PERSONS REPRESENTED.

DUKE OF VENICE.

PRINCE OF ARRAGON, suitor to Portia.
PRINCE OF MOROCCO, suitor to Portia.
ANTONIO, the Merchant of Venice.
BASSANIO, friend to Antonio.

TUBAL, a Jew, friend to Shylock.

LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a Clown, servant to Shylock.

Old GOBBO, father to Launcelot.

LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio.

BALTHAZAR, servants to Portia.
STEPHANO,

PORTIA, a rich heiress.

NERISSA, waiting-maid to Portia.

JESSICA, daughter to Shylock.

Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants to Portia, and Attendants.

SCENE,-Partly at VENICE; and partly at BELMONT, the seat of Portia, on the Continent.

(18)

THE MERCHANT OF
VENICE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Venice. A Street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SOLANIO.
Antonio.

N sooth, I know not why I am so
sad;

It wearies me; you say it wearies

you;

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Salar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,-
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, 10
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,—
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

That curtsy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture
forth,

20

The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the
wind;

Peering in maps for ports and piers and
roads ;

And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
Would make me sad.

Salar.
My wind, cooling my broth,
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
I should not see the sandy hour-glass run
But I should think of shallows and of flats;
And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand,
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church
30 And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous
rocks,

Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,
And, in a word, but even now worth this,
And now worth nothing? Shall I have the
thought

To think on this; and shall I lack the thought
That such a thing, bechanced, would make
me sad?

But tell not me; I know Antonio

40 Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

Ant. Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it,

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:
Therefore my merchandise makes me not sed."
Salar. Why, then you are in love.

Ant.

Salar. Not in love neither?

say you are sad

Because you are not merry
For you to laugh and leap

merry,

Because you are not sad.
Nature hath framed strange

time :

Fie, fie! Then let us [easy

and 'twere as and say you are [headed Janus, Now, by twofellows in her [eyes,

Some that will evermore peep through their
And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper:
And other of such vinegar aspéct,

That they'll not show their teeth in way of
smile,

Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.
Solan. Here comes Bassanio, your most
noble kinsman,

Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare you well;
We leave you now with better company.
Salar. I would have stay'd till I had made

you merry,

If worthier friends had not prevented me.

Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO.

Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard. I take it, your own business calls on you, And you embrace the occasion to depart.

50

60

Salar. Good morrow, my good lords.
Bass. Good signiors both, when shall we
laugh? Say, when?

You grow exceeding strange.: must it be so?
Salar. We'll make our leisures to attend

on yours.

[Exeunt SALARINO and SOLANIO. Lor. My lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,

70 We two will leave you; but at dinner-time I pray you have in mind where we must

80

ineet.

Bass. I will not fail you.

Gra. You look not well, signior Antonio:
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvellously changed.
Ant. I hold the world but as the world,
Gratiano;

A stage, where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

Gra.

Let me play the Fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles

come;

And let my liver rather heat with wine

Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Why should a man whose blood is warm within

jaundice

Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster ?
Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the
[tonio,-
By being peevish? I tell thee what, An-
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks ;-