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GRA. Well, keep me company but two years

more,

Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.

ANT. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear.

GRA. Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only commendable

In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO.

ANT. Is that any thing now?"

BASS. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and, when you have them, they are not worth the search.

-for this gear.] In Act II. sc. ii. the same phrase occurs again: "If fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this geer." This is a colloquial expression perhaps of no very determined import. STEEVENS.

So, in Sapho and Phao, a comedy by Lyly, 1591: "As for you, Sir boy, I will teach you how to run away; you shall be stript from top to toe, and whipt with nettles; I will handle you for this geare well: I say no more." Again, in Nashe's Epistle Dedicatory to his Apologie of Pierce Pennilesse, 1593: "I mean to trounce him after twenty in the hundred, and have a bout with him, with two staves and a pike, for this geare." MALONE.

7 Is that any thing now?] All the old copies read, is that any thing now? I suppose we should read—is that any thing new? JOHNSON,

The sense of the old reading is-Does what he has just said amount to any thing, or mean any thing? STEevens.

Surely the reading of the old copies is right. Antonio asks: Is that any thing now? and Bassanio answers, that Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing,-the greatest part of his discourse is not any thing. TYRWHITT.

So, in Othello: "Can any thing be made of this?" The old copies, by a manifest error of the press, read-It is that, &c. Corrected by Mr. Rowe.. MALONE.

ANT. Well; tell me now, what lady is this same To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, That you to-day promis'd to tell me of?

BASS. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, How much I have disabled mine estate, By something showing a more swelling port 8 Than my faint means would grant continuance: Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd From such a noble rate; but my chief care Is, to come fairly off from the great debts, Wherein my time, something too prodigal, Hath left me gaged: To you, Antonio, I owe the most, in money, and in love; And from your love I have a warranty To unburthen all my plots, and purposes, How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

ANT. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it;
And, if it stand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honour, be assur'd,

My purse, my person, my extremest means,
Lie all unlock'd to your occasions.

BASS. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow" of the self-same flight

• a more swelling port &c.] Port, in the present instance, comprehends the idea of expensive equipage, and external pomp of appearance. Thus, in the first Iliad, as translated by Chapman, 1611:

66

all the gods receiv'd,

"(All rising from their thrones) their sire; attending to

his court

"None sate when he rose; none delaid, the furnishing

his port,

"Till he came neare; all met with him and brought him to his throne." STEEVENS.

VOL. VII.

R

The self-same way, with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; and by advent'ring both,
I oft found both: I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.
I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth,'
That which I owe is lost: but if you please
To shoot another arrow that self way

Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
Or bring your latter hazard back again,
And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

9

ANT. You know me well; and herein spend but time,

when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow &c.] This thought occurs also in Decker's Villanies discovered by Lanthorne and Candlelight, &c. 4to. bl. 1: "And yet I have seene a Creditor in Prison weepe when he beheld the Debtor, and to lay out money of his owne purse to free him: he shot a second arrow to find the first." I learn, from a MS. note by Oldys, that of this pamphlet there were no less than eight editions; the last in 1638. I quote from that of 1616.

STEEVENS.

This method of finding a lost arrow is prescribed by P. Crescentius in his Treatise de Agricultura, Lib. X. cap. xxviii, and is also mentioned in Howel's Letters, Vol. I. p. 183, edit. 1655, 12mo. Douce.

1

like a wilful youth,] This does not at all agree with what he had before promised, that what followed should be pure innocence. For wilfulness is not quite so pure. We should read -witless,i. e. heedless; and this agrees exactly to that to which he compares his case, of a school-boy; who, for want of advised watch, lost his first arrow, and sent another after it with more attention. But wilful agrees not at all with it.

WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton confounds the time past and present. He has formerly lost his money like a wilful youth; he now borrows more in pure innocence, without disguising his former faults, or his present designs. JOHNSON.

To wind about my love with circumstance;

And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong,
In making question of my uttermost,

Than if you had made waste of all I have:
Then do but say to me what I should do,
That in your knowledge may by me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak.
BASS. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And she is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wond'rous virtues; sometimes from her eyes*
I did receive fair speechless messages:
Her name is Portia; nothing undervalued
To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.

Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors: and her sunny locks

2

-prest unto it:] Prest may not here signify impress'd, as into military service, but ready. Pret, Fr. So, in Cæsar and Pompey, 1607:

"What must be, must be; Again, in Hans Beer-pot, &c. 1618:

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your good word

Cæsar's prest for all.”

"Is ever prest to do an honest man good."

Again, in the concluding couplet of Churchyard's Warning to the Wanderers abroad, 1593:

"Then shall my mouth, my muse, my pen and all,

"Be prest to serve at each good subject's call."

I could add twenty more instances of the word being used with this signification. STEEVENS.

sometimes from her eyes-] So all the editions; but it certainly ought to be, sometime, i. e. formerly, some time ago, at a certain time: and it appears by the subsequent scene, that Bassanio was at Belmont with the Marquis de Montferrat, and saw Portia in her father's life time. THEOBALD.

It is strange, Mr. Theobald did not know, that in old English, sometimes is synonymous with formerly. Nothing is more frequent in title-pages, than "sometimes fellow of such a college.' FARMER.

22

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;
Which makes her seat of Belmont, Colchos' strand,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.
O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind presages me such thrift,
That I should questionless be fortunate.

ANT. Thou know'st, that all my fortunes are at

sea;

Nor have I money, nor commodity

To raise a present sum: therefore go forth,
Try what my credit can in Venice do;
That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,
Where money is; and I no question make,
To have it of my trust, or for my sake. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Belmont. A Room in Portia's House.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.

POR. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world.

NER. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are: And, yet, for aught I see, they are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore,

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