ACT II
ACT II, SCENE I. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
[Flourish of cornets. Enter the PRINCE OF MOROCCO and his train;
PORTIA, NERISSA, and others attending]
MOROCCO:
- Mislike me not for my complexion,
- The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun,
- To whom I am a neighbour and near bred.
- Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
- Where Phoebus' fire scarce thaws the icicles,
- And let us make incision for your love,
- To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine.
- I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine
- Hath fear'd the valiant: by my love I swear
- The best-regarded virgins of our clime
- Have loved it too: I would not change this hue,
- Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen.
PORTIA:
- In terms of choice I am not solely led
- By nice direction of a maiden's eyes;
- Besides, the lottery of my destiny
- Bars me the right of voluntary choosing:
- But if my father had not scanted me
- And hedged me by his wit, to yield myself
- His wife who wins me by that means I told you,
- Yourself, renowned prince, then stood as fair
- As any comer I have look'd on yet
- For my affection.
MOROCCO:
- Even for that I thank you:
- Therefore, I pray you, lead me to the caskets
- To try my fortune. By this scimitar
- That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince
- That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,
- I would outstare the sternest eyes that look,
- Outbrave the heart most daring on the earth,
- Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear,
- Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey,
- To win thee, lady. But, alas the while!
- If Hercules and Lichas play at dice
- Which is the better man, the greater throw
- May turn by fortune from the weaker hand:
- So is Alcides beaten by his page;
- And so may I, blind fortune leading me,
- Miss that which one unworthier may attain,
- And die with grieving.
PORTIA:
- You must take your chance,
- And either not attempt to choose at all
- Or swear before you choose, if you choose wrong
- Never to speak to lady afterward
- In way of marriage: therefore be advised.
MOROCCO:
- Nor will not. Come, bring me unto my chance.
PORTIA:
- First, forward to the temple: after dinner
- Your hazard shall be made.
MOROCCO:
- Good fortune then!
- To make me blest or cursed'st among men.
-
[Cornets, and exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE II. Venice. A street.
[Enter LAUNCELOT]
GOBBO:
- Master young man, you, I pray you, which is the way
- to master Jew's?
LAUNCELOT:
-
[Aside]
- O heavens, this is my true-begotten father!
- who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind,
- knows me not: I will try confusions with him.
GOBBO:
- Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way
- to master Jew's?
LAUNCELOT:
- Turn up on your right hand at the next turning, but,
- at the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at
- the very next turning, turn of no hand, but turn
- down indirectly to the Jew's house.
GOBBO:
- By God's sonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit. Can
- you tell me whether one Launcelot,
- that dwells with him, dwell with him or no?
LAUNCELOT:
- Talk you of young Master Launcelot?
-
[Aside]
- Mark me now; now will I raise the waters. Talk you
- of young Master Launcelot?
GOBBO:
- No master, sir, but a poor man's son: his father,
- though I say it, is an honest exceeding poor man
- and, God be thanked, well to live.
LAUNCELOT:
- Well, let his father be what a' will, we talk of
- young Master Launcelot.
GOBBO:
- Your worship's friend and Launcelot, sir.
LAUNCELOT:
- But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you,
- talk you of young Master Launcelot?
GOBBO:
- Of Launcelot, an't please your mastership.
LAUNCELOT:
- Ergo, Master Launcelot. Talk not of Master
- Launcelot, father; for the young gentleman,
- according to Fates and Destinies and such odd
- sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of
- learning, is indeed deceased, or, as you would say
- in plain terms, gone to heaven.
GOBBO:
- Marry, God forbid! the boy was the very staff of my
- age, my very prop.
LAUNCELOT:
- Do I look like a cudgel or a hovel-post, a staff or
- a prop? Do you know me, father?
GOBBO:
- Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman:
- but, I pray you, tell me, is my boy, God rest his
- soul, alive or dead?
LAUNCELOT:
- Do you not know me, father?
GOBBO:
- Alack, sir, I am sand-blind; I know you not.
LAUNCELOT:
- Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of
- the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his
- own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of
- your son: give me your blessing: truth will come
- to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son
- may, but at the length truth will out.
GOBBO:
- Pray you, sir, stand up: I am sure you are not
- Launcelot, my boy.
LAUNCELOT:
- Pray you, let's have no more fooling about it, but
- give me your blessing: I am Launcelot, your boy
- that was, your son that is, your child that shall
- be.
GOBBO:
- I cannot think you are my son.
LAUNCELOT:
- I know not what I shall think of that: but I am
- Launcelot, the Jew's man, and I am sure Margery your
- wife is my mother.
GOBBO:
- Her name is Margery, indeed: I'll be sworn, if thou
- be Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood.
- Lord worshipped might he be! what a beard hast thou
- got! thou hast got more hair on thy chin than
- Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail.
LAUNCELOT:
- It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows
- backward: I am sure he had more hair of his tail
- than I have of my face when I last saw him.
GOBBO:
- Lord, how art thou changed! How dost thou and thy
- master agree? I have brought him a present. How
- 'gree you now?
BASSANIO:
- You may do so; but let it be so hasted that supper
- be ready at the farthest by five of the clock. See
- these letters delivered; put the liveries to making,
- and desire Gratiano to come anon to my lodging.
-
[Exit a Servant]
LAUNCELOT:
- To him, father.
GOBBO:
- God bless your worship!
BASSANIO:
- Gramercy! wouldst thou aught with me?
GOBBO:
- Here's my son, sir, a poor boy,--
LAUNCELOT:
- Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man; that
- would, sir, as my father shall specify--
GOBBO:
- He hath a great infection, sir, as one would say, to serve--
LAUNCELOT:
- Indeed, the short and the long is, I serve the Jew,
- and have a desire, as my father shall specify--
GOBBO:
- His master and he, saving your worship's reverence,
- are scarce cater-cousins--
LAUNCELOT:
- To be brief, the very truth is that the Jew, having
- done me wrong, doth cause me, as my father, being, I
- hope, an old man, shall frutify unto you--
GOBBO:
- I have here a dish of doves that I would bestow upon
- your worship, and my suit is--
LAUNCELOT:
- In very brief, the suit is impertinent to myself, as
- your worship shall know by this honest old man; and,
- though I say it, though old man, yet poor man, my father.
BASSANIO:
- One speak for both. What would you?
LAUNCELOT:
- Serve you, sir.
GOBBO:
- That is the very defect of the matter, sir.
BASSANIO:
- I know thee well; thou hast obtain'd thy suit:
- Shylock thy master spoke with me this day,
- And hath preferr'd thee, if it be preferment
- To leave a rich Jew's service, to become
- The follower of so poor a gentleman.
LAUNCELOT:
- The old proverb is very well parted between my
- master Shylock and you, sir: you have the grace of
- God, sir, and he hath enough.
BASSANIO:
- Thou speak'st it well. Go, father, with thy son.
- Take leave of thy old master and inquire
- My lodging out. Give him a livery
- More guarded than his fellows': see it done.
BASSANIO:
- I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this:
- These things being bought and orderly bestow'd,
- Return in haste, for I do feast to-night
- My best-esteem'd acquaintance: hie thee, go.
LEONARDO:
- My best endeavours shall be done herein.
-
[Enter GRATIANO]
GRATIANO:
- Where is your master?
LEONARDO:
- Yonder, sir, he walks.
-
[Exit]
GRATIANO:
- Signior Bassanio!
GRATIANO:
- I have a suit to you.
BASSANIO:
- You have obtain'd it.
GRATIANO:
- You must not deny me: I must go with you to Belmont.
BASSANIO:
- Why then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano;
- Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice;
- Parts that become thee happily enough
- And in such eyes as ours appear not faults;
- But where thou art not known, why, there they show
- Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain
- To allay with some cold drops of modesty
- Thy skipping spirit, lest through thy wild behavior
- I be misconstrued in the place I go to,
- And lose my hopes.
GRATIANO:
- Signior Bassanio, hear me:
- If I do not put on a sober habit,
- Talk with respect and swear but now and then,
- Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely,
- Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes
- Thus with my hat, and sigh and say 'amen,'
- Use all the observance of civility,
- Like one well studied in a sad ostent
- To please his grandam, never trust me more.
BASSANIO:
- Well, we shall see your bearing.
GRATIANO:
- Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me
- By what we do to-night.
BASSANIO:
- No, that were pity:
- I would entreat you rather to put on
- Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends
- That purpose merriment. But fare you well:
- I have some business.
GRATIANO:
- And I must to Lorenzo and the rest:
- But we will visit you at supper-time.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE III. The same. A room in SHYLOCK'S house.
[Enter JESSICA and LAUNCELOT]
JESSICA:
- I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so:
- Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil,
- Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.
- But fare thee well, there is a ducat for thee:
- And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see
- Lorenzo, who is thy new master's guest:
- Give him this letter; do it secretly;
- And so farewell: I would not have my father
- See me in talk with thee.
LAUNCELOT:
- Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful
- pagan, most sweet Jew! if a Christian did not play
- the knave and get thee, I am much deceived. But,
- adieu: these foolish drops do something drown my
- manly spirit: adieu.
JESSICA:
- Farewell, good Launcelot.
-
[Exit Launcelot]
- Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
- To be ashamed to be my father's child!
- But though I am a daughter to his blood,
- I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,
- If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
- Become a Christian and thy loving wife.
-
[Exit]
ACT II, SCENE IV. The same. A street.
[Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALARINO, and SALANIO]
LORENZO:
- Nay, we will slink away in supper-time,
- Disguise us at my lodging and return,
- All in an hour.
GRATIANO:
- We have not made good preparation.
SALARINO:
- We have not spoke us yet of torchbearers.
SALANIO:
- 'Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order'd,
- And better in my mind not undertook.
LAUNCELOT:
- An it shall please you to break up
- this, it shall seem to signify.
LORENZO:
- I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;
- And whiter than the paper it writ on
- Is the fair hand that writ.
GRATIANO:
- Love-news, in faith.
LAUNCELOT:
- By your leave, sir.
LORENZO:
- Whither goest thou?
LAUNCELOT:
- Marry, sir, to bid my old master the
- Jew to sup to-night with my new master the Christian.
LORENZO:
- Hold here, take this: tell gentle Jessica
- I will not fail her; speak it privately.
- Go, gentlemen,
-
[Exit Launcelot]
- Will you prepare you for this masque tonight?
- I am provided of a torch-bearer.
SALANIO:
- Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight.
LORENZO:
- Meet me and Gratiano
- At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence.
GRATIANO:
- Was not that letter from fair Jessica?
LORENZO:
- I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed
- How I shall take her from her father's house,
- What gold and jewels she is furnish'd with,
- What page's suit she hath in readiness.
- If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven,
- It will be for his gentle daughter's sake:
- And never dare misfortune cross her foot,
- Unless she do it under this excuse,
- That she is issue to a faithless Jew.
- Come, go with me; peruse this as thou goest:
- Fair Jessica shall be my torch-beare r.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE V. The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house.
[Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT]
SHYLOCK:
- Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge,
- The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:--
- What, Jessica!--thou shalt not gormandise,
- As thou hast done with me:--What, Jessica!--
- And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out;--
- Why, Jessica, I say!
SHYLOCK:
- Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call.
LAUNCELOT:
- Your worship was wont to tell me that
- I could do nothing without bidding.
-
[Enter Jessica]
JESSICA:
- Call you? what is your will?
SHYLOCK:
- I am bid forth to supper, Jessica:
- There are my keys. But wherefore should I go?
- I am not bid for love; they flatter me:
- But yet I'll go in hate, to feed upon
- The prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl,
- Look to my house. I am right loath to go:
- There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
- For I did dream of money-bags to-night.
LAUNCELOT:
- I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect
- your reproach.
LAUNCELOT:
- An they have conspired together, I will not say you
- shall see a masque; but if you do, then it was not
- for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on
- Black-Monday last at six o'clock i' the morning,
- falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four
- year, in the afternoon.
SHYLOCK:
- What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica:
- Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum
- And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
- Clamber not you up to the casements then,
- Nor thrust your head into the public street
- To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces,
- But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements:
- Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter
- My sober house. By Jacob's staff, I swear,
- I have no mind of feasting forth to-night:
- But I will go. Go you before me, sirrah;
- Say I will come.
LAUNCELOT:
- I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at
- window, for all this, There will come a Christian
- boy, will be worth a Jewess' eye.
-
[Exit]
SHYLOCK:
- What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha?
JESSICA:
- His words were 'Farewell mistress;' nothing else.
SHYLOCK:
- The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder;
- Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
- More than the wild-cat: drones hive not with me;
- Therefore I part with him, and part with him
- To one that would have him help to waste
- His borrow'd purse. Well, Jessica, go in;
- Perhaps I will return immediately:
- Do as I bid you; shut doors after you:
- Fast bind, fast find;
- A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.
-
[Exit]
JESSICA:
- Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost,
- I have a father, you a daughter, lost.
-
[Exit]
ACT II, SCENE VI. The same.
[Enter GRATIANO and SALARINO, masqued]
GRATIANO:
- This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo
- Desired us to make stand.
SALARINO:
- His hour is almost past.
GRATIANO:
- And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,
- For lovers ever run before the clock.
SALARINO:
- O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly
- To seal love's bonds new-made, than they are wont
- To keep obliged faith unforfeited!
GRATIANO:
- That ever holds: who riseth from a feast
- With that keen appetite that he sits down?
- Where is the horse that doth untread again
- His tedious measures with the unbated fire
- That he did pace them first? All things that are,
- Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.
- How like a younker or a prodigal
- The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
- Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind!
- How like the prodigal doth she return,
- With over-weather'd ribs and ragged sails,
- Lean, rent and beggar'd by the strumpet wind!
SALARINO:
- Here comes Lorenzo: more of this hereafter.
-
[Enter LORENZO]
JESSICA:
- Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty,
- Albeit I'll swear that I do know your tongue.
LORENZO:
- Lorenzo, and thy love.
JESSICA:
- Lorenzo, certain, and my love indeed,
- For who love I so much? And now who knows
- But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?
LORENZO:
- Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art.
JESSICA:
- Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
- I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
- For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
- But love is blind and lovers cannot see
- The pretty follies that themselves commit;
- For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
- To see me thus transformed to a boy.
LORENZO:
- Descend, for you must be my torchbearer.
JESSICA:
- What, must I hold a candle to my shames?
- They in themselves, good-sooth, are too too light.
- Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love;
- And I should be obscured.
LORENZO:
- So are you, sweet,
- Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.
- But come at once;
- For the close night doth play the runaway,
- And we are stay'd for at Bassanio's feast.
JESSICA:
- I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
- With some more ducats, and be with you straight.
-
[Exit above]
GRATIANO:
- Now, by my hood, a Gentile and no Jew.
GRATIANO:
- Signior Antonio!
ANTONIO:
- Fie, fie, Gratiano! where are all the rest?
- 'Tis nine o'clock: our friends all stay for you.
- No masque to-night: the wind is come about;
- Bassanio presently will go aboard:
- I have sent twenty out to seek for you.
GRATIANO:
- I am glad on't: I desire no more delight
- Than to be under sail and gone to-night.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE VII. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
[Flourish of cornets. Enter PORTIA, with
the PRINCE OF MOROCCO, and their trains]
PORTIA:
- Go draw aside the curtains and discover
- The several caskets to this noble prince.
- Now make your choice.
MOROCCO:
- The first, of gold, who this inscription bears,
- 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire;'
- The second, silver, which this promise carries,
- 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves;'
- This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt,
- 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
- How shall I know if I do choose the right?
PORTIA:
- The one of them contains my picture, prince:
- If you choose that, then I am yours withal.
MOROCCO:
- Some god direct my judgment! Let me see;
- I will survey the inscriptions back again.
- What says this leaden casket?
- 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
- Must give: for what? for lead? hazard for lead?
- This casket threatens. Men that hazard all
- Do it in hope of fair advantages:
- A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross;
- I'll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead.
- What says the silver with her virgin hue?
- 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
- As much as he deserves! Pause there, Morocco,
- And weigh thy value with an even hand:
- If thou be'st rated by thy estimation,
- Thou dost deserve enough; and yet enough
- May not extend so far as to the lady:
- And yet to be afeard of my deserving
- Were but a weak disabling of myself.
- As much as I deserve! Why, that's the lady:
- I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,
- In graces and in qualities of breeding;
- But more than these, in love I do deserve.
- What if I stray'd no further, but chose here?
- Let's see once more this saying graved in gold
- 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
- Why, that's the lady; all the world desires her;
- From the four corners of the earth they come,
- To kiss this shrine, this mortal-breathing saint:
- The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds
- Of wide Arabia are as thoroughfares now
- For princes to come view fair Portia:
- The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
- Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar
- To stop the foreign spirits, but they come,
- As o'er a brook, to see fair Portia.
- One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
- Is't like that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation
- To think so base a thought: it were too gross
- To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.
- Or shall I think in silver she's immured,
- Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
- O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
- Was set in worse than gold. They have in England
- A coin that bears the figure of an angel
- Stamped in gold, but that's insculp'd upon;
- But here an angel in a golden bed
- Lies all within. Deliver me the key:
- Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!
PORTIA:
- There, take it, prince; and if my form lie there,
- Then I am yours.
- He unlocks the golden casket
PORTIA:
- A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
- Let all of his complexion choose me so.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE VIII. Venice. A street.
[Enter SALARINO and SALANIO]
SALARINO:
- Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail:
- With him is Gratiano gone along;
- And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
SALANIO:
- The villain Jew with outcries raised the duke,
- Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship.
SALARINO:
- He came too late, the ship was under sail:
- But there the duke was given to understand
- That in a gondola were seen together
- Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica:
- Besides, Antonio certified the duke
- They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
SALANIO:
- I never heard a passion so confused,
- So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
- As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
- 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
- Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
- Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
- A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
- Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
- And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,
- Stolen by my daughter! Justice! find the girl;
- She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats.'
SALARINO:
- Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
- Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.
SALANIO:
- Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
- Or he shall pay for this.
SALARINO:
- Marry, well remember'd.
- I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday,
- Who told me, in the narrow seas that part
- The French and English, there miscarried
- A vessel of our country richly fraught:
- I thought upon Antonio when he told me;
- And wish'd in silence that it were not his.
SALANIO:
- You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
- Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.
SALARINO:
- A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.
- I saw Bassanio and Antonio part:
- Bassanio told him he would make some speed
- Of his return: he answer'd, 'Do not so;
- Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio
- But stay the very riping of the time;
- And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me,
- Let it not enter in your mind of love:
- Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
- To courtship and such fair ostents of love
- As shall conveniently become you there:'
- And even there, his eye being big with tears,
- Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
- And with affection wondrous sensible
- He wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted.
SALANIO:
- I think he only loves the world for him.
- I pray thee, let us go and find him out
- And quicken his embraced heaviness
- With some delight or other.
SALARINO:
- Do we so.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT II, SCENE IX. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
[Enter NERISSA with a Servitor]
PORTIA:
- Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince:
- If you choose that wherein I am contain'd,
- Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized:
- But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,
- You must be gone from hence immediately.
ARRAGON:
- I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three things:
- First, never to unfold to any one
- Which casket 'twas I chose; next, if I fail
- Of the right casket, never in my life
- To woo a maid in way of marriage: Lastly,
- If I do fail in fortune of my choice,
- Immediately to leave you and be gone.
PORTIA:
- To these injunctions every one doth swear
- That comes to hazard for my worthless self.
PORTIA:
- Too long a pause for that which you find there.
ARRAGON:
- What's here? the portrait of a blinking idiot,
- Presenting me a schedule! I will read it.
- How much unlike art thou to Portia!
- How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
- 'Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.'
- Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?
- Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?
PORTIA:
- To offend, and judge, are distinct offices
- And of opposed natures.
PORTIA:
- Thus hath the candle singed the moth.
- O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose,
- They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.
NERISSA:
- The ancient saying is no heresy,
- Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
PORTIA:
- Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.
-
[Enter a Servant]
Servant:
- Where is my lady?
PORTIA:
- Here: what would my lord?
Servant:
- Madam, there is alighted at your gate
- A young Venetian, one that comes before
- To signify the approaching of his lord;
- From whom he bringeth sensible regreets,
- To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,
- Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen
- So likely an ambassador of love:
- A day in April never came so sweet,
- To show how costly summer was at hand,
- As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.
PORTIA:
- No more, I pray thee: I am half afeard
- Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
- Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him.
- Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see
- Quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly.
NERISSA:
- Bassanio, lord Love, if thy will it be!
-
[Exeunt]
ACT III
ACT III, SCENE I. Venice. A street.
[Enter SALANIO and SALARINO]
SALANIO:
- Now, what news on the Rialto?
SALARINO:
- Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
- a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
- the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
- dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
- a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
- Report be an honest woman of her word.
SALANIO:
- I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
- knapped ginger or made her neighbours believe she
- wept for the death of a third husband. But it is
- true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the
- plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the
- honest Antonio,--O that I had a title good enough
- to keep his name company!--
SALARINO:
- Come, the full stop.
SALANIO:
- Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath
- lost a ship.
SALARINO:
- I would it might prove the end of his losses.
SALANIO:
- Let me say 'amen' betimes, lest the devil cross my
- prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.
-
[Enter SHYLOCK]
- How now, Shylock! what news among the merchants?
SHYLOCK:
- You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my
- daughter's flight.
SALARINO:
- That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor
- that made the wings she flew withal.
SALANIO:
- And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
- fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all
- to leave the dam.
SHYLOCK:
- She is damned for it.
SALANIO:
- That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.
SHYLOCK:
- My own flesh and blood to rebel!
SALANIO:
- Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years?
SHYLOCK:
- I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.
SALARINO:
- There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
- than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods
- than there is between red wine and rhenish. But
- tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any
- loss at sea or no?
SHYLOCK:
- There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a
- prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the
- Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon
- the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont to
- call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was
- wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him
- look to his bond.
SALARINO:
- Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
- his flesh: what's that good for?
SHYLOCK:
- To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
- it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
- hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
- mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
- bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
- enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
- not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
- dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
- the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
- to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
- warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
- a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
- if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
- us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
- revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
- resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
- what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
- wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
- Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
- teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
- will better the instruction.
-
[Enter a Servant]
Servant:
- Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
- desires to speak with you both.
SALARINO:
- We have been up and down to seek him.
-
[Enter TUBAL]
SHYLOCK:
- How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou
- found my daughter?
TUBAL:
- I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.
SHYLOCK:
- Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone,
- cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse
- never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it
- till now: two thousand ducats in that; and other
- precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
- were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!
- would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in
- her coffin! No news of them? Why, so: and I know
- not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon
- loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to
- find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge:
- nor no in luck stirring but what lights on my
- shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
- but of my shedding.
TUBAL:
- Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I
- heard in Genoa,--
SHYLOCK:
- What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?
TUBAL:
- Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.
SHYLOCK:
- I thank God, I thank God. Is't true, is't true?
TUBAL:
- I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.
SHYLOCK:
- I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news!
- ha, ha! where? in Genoa?
TUBAL:
- Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one
- night fourscore ducats.
SHYLOCK:
- Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
- gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting!
- fourscore ducats!
TUBAL:
- There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my
- company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.
SHYLOCK:
- I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture
- him: I am glad of it.
TUBAL:
- One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
- daughter for a monkey.
SHYLOCK:
- Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
- turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:
- I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.
TUBAL:
- But Antonio is certainly undone.
SHYLOCK:
- Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee
- me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I
- will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were
- he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I
- will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
- go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT III, SCENE II. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
[Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and Attendants]
PORTIA:
- I pray you, tarry: pause a day or two
- Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
- I lose your company: therefore forbear awhile.
- There's something tells me, but it is not love,
- I would not lose you; and you know yourself,
- Hate counsels not in such a quality.
- But lest you should not understand me well,--
- And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,--
- I would detain you here some month or two
- Before you venture for me. I could teach you
- How to choose right, but I am then forsworn;
- So will I never be: so may you miss me;
- But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
- That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
- They have o'erlook'd me and divided me;
- One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
- Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
- And so all yours. O, these naughty times
- Put bars between the owners and their rights!
- And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
- Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
- I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,
- To eke it and to draw it out in length,
- To stay you from election.
BASSANIO:
- Let me choose
- For as I am, I live upon the rack.
PORTIA:
- Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
- What treason there is mingled with your love.
BASSANIO:
- None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
- Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
- There may as well be amity and life
- 'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
PORTIA:
- Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
- Where men enforced do speak anything.
BASSANIO:
- Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
PORTIA:
- Well then, confess and live.
BASSANIO:
- 'Confess' and 'love'
- Had been the very sum of my confession:
- O happy torment, when my torturer
- Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
- But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
BASSANIO:
- So may the outward shows be least themselves:
- The world is still deceived with ornament.
- In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
- But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
- Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
- What damned error, but some sober brow
- Will bless it and approve it with a text,
- Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
- There is no vice so simple but assumes
- Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
- How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
- As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
- The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
- Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
- And these assume but valour's excrement
- To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
- And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
- Which therein works a miracle in nature,
- Making them lightest that wear most of it:
- So are those crisped snaky golden locks
- Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
- Upon supposed fairness, often known
- To be the dowry of a second head,
- The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
- Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
- To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
- Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
- The seeming truth which cunning times put on
- To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
- Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
- Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
- 'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
- Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
- Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;
- And here choose I; joy be the consequence!
PORTIA:
-
[Aside]
- How all the other passions fleet to air,
- As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
- And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love,
- Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy,
- In measure rein thy joy; scant this excess.
- I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
- For fear I surfeit.
PORTIA:
- You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
- Such as I am: though for myself alone
- I would not be ambitious in my wish,
- To wish myself much better; yet, for you
- I would be trebled twenty times myself;
- A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich;
- That only to stand high in your account,
- I might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends,
- Exceed account; but the full sum of me
- Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,
- Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;
- Happy in this, she is not yet so old
- But she may learn; happier than this,
- She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
- Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
- Commits itself to yours to be directed,
- As from her lord, her governor, her king.
- Myself and what is mine to you and yours
- Is now converted: but now I was the lord
- Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
- Queen o'er myself: and even now, but now,
- This house, these servants and this same myself
- Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring;
- Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
- Let it presage the ruin of your love
- And be my vantage to exclaim on you.
BASSANIO:
- Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
- Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;
- And there is such confusion in my powers,
- As after some oration fairly spoke
- By a beloved prince, there doth appear
- Among the buzzing pleased multitude;
- Where every something, being blent together,
- Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,
- Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring
- Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence:
- O, then be bold to say Bassanio's dead!
NERISSA:
- My lord and lady, it is now our time,
- That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper,
- To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady!
GRATIANO:
- My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady,
- I wish you all the joy that you can wish;
- For I am sure you can wish none from me:
- And when your honours mean to solemnize
- The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
- Even at that time I may be married too.
BASSANIO:
- With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.
GRATIANO:
- I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
- My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
- You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;
- You loved, I loved for intermission.
- No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
- Your fortune stood upon the casket there,
- And so did mine too, as the matter falls;
- For wooing here until I sweat again,
- And sweating until my very roof was dry
- With oaths of love, at last, if promise last,
- I got a promise of this fair one here
- To have her love, provided that your fortune
- Achieved her mistress.
PORTIA:
- Is this true, Nerissa?
NERISSA:
- Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.
BASSANIO:
- And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
GRATIANO:
- Yes, faith, my lord.
BASSANIO:
- Our feast shall be much honour'd in your marriage.
GRATIANO:
- We'll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.
NERISSA:
- What, and stake down?
BASSANIO:
- Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;
- If that the youth of my new interest here
- Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,
- I bid my very friends and countrymen,
- Sweet Portia, welcome.
PORTIA:
- So do I, my lord:
- They are entirely welcome.
LORENZO:
- I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,
- My purpose was not to have seen you here;
- But meeting with Salerio by the way,
- He did entreat me, past all saying nay,
- To come with him along.
SALERIO:
- I did, my lord;
- And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio
- Commends him to you.
- Gives Bassanio a letter
BASSANIO:
- Ere I ope his letter,
- I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.
SALERIO:
- Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;
- Nor well, unless in mind: his letter there
- Will show you his estate.
GRATIANO:
- Nerissa, cheer yon stranger; bid her welcome.
- Your hand, Salerio: what's the news from Venice?
- How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio?
- I know he will be glad of our success;
- We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.
SALERIO:
- I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.
PORTIA:
- There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper,
- That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek:
- Some dear friend dead; else nothing in the world
- Could turn so much the constitution
- Of any constant man. What, worse and worse!
- With leave, Bassanio: I am half yourself,
- And I must freely have the half of anything
- That this same paper brings you.
BASSANIO:
- O sweet Portia,
- Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
- That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
- When I did first impart my love to you,
- I freely told you, all the wealth I had
- Ran in my veins, I was a gentleman;
- And then I told you true: and yet, dear lady,
- Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
- How much I was a braggart. When I told you
- My state was nothing, I should then have told you
- That I was worse than nothing; for, indeed,
- I have engaged myself to a dear friend,
- Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,
- To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady;
- The paper as the body of my friend,
- And every word in it a gaping wound,
- Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?
- Have all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?
- From Tripolis, from Mexico and England,
- From Lisbon, Barbary and India?
- And not one vessel 'scape the dreadful touch
- Of merchant-marring rocks?
SALERIO:
- Not one, my lord.
- Besides, it should appear, that if he had
- The present money to discharge the Jew,
- He would not take it. Never did I know
- A creature, that did bear the shape of man,
- So keen and greedy to confound a man:
- He plies the duke at morning and at night,
- And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
- If they deny him justice: twenty merchants,
- The duke himself, and the magnificoes
- Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him;
- But none can drive him from the envious plea
- Of forfeiture, of justice and his bond.
JESSICA:
- When I was with him I have heard him swear
- To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,
- That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
- Than twenty times the value of the sum
- That he did owe him: and I know, my lord,
- If law, authority and power deny not,
- It will go hard with poor Antonio.
PORTIA:
- Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?
BASSANIO:
- The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
- The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit
- In doing courtesies, and one in whom
- The ancient Roman honour more appears
- Than any that draws breath in Italy.
PORTIA:
- What sum owes he the Jew?
BASSANIO:
- For me three thousand ducats.
PORTIA:
- What, no more?
- Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond;
- Double six thousand, and then treble that,
- Before a friend of this description
- Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault.
- First go with me to church and call me wife,
- And then away to Venice to your friend;
- For never shall you lie by Portia's side
- With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
- To pay the petty debt twenty times over:
- When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
- My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
- Will live as maids and widows. Come, away!
- For you shall hence upon your wedding-day:
- Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer:
- Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
- But let me hear the letter of your friend.
BASSANIO:
-
[Reads]
- Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all
- miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is
- very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since
- in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all
- debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but
- see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your
- pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come,
- let not my letter.
PORTIA:
- O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!
BASSANIO:
- Since I have your good leave to go away,
- I will make haste: but, till I come again,
- No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay,
- No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT III, SCENE III. Venice. A street.
[Enter SHYLOCK, SALARINO, ANTONIO, and Gaoler]
SHYLOCK:
- Gaoler, look to him: tell not me of mercy;
- This is the fool that lent out money gratis:
- Gaoler, look to him.
ANTONIO:
- Hear me yet, good Shylock.
SHYLOCK:
- I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond:
- I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
- Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
- But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:
- The duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder,
- Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond
- To come abroad with him at his request.
ANTONIO:
- I pray thee, hear me speak.
SHYLOCK:
- I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
- I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
- I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
- To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
- To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
- I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond.
-
[Exit]
SALARINO:
- It is the most impenetrable cur
- That ever kept with men.
ANTONIO:
- Let him alone:
- I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.
- He seeks my life; his reason well I know:
- I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures
- Many that have at times made moan to me;
- Therefore he hates me.
SALARINO:
- I am sure the duke
- Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.
ANTONIO:
- The duke cannot deny the course of law:
- For the commodity that strangers have
- With us in Venice, if it be denied,
- Will much impeach the justice of his state;
- Since that the trade and profit of the city
- Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
- These griefs and losses have so bated me,
- That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
- To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
- Well, gaoler, on. Pray God, Bassanio come
- To see me pay his debt, and then I care not!
-
[Exeunt]
ACT III, SCENE IV. Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
[Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHASAR]
LORENZO:
- Madam, although I speak it in your presence,
- You have a noble and a true conceit
- Of godlike amity; which appears most strongly
- In bearing thus the absence of your lord.
- But if you knew to whom you show this honour,
- How true a gentleman you send relief,
- How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
- I know you would be prouder of the work
- Than customary bounty can enforce you.
PORTIA:
- I never did repent for doing good,
- Nor shall not now: for in companions
- That do converse and waste the time together,
- Whose souls do bear an equal yoke Of love,
- There must be needs a like proportion
- Of lineaments, of manners and of spirit;
- Which makes me think that this Antonio,
- Being the bosom lover of my lord,
- Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,
- How little is the cost I have bestow'd
- In purchasing the semblance of my soul
- From out the state of hellish misery!
- This comes too near the praising of myself;
- Therefore no more of it: hear other things.
- 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 breathed a secret vow
- To live in prayer and contemplation,
- Only attended by Nerissa here,
- Until her husband and my lord's return:
- There is a monastery two miles off;
- And there will we abide. I do desire you
- Not to deny this imposition;
- The which my love and some necessity
- Now lays upon you.
LORENZO:
- Madam, with all my heart;
- I shall obey you in all fair commands.
PORTIA:
- My people do already know my mind,
- And will acknowledge you and Jessica
- In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
- And so farewell, till we shall meet again.
LORENZO:
- Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
JESSICA:
- I wish your ladyship all heart's content.
BALTHASAR:
- Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
-
[Exit]
PORTIA:
- Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand
- That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands
- Before they think of us.
NERISSA:
- Shall they see us?
PORTIA:
- They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
- That they shall think we are accomplished
- With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
- When we are both accoutred like young men,
- I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
- And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
- And speak between the change of man and boy
- With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
- Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
- Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
- How honourable ladies sought my love,
- Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
- I could not do withal; then I'll repent,
- And wish for all that, that I had not killed them;
- And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
- That men shall swear I have discontinued school
- Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
- A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
- Which I will practise.
NERISSA:
- Why, shall we turn to men?
PORTIA:
- Fie, what a question's that,
- If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!
- 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]
ACT III, SCENE V. The same. A garden.
[Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA]
LAUNCELOT:
- Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father
- are to be laid upon the children: therefore, I
- promise ye, I fear you. I was always plain with
- you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter:
- therefore be of good cheer, for truly I think you
- are damned. There is but one hope in it that can do
- you any good; and that is but a kind of bastard
- hope neither.
JESSICA:
- And what hope is that, I pray thee?
LAUNCELOT:
- Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you
- not, that you are not the Jew's daughter.
JESSICA:
- That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed: so the
- sins of my mother should be visited upon me.
LAUNCELOT:
- Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and
- mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I
- fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are
- gone both ways.
JESSICA:
- I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a
- Christian.
LAUNCELOT:
- Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians
- enow before; e'en as many as could well live, one by
- another. This making Christians will raise the
- price of hogs: if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we
- shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.
-
[Enter LORENZO]
JESSICA:
- I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say: here he comes.
LORENZO:
- I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if
- you thus get my wife into corners.
JESSICA:
- Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo: Launcelot and I
- are out. He tells me flatly, there is no mercy for
- me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he
- says, you are no good member of the commonwealth,
- for in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the
- price of pork.
LORENZO:
- I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than
- you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the
- Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.
LAUNCELOT:
- It is much that the Moor should be more than reason:
- but if she be less than an honest woman, she is
- indeed more than I took her for.
LORENZO:
- How every fool can play upon the word! I think the
- best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence,
- and discourse grow commendable in none only but
- parrots. Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner.
LAUNCELOT:
- That is done, sir; they have all stomachs.
LORENZO:
- Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid
- them prepare dinner.
LAUNCELOT:
- That is done too, sir; only 'cover' is the word.
LORENZO:
- Will you cover then, sir?
LAUNCELOT:
- Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.
LORENZO:
- Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show
- the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray
- tree, understand a plain man in his plain meaning:
- go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve
- in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.
LAUNCELOT:
- For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the
- meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in
- to dinner, sir, why, let it be as humours and
- conceits shall govern.
-
[Exit]
LORENZO:
- O dear discretion, how his words are suited!
- The fool hath planted in his memory
- An army of good words; and I do know
- A many fools, that stand in better place,
- Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
- Defy the matter. How cheerest thou, Jessica?
- And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,
- How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife?
JESSICA:
- Past all expressing. It is very meet
- The Lord Bassanio live an upright life;
- For, having such a blessing in his lady,
- He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
- And if on earth he do not mean it, then
- In reason he should never come to heaven
- Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match
- And on the wager lay two earthly women,
- And Portia one, there must be something else
- Pawn'd with the other, for the poor rude world
- Hath not her fellow.
LORENZO:
- Even such a husband
- Hast thou of me as she is for a wife.
JESSICA:
- Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.
LORENZO:
- I will anon: first, let us go to dinner.
JESSICA:
- Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach.
LORENZO:
- No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk;
- ' Then, howso'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things
- I shall digest it.
JESSICA:
- Well, I'll set you forth.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV
ACT IV, SCENE I. Venice. A court of justice.
[Enter the DUKE, the Magnificoes, ANTONIO, BASSANIO,
GRATIANO, SALERIO, and others]
DUKE:
- What, is Antonio here?
ANTONIO:
- Ready, so please your grace.
DUKE:
- I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer
- A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
- uncapable of pity, void and empty
- From any dram of mercy.
ANTONIO:
- I have heard
- Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify
- His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate
- And that no lawful means can carry me
- Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
- My patience to his fury, and am arm'd
- To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
- The very tyranny and rage of his.
DUKE:
- Go one, and call the Jew into the court.
SALERIO:
- He is ready at the door: he comes, my lord.
-
[Enter SHYLOCK]
DUKE:
- Make room, and let him stand before our face.
- Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
- That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice
- To the last hour of act; and then 'tis thought
- Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
- Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
- And where thou now exact'st the penalty,
- Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
- Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
- But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
- Forgive a moiety of the principal;
- Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
- That have of late so huddled on his back,
- Enow to press a royal merchant down
- And pluck commiseration of his state
- From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
- From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd
- To offices of tender courtesy.
- We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.
SHYLOCK:
- I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose;
- And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn
- To have the due and forfeit of my bond:
- If you deny it, let the danger light
- Upon your charter and your city's freedom.
- You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
- A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
- Three thousand ducats: I'll not answer that:
- But, say, it is my humour: is it answer'd?
- What if my house be troubled with a rat
- And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
- To have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?
- Some men there are love not a gaping pig;
- Some, that are mad if they behold a cat;
- And others, when the bagpipe sings i' the nose,
- Cannot contain their urine: for affection,
- Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
- Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer:
- As there is no firm reason to be render'd,
- Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;
- Why he, a harmless necessary cat;
- Why he, a woollen bagpipe; but of force
- Must yield to such inevitable shame
- As to offend, himself being offended;
- So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
- More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing
- I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
- A losing suit against him. Are you answer'd?
BASSANIO:
- This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
- To excuse the current of thy cruelty.
SHYLOCK:
- I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
BASSANIO:
- Do all men kill the things they do not love?
SHYLOCK:
- Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
BASSANIO:
- Every offence is not a hate at first.
SHYLOCK:
- What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
ANTONIO:
- I pray you, think you question with the Jew:
- You may as well go stand upon the beach
- And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
- You may as well use question with the wolf
- Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
- You may as well forbid the mountain pines
- To wag their high tops and to make no noise,
- When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;
- You may as well do anything most hard,
- As seek to soften that--than which what's harder?--
- His Jewish heart: therefore, I do beseech you,
- Make no more offers, use no farther means,
- But with all brief and plain conveniency
- Let me have judgment and the Jew his will.
BASSANIO:
- For thy three thousand ducats here is six.
SHYLOCK:
- What judgment shall I dread, doing
- Were in six parts and every part a ducat,
- I would not draw them; I would have my bond.
DUKE:
- How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?
SHYLOCK:
- What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
- You have among you many a purchased slave,
- Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,
- You use in abject and in slavish parts,
- Because you bought them: shall I say to you,
- Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?
- Why sweat they under burthens? let their beds
- Be made as soft as yours and let their palates
- Be season'd with such viands? You will answer
- 'The slaves are ours:' so do I answer you:
- The pound of flesh, which I demand of him,
- Is dearly bought; 'tis mine and I will have it.
- If you deny me, fie upon your law!
- There is no force in the decrees of Venice.
- I stand for judgment: answer; shall I have it?
DUKE:
- Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
- Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,
- Whom I have sent for to determine this,
- Come here to-day.
SALERIO:
- My lord, here stays without
- A messenger with letters from the doctor,
- New come from Padua.
DUKE:
- Bring us the letter; call the messenger.
BASSANIO:
- Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
- The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all,
- Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.
DUKE:
- Came you from Padua, from Bellario?
NERISSA:
- From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace.
-
[Presenting a letter]
BASSANIO:
- Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
SHYLOCK:
- To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.
GRATIANO:
- Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
- Thou makest thy knife keen; but no metal can,
- No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness
- Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?
SHYLOCK:
- No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
GRATIANO:
- O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!
- And for thy life let justice be accused.
- Thou almost makest me waver in my faith
- To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
- That souls of animals infuse themselves
- Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit
- Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter,
- Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
- And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam,
- Infused itself in thee; for thy desires
- Are wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous.
SHYLOCK:
- Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
- Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud:
- Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
- To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.
DUKE:
- This letter from Bellario doth commend
- A young and learned doctor to our court.
- Where is he?
NERISSA:
- He attendeth here hard by,
- To know your answer, whether you'll admit him.
DUKE:
- With all my heart. Some three or four of you
- Go give him courteous conduct to this place.
- Meantime the court shall hear Bellario's letter.
Clerk:
-
[Reads]
- Your grace shall understand that at the receipt of
- your letter I am very sick: but in the instant that
- your messenger came, in loving visitation was with
- me a young doctor of Rome; his name is Balthasar. I
- acquainted him with the cause in controversy between
- the Jew and Antonio the merchant: we turned o'er
- many books together: he is furnished with my
- opinion; which, bettered with his own learning, the
- greatness whereof I cannot enough commend, comes
- with him, at my importunity, to fill up your grace's
- request in my stead. I beseech you, let his lack of
- years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend
- estimation; for I never knew so young a body with so
- old a head. I leave him to your gracious
- acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his
- commendation.
DUKE:
- You are welcome: take your place.
- Are you acquainted with the difference
- That holds this present question in the court?
PORTIA:
- I am informed thoroughly of the cause.
- Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?
DUKE:
- Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
PORTIA:
- Is your name Shylock?
SHYLOCK:
- Shylock is my name.
PORTIA:
- Of a strange nature is the suit you follow;
- Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
- Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
- You stand within his danger, do you not?
PORTIA:
- Do you confess the bond?
PORTIA:
- Then must the Jew be merciful.
SHYLOCK:
- On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
PORTIA:
- The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
- It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
- Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
- It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
- 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
- The throned monarch better than his crown;
- His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
- The attribute to awe and majesty,
- Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
- But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
- It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
- It is an attribute to God himself;
- And earthly power doth then show likest God's
- When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
- Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
- That, in the course of justice, none of us
- Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
- And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
- The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
- To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
- Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
- Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
SHYLOCK:
- My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
- The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
PORTIA:
- Is he not able to discharge the money?
BASSANIO:
- Yes, here I tender it for him in the court;
- Yea, twice the sum: if that will not suffice,
- I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er,
- On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart:
- If this will not suffice, it must appear
- That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you,
- Wrest once the law to your authority:
- To do a great right, do a little wrong,
- And curb this cruel devil of his will.
PORTIA:
- It must not be; there is no power in Venice
- Can alter a decree established:
- 'Twill be recorded for a precedent,
- And many an error by the same example
- Will rush into the state: it cannot be.
SHYLOCK:
- A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!
- O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
PORTIA:
- I pray you, let me look upon the bond.
SHYLOCK:
- Here 'tis, most reverend doctor, here it is.
PORTIA:
- Shylock, there's thrice thy money offer'd thee.
SHYLOCK:
- An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven:
- Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
- No, not for Venice.
PORTIA:
- Why, this bond is forfeit;
- And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
- A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
- Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful:
- Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.
SHYLOCK:
- When it is paid according to the tenor.
- It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
- You know the law, your exposition
- Hath been most sound: I charge you by the law,
- Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
- Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear
- There is no power in the tongue of man
- To alter me: I stay here on my bond.
ANTONIO:
- Most heartily I do beseech the court
- To give the judgment.
PORTIA:
- Why then, thus it is:
- You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
SHYLOCK:
- O noble judge! O excellent young man!
PORTIA:
- For the intent and purpose of the law
- Hath full relation to the penalty,
- Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
SHYLOCK:
- 'Tis very true: O wise and upright judge!
- How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
PORTIA:
- Therefore lay bare your bosom.
SHYLOCK:
- Ay, his breast:
- So says the bond: doth it not, noble judge?
- 'Nearest his heart:' those are the very words.
PORTIA:
- It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
- The flesh?
SHYLOCK:
- I have them ready.
PORTIA:
- Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
- To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
SHYLOCK:
- Is it so nominated in the bond?
PORTIA:
- It is not so express'd: but what of that?
- 'Twere good you do so much for charity.
SHYLOCK:
- I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond.
PORTIA:
- You, merchant, have you any thing to say?
ANTONIO:
- But little: I am arm'd and well prepared.
- Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!
- Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;
- For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
- Than is her custom: it is still her use
- To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
- To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
- An age of poverty; from which lingering penance
- Of such misery doth she cut me off.
- Commend me to your honourable wife:
- Tell her the process of Antonio's end;
- Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;
- And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
- Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
- Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
- And he repents not that he pays your debt;
- For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
- I'll pay it presently with all my heart.
BASSANIO:
- Antonio, I am married to a wife
- Which is as dear to me as life itself;
- But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
- Are not with me esteem'd above thy life:
- I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
- Here to this devil, to deliver you.
PORTIA:
- Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
- If she were by, to hear you make the offer.
GRATIANO:
- I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love:
- I would she were in heaven, so she could
- Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.
NERISSA:
- 'Tis well you offer it behind her back;
- The wish would make else an unquiet house.
SHYLOCK:
- These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter;
- Would any of the stock of Barrabas
- Had been her husband rather than a Christian!
-
[Aside]
- We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.
PORTIA:
- A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:
- The court awards it, and the law doth give it.
SHYLOCK:
- Most rightful judge!
PORTIA:
- And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:
- The law allows it, and the court awards it.
SHYLOCK:
- Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!
PORTIA:
- Tarry a little; there is something else.
- This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;
- The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh:'
- Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
- But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
- One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
- Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
- Unto the state of Venice.
GRATIANO:
- O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge!
SHYLOCK:
- Is that the law?
PORTIA:
- Thyself shalt see the act:
- For, as thou urgest justice, be assured
- Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.
GRATIANO:
- O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge!
SHYLOCK:
- I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice
- And let the Christian go.
BASSANIO:
- Here is the money.
PORTIA:
- Soft!
- The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste:
- He shall have nothing but the penalty.
GRATIANO:
- O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!
PORTIA:
- Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
- Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
- But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut'st more
- Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
- As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
- Or the division of the twentieth part
- Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn
- But in the estimation of a hair,
- Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.
GRATIANO:
- A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
- Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
PORTIA:
- Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture.
SHYLOCK:
- Give me my principal, and let me go.
BASSANIO:
- I have it ready for thee; here it is.
PORTIA:
- He hath refused it in the open court:
- He shall have merely justice and his bond.
GRATIANO:
- A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
- I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
SHYLOCK:
- Shall I not have barely my principal?
PORTIA:
- Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture,
- To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.
SHYLOCK:
- Why, then the devil give him good of it!
- I'll stay no longer question.
PORTIA:
- Tarry, Jew:
- The law hath yet another hold on you.
- It is enacted in the laws of Venice,
- If it be proved against an alien
- That by direct or indirect attempts
- He seek the life of any citizen,
- The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive
- Shall seize one half his goods; the other half
- Comes to the privy coffer of the state;
- And the offender's life lies in the mercy
- Of the duke only, 'gainst all other voice.
- In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st;
- For it appears, by manifest proceeding,
- That indirectly and directly too
- Thou hast contrived against the very life
- Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd
- The danger formerly by me rehearsed.
- Down therefore and beg mercy of the duke.
GRATIANO:
- Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself:
- And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,
- Thou hast not left the value of a cord;
- Therefore thou must be hang'd at the state's charge.
DUKE:
- That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,
- I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:
- For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's;
- The other half comes to the general state,
- Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.
PORTIA:
- Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.
SHYLOCK:
- Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
- You take my house when you do take the prop
- That doth sustain my house; you take my life
- When you do take the means whereby I live.
PORTIA:
- What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
GRATIANO:
- A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's sake.
ANTONIO:
- So please my lord the duke and all the court
- To quit the fine for one half of his goods,
- I am content; so he will let me have
- The other half in use, to render it,
- Upon his death, unto the gentleman
- That lately stole his daughter:
- Two things provided more, that, for this favour,
- He presently become a Christian;
- The other, that he do record a gift,
- Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd,
- Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.
DUKE:
- He shall do this, or else I do recant
- The pardon that I late pronounced here.
PORTIA:
- Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?
PORTIA:
- Clerk, draw a deed of gift.
SHYLOCK:
- I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;
- I am not well: send the deed after me,
- And I will sign it.
DUKE:
- Get thee gone, but do it.
GRATIANO:
- In christening shalt thou have two god-fathers:
- Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
- To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.
-
[Exit SHYLOCK]
DUKE:
- Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner.
PORTIA:
- I humbly do desire your grace of pardon:
- I must away this night toward Padua,
- And it is meet I presently set forth.
BASSANIO:
- Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend
- Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted
- Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof,
- Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew,
- We freely cope your courteous pains withal.
ANTONIO:
- And stand indebted, over and above,
- In love and service to you evermore.
PORTIA:
- He is well paid that is well satisfied;
- And I, delivering you, am satisfied
- And therein do account myself well paid:
- My mind was never yet more mercenary.
- I pray you, know me when we meet again:
- I wish you well, and so I take my leave.
BASSANIO:
- Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further:
- Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute,
- Not as a fee: grant me two things, I pray you,
- Not to deny me, and to pardon me.
PORTIA:
- You press me far, and therefore I will yield.
-
[To ANTONIO]
- Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake;
-
[To BASSANIO]
- And, for your love, I'll take this ring from you:
- Do not draw back your hand; I'll take no more;
- And you in love shall not deny me this.
BASSANIO:
- This ring, good sir, alas, it is a trifle!
- I will not shame myself to give you this.
PORTIA:
- I will have nothing else but only this;
- And now methinks I have a mind to it.
BASSANIO:
- There's more depends on this than on the value.
- The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,
- And find it out by proclamation:
- Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.
PORTIA:
- I see, sir, you are liberal in offers
- You taught me first to beg; and now methinks
- You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd.
BASSANIO:
- Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife;
- And when she put it on, she made me vow
- That I should neither sell nor give nor lose it.
ANTONIO:
- My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring:
- Let his deservings and my love withal
- Be valued against your wife's commandment.
BASSANIO:
- Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him;
- Give him the ring, and bring him, if thou canst,
- Unto Antonio's house: away! make haste.
-
[Exit Gratiano]
- Come, you and I will thither presently;
- And in the morning early will we both
- Fly toward Belmont: come, Antonio.
-
[Exeunt]
ACT IV, SCENE II. The same. A street.
[Enter PORTIA and NERISSA]
PORTIA:
- Inquire the Jew's house out, give him this deed
- And let him sign it: we'll away to-night
- And be a day before our husbands home:
- This deed will be well welcome to Lorenzo.
-
[Enter GRATIANO]
GRATIANO:
- Fair sir, you are well o'erta'en
- My Lord Bassanio upon more advice
- Hath sent you here this ring, and doth entreat
- Your company at dinner.
PORTIA:
- That cannot be:
- His ring I do accept most thankfully:
- And so, I pray you, tell him: furthermore,
- I pray you, show my youth old Shylock's house.
GRATIANO:
- That will I do.
NERISSA:
- Sir, I would speak with you.
-
[Aside to PORTIA]
- I'll see if I can get my husband's ring,
- Which I did make him swear to keep for ever.
PORTIA:
-
[Aside to NERISSA]
- Thou mayst, I warrant.
- We shall have old swearing
- That they did give the rings away to men;
- But we'll outface them, and outswear them too.
-
[Aloud]
- Away! make haste: thou knowist where I will tarry.
NERISSA:
- Come, good sir, will you show me to this house?
-
[Exeunt]