[Footnote 15: _--I am prest unto it:_; Ready.]

[Footnote 16: _--Sometimes from her eyes_; In old English, _sometimes_
is synonymous with _formerly; id est_, some time ago, at a certain time.
It appears by the subsequent scene, that Bassanio was at Belmont with
the Marquis de Montferrat, and saw Portia in her father's lifetime.]

[Footnote 17: _--superfluity comes sooner by white hairs,_; _Id est_,
superfluity sooner _acquires_ white hairs--becomes old. We still say,
how did he _come by it_--MALONE.]

[Footnote 18: _--the Neapolitan prince_.; The Neapolitans in the time of
Shakespeare were eminently skilled in all that belonged to
horsemanship.]

[Footnote 19: _--that's a_ colt, _indeed, for he doth nothing but talk
of his horse,_; _Colt_ is used for a restless, heady, gay youngster,
whence the phrase used of an old man too juvenile, that he still retains
his _colt's tooth_.--JOHNSON.]

[Footnote 20: _--the county Palatine_.; Shakespeare has more allusions
to particular facts and persons than his readers commonly suppose. The
Count here mentioned was, perhaps, Albertus Alasco, a Polish Palatine,
who visited England in our author's lifetime, was eagerly caressed and
splendidly entertained, but, running in debt, at last stole away, and
endeavoured to repair his fortune by enchantment.--JOHNSON.

County and Count in old language, were synonymous. The Count Albertus
Alasco was in London in 1583.]