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Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship. Salar. He came too late, the ship was under sail :

But there the duke was given to understand,
That in a gondola were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica:
Besides, Anthonio certify'd the duke,
They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Salan. I never heard a passion so confus'd,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets :
My daughter!—O my ducats !—O my daugh-

ter !

Fled with a Christian !O my Christian ducats!

Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter! A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,

Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter!

And jewels too, stones, rich and precious stones, Stol'n by my daughter!-Justice! find the girl! She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats! Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,

Crying-His stones, his daughter, and his du

cats!

Salan. Let good Anthonio look he keep his

day,

Or he shall pay for this.

Salar

[graphic]

Salar.

Marry, well remer

I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday Who told me,-in the narrow seas, tha The French and English, there miscarr A vessel of our country, richly fraugh I thought upon Anthonio, when he told And wish'd in silence, that it were not

Salan. You were best to tell Anthon you hear;

Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve Salar. A kinder gentleman treads earth.

I saw Bassanio and Anthonio part : Bassanio, told him he would make som Of his return; he answer'd,-Do not s Slubber not business for my sake, Bas

1 I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday;] conversed. So, in King John:

"Our griefs, and not our manners reason Again, in Chapman's translation of the fou of the Odyssey:

"The morning shall yield time to you a "To do what fits, and reason mutually!

ST

This is an arrant Gallicism; used, as the do their Je raisonnois, for "I talked," si

The Italian ragionare is used in the same

J. M.

2 Slubber not] To slubber is to do any thi lessly, imperfectly. So, in Nash's Lenten St

1599:

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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 ;3

Be

-they slubber'd thee over so negligently." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money:

"I am as haste ordain'd me, a thing slubber'd." STEEVENS. 3 in your mind of love;] There ought to have been a comma after the word, mind, for the sense is "Let me entreat you by our mutual love, "that you take not the least thought of it." HEATH.

I once fancied, that another sense was intended, inconsistent with this pointing; namely," in your "mind that is and should be engaged by love and "love-matters:" but as this anticipates somewhat the thoughts that follow, the other meaning, which is besides more pathetic, is to be preferred: of love, is every day used by us in the sense of" for love's "sake." CAPELL.

Of love, is an adjuration sometimes used by Shakspeare. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Scene 7:

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"Quick

-desires you to send her your little page, of all loves :" i. e. she desires you to send him by all means.

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Your mind of love may, however, in this instance, mean- your loving mind." So, in the Tragedie of Cræsus, 1604: a "mind of treason," is a treasonable mind.

"Those that speak freely, have no mind of treason.” STEEVENS. Agreeably to the latter mode of explanation, it may be, without any reference to love as a passion, -Your

Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts4
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 put his hand behind him.
And with affection wondrous sensible

He wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted.
Salan. I think, he only loves the world for

him.

I pray thee, let us go, and find him out,
And quicken his embraced heaviness 6

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With

E.

"Your mind that is full of affectionate regard and "tender solicitude for your friends, and, therefore, liable to be rendered unhappy by the appre"hension of any danger likely to befal them." -and employ your chiefest thoughts] The sense seems here evidently to require we should read apply. DODD.

4

5 And even there, his eye being big with tears,] The description here given of the parting of two friends, would make a beautiful and affecting subject for the pencil. MRS. Griffith.

So curious an observer of nature was our author, and so minutely had he traced the operation of the passions, that many passages of his works might furnish hints to painters. In the passage before us, we have the outline of a beautiful picture. MALONE, It may be matter of surprise that the foregoing remarks did not attract the attention of some of the artists who furnished designs for Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery. E.

6

-embraced heaviness] Dr. Warburton, with that grossness of taste which characterizes so many

of

With some delight or other.

Salar.

Do we so.

[Exeunt.

of his observations, stiles this an "unmeaning epi"thet." E.

-embraced heaviness] i. e. The heaviness which he indulges, and is fond of. EDWARDS. We say of a man now, that "he hugs his sorrows," and why might not Anthonio embrace heaviness? JOHNSON. So, in Much Ado about Nothing, Scene 1:

"You embrace your charge too willingly," Again, in this play of the Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Scene 2 :

-doubtful thoughts and rash-embrac'd despair."

STEEVENS.

SCENE

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