THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 3.2

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, 5

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 10

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; 15

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, 20

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 25

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: 30

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. 35

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! 40

But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

PORTIA Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:

If you do love me, you will find me out.

Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.

Let music sound while he doth make his choice; 45

Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,

Fading in music: that the comparison

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream

And watery death-bed for him. He may win;

And what is music then? Then music is 50

Even as the flourish when true subjects bow

To a new-crowned monarch: such it is

As are those dulcet sounds in break of day

That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,

And summon him to marriage. Now he goes, 55

With no less presence, but with much more love,

Than young Alcides, when he did redeem

The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy

To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice

The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives, 60

With bleared visages, come forth to view

The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!

Live thou, I live: with much, much more dismay

I view the fight than thou that makest the fray.

[Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself]

SONG.

Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart, or in the head?

How begot, how nourished?

Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies.

Let us all ring fancy's knell

I'll begin it,--Ding, dong, bell.

ALL Ding, dong, bell. 65

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, 70

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: 75

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 80

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 85

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 90

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; 95

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! 100

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. 105

I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,

For fear I surfeit.

BASSANIO What find I here?

[Opening the leaden casket]

Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? 110

Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,

Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,

Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs

The painter plays the spider and hath woven 115

A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,

Faster than gnats in cobwebs; but her eyes,--

How could he see to do them? having made one,

Methinks it should have power to steal both his

And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look, how far 120

The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow

In underprizing it, so far this shadow

Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,

The continent and summary of my fortune.

[Reads]

You that choose not by the view, 125

Chance as fair and choose as true!

Since this fortune falls to you,

Be content and seek no new,

If you be well pleased with this

And hold your fortune for your bliss, 130

Turn you where your lady is

And claim her with a loving kiss.

A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;

I come by note, to give and to receive.

Like one of two contending in a prize, 135

That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,

Hearing applause and universal shout,

Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt

Whether these pearls of praise be his or no;

So, thrice fair lady, stand I, even so; 140

As doubtful whether what I see be true,

Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.

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, 145

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, 150

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, 155

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 160

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; 165

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; 170

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, 175

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, 180

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: 185

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. 190

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, 195

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 200

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? 205

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?

GRATIANO No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down. 210

But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel? What,

and my old Venetian friend Salerio?

[Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO, a Messenger

from Venice]

BASSANIO Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;

If that the youth of my new interest here

Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave, 215

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, 220

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; 225

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; 230

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? 235

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: 240

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 245

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, 250

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 255

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; 260

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, 265

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 270

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, 275

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 280

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 285

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, 290

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? 295

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 300

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 305

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: 310

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 315

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, 320

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, 325

No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.

[Exeunt]

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,	5
	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	10
	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;	15
	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,	20
	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.

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:	30
	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	'Confess' and 'love'
	Had been the very sum of my confession:
	O happy torment, when my torturer
	Doth teach me answers for deliverance!	40
	But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

PORTIA	Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:
	If you do love me, you will find me out.
	Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.
	Let music sound while he doth make his choice;	45
	Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
	Fading in music: that the comparison
	May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
	And watery death-bed for him. He may win;
	And what is music then? Then music is	50
	Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
	To a new-crowned monarch: such it is
	As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
	That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
	And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,	55
	With no less presence, but with much more love,
	Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
	The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
	To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice
	The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,	60
	With bleared visages, come forth to view
	The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
	Live thou, I live: with much, much more dismay
	I view the fight than thou that makest the fray.
	[Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself]

	SONG.
	Tell me where is fancy bred,
	Or in the heart, or in the head?
	How begot, how nourished?
	Reply, reply.
	It is engender'd in the eyes,
	With gazing fed; and fancy dies
	In the cradle where it lies.
	Let us all ring fancy's knell
	I'll begin it,--Ding, dong, bell.

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,	70
	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:	75
	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	80
	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	85
	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	90
	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;	95
	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!	100

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.	105
	I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
	For fear I surfeit.

BASSANIO	What find I here?
	[Opening the leaden casket]
	Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
	Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?	110
	Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
	Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
	Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar
	Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
	The painter plays the spider and hath woven	115
	A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
	Faster than gnats in cobwebs; but her eyes,--
	How could he see to do them? having made one,
	Methinks it should have power to steal both his
	And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look, how far	120
	The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
	In underprizing it, so far this shadow
	Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
	The continent and summary of my fortune.
	[Reads]
	You that choose not by the view,	125
	Chance as fair and choose as true!
	Since this fortune falls to you,
	Be content and seek no new,
	If you be well pleased with this
	And hold your fortune for your bliss,	130
	Turn you where your lady is
	And claim her with a loving kiss.
	A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
	I come by note, to give and to receive.
	Like one of two contending in a prize,	135
	That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
	Hearing applause and universal shout,
	Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
	Whether these pearls of praise be his or no;
	So, thrice fair lady, stand I, even so;	140
	As doubtful whether what I see be true,
	Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.

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,	145
	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,	150
	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,	155
	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	160
	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;	165
	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;	170
	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,	175
	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,	180
	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:	185
	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.

GRATIANO	I thank your lordship, you have got me one.	190
	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,	195
	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	200
	To have her love, provided that your fortune
	Achieved her mistress.

GRATIANO	No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down.	210
	But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel? What,
	and my old Venetian friend Salerio?
	[Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO, a Messenger
	from Venice]

BASSANIO	Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;
	If that the youth of my new interest here
	Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,	215
	I bid my very friends and countrymen,
	Sweet Portia, welcome.

LORENZO	I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,	220
	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;	225
	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;	230
	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?	235
	I know he will be glad of our success;
	We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.

PORTIA	There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper,
	That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek:	240
	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	245
	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,	250
	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	255
	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;	260
	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,	265
	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	270
	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,	275
	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	280
	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	285
	That he did owe him: and I know, my lord,
	If law, authority and power deny not,
	It will go hard with poor Antonio.

BASSANIO	The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,	290
	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, no more?
	Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond;
	Double six thousand, and then treble that,
	Before a friend of this description	300
	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	305
	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:	310
	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	315
	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,	320
	let not my letter.

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,	325
	No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.
	[Exeunt]