Hath a dog money? is it possible, A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? or Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness, Say this,-
Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; You spurn'd me such a day: another time You call'd me-dog; and for these courtesies I'll lend you thus much monies.
GRAVITY ASSUMED.
Signior Bassanio, hear me:
If I do not put on a sober habit,
Talk with respect, and swear but now and then, Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely; Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes Thus with my hat, and sigh, and say, amen; Use all the observance of civility, Like one well studied in a sad ostent* To please his grandam, never trust me more.
THE JEW'S COMMANDS TO HIS DAUGHTER. Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum; And the vile squeaking of the wry-neck'd fife, Clamber not you up to the casements then, Nor thrust your head into the public street, To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces: But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements, Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter My sober house.
POSSESSION MORE LANGUID THAN EXPECTATION.
O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly
To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont, To keep obliged faith unforfeited! Who riseth from a feast, With what keen appetite that he sits down? Where is the horse that doth untread again His tedious measures with the unbated fire
* Show of staid and serious demeanour.
That he did pace them first? All things that are, Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd. How like a yonker, or a prodigal,
The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind! How like the prodigal doth she return, With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails, Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind!
From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds Of wide Arabia, are as through-fares now, For princes to come view fair Portia: The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar To stop the foreign spirits; but they come, As o'er a brook, to see fair Portia.
THE PARTING OF FRIENDS..
I saw Bassanio and Antonio part: Bassanio told him he would make some speed Of his return; he answer'd-Do not so, Slubber not† business for my sake, Bassanio, But stay the very riping of the time; And for the Jew's bond, which he hath of me, Let it not enter in your mind of love: Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts To courtship, and such fair ostents of love As shall conveniently become you there: And even there, his eye being big with tears, Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, And with affection wondrous sensible
He wrung Bassanio's hand and so they parted.
HONOUR TO BE CONFERRED ON MERIT ONLY.
For who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honourable
* Decorated with flags.
† To slubber is to do a thing carelessly. ‡ Shows, tokens.
Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity. 0, that estates, degrees, and offices,
Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear honour Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer! How many then should cover, that stand bare? How many be commanded, that command? How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honour? and how much honour Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,
LOVE MESSENGER COMPARED TO AN APRIL DAY. I have not seen
So likely an ambassador of love:
A day in April never came so sweet,
To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.
If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a christian, what is his humility? revenge: if a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? why, revenge. The villany, you teach me, I will execute: and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.
Let music sound, while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes Fading in music: that the comparison May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream, And wat'ry death-bed for him: He may win; And what is music then? then music is Even as the flourish when true subjects bow To a new-crowned monarch: such it is, As are those dulcet sounds in break of day, That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear, And summon him to marriage. Now he goes, With no less presence, but with much more love, Than young Alcides, when he did redeem The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice, The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives, With bleared visages, come forth to view The issue of the exploit.
THE DECEIT OF ORNAMENT OR APPEARANCES. The world is still deceived with ornament;
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracioust voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars; Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk? And these assume but valour's excrement, To render them redoubted. Look on beauty, And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight; Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it: So are those crisped‡ snaky golden locks,
* Dignity of mein. † Winning favour.
ch make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them, in the sepulchre. Thus ornament is but the guiled* shore To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty: in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest.
[Opening the leaden casket.
Fair Portia's counterfeit? What demi-god Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? Or whether, riding on the balls of mine, Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips, Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her hairs The painter plays the spider; and hath woven A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men, Faster than gnats in cobwebs: But her eyes,-- How could he see to do them? having made one, Methinks, it should have power to steal both his, And leave itself unfurnish'd.
SUCCESSFUL LOVER COMPARED TO A CONQUEROR. Like one of two contending in a prize, That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes, Hearing applause and universal shout, Giddy in spirit, still gazing, in a doubt Whether those peals of praise be his or not; So thrice fair lady, stand I.
HIS THOUGHTS TO THE INARTICULATE JOYS OF
There is such confusion in my powers, As, after some oration fairly spoke By a beloved prince, there doth appear Among the buzzing pleased multitude: Where every something, being blent together,
*Treacherous; † Likeness, portrait. ‡ Blended.
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