Page 77 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

—Morocco
O hell! What have we here?
A hideous skull,° within whose empty eye {A carrion death}
There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing:

All that glitters° is not gold; {glisters}
Often have your heard that° told. / this
Many a man his life hath sold,
For the° outside° to behold, {But my} / Just the / Only
26
Gilded tombs° do worms enfold.° / graves {infold}
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in° judgement old, / but > but in
Your answer had not been° inscrolled— / fate would not be so
Fair you well, your suit is cold.

‘Tis cold indeed,° and labor lost. {Cold indeed}
27 28
Now° farewell heat and welcome frost. {Then}
Portia° I have too grieved a heart / And here
For tedious leave,° and so I part.° 29 / For long ‘good-bye’s // thus I depart

30
Exit with his attendants

—Portia
A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go—
31
Let all of his complexion choose me so.

26. Q1 reads: Gilded timber do worms infold. To rectify the meter, most editions follow Johnson’s emendation and
change timber to tombs. Rowe, however corrects the meter by replacing timber with wood—which is close in
meaning to the supposed original. Replacing timber with coffin would be a more exact fit, yet disrupt the meter.
Timber refers to a wood coffin, which is gilded on the outside but which decays and becomes enfolded with worms.
A tomb (which is associated with stone and which lies above ground) may be gilded but is not likely to be enfolded
with worms
27. {Cold indeed and labour lost | Then farewell heat, and welcome frost}
Morocco’s first two lines follow the same rhyme scheme as the scroll (which is also the case with the lines
spoken by Arragon and Bassanio after the scroll); his next two lines, however, revert back to the standard iambic
meter. This anomaly produces a rhythmic break between the meter of Morocco’s first rhyming pair and his second.
The four lines could be left as is, with the different meters (8-8-10-10) or one could preserve the meter of the first
two lines, and conform the next two lines to the same meter (8-8-8-8). Or, the first lined pair could conform with the
second, having all four lines in iambic pentameter—yet this would not be consistent with the post-scroll meter found
in Arragon and Bassanio.
28. This is a paraphrased inversion of the old proverb, ‘Farewell, frost’: “Therefore are you so foule, and so,
farewell, frost.” (Lilly’s Mother Bombie); “Farewell, frost, will you needes be gone” (Wapull’s Tyde Taryeth No
Man, 1576)
29. {Portia, adieu, I have too grieved a heart: | To take a tedious leave, thus losers part.}
/ To stay a long good-bye—and thus I part.
30. Some editions add jflourish of cornettsk as part of this stage direction. This direction is not found in any of the
quartos. Morocco has just lost the contest and is leaving in disgrace—hardly the kind of exit one would want to
herald with cornetts. If a flourish of cornetts was added here, it would have to be unconvincing, deflated, and,
comedic—and perhaps quashed in midstream by a sensitive gentleman from Portia’s train.
31. complexion: most notably refers to Morocco’s dark complexion (and Portia’s dislike of it), though it could also
be a ‘politically correct’ reference to Morocco’s manner or disposition (as the term complexion can also have this
meaning, as it does in[3.1.28]).
/ For such good riddance, I have fate to blame, | May all with his vainglory chose the same.