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!
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.
How like a younker, 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!
Portia's Suitors.
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 :
* Show of staid and serious demeanour.
† Decorated with flags.
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 answered-'do not so,
Slabber* 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 puts 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
Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity!
O, that estates, degrees, and offices,
Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honour
Were purchased 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,
To be new varnish'd?
To slabber is to do a thing carelessly.
Love's Messenger compar'd to an April Day.
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 a swan-like end, 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 blearded visages, come forth to view
The issue of the exploit.
The Deceit of Ornament or Appearances.
The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd with a gracious+ voice,
Obscures the shew 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 its 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 purchased 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,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Dignity of man. Winning favour.
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.
What find I here? [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 for 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 no ;
So, thrice fair lady, stand I.
His thoughts to the inarticulate Joys of a Crowd.
There is such confusion in my powers,
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
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