_Por_. I never did repent for doing good, Nor shall not now. This comes too near the praising of myself; Therefore, no more of it: hear other things.[92] 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; There is a monastery two miles off, And there we will abide. I do desire you Not to deny this imposition; To which my love, and some necessity, Now lays upon you. _Lor_. Madam, with all my heart, I shall obey you in all fair commands. _Por_. My people do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jessica In place of lord Bassanio and myself. So fare you well, till we shall meet again. _Lor_. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you! _Jes_. I wish your ladyship all heart's content. _Por_. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jessica! _Exeunt_ JESSICA _and_ LORENZO. Now, Balthazar, As I have ever found thee honest, true, So let me find thee still: Take this same letter; See thou render this Into my cousin's hand, doctor Bellario; And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed[93] Unto the tranect,[94] to the common ferry Which trades to Venice:--waste no time in words, But get thee gone; I shall be there before thee. _Bal_. Madam, I go with all convenient speed. [_Exit_. _Por_. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand, That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands, Before they think of us. _Ner_. Shall they see us? _Por_. They shall, Nerissa: But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device When I am in my coach, which stays for us At the park gate; and therefore haste away, For we must measure twenty miles to-day. [_Exeunt_. END OF ACT THIRD. HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT THIRD. (A) The present stone structure superseded an older one of wood. This celebrated edifice was commenced in 1588. (B) That the swan uttered musical sounds at the approach of death was credited by Plato, Chrysippus, Aristotle, Euripides, Philostratus, Cicero, Seneca, and Martial. Pliny, Aelian, and Athenaeus, among the ancients, and Sir Thomas More among the moderns, treat this opinion as a vulgar error. Luther believed in it. See his _Colloquia_, par. 2, p. 125, edit. 1571, 8vo. Our countryman, Bartholomew Glanville, thus mentions the singing of the swan: "And whan she shal dye and that a fether is pyght in the brayn, then she syngeth, as Ambrose sayth," _De propr. rer_. 1. xii., c. 11. Monsieur Morin has written a dissertation on this subject in vol. v. of the _Mem. de l'acad. des inscript_. There are likewise some curious remarks on it in Weston's _Specimens of the conformity of the European languages with the Oriental_, p. 135; in Seelen _Miscellanea_, tom. 1. 298; and in Pinkerton's _Recollections of Paris_, ii. 336.--_Douce's illustrations_.