: Jess. That were a kind of base hope, indeed so the sins of my mother should be visited upon me. Laun. Truly, then, I fear you are damned both by father and mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into 5 Charybdis,3 your mother: well, you are gone both ways. Jess. I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian. Laun. Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians enough before; e'en as many as could well live, one by 10 another. This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money. 15 20 : Enter LORENZO. Loren. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners. Jess. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo: Launcelot and I are out. He tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me in Heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he says you are no good member of the commonwealth; for, in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the price of pork. Loren. I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots.4 — Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner. Laun. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs. Loren. Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then, 25 bid them prepare dinner. 3 This refers to a proverbial saying which has been traced back as far as to Saint Augustine: "Ne iterum quasi fugiens Charybdim, in Scyllam incurras." Halliwell quotes an old saying to the same purpose: "He got out of the muxy and fell into the pucksy." 4 A shrewd proof that the Poet rightly estimated the small wit, the puns and verbal tricks, in which he so often indulges. Laun. That is done too, sir; only, cover is the word. Loren. Will you cover, then, sir? Laun. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.5 Loren. Yet more quarreling with occasion!6 Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee, 5 understand a plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner. Laun. For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in to dinner, 10 sir, why, let it be as humours and conceits shall govern. [Exit LAUNCELOT. Loren. O, dear discretion, how his words are suited! The fool hath planted in his memory An army of good words; and I do know And now, good sweet, say thy opinion: Jess. Past all expressing. It is very meet 5 Launcelot is playing upon the two senses of cover, which was used both for setting the table and for putting on the hat. 6 That is, going at odds or in discord with the occasion. punning is irrelevant to the matter in hand; out of time. Launcelot's 7 To defy was often used for to renounce, forsake, or give up. So in 1 Henry the Fourth, i. 3: “All studies here I solemnly defy, save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke." Shakespeare alludes, no doubt, to the habit, which then infected all classes, of sacrificing their matter, or letting it go, in their fondness of verbal trickery and trifling, or in their chase after puns and plays upon words. -Tricksy is artful, adroit, or what we might call smartish. 15 20 He finds the joys of Heaven here on Earth; In reason he should never come to Heaven. Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match, 5 And on the wager lay two earthly women, And Portia one, there must be something else Loren. Even such a husband Hast thou of me as she is for a wife. 10 Jess. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that. Loren. I will anon: first let us go to dinner. Jess. Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach.9 Jess. Well, I'll set you forth. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I.-Venice. A Court of Justice. Enter the DUKE; the Magnificoes; ANTONIO, BASSANIO, Duke. What, is Antonio here? Anto. Ready, so please your Grace. Duke. I'm sorry for thee: thou art come to answer A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch 8 It refers to blessing, in the second line above. 9 An equivoque on stomach, which is used in the two senses of inclination to praise and of appetite for food. Uncapable of pity, void and empty From any dram of mercy. Anto. I have heard Your Grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify1 His rigorous course; but since he stands obdúrate, 5 Out of his envy's 3 reach, I do oppose My patience to his fury; and am arm'd Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. 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,5 more strange Than is thy strange-apparent cruelty: And where thou now exact'st the penalty,- 1 To abate, to assuage, to mitigate, are old senses of to qualify. 2 The old language in full was since that; and Shakespeare, in a second clause, often uses that, instead of repeating since. Here we should write "since- and since." It was the same with if, when, though, and some others. If that has occurred several times in this play. 3 Envy in its old sense of malice or hatred. 4 "Keepest up this manner or appearance of malice." 5 Remorse, in Shakespeare, generally means pity or compassion. The usage was common. 6 Where for whereas; the two being used interchangeably. Loose, here, has the sense of remit or release. ΙΟ 15 20 But, touch'd with human gentleness and love, 8 Glancing an eye of pity on his losses, That have of late so huddled on his back; 5 Enough to press a royal merchant 9 down, And pluck commiseration of his state From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint, 10 We all expect a gentle answer, Jew. Shy. I have possess'd 10 your Grace of what I purpose; 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 15 Upon your charter and your city's freedom.11 8 Moiety is, properly half, but was used for any portion. 9 "Royal merchant" is a complimentary phrase, to indicate the wealth and social standing of Antonio. In the Poet's time, Sir Thomas Gresham was so called, from his great wealth, and from his close financial relations with the Court and the Queen. The term was also applied to great Italian merchants, such as the Giustiniani and the Grimaldi, the Medici and the Pazzi, some of whom held mortgages on kingdoms and acquired the titles of princes for themselves. 10 Possess'd, again, in its old sense of informed. 11 Perhaps the Poet had London in his mind, which held certain rights and franchises by royal charter, and was liable to have its charter revoked for an act of flagrant injustice. 12 The meaning seems to be, "Suppose I should say," or, "What if I should say it is my humour; is that an answer?" In the Poet's time, humour was used, much as conscience was at a later period, to justify any eccentric impulse of vanity, opinion, or self-will, for which no common |