The Stratford gallery; . d, Of wondrous virtues; ******** Her name is Portia—nothing undervalued To Catos daughter, Brutus Portia. Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth ; For the four winds blow in from every coast Renowned suitors ; and her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece— Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos strand, And many Jasons come in quest of her. ******** * * * * All the world desires her: From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds Of wide Arabia, are as throug
The Stratford gallery; . d, Of wondrous virtues; ******** Her name is Portia—nothing undervalued To Catos daughter, Brutus Portia. Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth ; For the four winds blow in from every coast Renowned suitors ; and her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece— Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos strand, And many Jasons come in quest of her. ******** * * * * All the world desires her: From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds Of wide Arabia, are as through-fares now, For princes to come view fair Portia; The watry kingdom, whose ambitious head Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar To stop the foreign spirits; but they come, As oer a brook, to see fair Portia. ******** Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match, And on the wager lay two earthly women, And Portia one, there must be something else Pawnd with the other; for the poor rude world Hath not her JESSICA. To our mind, Jessica, Shylocks one fair daughter, is, in herfilial aspect, neither a pleasing nor a truthful picture; though itmust be acknowledged that her derelictions from duty are com-mitted under extenuating circumstances. It is not for deceiving her father, so far as her love-affairwith Lorenzo is concerned, that we dislike her; nor for elopingfrom a home which, by his graceless parsimony, and cold, forbid-ding harshness, he had made a hell to her; but for the stealingof the ducats and the jewels—above all, the trading of a turquoisering, her mothers love-gift to her father, for a monkey—we canfind no excuse, no palliation, in the best-natured virtue; theft istoo mean a crime to be easily forgiven, especially in a heroine. Mrs. Jameson says of Jessica, that she has a rich tinge ofOrientalism shed over her, worthy her Eastern origin: to us shebetrays her race only in her characteristic love of gold, to which,amorous aud romantic as she is, sh
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