Shakespeare's Play of the Merchant of Venice

Various groups of Nobles, Citizens, Merchants, Foreigners, Water-Carriers, Flower Girls, &c., pass and repass. Procession of the Doge, in state, across the square.[1]

ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SALANIO come forward.

Bas. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them they are not worth the search.

This procession is copied from a print in the British Museum, by Josse Amman, who died in 1591.

—argosies; A name given, in our author's time, to ships of great burthen. The name is supposed by some to be derived from the classical ship, Argo, as a vessel eminently famous.

Plucking the; By holding up the grass, or any light body that will bend by a gentle blast, the direction of the wind is found.

—my wealthy Andrew; The name of the ship.

Vailing her high-top; To vail is "to lower," or "let fall."

Let me play the fool; Alluding to the common comparison of human life to a stage-play. So that he desires his may be the fool's or buffoon's part, which was a constant character in the old farces; from whence came the phrase, to play the fool.—WARBURTON.

—whose visages do cream; The poet here alludes to the manner in which the film extends itself over milk in scalding; and he had the same appearance in his eye when writing a foregoing line: "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."—HENLEY.