Scene 9 disposes of the second of Portia's remaining suitors, and, being

comic in character, is inserted with good effect between two tragic scenes. The keynote to its action is to be found in Portia's words: "O, these _deliberate_ fools!" The Prince of Morocco was a warrior, heroic to the tips of his fingers; the Prince of Arragon is a fop, an affected ass, a man "full of wise saws and modern instances," and the audience should be prepared for a highly amusing scene by the liveliness with which Nerissa announces his approach. His mannerism is indicated to us in such expressions as "Ha! let me see," and "Well, but to my choice." He should walk deliberately, speak deliberately, pause deliberately, and when he becomes sentimental, "pose." Highly conscious of his own superiority, and unwilling to "jump with _common_ spirits" and "rank me with the _barbarous_ multitudes," he assumes superiority, and gets his reward in the shape of a portrait of a blinking idiot. In fact, the whims of this Malvolio are intended to put everyone on and off the stage into high spirits, and even Portia is carried away by the fun as she mimics the retiring suitor in her exclamation to the servant. The scene ends with the announcement that Bassanio, "Lord Love," is on his way to Belmont, and we go on at once to Act III., Scene 1, which, I take it, is a continuation of