TUB. But Antonio is certainly undone. SHY. Nay, that's true, that's very true: Go, Tubal, see me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight before: I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandize I will: Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Belmont. A Room in PORTIA'S House. Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, But lest you should not understand me well, But Leah (if we may believe Thomas Nicols, sometimes of Jesus College in Cambridge, in his Lapidary, &c.) might have presented Shylock with his turquoise for a better reason; as this stone "is likewise said to take away all enmity, and to reconcile man and wife." Other superstitious qualities are imputed to it, all of which were either monitory or preservative to the wearer. The same quality was supposed to be resident in coral. So, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: "You may say jet will take up a straw, amber will make one fat, "Coral will look pale when you be sick, and chrystal will stanch blood." Thus, Holinshed, speaking of the death of King John: "And when the King suspected them (the pears) to be poisoned indeed, by reason that such precious stones as he had about him cast forth a certain sweat as it were bewraeing the poison," &c. STEEVENS. I could teach you, Before you venture for me. But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin, I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time R; Beshrew your eyes, They have o'er-look'd me.] An anonymous correspondent in a newspaper suggests that o'erlooked may be a term in witchcraft, in which sense it is used by Glanvilli Sadducismus Triumphatus, p. 95. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V. Sc. V: "Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even from thy birth." MALONE. 5 And so all YOURS:] The latter word is here used as a dissyllable. In the next line but one below, where the same word occurs twice, our author, with his usual licence, employs one as a word of two syllables, and the other as a monosyllable. MALONE. 6 And so, though yours, not yours.-Prove it so,] It may be more gramatically read: And so though yours I'm not yours. JOHNSON. 7 Let fortune go to hell for it,-not I.] The meaning is, "If the worst I fear should happen, and it should prove in the event, that I, who am justly yours by the free donation I have made you of myself, should yet not be yours in consequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to hell for robbing you of your just due, not I for violating my oath." HEATH. 8 to PEIZE the time;] Thus the old copies. To peize is from peser, Fr. So, in King Richard III.: "Lest leaden slumber peize me down to-morrow." To peize the time, therefore, is to retard it by hanging weights upon it. The modern editors read, without authority, -piece. STEEVENS. To peize, is to weigh, or balance; and figuratively, to keep in suspense, to delay. So, in Sir P. Sydney's Apology for Poetry:-"not speaking To eke it, and to draw it out in length, BASS. Let me choose; For, as I am, I live upon the rack. POR. Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confes What treason there is mingled with your love.s BASS. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love: There may as well be amity and life 'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love. POR. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do speak any thing. BASS. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth. POR. Well then, confess, and live. BASS. Confess, and love, Had been the very sum of my confession: O happy torment, when my torturer Doth teach me answers for deliverance! But let me to my fortune and the caskets. POR. Away then: I am lock'd in one of them; If you do love me, you will find me out.— Nerissa, and the rest, stand all aloof. Let musick sound, while he doth make his choice; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in musick that the comparison May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream, And wat❜ry death-bed for him: He may win; words as they changeably fall from the mouth, but peyzing each sillable." HENLEY. With no less presence, but with much more love, Live thou, I live :-With much much more dismay Musick, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself. SONG. 1. Tell me, where is fancy3 bred, 9 With no less presence,] With the same dignity of mien. JOHNSON. 'To the sea-monster :] See Ovid. Metamorph. lib. xi. ver. 199, et seqq. Shakspeare however, I believe, had read an account of this adventure in The Destruction of Troy ::- "Laomedon cast eyes all bewept on him, [Hercules] and was all abashed to see his greatness and his beauty." See b. i. p. 221, 4th edit. 1617. MALone. his 2 Live thou, I live:-With much much more dismay I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray.] One of the quartos [Roberts's] reads: "Live then, I live with much more dismay "To view the fight, than," &c. The folio, 1623, thus: 66 Live thou, I live with much more dismay "I view the fight, than," &c. Heyes's quarto gives the present reading. JOHNSON. 3-fancy-] i. e. Love. So, in a Midsummer-Night's Dream: - “Than sighs and tears, poor fancy's followers." STEEVENS. Reply.] The words, reply, reply, were in all the late 2. It is engender'd in the eyes, Ding dong, bell. All. Ding, dong, bell.. BASS.-Somay the outward shows be least themselves; The world is still deceiv'd with ornament. 8 66 editions, except Sir T. Hanmer's, put as a verse in the song; but in all the old copies stand as a marginal direction. JOHNSON. I think Johnson mistaken here. Replie, Replie," is in the old copies placed at the side of the other lines; but there is nothing else to point it out as a marginal direction, and I cannot discover its use, if so understood. Mr. Capell supposes the song to be sung by two voices, the first of which calls upon the other to reply to the questions put. BOSWELL. 5 So may the outward shows-] He begins abruptly; the first part of the argument has passed in his mind. JOHNSON. 6 7 - gracious voice,] Pleasing; winning favour. JOHNSON. APPROVE it - i. e. justify it. So, in Antony and Cleo 66 I am full sorry "That he approves the common liar, fame." STEEVENS. 8 There is no VICE -] The old copies read-voice. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. |