It must appear in other ways than words,
Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.20
Gra. [To NERISSA.] By yonder moon I swear
you do me wrong;

In faith I gave it to the judge's clerk :
Would he were chok'd that had it, for my part,
Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

Por. A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter?
Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
That she did give me; whose posy 30 was
For all the world like cutler's poetry 31
Upon a knife, "Love me, and leave me not." 32
Ner. What talk you of the posy or the value?
You swore to me, when I did give it you,
That
you would wear it till your hour of death;
And that it should lie with you in your grave:
Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
You should have been respective, and have

kept it.

Gave it a judge's clerk! no, Heaven's my judge,
The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it.
Gra. He will, an if he live to be a man.
Ner. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.
Gra. Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,-
A kind of boy; a little scrubbèd1⁄4 boy,
No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk ;
A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee:

I could not for my heart deny it him,

Por. You were to blame,-I must be plain with you,

To part so slightly with your wife's first gift;
A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger,

And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.

I

gave my love a ring, and made him swear

Never to part with it; and here he stands,—

I dare be sworn for him, he would not leave it,25
Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,
You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief:
An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

Bass. [Aside.] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off,

29. Breathing courtesy. 'Courtesy composed of breath,' or mere verbal courtesy.

30. Posy. Motto; inscription. Posy" is a contraction of the word 'poesy;' and in the Folio it is printed 'poesie' here. 31. Cutler's poetry. It was the custom for cutlers to have mottoes inscribed, by means of aqua-fortis, upon the knives they sold for giving away as keepsakes.

32. Leave me not. "Leave," as here used, meant 'give away,' 'part with.' See Note 30, Act iv., "Two Gentlemen of Verona." 33. Should have been respective. 'Should have respected your pledged word,' I should have been regardful of your honour.' See Note 21, Act v. 34. Scrubbed. This word comprises the two senses of 'stunted,' 'stubbed,' or 'stubby,' like a dwarf tree or shrub ('shrub' and 'scrub' being at one time used synonymously; witness the name of "Wormwood Scrubs," which was originally a place covered with low shrubs, or brushwood), and of 'scrubby,' contemptible, pitiful, shabby.

And swear I lost the ring defending it.
Gra. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
Unto the judge that begg'd it, and indeed
Deserv'd it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
That took some pains in writing, he begg'd
mine:

And neither man nor master would take aught
But the two rings.

Por.
What ring gave you, my lord?
Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me.
Bass. If I could add a lie unto a fault,
I would deny it; but you see my finger
Hath not the ring upon it,—it is gone.

Por. Even so void is your false heart of truth. By Heaven! I will ne'er come in your bed Until I see the ring.

ring,

Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
Or your own honour to contain 6 the ring,
You would not then have parted with the ring.
What man is there so much unreasonable,
If you had pleas'd to have defended it
With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
To urge the thing held as a ceremony p
Nerissa teaches me what to believe :

I'll die for't, but some woman had the ring.
Bass. No, by mine honour, madam, by my soul,
No woman had it, but a civil doctor,38
Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me,
And begg'd the ring; the which I did deny
him,

And suffer'd him to go displeas'd away ;

35. He would not leave it. He would not part with it.' Again, a little farther on: "How unwillingly I left the ring;" that is, 'gave the ring.'

36. Contain. Hold, keep, retain. There is still an expression commonly used of a person in a suppressed rage-' He could hardly contain his fury;' and Lord Bacon employs the word thus when he says, "To contain anger from mischief, though it take hold of a man, there be two things." Shakespeare himself contain" in the sense of restrain,' elsewhere.

uses

37. Held as a ceremony. 'Held sacred,' kept religiously.' The whole passage-its construction being somewhat involved-means, 'What man could have been so unreasonable (if you had chosen to defend it zealously), and so wanting in modesty, as to have urged your giving up a thing you held

so dear?'

38. A civil doctor. The expression is used half-punningly, for a doctor of civil law, and for a doctor courteous in speech and manner. Here "which" is again used for 'who.

Even he that had held up the very life

Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?

I was enforc'd to send it after him:

I was beset with shame and courtesy ;

My honour would not let ingratitude

So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady;
For, by these blessed candles of the night,39

Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd

The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.

Por. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house:

Since he hath got the jewel that I lov'd,

And that which you did swear to keep for me,
I will become as liberal" as you;

I'll not deny him anything I have :

Know him I shall, I am well sure of it:

Ant. I once wealth ;43

did lend my body for his

Which, but for him that had your husband's ring,

Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again,
My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
Will never more break faith advisedly."

Por. Then you shall be his surety. Give him this;

And bid him keep it better than the other. Ant. Here, Lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring.

Bass. By Heaven! it is the same I gave the doctor!

Por. I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio; For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.

Ner. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano; For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,

Argus: 41

If you do not, if I be left alone,

Now, by mine honour, which is yet mine own,
I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow.

Ner. And I his clerk; therefore be well advis'd

How

you do leave me to mine own protection. Gra. Well, do you so: let not me take him, then.

Ant. I am

quarrels.

Gra. Why, this is like the mending of high

ways

39 These blessed candles of the night. Shakespeare has more than once, elsewhere, used this epithet for the stars; and it may have been in popular use, for in some ancient Saxon poetry preserved in Hickes's "Thesaurus," the sun is called 'God's candle.' The old English writers were not afraid of a simple, homely epithet; and it sometimes has a robust force of effect that is ill substituted by a tamer, if more refined, word. 40 Liberal. Used here for prodigal, profuse, lavish. 41. Argus. Being possessed of a hundred eyes, two only of which slept at a time, he was set by Juno to watch the nymph Io, who had been changed into a heifer by Jupiter; but Mercury, after lulling to sleep with the sound of his lyre all Argus's eyes at once, slew him; and the goddess placed his eyes in the tail of her peacocks-the birds that drew her car, and were held sacred to her.

43. Your double self. "Double" is here used punningly ; in the sense of 'twofold.' and in the sense of deceitful,' full of

Shall witness I set forth as soon as you,
And even but now return'd; I have not yet
Enter'd my house.-Antonio, you are welcome;
And I have better news in store for you
Than you expect: unseal this letter soon;
There you shall find three of your argosies
Are richly come to harbour suddenly :
You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.

duplicity. See Note 29, and Note 73, Act V., "Much Ado about Nothing."

43. Wealth. Here used, as it still is in the word 'commonwealth,' for 'weal,' 'well-being,' 'advantage,' 'prosperity.' 44. Advisedly. 'Deliberately,' 'purposely,' 'designedly.' See Note 12, Act ii.

45. In lieu of this. In exchange for this,' 'as an equivalent for this.' See Note 40, Act iv.

46. Where the ways, &c. In some editions "where" has been changed to 'when,' as the more consistent word here; and from the idea that the "where" of the Folio was a probable misprint. But considering that "there" is used for 'then' in a passage of the "Tempest" ("The afternoon to sleep, there thou mayst brain him," Act iii., sc. 2), and also in "Romeo and Juliet" ("This afternoon; and there she," &c., Act ii. sc. 4), we leave the text as originally given in the present passage.

After his death, of all he dies possessed of.
Lor. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.
It is almost morning,"

Por.
And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
Of these events at full. Let us go in ;
And charge us there upon inter'gatories,50
And we will answer all things faithfully.
Gra. Let it be so: the first inter'gatory
That my
Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
Or go to bed now, being two hours to day:
But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
That I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing

So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. [Exeunt.