n allusion to the practice of the Puritan
preachers of those times, who being generally very long and tedious,
were often forced to put off that part of their sermon called the
_exhortation_, till after dinner.--WARBURTON.]

[Footnote 12: _--for this gear_.; A colloquial expression, meaning _for
this matter_.]

[Footnote 13: _In a_ neat's _tongue dried_,; Neat, horned cattle of the
Ox species.]

[Footnote 14: _--a more swelling port; Port_, in the present instance,
comprehends the idea of expensive equipage, and external pomp of
appearance.]

SCENE II.--BELMONT. A ROOM IN PORTIA'S HOUSE.

_Enter_ PORTIA _and_ NERISSA.

_Por_. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is a-weary 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 small happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean; superfluity
comes sooner by white hairs,[17] 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 is a
good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty
what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own
teaching. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a
husband:--O me, the word choose! I may neither choose whom I would, nor
refuse whom I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curb'd by the
will of a dead father:--Is it 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 be chosen by any rightly, but one
who you 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, 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.[18]

_Por_. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his
horse,[19] and he makes it