I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time, Bass. Let me choose; For as I am, I live upon the rack. Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess What treason there is mingled with your love. 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 anything. 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. 30 Por. Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them: 40 Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Fading in music: that the comparison May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream 22. peize, prolong (as if by hanging weights to the end). 50 With no less presence, but with much more love, Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself. SONG. Tell me where is fancy bred, It is engender'd in the eyes, Let us all ring fancy's knell: I'll begin it,-Ding, dong, bell. All. Ding, dong, bell. Bass. So may the outward shows be least them selves : The world is still deceived with ornament. 54. more love; ' because Hercules rescued Hesione, not for love of the lady, but for the sake of the horses promised him by Laomedon' (Ov. Met. xi. 199 f.). 63. fancy, love. 60 70 66. Reply, reply. This appears as a marginal direction in all the old copies. Will bless it and approve it with a text, Which make such wanton gambols with the wind, To be the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them in the sepulchre. To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf The seeming truth which cunning times put on Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge 79. approve, confirm. 87. excrement, outgrowth, beard. 97. guiled, guileful, treacher ous. 99. Indian beauty. Beauty' is probably a blunder, due to the 'beauteous' of the line above. It has been suggested that he was recalling a passage 80 90 100 in Montaigne (Ess. ii. 12), 'The Indians describe it [beauty] black and swarthy, with blubbered thick lips, with a broad and flat nose. In this case, he must have read the original, Florio's translation having appeared only in 1603. But the use of the word 'beauty' remains awkward and un-Shakespearean. Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence; As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy; In measure rein thy joy; scant this excess. Bass. What find I here? [Opening the leaden casket. Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? 119 120 Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll, 130 106. Thy paleness moves me. Since paleness is just above disparagingly ascribed to silver, Warburton proposed to read plainness here. The verbal inconsistency is, however, dramatic enough. Gold and silver are condemned as ornament,' and then, even in their ornamental character, disparaged as 'gaudy and 'pale'; whereas the 'paleness' of lead becomes a virtue, because it is associated with no pretensions. 116. counterfeit, portrait. 127. unfurnish'd, unprovided (with a fellow). The continent and summary of my fortune. And claim her with a loving kiss. A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave; That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes, Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt 140 Por. You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, 150 Such as I am though for myself alone I would not be ambitious in my wish, A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times That only to stand high in your account, I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends, 131. continent, inventory or abstract; explicit statement. 141. by note, in conformity with the scroll (as if this were a bill, specifying payments to be made or received). 158. livings, possessions. 160 The 160. sum of something. Quartos have sum of nothing. But Portia's humility is not abject. 160. to term in gross, to state it in general terms. |