69 You grow exceeding strange; Must it be so? Sal. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours. [Exeunt SAL. and SALA. Lor. My lord Bassanio, since you have found An. thonio, We two will leave you; but, at dinner-time, I pray you, have in mind where we must meet. Gra. You look not well, signior Anthonio; Anth. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano A stage, where every man must play a part, Gra. Let me play the Fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice I love thee, and it is my love that speaks ;- 80 And And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark! 100 If they should speak, would almost damn those ears, Which, hearing them, would call their brothers, fools. I'll tell thee more of this another time: But fish not, with this melancholy bait, Come, good Lorenzo:-Fare ye well, a while; Lor. Well, we will leave you then till dinnertime. I must be one of these same dumb wise men, For Gratiano never lets me speak. 110 Gra. Well, keep me company but two years more, Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue. Anth. Fare well: I'll grow a talker for this gear. Gra. Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only commend able In a neat's tongue dry'd, and a maid not vendible. [Exeunt GRA. and LOREN. Anth. Is that any thing now! Bass. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and, when you have them, they are not worth the search. 121 Anth. Well; tell me now, what lady is the same, To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, That you to-day promis'd to tell me of? 130 Anth. I pray you good Bassanio, let me know it; And, if it stand, as you yourself still do, Within the eye of honour, be assur'd, 140 My purse, my person, my extremest means, Lye all unlock'd to your occasions. Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same way, with more advised watch, I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth, Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt, And thankfully rest debtor for the first. 150 Anth. You know me well; and herein spend but time, To wind about my love with circumstance; And, out of doubt, you do me now more wrong, Than if you had made waste of all I have : 160 170 Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth; I have I have a mind presages me such thrift, That I should questionless be fortunate. Anth. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at Nor have I money, nor commodity To raise a present sum : Therefore go forth, 180 [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in PORTIA's House at Belmont. Enter PORTIA and NERISSA. Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world. 190 Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fɔrtunes are: And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: It is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Por. Good sentences, and well pronounc'd. 199 Por. |