For fear I surfeit! BASS. What find I here? [Opening the leaden casket. Fair Portia's counterfeit? What demi-god Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her hairs The painter plays the spider; and hath woven So, in The Laws of Candy, by Beaumont and Fletcher : 66 "But sprinkle them so gently, I may stand them." Mr. Tollet is of opinion that rein is the true word, as it better agrees with the context; and more especially on account of the following passage in Coriolanus, which approaches very near to the present reading: 66 being once chaf'd, he cannot "Be rein'd again to temperance." So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. II. : "Rein thy tongue." STEEVENS. Lord Lansdowne, in his alteration of this play, has thus exhibited the present passage: 66 In measure pour thy joy." Boswell. 1 What find I HERE?] The latter word is here employed as a dissyllable. MALONE. There is no Some monosyllable appears to have been omitted. example of-here, used as a dissyllable; and even with such assistance, the verse, to the ear at least, would be defective. Perhaps our author design'd Portia to say: "For fear I surfeit me." STEEVENS. Mr. Capell reads "Ha! what find I here?" BOSWELL. 2 Fair Portia's COUNTERFEIT?] Counterfeit, which is at present used only in a bad sense, anciently signified a likeness, a resemblance, without comprehending any idea of fraud. So, in The Wit of a Woman, 1604: "I will see if I can agree with this stranger, for the drawing of my daughter's counterfeit." Again, (as Mr. M. Mason observes,) Hamlet calls the pictures he shows to his mother The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." STEEVENS. Methinks, it should have power to steal both his, And leave itself unfurnish'd3: Yet look, how far The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow In underprizing it, so far this shadow Doth limp behind the substance *.-Here's the scroll, The continent and summary of my fortune. 3 Methinks, it should have power to steal both his, If that in the text be the right reading, unfurnished must mean "unfurnished with a companion, or fellow." I am confirmed in this explanation, by the following passage in Fletcher's Lover's Progress, where Alcidon says to Clarangé, on delivering Lidian's challenge, which Clarangé accepts 66 you are a noble gentleman, "Will't please you bring a friend; we are two of us, And pity, either of us should be unfurnish'd." M. MASON. Dr. Johnson's emendation would altogether subvert the poet's meaning. If the artist, in painting one of Portia's eyes, should lose both his own, that eye which he had painted, must necessarily be left unfurnished, or destitute of its fellow. HENLEY. 66 " "And leave itself unfurnish'd:" i. e. and leave itself incomplete; unaccompanied with the other usual component parts of a portrait, viz. another eye, &c. The various features of the face our author seems to have considered as the furniture of a picture. So, in As You Like It: - he was furnish'd like a huntsman ; i. e. had all the appendages belonging to a huntsman. MALONE. The hint for this passage appears to have been taken from Greene's History of Faire Bellora; afterwards published under the title of A Paire of Turtle Doves, or the Tragicall History of Bellora and Fidelio, bl. 1.: "If Apelles had beene tasked to have drawne her counterfeit, her two bright-burning lampes would have so dazled his quicke-seeing sences, that quite dispairing to expresse with his cunning pensill so admirable a worke of nature, he had been inforced to have staid his hand, and left this earthly Venus unfinished." A preceding passage in Bassanio's speech might have been suggested by the same novel : "A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men:" "What are our curled and crisped lockes, but snares and nets to catch and entangle the hearts of gazers," &c. STEEVENS. You that choose not by the view, bliss, A gentle scroll;-Fair lady, by your leave; [Kissing her. I come by note, to give, and to receive. 5 As doubtful whether what I see be true, POR. You see me *, lord Bassanio, where I stand, 4 * So quartos; first folio, my. this shadow Doth LIMP BEHIND the substance.] So, in The Tempest: 66 - she will outstrip all praise, "And make it halt behind her." STEEVENS. 5- PEALS of praise] The second quarto [Roberts's] reads -pearles of praise. JOHNSON. This reading may be the true one. So, in Whetstone's Arbour of Virtue, 1576: "The pearles of praise that deck a noble name." Again, in R. C.'s verses in praise of the same author's Rock of Regard : "But that that bears the pearle of praise away." STEEVENS I would be trebled twenty times myself; A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times That only to stand high on your account, I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends, Is sum of something; which, to term in gross, But she may learn'; happier than this, And be my vantage to exclaim on you. 6 Is SUM of something;] We should read-some of something, i. e. only a piece, or part only of an imperfect account ; which she explains in the following line. WARBURTON. Thus one of the quartos, [ quarto, R.] The folio reads: . Is sum of nothing." The purport of the reading in the text seems to be this : the full sum of me "Is sum of something; "i. e. is not entirely ideal, but amounts to as much as can be found in-an unlesson'd girl, &c. STEEVENS. I should prefer the reading of the folio, as it is Portia's intention, in this speech, to undervalue herself. M. MASON. 7 But she may LEARN ;] The latter word is here used as a dissyllable. MALONE. Till the reader has reconciled his ear to this dissyllabical pronunciation of the word learn, I beg his acceptance of-and, a harmless monosyllable which I have ventured to introduce for the sake of obvious metre. STEEVENS. BASS. Madam, you have bereft me of all words, Only my blood speaks to you in my veins : And there is such confusion in my powers, As, after some oration fairly spoke By a beloved prince, there doth appear Among the buzzing pleased multitude; Where every something, being blent together, Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy, Express'd, and not express'd: But when this ring Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence; O, then be bold to say, Bassanio's dead. NER. My lord and lady, it is now our time, That have stood by, and seen our wishes prosper, To cry, good joy; Good joy, my lord, and lady! GRA. My lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady, I wish you all the joy that you can wish; For, I am sure, you can wish none from me': And, when your honours mean to solemnize The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you, Even at that time I may be married too. BASS. With all my heart, so thou can'st get a wife. GRA. I thank your lordship; you have got me one. My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours: 8 9 being BLENT together,] i. e. blended. STEEVENS. - you can wish none from me:] That is, none away from me; none that I shall lose, if you gain it. JOHNSON. for INTERMISSION -] Intermission is pause, intervening time, delay. So, in Macbeth: 66 gentle heaven "Cut short all intermission!" STEEVENS. |