And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,
How dost thou like the lord Bassanio's wife?
JES. Past all expressing: It is very meet,
The lord Bassanio live an upright life;
For, having such a blessing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
And, if on earth he do not mean it, it

Is reason he should never come to heaven.
Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match,
And on the wager lay two earthly women,
And Portia one, there must be something else
Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow.

LOR.

Even such a husband

Hast thou of me, as she is for a wife.

JES. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.
LOR. I will anon; first, let us go to dinner.

JES. Nay, let me praise you, while I have a stomach.

LOR. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things I shall digest it.

-JES.

Well, I'll set you forth. [Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Venice. A Court of Justice.

Enter the Duke, the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALARINO, SALANIO, and others.

DUKE. What, is Antonio here?

ANT. Ready, so please your grace.

DUKE. I am sorry for thee; thou art come to

answer

A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
Uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy.

ANT.

I have heard,

Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify

His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate,
And that no lawful means can carry me

Out of his envy's reach," I do oppose
My patience to his fury; and am arm'd
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his.

DUKE. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. SALAN. He's ready at the door: he comes, my lord.

his envy's reach,] Envy in this place means hatred or malice. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, 1621: he never looks on her (his wife) with affection, but envy.' p. 109, edit. 1679. So also, (as Mr. Malone observes,) in Lazarus Pyot's Orator, &c. [See the notes at the end of this play,] they had slaine him for verie envie." STEEVENS.

66

Enter SHYLOCK.

DUKE. Make room, and let him stand before our face.

Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice
To the last hour of act; and then, 'tis thought,
Thou'lt show thy mercy, and remorse,' more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty:

And where thou now exact'st the penalty,
(Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,)
Thou wilt not only lose the forfeiture,
But touch'd with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal;

Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back;
Enough to press a royal merchant down,"

1

remorse,] i. e. pity. So, in Othello: "And to obey shall be in me remorse.”

STEEVENS.

apparent] That is, seeming; not real. JOHNSON -where-] For whereas. JOHNson.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And where I thought the remnant of mine age
"Should have been cherish'd by her child-like duty," &c.

STEEVENS.

• Enough to press a royal merchant down,] We are not to imagine the word royal to be only a ranting sounding epithet. It is used with great propriety, and shows the poet well acquainted with the history of the people whom he here brings upon the stage. For when the French and Venetians, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had won Constantinople, the French, under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquests into the provinces of the Grecian empire on the Terra firma; while the Venetians, who were masters of the sea, gave liberty to any subjects of the republick, who would fit out vessels, to make themselves masters of the isles of the Archipelago, and other maritime places; and to enjoy their conquests in sovereignty only doing homage to the republick for their several

And pluck commiseration of his state

From brassy bosoms, and rough hearts of flint, From stubborn Turks, and Tartars, never train'd To offices of tender courtesy.

We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.

SHY. I have possess'd your grace of what I pur

pose;

And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn,
To have the due and forfeit of my bond:
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter, and your city's freedom.
You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive
Three thousand ducats: I'll not answer that:
But, say,
it is my humour; Is it answer'd?

5

principalities. By virtue of this licence, the Sanudo's, the Justiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo's, and others, all Venetian merchants, erected principalities in several places of the Archipelago, (which their descendants enjoyed for many generations) and thereby became truly and properly royal merchants. Which indeed was the title generally given them all over Europe. Hence, the most eminent of our own merchants (while publick spirit resided amongst them, and before it was aped by faction,) were called royal merchants. Warburton.

This epithet was in our poet's time more striking and better understood, because Gresham was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal merchant. JOHNSON.

Even the pulpit did not disdain the use of this phrase. I have now before me "The Merchant Royal, a Sermon, preached at Whitehall, before the king's majestie, at the nuptialls of the right honourable the Lord Hay and his lady, upon the twelfe day last, being Jan. 6, 1607." STEEVens.

5

my

· I'll not answer that: But, say, it is humour;] The Jew being asked a question which the law does not require him to answer, stands upon his right, and refuses; but afterwards gratifies his own malignity by such answers as he knows will aggravate the pain of the enquirer. I will not answer, says he, as to a legal or serious question, but since you want an answer, will this serve you? JOHNSON.

What if my house be troubled with a rat,
An I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?
Some men there are, love not a gaping pig;
Some, that are mad, if they behold a cat;
And others, when the bag-pipe sings i' the nose,
Cannot contain their urine; For affection,
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes, or loaths: Now, for your answer:

1623:

say, it is my humour ;] Suppose it is my particular fancy.

HEATH.

a gaping pig ;] So, in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy,

"He could not abide to see a pig's head gaping; "I thought your grace would find him out a Jew." Again, in The Mastive, &c. or, A Collection of Epigrams and Satires:

"Darkas cannot endure to see a cat,

"A breast of mutton, or a pig's head gaping."

See King Henry VIII. Act V. sc. iii. STEEVENS.

By a gaping pig, Shakspeare, I believe, meant a pig prepared for the table; for in that state is the epithet, gaping, most applicable to this animal. So, in Fletcher's Elder Brother:

"And they stand gaping like a roasted pig."

A passage in one of Nashe's pamphlets (which perhaps furnished our author with his instance,) may serve to confirm the observation: "The causes conducting unto wrath are as diverse as the actions of a man's life. Some will take on like a madman, if they see a pig come to the table. Sotericus the surgeon was cholerick at the sight of sturgeon," &c. Pierce Pennylesse his Supplication to the Devil, 1592. MALONE.

" Cannot contain their urine; &c.] Mr. Rowe reads: Cannot contain their urine for affection.

Masterless passion sways it to the mood

Of what it likes, or loaths.

Masterless passion Mr. Pope has since copied. I don't know what word there is to which this relative it is to be referred.. The ingenious Dr. Thirlby would thus adjust the passage: Cannot contain their urine; for affection, Master of passion, sways it, &c.