A merrier man,

Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal.

So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

A very beadle to a humorous sigh.

Act ii. Sc. 1.

Act ii. Sc. 1.

Act iii. Sc. I.

This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid :
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.

Act iii. Sc. 1.

He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book.

Act iv. Sc. 2.

Dictynna, good-man Dull.

Act iv. Sc. 2.

These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion.

For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself.

Act iv. Sc. 2.

Act iv. Sc. 3.

It adds a precious seeing to the eye.

Activ. Sc. 3.

As sweet and musical

As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
And when love speaks the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony. Act iv. Sc. 3-

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

Act v. Sc. 1.

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. Act v. Sc. I.

In the posteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call the afternoon.

Act v. Sc. I.

They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass.

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.

Act v. Sc. 2.

When daisies pied, and violets blue,

And lady-smocks all silver white,

And cuckoo buds of yellow hue,

Act v. Sc. 2.

Do paint the meadows with delight.

Act v. Sc. 2.

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Now, by two-headed Janus,

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.

Acti. Sc. 1.

Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Act i. Sc. 1.

You have too much respect upon the world :
They lose it that do buy it with much care.

Acti. Sc. 1.

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;

A stage where every man must play a part,

And mine a sad one.

Acti. Sc. 1.

Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,

Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?

Acti. Sc. 1.

I am Sir Oracle,

And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!

Act i. Sc. 1.

Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing; more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search. Acti. Sc. 1.

God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.

Act i. Sc. 2.

Ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land-rats and water-rats, land-thieves and water-thieves. Acti. Sc. 3.

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

Acti. Sc. 3.

Even there, where merchants most do congregate.

Acti. Sc. 3.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

Acti. Sc. 3.

A goodly apple rotten at the heart;

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! Acti. Sc. 3.

Many a time and oft,

In the Rialto, you have rated me.

Acti. Sc. 3.

Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.

In a bondman's key,

Act i. Sc. 3.

With 'bated breath and whispering humbleness.

Acti. Sc. 3.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

Vile squeaking of the wry-necked fife.

All things that are,

Act ii. Sc. 2.

Act ii. Sc. 5.

Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed. Act ii. Sc. 6.

I am a Jew hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

Act iii. Sc. I.

Thus, when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.* Act iii. Sc. 5.

What! wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice? Act iv. Sc. I.

The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown :
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

* Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim. PHILIPPE GAULTIER (12th century), Darius. Book v.

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself,

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us

Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

Activ. Sc. I.

You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.

A Daniel come to judgment.

Activ. Sc. I.

Activ. Sc. I.

Is it so nominated in the bond?

Act iv. Sc. I.

I have thee on the hip.

Act iv. Sc. I.

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.

Activ. Sc. I.

He is well paid that is well satisfied.

Act iv. Sc. I.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Act v. Sc. I.

Look, how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims :

Such harmony is in immortal souls;