Por.

By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary ^note of this great world.

Ner.

You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes 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 ^note, to be seated in the mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs; but competency lives longer.

Por.

Good sentences, and well pronounced.

Ner.

They would be better, if well followed.

Por.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It ^note is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be ^note one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning ^note is not in ^note the fashion ^note to choose me a husband. O me, the word ‘choose’! I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom ^note I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it ^note not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?

Ner.

Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their death, have good inspirations: therefore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests of gold, silver, and lead,—whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you,— will, no doubt, never ^note be chosen by any rightly, but one who ^note shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely suitors that are already come?

Por.

I pray thee ^note, over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will describe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection.

Ner.

First, there is the Neapolitan prince.

Por.

Ay, that's a colt ^note indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to ^note his own good parts, that he can shoe him ^note himself. I am much afeard ^note my lady his mother played false with a smith.

Ner.

Then there is ^note the County Palatine ^note.

Por.

He doth nothing but frown; as who should say, ‘if ^note you will not have me, choose:’ he hears merry tales, and smiles not: I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be ^note married to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of these. God defend me from these two!

Ner.

How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon ^note?

Por.

God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In truth, I know it is a sin ^note to be mocker: but, he! —why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine ^note: he is every man in no man; if a throstle ^note sing, he falls straight a capering: he will fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he love me to madness, I shall ^note never requite him.

Ner.

What say you ^note, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of England?

Por.

You know I say nothing to him; for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian; and you will ^note come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English ^note. He is a proper man's picture; but, alas, who can converse with a dumbshow? How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour every where.

Ner.

What think you of the Scottish ^note lord, his neighbour?

Por.

That he hath a neighbourly charity in him; for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore ^note he

would pay him again when he was able: I think the Frenchman became his surety, and sealed under for another.

Ner.

How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew?

Por.

Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober; and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast: an the worst ^note fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him.

Ner.

If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should refuse to accept him.

Por.

Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee ^note, set a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket; for, if the devil be within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I'll ^note be married to a sponge.

Ner.

You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords: they have acquainted me with their determinations ^note; which is, indeed, to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your ^note father's imposition, depending on the caskets.

Por.

If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence; and I pray God grant them ^note a fair departure.

Ner.

Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar ^note, and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat?

Por.

Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think he was so ^note called.

Ner.

True, madam: he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.

Por.

I remember him well; and I remember him worthy of thy praise.

How now! what news? ^note

Serv.

The four strangers seek for you ^note, madam, to take their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of Morocco; who brings word, the prince his master will be here to-night.

Por.

If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good a ^note heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me ^notethan wive me.