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How much

you would?

Shy. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats.
Anth. And for three months.

Shy. I had forgot,-three months, yo

me so.8

Well then, your bond; and, let me se But hear you;

Methought, you said, you neither len borrow,

Upon advantage.

Anth.

I do never use it.

Shy. When Jacob graz'd his uncle La

sheep,

This Jacob from our holy Abraham was (As his wise mother wrought in his behal The third possessor; ay, he was the thir Anth. And what of him? Did he interest?

Shy. No, not take interest; not, as would say,

Directly interest: mark what Jacob did.

W

-three months, you told me so.] Altere

Hanmer to " he told me so." E.

Anthonio had learned in conversation, before entry, as well the term as the sum; and the whose brain is then working upon matters that b out afterwards, thinks Bassanio the speaker, frames his reply accordingly; in the next lin addresses Anthonio, and his whole speech is language of one absent in thought. CAPELL.

I

When Laban and himself were compromis'd, That all the eanlings which were streak'd, and pied,

Should fall as Jacob's hire; the ewes, being

rank,

In the end of autumn turned to the rams:
And when the work of generation was
Between these woolly breeders in the act,
The skilful shepherd peel'd me certain wands,2
And in the doing of the deed of kind,3
He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes ;4

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Who,

9were compromis'd,] Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines this verb, "To compound; to adjust a compact by mutual concession," and adds that "in Shakspeare it signifies, unusually, to accord; "to agree;" of which he quotes this passage as an example. It is here affirmed, in a passive sense, of the contracting parties. E.

I

-the eanlings] Lambs just dropt: from ean, eniti. MUSGRAVE.

It is commonly written and pronounced-yeanlings, and to yean; and so it is found in the greater number, at least, of modern editions. E.

2 -certain wands,] A wand, in our author's time, was the usual term for what we now call a switch. MALONE.

3

-of kind,] i. e. of nature. So Turberville, in his book of Falconry, 1575, p. 127:

"So great is the curtesy of kind, as she ever seek"eth to recompense any defect of her's with some "other better benefit." COLLINS.

4

-the fulsome ewes ;] Fulsome, I believe in this instance, means lascivious, obscene. The same

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Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time
Fall party-colour'd lambs, and those were
Jacob's.

This was a way to thrive,5 and he was blest;
And

epithet is bestowed on the night, in Acolastus his After-Witte. By S. N. 1600:

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Why shines not Phoebus in the fulsome night?" In the play of Muleasses the Turk, Madam Fulsome a bawd is introduced. The word, however, sometimes signifies offensive in smell. So in Chapman's version of the 17th book of the Odyssey:

-and fill'd his fulsome scrip," &c. Again, in the dedication to Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 63:

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-noisome or fulsome for bad smells, as but"chers' slaughter houses." &c.

It is likewise used by Shakspeare in King John, to express some quality offensive to nature:

"And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust.” Again, in Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible,

octavo, 1587:

26 Having a strong scent, and fulsome smell, which "neither men nor beastes take delight to smell unto." Again, ibid:

"Boxe is naturally dry, juicelesse, fulsomely and "loathsomely smelling.

"

Again, in Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid's. Metamorphoses, B. xv: respecting sheep;

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-whose fulsome dugs do yield
STEEVENS.

"Sweete nectar."

Minshew supposes it to mean nauseous in so high a degree as to excite vomiting. MALONE.

5 This was a way to thrive, &c.] So in the ancient song of Gernutus the Jew of Venice:

"His wife must lend a shilling,
"For every weeke a penny,

"Yet

And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. Anth. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd for;

A thing not in his power to bring to pass,

But

"Yet bring a pledge that is double worth
If that you will have
"And see, likewise, you keepe your day,

"Or else you lose it all:

any.

"This was the living of the wife,

"Her cow she did it call.”

PERCY.

Her cow, &c. seems to have suggested to Shakspeare Shylock's argument for usury. The old song above cited says "Her cow she did "it call," and so she might, in a ludicrous sense, very naturally do. A cow, so long as she continues to give milk, yields, like money lent out at interest, a perpetual return of profit; but in Shylock's defence of usury, drawn from the example of Jacob's conduct, there seems to be little appositeness or ingenuity indeed, it is not easy to discover in what the parallelism between the two cases consists. However exhorbitant the demands of the money-lender may be, the utmost extent of the profits accruing to him is defined and ascertained (respect being had to the duration of the loan) by mutual stipulation between him and the borrower; whereas the advantage obtained by Jacob was the result of a stratagem put in practice at a period subsequent to that of the compact, of which Laban had no suspicion, and the success of which was by no means a thing certain, or that might be depended upon. Moreover the money is to be considered as the property of the lender; the ewes were a part of the possessions of Laban in short, the only circumstances of resemblance in these two instances seem to be, a supposed'

earnest

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But sway'd, and fashion'd," by the h

Was this inserted to make interest good Or is your gold and silver, ewes and ra

Shy. I cannot tell; I make it br

But note me, signior.

Anth. Mark you this, Bas The devil can cite scripture for his purp An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten at the heart:

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earnest appetite for gain in one of the person cerned in each of them, and a diligent exer the means of obtaining it, and of these, S evidently wishes to establish the justification the authority of so venerable a character. objection may appear in some measure to hav anticipated by Anthonio's reply. E.

6 But sway'd, and fashion'd, &c.] This line the two preceeding ones, as significant of Anth pious disposition, communicates a very pleasi fection to the mind, and, surely, is expressed no common degree of elegance. E.

7 I make it breed as fast :-] So, author's Venus and Adonis:

"Foul cank'ring rust the hidden treasure fr "But gold that's put to use more gold bege

MA

-can cite scripture for his purpose.] S Matthew, iv. 6. HENLEY.

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