as in the present instance, with a sibilant or hissing sound, like that of the letters or z. This will therefore mean, "Are there scales ?" and this idea is confirmed by the answer of Shylock in the next line, where he says, "I have them here." 513. On your charge at your expense. Thus, also, with similar signification, we find in King John, i., Î:— "Our abbeys and our priories shall pay 515. Nominated-appointed, mentioned. 529. Your honourable wife-this means Portia, who, being in the court, hears all this about herself. 530. The process, i.e., the narrative; or, perhaps, the manner it was brought about. 534. Repent-regret. 539. Which, for who. 545. If she were by-This being spoken of Portia, his wife, who was in the court at the time, shows her disguise to have been most complete. 548. Currish-having the brutality of an ill-conditioned cur. 571. The Act-the written law; the law of the land. 573. Thou shalt have justice, etc. Formerly, when Portia recommended the Jew to have mercy, he was immovable, and would have nothing but justice done, as he termed it; now, he will have that justice which he so loudly demanded meted out to himself. By the very means he was so anxious to employ he will lose his case, and have the process turned completely against himself. 584. Just exactly. An adverb. 585. A just pound--a pound, neither more nor less. Just is an adjective. 587. The twentieth part of one poor scruple-that is, literally, a grain. Here, however, it is used for a "very small portion." See note 289, on the word "dram." 592. I have thee on the hip-see ante, note 174. 594. Principal-the original sum lent to Antonio, namely, 3000 ducats. 608. An alien-a foreigner, in contradistinction to citizen below. [Lat. alienus, from alius, another.] 611. Contrive-plot. 616. Predicament-unfortunate position; dangerous plight. 631. Which humbleness, etc.-which meek submission on your part may induce me to alter to a fine. 632. Ay, for the state, etc.-the state's portion may be commuted for a fine, but not Antonio's. 633. Pardon not that do not spare me from the sentence of death. "Since you have taken my goods from me, you need not remit my sentence of death, or save my life." This is uttered in the true spirit of a miser, which Shylock was. 641. I am contentAntonio means to tell the duke that Shylock should be allowed to retain that half of his fortune which is forfeited to the state, and that he himself will accept the other half in trust, and manage it for the benefit of Lorenzo and Jessica, the rightful heirs, to whom it will be given up upon Shylock's death. 647. Record a gift, i.e., register in a public manner by a legal functionary that he makes a gift of his property. 660. Ten more, i.e., a jury of twelve men, to condemn him to be hanged. 667. Gratify -requite; reward. 673. Cope-reward; compensate. This word originally meant to interchange, to barter, and is still so used, as for example," a horse-coper." Withal-therewith; referring to the ducats. 679. Never yet more mercenary-never desired any other reward beyond the satisfaction of doing a good deed. LIFE OF MILTON. JOHN MILTON, the greatest of epic poets, was born in London, on the 9th December, 1608, some eight years before the death of Shakespeare. Spenser had not been dead above ten years; and there was thus preserved the tie of time that linked together the three most glorious of England's poets-Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. Milton's father, who had been disinherited and driven from home for embracing Protestantism, settled in London, where he followed the profession of a scrivener or attorney. He was a man of liberal tastes, and was especially skilled in music. Το him our poet owed much of that musical talent which so eminently characterised him. Milton was educated first at St. Paul's School, close to his home, and afterwards at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was intended for the bar or the church; but having no inclination for either calling, he returned to his father's house at Horton, in Buckinghamshire, where he was now settled, having retired from business with an ample fortune. Here, with all that conduces to the poet's development at his disposal-leisure, solitude, lovely scenery, and unbroken tranquillity of mind-were produced his Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Lycidas. In 1637 he travelled in France and Italy. On the outbreak of the differences between King Charles I. and his Parliament, he returned home, and became a keen political writer on the popular side against the king. In 1643 he married his first wife, Mary Powell, the daughter of a catholic gentleman of Oxfordshire, a royalist, and a justice of the peace for that county. Differing from her husband in religious opinion, and disapproving of his zeal against the king, she left him and returned to her parents. After an absence of three years she returned, probably because her royalist friends, who had formerly treated him with insolence and injustice, felt their need of a republican protector. She died in 1652, and he soon after married his second wife, Catherine Woodcock. Under the Commonwealth he was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State, and rendered much service to the cause of national liberty. About this time he was deprived of his sight, owing to a natural weakness in his eyes, and intense application to his studies. Afflictions were beginning to thicken around him. At the Restoration, which he did all in his power to oppose, and which he had good cause to dread, he was excepted from the Act of Indemnity, and had actually to conceal himself for a time. Through the interest of Sir William Davenant and others, however, he escaped, and removed with his family to Buckinghamshire. Here, in the midst of poverty, affliction, and obscurity, he began to work out the imperishable aspirations that had been the object of his earliest hopes and wishes-and completed G his immortal work, Paradise Lost, the composition of which formed the comfort of his life in the midst of his misfortunes. His second wife died in 1658; and, complaining of the undutiful conduct of his three daughters, he married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, of a respectable though humble family in Cheshire, who proved a good and exemplary help-meet for him. Paradise Lost was published in 1667; and in 1671 were published Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, with some short prose treatises. Among his larger prose works may be mentioned his "History of England," which comes down only to the Conquest; and his "Areopagitica," in which he pleaded the cause of a free press with great force and ability. He died on the 8th November, 1674; and his remains were interred in the parish church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where a monument has been erected to his memory. There is another in Westminster Abbey. |