In sooth I know not why I am so sad
Antonio
In sooth I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me, you say it wearies you.
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,Epistrophe
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn.
And such a want-wit sadness makes of meHyperbaton
That I have much ado to know myself.
Salarino
Your mind is tossing on the ocean,Metaphor
There where your argosies with portly sail
(Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea)
Do overpeer the petty traffickers
That curtsy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.Simile
Solanio
Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,Hyperbaton
Piring in maps for ports and piers and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my venturesAlliteration, out of doubt
Would make me sad.
Salarino
My wind cooling my broth
Would blow me to an ague when I thought
What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
I should not see the sandy hourglass run
But I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew docked in sand,
Vailing her high top lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial.Personification Should I go to church
And see the holy edifice of stone
And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,Metaphor
And, in a word, but even now worth this
And now worth nothing?Anaphora Shall I have the thought
To think on this, and shall I lack the thought
That such a thing bechanced would make me sad?Alliteration
But tell not me: I know Antonio
Is sad to think upon his merchandise.
Antonio
Believe me, no. I thank my fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,Hyperbaton
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:
Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.Hyperbaton
Solanio
Why then you are in love.
Antonio
Fie, fie!
Solanio
Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad
Because you are not merry;Alliosis and 'twere as easy
For you to laugh and leap, and say you are merry
Because you are not sad.Alliosis Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper,
And other of such vinegar aspectMetaphor
That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.