But in his motion like an angel sings, Enter Musicians. Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn! Jess. I'm never merry when I hear sweet music. Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing loud, If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, By the sweet power of music: Therefore the poet Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. Enter PORTIA and NERISSA at a distance. Por. That light we see is burning in my hall. How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. [Music. Ner. When the Moon shone we did not see the candle. Of course everybody has heard of "the music of the spheres," -an ancient mystery which taught that the heavenly bodies in their revolutions sing together in a concert so loud, various, and sweet, as to exceed all proportion to the human ear. And the greatest souls, from Plato to Wordsworth, have been lifted above themselves, and have waxed greater than their wont, with an idea or intuition that the universe was knit together by a principle of which musical harmony is the aptest and clearest expression." 10 The soul of man was thought by some to be or to have something like the music of the spheres. Thus in Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, v. 38: "Touching musical harmony, such is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have thereby been induced to think that the soul itself by nature is or hath in it harmony.”` Por. So doth the greater glory dim the less: Ner. It is your music, Madam, of the house. 11 Ner. Silence bestows that virtue on it, Madam. How many things by season season'd are Lor. That is the voice, Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia. [Music ceases. Por. He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo. By the bad voice. Lor. Dear lady, welcome home. Por. We have been praying for our husbands' welfare, Which speed, we hope, the better for our words. 11 Unless it be heeded, or attended to. Hence it sounds better when there is nothing to divert the attention. 12 Endymion was a very beautiful youth: Juno took a fancy to him, whereupon her old man, Jupiter, grew jealous of him, and cast him into a perpetual sleep on Mou t Latmos. While he was there asleep, Madam Luna got so smitten with his beauty, that she used to come down and kiss him, and lie by his side. Some said. however, that Luna herself put him asleep, that she might have the pleasure of kissing him without his knowing it, the youth being somewhat shy when awake. The story was naturally a favourite with the poets. Fletcher, in The Faithful Shepherdess, tells the tale charmingly, "How the pale Phoebe, hunting in a grove, How she convey'd him softly in a sleep, Head of old Latmus, where she stoops each night, No note at all of our being absent hence; [A Tucket sounds.18 Lor. Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet. We are no tell-tales, Madam; fear you not. Por. This night, methinks, is but the daylight sick; It looks a little paler: 'tis a day, Such as a day is when the Sun is hid Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their Followers If Bass. We should hold day with the Antipodes, you would walk in absence of the Sun. Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light 14 For a light wife doth make a heavy husband, And never be Bassanio so for me: But God sort all! You're welcome home, my lord. To whom I am so infinitely bound. Por. You should in all sense be much bound to him, For, as I hear, he was much bound for you. Ant. No more than I am well acquitted of. Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house: It must appear in other ways than words, Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.15 friend Gra. [To NER.] By yonder Moon I swear you do me wrong; In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk. Por. A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter? Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring That she did give to me; whose posy was move me, Ner. What talk you of the posy or the value? me not, 18 A tucket is a flourish of trumpets. The word is probably from the Italian toccata, which is said to mean a prelude to a sonata. 14 Twice before, in these scenes, we have had similar playings upon light. here it is especially gracefu' and happy. See page 139, note 13. 15 This complimentary form, made up only of breath. 16 Knives were formerly inscribed, by means of aqua fortis, with short sentences in distich. The posy of a ring was the motto. Respective is considerate or regardful; in the same sense as respect is explained, page 101, note 16. The word is repeatedly used thus by Shakespeare; as in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1: “ Away to Heaven respective lenity, and fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!" Gave it a judge's clerk! no, God's my judge! A kind of boy; a little scrubbed boy,1 18 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 — A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger, I gave my love a ring, and made him swear Bass. [Aside.] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off, 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 Por. I would deny it; but you see my finger Por. Even so void is your false heart of truth. Until I see the ring. Ner. Till I again see mine. Bass. If you did know to whom I gi 18 Scrubbed is here used in the sense of stunted; as in Holland's Pliny: "Such will never prove fair trees, but scrubs only." And Mr. Verplanck observes that the name scrub oak was from the first settlement of this country given to the dwarf or bush oak. 19 When nought would be accepted but the ring, urge I'll die for't, but some woman had the ring. Bass. No, by mine honour, Madam, by my soul, Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me, Even he that had held up the very life Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady? I was beset with shame and courtesy ; My honour would not let ingratitude 21 So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady; For, by these blessed candles of the night, 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'll not deny him any thing I have. Ant. I am th' unhappy subject of these quarrels. Por. Sir, grieve not you; you're welcome notwithstanding Bass. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong; And in the hearing of these many friends I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes, Por. Mark you but that! In both my eyes he doubly sees himself; In each eye, one:- swear by your double self, Bass. Nay, but hear me: 19 Contain was sometimes used in the sense of retain. So, in Bacon's Essays: "To containe anger from mischiefe, though it take hold of a man, there be two things." 20 A Civil Doctor was a doctor of the Civil Law. |