Page:Merchant of Venice (1923) Yale.djvu/76

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Of godlike amity; which appears most strongly

In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But if you knew to whom you show this honour,

How true a gentleman you send relief,

How dear a lover of my lord your husband,

I know you would be prouder of the work

Than customary bounty can enforce you.

Por. I never did repent for doing good,

Nor shall not now: for in companions

That do converse and waste the time together,

Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,

There must be needs a like proportion

Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit;

Which makes me think that this Antonio,

Being the bosom lover of my lord,

Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,

How little is the cost I have bestow'd

In purchasing the semblance of my soul

From out the state of hellish cruelty!

This comes too near the praising of myself;

Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.

Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house

Until my lord's return: for mine own part,

I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow

To live in prayer and contemplation,

Only attended by Nerissa here,

Until her husband and my lord's return.

There is a monastery two miles off,

And there will we abide. I do desire you

Not to deny this imposition,

The which my love and some necessity

 9 customary bounty: ordinary benevolence

enforce: cause to be

20 semblance soul; cf. n.

25 husbandry and manage: care and management

33 deny this imposition: decline this charge 