of characters; she is a
clever confidential waiting-woman, who has caught a little of her lady's
elegance and romance; she affects to be lively and sententious, falls in
love, and makes her favor conditional on the fortune of the caskets, and
in short mimics her mistress with good emphasis and discretion. Nerissa
and the gay talkative Gratiano are as well matched as the incomparable
Portia and her magnificent and captivating lover.

ISABELLA.

The character of Isabella, considered as a poetical delineation, is less
mixed than that of Portia; and the dissimilarity between the two
appears, at first view, so complete that we can scarce believe that the
same elements enter into the composition of each. Yet so it is; they are
portrayed as equally wise, gracious, virtuous, fair, and young; we
perceive in both the same exalted principle and firmness of character;
the same depth of reflection and persuasive eloquence; the same
self-denying generosity and capability of strong affections; and we must
wonder at that marvellous power by which qualities and endowments,
essentially and closely allied, are so combined and modified as to
produce a result altogether different. "O Nature! O Shakespeare! which
of ye drew from the other?"

Isabella is distinguished from Portia, and strongly individualized by a
certain moral grandeur, a saintly grace, something of vestal dignity and
purity, which render her less attractive and more imposing; she is
"severe in youthful beauty," and inspires a reverence which would have
placed her beyond the daring of one unholy wish or thought, except in
such a man as Angelo--

O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook!

This impression of her character is conveyed from the very first, when
Lucio, the libertine jester, whose coarse audacious wit checks at every
feather, thus expresses his respect for her,--

I would not--though 'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest
Tongue far from heart--play with all virgins so.
I hold you as a thing enskyed, and sainted;
By your renouncement an immortal spirit,
And to be talked with in sincerity,
As with a saint.

A strong distinction between Isabella and Portia is produced by the
circumstances in which they are respectively placed. Portia is a
high-born heiress, "Lord of a fair mansion, master of her servants,
queen o'er herself;" easy and decided, as one born to com