Gra. I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love ;
I would she were in heaven, so she could
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew!

Ner. ?T is well you offer it behind her back;
The wish would make else an unquiet house.

Shy. These be the Christian husbands! I have a daugh

ter ;

Would

any

of the stock of Bar'abbas Had been her husband, rather than a Christian! [Aside. We trifle time; I pray thee, pursue sentence.

Por. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine;
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.

Shy. Most rightful judge!
Por. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast;
The law allows it, and the court awards it.

Shy. Most learned judge! A sentence ! come, prepare.
Por. Tarry a little; there is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood :
The words expressly are, a pound of flesh;
Take, then, thy bond, — take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting of it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.

Gra. O, upright judge! Mark, Jew, a learned judge' • Shy. Is that the law ?

Por. Thyself shall see the act; For, as thou urgest justice, be assured Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. Gra. O, learned judge! Mark, Jew; a learned judge!

Shy. I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice, And let the Christian go.

Bass. Here is the money.

Por. Soft :
The Jew shall have all justice! soft! no haste;
He shall have nothing but the penalty.

Gra. 0, Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge !

Por. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood ; nor cut thou less, nor more,
But just a pound of flesh; if thou tak’st more
Or less than just a pound — be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple ! nay, if the scale do turn

But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.

Gra. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip.

Por. Why doth the Jew pause ? take thy forfeiture.
Shy. Give me my principal, and let me go.
Bass. I have it ready for thee; here it is.

Por. He hath refused it in the open court;
He shall have merely justice, and his bond.

Gra. A Daniel, still say I! a second Daniel ! I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.

Shy. Shall I not barely have my principal ?

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

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

[Going.
Por. Tarry, Jew;
The law hath yet another hold on you.
It is enacted in the laws of Venice,
If it be proved against an alien,
That by direct or indirect attempts
He seek the life of any citizen,
The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive
Shall seize 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, 'gainst all other voice.
In which predicament, I say, thou standest;
For it appears by manifest proceeding,
That indirectly, and directly too,
Thou hast contrived against the very

life
Of the defendant; and thou hast incurred
The danger formerly by me rehearsed.
Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the duke.

Gra. Beg that thou may'st have leave to hang thyself;
And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,
Thou hast not left the value of a cord;
Therefore, thou must be hanged at the state's charge.

Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it: For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's; The other half comes to the general state, Which humbleness may drive into a fine.

Por. Ay, for the state; not for Antonio.

Shy. Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
You take my house, when you do take the prop
That doth sustain the house: you take my life,
When

you do take the means whereby I live. Por. What mercy can you render him, Antonio? Gra. A halter gratis; nothing else, for Heaven's sake.

Ant. So please my lord the duke, and all the court,
To quit the fine for one half of his goods,
I am content, so he will let me have
The other half in use,- to render it,
Upon his death, unto the gentleman
That lately stole his daughter :
Two things provided more,- that, for this favor,
He presently become a Christian;
The other, that he do record a gift,
Here in the court, of all he dies possessed,
Unto his son Lorenzo, and his daughter.

Duke. He shall do this; or else I do recant
The pardon that I late pronouncéd here.

Por. Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say?
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; send the deed after me,
And I will sign it.

Duke. Get thee gone, but do it.

Gra. In christening thou shalt have two godfathers;
Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.

LESSON CLXXIII. Tribute to New England.* -Sir H. L. BULWER. 1. But it is not only for the triumphs of beauty that New England is now famous. If the ivied chaplet is still the classic meed of letters, may not Longfellow and Ticknor place it on their brow? If the laurel belongs to those who worthily narrate, as well as to those who perform great deeds, has it not been nobly gained by Sparks, Bancroft, and Prescott ?

2. If a high and honorable reputation is the natural reward of varied acquirements and brilliant eloquence, has it not been as justly won as it is modestly worn, by the accomplished Everett? If the golden days of republican commerce are again to revive, and the Medici of America to vie in enterprise and munificence with those of Florence, may I not inscribe upon the list of your lordly merchants the names of Griswold, Grinnell and Perkins, of Appleton and Lawrence.

3. And if you, gentlemen, are all anxiqus to possess the portrait of the finished gentleman and perfect senator, is there any one more fit to sit for the picture than the descendant of that distinguished governor who enjoyed the double honor of having contributed to the first school, and furnished, at his own expense, the first vessel, which belonged to that state of which your Winthrop - our Winthrop - is the actual representative?

4. And if I extend my inquiry still further; if I wish to discover a man whose young imagination was ripened amongst the solitary scenes of border life, and whose manly judgment has been formed amidst the daily and active business of great communities, can you not point out to me such a man,-one whose eloquence is poetry held in chains by reason ? whose statesmanship is philosophy reduced to practice? who stands second to none of America's children, - I should say superior to all, if the tall and venerable figure of an absent friend did not rise up before me, whose star shines from the west, as yours, sir, [bowing to Mr. Webster,] fills the east of the hemisphere, radiant on all sides with intellectual light.

5. Gentlemen, you have heard the toast which was given to you, “Old England and young America : bound together by a common language and a common lineage, may they be still more firmly united by the ties of interest and good will." Most cordially and sincerely do I reciprocate to the toast. Allow me to say I look upon this rock of new Plymouth [pointing to the representation in sugar on the table] as a

chip of the old block” of old England. Nay, your toast tells me that the magnetic influence of a common origin is not yet extinct between them; and when I stood with you, but recently, mourning by the grave of the gallant Taylor, did you not shed, with me, a sympathizing tear over the fate of the illustrious Peel ?

6. Ay, and if the spangled banner should be again unfurled on the ocean or the field, on the one scene of action will not your sons remember the glorious words of Nelson ? on the other, will not the name of the great warrior veteran, who has borne the old banner of Wolfe and Marlborough aloft and victorious through a hundred fights, i'ush to your recollection, and inspire your ranks? * 7. Gentlemen, I love your land ; and let me add, I revere the sect by which it was originally, and still is, I believe, mainly peopled. I do not follow its ritual, but I venerate its history, which stands forth as the loftiest among the many monuments that attest that great Christian moral,

« The proud shall be abased, and the humble shall be exalted.” Who, at the period to which this scene recalls us, were the mighty of the earth?

8. On the throne of England then sat a prince justly proud, if pride could ever rest upon sound foundations of the triple crown

* which had recently become his family inheritance. In France, the scepter was held in the hands of a still haughtier race, which ruled with supreme authority over the most gallant and chivalrous people in the world. What has become of the illustrious lines of these two royal houses ? - of that of the sovereign who gloried in the "non-conformity bill;" of that of those sovereigns amongst whose deeds are recorded the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the revocation of the edict of Nantes ?

9. The crown of the Stuarts has melted into air in the one kingdom, the scepter of the Bourbons has been shattered to atoms in the other. But here, on this spot where I am speaking, still stands, erect and firm, the pilgrim's staff. From the bruised seed of the poor and persecuted Puritan has arisen one of the most powerful and prosperous empires in the world.

10. Let that which is a warning unto others be a warning unto you. Always remember that the vaunting Speedweli put into port when the modest Mayflower stood out to sea. And do you wish to know what is the principal cause of the high position you have achieved ? I will tell you ; it is to be sought for in the trials and difficulties through which you have passed. If you have made your country, it is no less true that your country has made you.

11. Here is the distinguishing peculiarity of our two nations. It is true that you have a republican form of government; and that I would shed the last drop of my blood to preserve the prerogatives of a beloved sovereign, within the sanctuary of whose honored privileges I see best preserved

* Triple crown, the crown of the United Kingdoms of England, Scot land and Ireland.

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