In the Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare writes about "Choiring to Cherubim". What does this passage mean?

Question

Here is the whole passage:

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night
become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest
but in his motion like an angel sings,
still choiring to the young-eyed cherubim.
Such harmony is in immortal souls,
but while this muddy vesture of decay
doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." (V,i,54-65)

I am only interested in this specific passage, not the whole scene. How would this passage be rendered in ordinary English? Can anyone refer me to an authoritative commentary?

Answer 1

Cherubim are the angels which support the throne of God. They are mentioned in Genesis and Ezekiel. "Choiring to cherubim" means singing to the angels as a choir.
It's an interesting use of the noun form of choir as a verb. Cherub is the singular form, btw.

Answer 2

Venice (Venezia) really needs number introduction, see how to get there with hotelbye . That town has been a fabled destination for centuries. Just the name Venice is sufficient to conjure up a host of pictures, even for individuals who have not even collection foot in Italy. From gondoliers in striped tops to the Rialto and the Bridge of Sighs, criminal balls, fantastic barges, courtesans in gondolas and crumbling palaces facing streets made of water Venice is a fantastic city. When the sole connection throughout the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge scars the location of the island's first settlement, called Rivus Altus and is now among the plenty of place that Venice has to offer.

Answer 3

As he courts Jessica, he talks about "celestial music" - the notion that objects in the heavens made music as they moved in their orbits -- he compares that hevaenely music to the songs of praise the cherubim/angels sing to god. He is saying that immortal souls which are pure (and by extension, which participate in a pure love) can be in tune with the music of the heavens.