The Merchant of Venice
By William Shakespeare.
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Dramatis Personae
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The Duke of Venice
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The Prince of Morocco, suitor to Portia
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The Prince of Arragon, suitor to Portia
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Antonio, a merchant of Venice
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Bassanio, his friend, suitor likewise to Portia
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Salanio, friend to Antonio and Bassiano
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Salarino, friend to Antonio and Bassiano
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Gratiano, friend to Antonio and Bassiano
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Salerio, friend to Antonio and Bassiano
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Lorenzo, in love with Jessica
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Shylock, a rich Jew
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Tubal, a Jew, his friend
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Launcelot Gobbo, the clown, servant to Shylock
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Old Gobbo, father to Launcelot
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Leonardo, servant to Bassiano
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Balthasar, servant to Portia
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Stephano, servant to Portia
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Portia, a rich heiress
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Nerissa, her waiting-maid
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Jessica, daughter to Shylock
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Magnificoes of Venice, officers of the court of justice, gaoler, servants to Portia, and other attendants
Scene: Partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia, on the Continent.
The Merchant of Venice
Act I
Scene I
Venice. A street.
Enter Antonio, Salarino, and Salanio. | |
Antonio |
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
|
Salarino |
Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
|
Salanio |
Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
|
Salarino |
My wind cooling my broth
|
Antonio |
Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it,
|
Salarino | Why, then you are in love. |
Antonio | Fie, fie! |
Salarino |
Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad,
|
Enter Bassanio, Lorenzo, and Gratiano. | |
Salanio |
Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,
|
Salarino |
I would have stay’d till I had made you merry,
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Antonio |
Your worth is very dear in my regard.
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Salarino | Good morrow, my good lords. |
Bassanio |
Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when?
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Salarino | We’ll make our leisures to attend on yours. Exeunt Salarino and Salanio. |
Lorenzo |
My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,
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Bassanio | I will not fail you. |
Gratiano |
You look not well, Signior Antonio;
|
Antonio |
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
|
Gratiano |
Let me play the fool:
|
Lorenzo |
Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time:
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Gratiano |
Well, keep me company but two years moe,
|
Antonio | Farewell: I’ll grow a talker for this gear. |
Gratiano |
Thanks, i’ faith, for silence is only commendable
|
Antonio | Is that any thing now? |
Bassanio | Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search. |
Antonio |
Well, tell me now what lady is the same
|
Bassanio |
’Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
|
Antonio |
I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it;
|
Bassanio |
In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
|
Antonio |
You know me well, and herein spend but time
|
Bassanio |
In Belmont is a lady richly left;
|
Antonio |
Thou know’st that all my fortunes are at sea;
|
Scene II
Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.
Enter Portia and Nerissa. | |
Portia | By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world. |
Nerissa | You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are: and yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. |
Portia | Good sentences and well pronounced. |
Nerissa | They would be better, if well followed. |
Portia | If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o’er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word “choose!” I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none? |
Nerissa | Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men at their death have good inspirations: therefore the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests of gold, silver and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly but one who shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely suitors that are already come? |
Portia | I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will describe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection. |
Nerissa | First, there is the Neapolitan prince. |
Portia | Ay, that’s a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts, that he can shoe him himself. I am much afeard my lady his mother played false with a smith. |
Nerissa | Then there is the County Palatine. |
Portia | He doth nothing but frown, as who should say “If you will not have me, choose:” he hears merry tales and smiles not: I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a death’s-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of these. God defend me from these two! |
Nerissa | How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon? |
Portia | God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker: but, he! why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan’s, a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man; if a throstle sing, he falls straight a capering: he will fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me I would forgive him, for if he love me to madness, I shall never requite him. |
Nerissa | What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of England? |
Portia | You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English. He is a proper man’s picture, but, alas, who can converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany and his behavior every where. |
Nerissa | What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? |
Portia | That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman and swore he would pay him again when he was able: I think the Frenchman became his surety and sealed under for another. |
Nerissa | How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony’s nephew? |
Portia | Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast: and the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him. |
Nerissa | If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father’s will, if you should refuse to accept him. |
Portia | Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a deep glass of rhenish wine on the contrary casket, for if the devil be within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I’ll be married to a sponge. |
Nerissa | You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords: they have acquainted me with their determinations; which is, indeed, to return to their home and to trouble you with no more suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your father’s imposition depending on the caskets. |
Portia | If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father’s will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant them a fair departure. |
Nerissa | Do you not remember, lady, in your father’s time, a Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat? |
Portia | Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, he was so called. |
Nerissa | True, madam: he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady. |
Portia | I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise. |
Enter a Serving-man. | |
How now! what news? | |
Servant | The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of Morocco, who brings word the prince his master will be here to-night. |
Portia | If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good a heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me. Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before. Whiles we shut the gates upon one wooer, another knocks at the door. Exeunt. |
Scene III
Venice. A public place.
Enter Bassanio and Shylock. | |
Shylock | Three thousand ducats; well. |
Bassanio | Ay, sir, for three months. |
Shylock | For three months; well. |
Bassanio | For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. |
Shylock | Antonio shall become bound; well. |
Bassanio | May you stead me? will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer? |
Shylock | Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound. |
Bassanio | Your answer to that. |
Shylock | Antonio is a good man. |
Bassanio | Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? |
Shylock | Oh, no, no, no, no: my meaning in saying he is a good man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient. Yet his means are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; I understand moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I mean pirates, and then there is the peril of waters, winds and rocks. The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient. Three thousand ducats; I think I may take his bond. |
Bassanio | Be assured you may. |
Shylock | I will be assured I may; and, that I may be assured, I will bethink me. May I speak with Antonio? |
Bassanio | If it please you to dine with us. |
Shylock | Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto? Who is he comes here? |
Enter Antonio. | |
Bassanio | This is Signior Antonio. |
Shylock |
Aside. How like a fawning publican he looks!
|
Bassanio | Shylock, do you hear? |
Shylock |
I am debating of my present store,
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Antonio |
Shylock, although I neither lend nor borrow
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Shylock | Ay, ay, three thousand ducats. |
Antonio | And for three months. |
Shylock |
I had forgot; three months; you told me so.
|
Antonio | I do never use it. |
Shylock |
When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban’s sheep—
|
Antonio | And what of him? did he take interest? |
Shylock |
No, not take interest, not, as you would say,
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Antonio |
This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for;
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Shylock |
I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast:
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Antonio |
Mark you this, Bassanio,
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Shylock |
Three thousand ducats; ’tis a good round sum.
|
Antonio | Well, Shylock, shall we be beholding to you? |
Shylock |
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
|
Antonio |
I am as like to call thee so again,
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Shylock |
Why, look you, how you storm!
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Bassanio | This were kindness. |
Shylock |
This kindness will I show.
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Antonio |
Content, i’ faith: I’ll seal to such a bond
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Bassanio |
You shall not seal to such a bond for me:
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Antonio |
Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it:
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Shylock |
O father Abram, what these Christians are,
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Antonio | Yes Shylock, I will seal unto this bond. |
Shylock |
Then meet me forthwith at the notary’s;
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Antonio |
Hie thee, gentle Jew. Exit Shylock.
|
Bassanio | I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind. |
Antonio |
Come on: in this there can be no dismay;
|
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,
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Portia |
In terms of choice I am not solely led
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Morocco |
Even for that I thank you:
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Portia |
You must take your chance,
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Morocco | Nor will not. Come, bring me unto my chance. |
Portia |
First, forward to the temple: after dinner
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Morocco |
Good fortune then!
|
Scene II
Venice. A street.
Enter Launcelot. | |
Launcelot | Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts me saying to me “Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good Launcelot,” or “good Gobbo,” or “good Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away.” My conscience says “No; take heed, honest Launcelot; take heed, honest Gobbo,” or, as aforesaid, “honest Launcelot Gobbo; do not run; scorn running with thy heels.” Well, the most courageous fiend bids me pack: “Via!” says the fiend; “away!” says the fiend; “for the heavens, rouse up a brave mind,” says the fiend, “and run.” Well, my conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says very wisely to me “My honest friend Launcelot, being an honest man’s son,” or rather an honest woman’s son; for, indeed, my father did something smack, something grow to, he had a kind of taste; well, my conscience says “Launcelot, budge not.” “Budge,” says the fiend. “Budge not,” says my conscience. “Conscience,” say I, “you counsel well;” “Fiend,” say I, “you counsel well:” to be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who, God bless the mark, is a kind of devil; and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnal; and, in my conscience, my conscience is but a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly counsel: I will run, fiend; my heels are at your command; I will run. |
Enter Old Gobbo, with a basket. | |
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? |
Launcelot | Well, well: but, for mine own part, as I have set up my rest to run away, so I will not rest till I have run some ground. My master’s a very Jew: give him a present! give him a halter: I am famished in his service; you may tell every finger I have with my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come: give me your present to one Master Bassanio, who, indeed, gives rare new liveries: if I serve not him, I will run as far as God has any ground. O rare fortune! here comes the man: to him, father; for I am a Jew, if I serve the Jew any longer. |
Enter Bassanio, with Leonardo and other followers. | |
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:
|
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.
|
Launcelot | Father, in. I cannot get a service, no; I have ne’er a tongue in my head. Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to, here’s a simple line of life: here’s a small trifle of wives: alas, fifteen wives is nothing! eleven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man: and then to ’scape drowning thrice, and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed; here are simple scapes. Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear. Father, come; I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye. Exeunt Launcelot and Old Gobbo. |
Bassanio |
I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this:
|
Leonardo | My best endeavours shall be done herein. |
Enter Gratiano. | |
Gratiano | Where is your master? |
Leonardo | Yonder, sir, he walks. Exit. |
Gratiano | Signior Bassanio! |
Bassanio | Gratiano! |
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;
|
Gratiano |
Signior Bassanio, hear me:
|
Bassanio | Well, we shall see your bearing. |
Gratiano |
Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me
|
Bassanio |
No, that were pity:
|
Gratiano |
And I must to Lorenzo and the rest:
|
Scene III
The same. A room in Shylock’s house.
Enter Jessica and Launcelot. | |
Jessica |
I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so:
|
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.
|
Scene IV
The same. A street.
Enter Gratiano, Lorenzo, Salarino, and Salanio. | |
Lorenzo |
Nay, we will slink away in supper-time,
|
Gratiano | We have not made good preparation. |
Salarino | We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers. |
Salanio |
’Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly order’d,
|
Lorenzo |
’Tis now but four o’clock: we have two hours
|
Enter Launcelot, with a letter. | |
Friend Launcelot, what’s the news? | |
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;
|
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
|
Salarino | Ay, marry, I’ll be gone about it straight. |
Salanio | And so will I. |
Lorenzo |
Meet me and Gratiano
|
Salarino | ’Tis good we do so. Exeunt Salarino and Salanio. |
Gratiano | Was not that letter from fair Jessica? |
Lorenzo |
I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed
|
Scene V
The same. Before Shylock’s house.
Enter Shylock and Launcelot. | |
Shylock |
Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge,
|
Launcelot | Why, Jessica! |
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:
|
Launcelot | I beseech you, sir, go: my young master doth expect your reproach. |
Shylock | So do I his. |
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:
|
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;
|
Jessica |
Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost,
|
Scene VI
The same.
Enter Gratiano and Salarino, masqued. | |
Gratiano |
This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo
|
Salarino | His hour is almost past. |
Gratiano |
And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,
|
Salarino |
O, ten times faster Venus’ pigeons fly
|
Gratiano |
That ever holds: who riseth from a feast
|
Salarino | Here comes Lorenzo: more of this hereafter. |
Enter Lorenzo. | |
Lorenzo |
Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode;
|
Enter Jessica, above, in boy’s clothes. | |
Jessica |
Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty,
|
Lorenzo | Lorenzo, and thy love. |
Jessica |
Lorenzo, certain, and my love indeed,
|
Lorenzo | Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art. |
Jessica |
Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
|
Lorenzo | Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer. |
Jessica |
What, must I hold a candle to my shames?
|
Lorenzo |
So are you, sweet,
|
Jessica |
I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
|
Gratiano | Now, by my hood, a Gentile and no Jew. |
Lorenzo |
Beshrew me but I love her heartily;
|
Enter Jessica, below. | |
What, art thou come? On, gentlemen; away!
|
|
Enter Antonio. | |
Antonio | Who’s there? |
Gratiano | Signior Antonio! |
Antonio |
Fie, fie, Gratiano! where are all the rest?
|
Gratiano |
I am glad on’t: I desire no more delight
|
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
|
Morocco |
The first, of gold, who this inscription bears,
|
Portia |
The one of them contains my picture, prince:
|
Morocco |
Some god direct my judgment! Let me see;
|
Portia |
There, take it, prince; and if my form lie there,
|
Morocco |
O hell! what have we here?
Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart
|
Portia |
A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
|
Scene VIII
Venice. A street.
Enter Salarino and Salanio. | |
Salarino |
Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail:
|
Salanio |
The villain Jew with outcries raised the duke,
|
Salarino |
He came too late, the ship was under sail:
|
Salanio |
I never heard a passion so confused,
|
Salarino |
Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
|
Salanio |
Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
|
Salarino |
Marry, well remember’d.
|
Salanio |
You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
|
Salarino |
A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.
|
Salanio |
I think he only loves the world for him.
|
Salarino | Do we so. Exeunt. |
Scene IX
Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.
Enter Nerissa with a Servitor. | |
Nerissa |
Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight:
|
Flourish of cornets. Enter the Prince of Arragon, Portia, and their trains. | |
Portia |
Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince:
|
Arragon |
I am enjoin’d by oath to observe three things:
|
Portia |
To these injunctions every one doth swear
|
Arragon |
And so have I address’d me. Fortune now
|
Portia | Too long a pause for that which you find there. |
Arragon |
What’s here? the portrait of a blinking idiot,
|
Portia |
To offend, and judge, are distinct offices
|
Arragon |
What is here? Reads.
|
Portia |
Thus hath the candle singed the moth.
|
Nerissa |
The ancient saying is no heresy,
|
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
|
Portia |
No more, I pray thee: I am half afeard
|
Nerissa | Bassanio, lord Love, if thy will it be! Exeunt. |
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 isay “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. | |
Salanio | Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew. Exeunt Salanio, Salarino, and Servant. |
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. |
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
|
Bassanio |
Let me choose
|
Portia |
Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
|
Bassanio |
None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
|
Portia |
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
|
Bassanio | Promise me life, and I’ll confess the truth. |
Portia | Well then, confess and live. |
Bassanio |
“Confess” and “love”
|
Portia |
Away, then! I am lock’d in one of them:
|
Music, whilst Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself. | |
Song. | |
Tell me where is fancy bred,
|
|
All | Ding, dong, bell. |
Bassanio |
So may the outward shows be least themselves:
|
Portia |
Aside. How all the other passions fleet to air,
|
Bassanio |
What find I here? Opening the leaden casket.
A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
|
Portia |
You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
|
Bassanio |
Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
|
Nerissa |
My lord and lady, it is now our time,
|
Gratiano |
My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady,
|
Bassanio | With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife. |
Gratiano |
I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
|
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? |
Gratiano |
No; we shall ne’er win at that sport, and stake down.
|
Enter Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio, a Messenger from Venice. | |
Bassanio |
Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;
|
Portia |
So do I, my lord:
|
Lorenzo |
I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,
|
Salerio |
I did, my lord;
|
Bassanio |
Ere I ope his letter,
|
Salerio |
Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;
|
Gratiano |
Nerissa, cheer yon stranger; bid her welcome.
|
Salerio | I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost. |
Portia |
There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper,
|
Bassanio |
O sweet Portia,
|
Salerio |
Not one, my lord.
|
Jessica |
When I was with him I have heard him swear
|
Portia | Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble? |
Bassanio |
The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
|
Portia | What sum owes he the Jew? |
Bassanio | For me three thousand ducats. |
Portia |
What, no more?
|
Bassanio |
|
Portia | O love, dispatch all business, and be gone! |
Bassanio |
Since I have your good leave to go away,
|
Scene III
Venice. A street.
Enter Shylock, Salarino, Antonio, and Gaoler. | |
Shylock |
Gaoler, look to him: tell not me of mercy;
|
Antonio | Hear me yet, good Shylock. |
Shylock |
I’ll have my bond; speak not against my bond:
|
Antonio | I pray thee, hear me speak. |
Shylock |
I’ll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
|
Salarino |
It is the most impenetrable cur
|
Antonio |
Let him alone:
|
Salarino |
I am sure the duke
|
Antonio |
The duke cannot deny the course of law:
|
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,
|
Portia |
I never did repent for doing good,
|
Lorenzo |
Madam, with all my heart;
|
Portia |
My people do already know my mind,
|
Lorenzo | Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you! |
Jessica | I wish your ladyship all heart’s content. |
Portia |
I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
|
Balthasar | Madam, I go with all convenient speed. Exit. |
Portia |
Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand
|
Nerissa | Shall they see us? |
Portia |
They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
|
Nerissa | Why, shall we turn to men? |
Portia |
Fie, what a question’s that,
|
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!
|
Jessica |
Past all expressing. It is very meet
|
Lorenzo |
Even such a husband
|
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;
|
Jessica | Well, I’ll set you forth. Exeunt. |
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
|
Antonio |
I have heard
|
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 |
I have possess’d your grace of what I purpose;
|
Bassanio |
This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
|
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:
|
Bassanio | For thy three thousand ducats here is six. |
Shylock |
What judgment shall I dread, doing
|
Duke | How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none? |
Shylock |
What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
|
Duke |
Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
|
Salerio |
My lord, here stays without
|
Duke | Bring us the letter; call the messenger. |
Bassanio |
Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
|
Antonio |
I am a tainted wether of the flock,
|
Enter Nerissa, dressed like a lawyer’s clerk. | |
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,
|
Shylock | No, none that thou hast wit enough to make. |
Gratiano |
O, be thou damn’d, inexecrable dog!
|
Shylock |
Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
|
Duke |
This letter from Bellario doth commend
|
Nerissa |
He attendeth here hard by,
|
Duke |
With all my heart. Some three or four of you
|
Clerk |
|
Duke |
You hear the learn’d Bellario, what he writes:
|
Enter Portia, dressed like a doctor of laws. | |
Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario? | |
Portia | I did, my lord. |
Duke |
You are welcome: take your place.
|
Portia |
I am informed thoroughly of the cause.
|
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;
|
Antonio | Ay, so he says. |
Portia | Do you confess the bond? |
Antonio | I do. |
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,
|
Shylock |
My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
|
Portia | Is he not able to discharge the money? |
Bassanio |
Yes, here I tender it for him in the court;
|
Portia |
It must not be; there is no power in Venice
|
Shylock |
A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!
|
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:
|
Portia |
Why, this bond is forfeit;
|
Shylock |
When it is paid according to the tenor.
|
Antonio |
Most heartily I do beseech the court
|
Portia |
Why then, thus it is:
|
Shylock | O noble judge! O excellent young man! |
Portia |
For the intent and purpose of the law
|
Shylock |
’Tis very true: O wise and upright judge!
|
Portia | Therefore lay bare your bosom. |
Shylock |
Ay, his breast:
|
Portia |
It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
|
Shylock | I have them ready. |
Portia |
Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
|
Shylock | Is it so nominated in the bond? |
Portia |
It is not so express’d: but what of that?
|
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.
|
Bassanio |
Antonio, I am married to a wife
|
Portia |
Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
|
Gratiano |
I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love:
|
Nerissa |
’Tis well you offer it behind her back;
|
Shylock |
These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter;
|
Portia |
A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine:
|
Shylock | Most rightful judge! |
Portia |
And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:
|
Shylock | Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare! |
Portia |
Tarry a little; there is something else.
|
Gratiano | O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge! |
Shylock | Is that the law? |
Portia |
Thyself shalt see the act:
|
Gratiano | O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge! |
Shylock |
I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice
|
Bassanio | Here is the money. |
Portia |
Soft!
|
Gratiano | O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge! |
Portia |
Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
|
Gratiano |
A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
|
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:
|
Gratiano |
A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
|
Shylock | Shall I not have barely my principal? |
Portia |
Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture,
|
Shylock |
Why, then the devil give him good of it!
|
Portia |
Tarry, Jew:
|
Gratiano |
Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself:
|
Duke |
That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,
|
Portia | Ay, for the state, not for Antonio. |
Shylock |
Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
|
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
|
Duke |
He shall do this, or else I do recant
|
Portia | Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say? |
Shylock | I am content. |
Portia | Clerk, draw a deed of gift. |
Shylock |
I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;
|
Duke | Get thee gone, but do it. |
Gratiano |
In christening shalt thou have two god-fathers:
|
Duke | Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner. |
Portia |
I humbly do desire your grace of pardon:
|
Duke |
I am sorry that your leisure serves you not.
|
Bassanio |
Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend
|
Antonio |
And stand indebted, over and above,
|
Portia |
He is well paid that is well satisfied;
|
Bassanio |
Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further:
|
Portia |
You press me far, and therefore I will yield.
|
Bassanio |
This ring, good sir, alas, it is a trifle!
|
Portia |
I will have nothing else but only this;
|
Bassanio |
There’s more depends on this than on the value.
|
Portia |
I see, sir, you are liberal in offers
|
Bassanio |
Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife;
|
Portia |
That ’scuse serves many men to save their gifts.
|
Antonio |
My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring:
|
Bassanio |
Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him;
|
Scene II
The same. A street.
Enter Portia and Nerissa. | |
Portia |
Inquire the Jew’s house out, give him this deed
|
Enter Gratiano. | |
Gratiano |
Fair sir, you are well o’erta’en
|
Portia |
That cannot be:
|
Gratiano | That will I do. |
Nerissa |
Sir, I would speak with you.
|
Portia |
Aside to Nerissa. Thou mayst, I warrant.
|
Nerissa | Come, good sir, will you show me to this house? Exeunt. |
Act V
Scene I
Belmont. Avenue to Portia’s house.
Enter Lorenzo and Jessica. | |
Lorenzo |
The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
|
Jessica |
In such a night
|
Lorenzo |
In such a night
|
Jessica |
In such a night
|
Lorenzo |
In such a night
|
Jessica |
In such a night
|
Lorenzo |
In such a night
|
Jessica |
I would out-night you, did no body come;
|
Enter Stephano. | |
Lorenzo | Who comes so fast in silence of the night? |
Stephano | A friend. |
Lorenzo | A friend! what friend? your name, I pray you, friend? |
Stephano |
Stephano is my name; and I bring word
|
Lorenzo | Who comes with her? |
Stephano |
None but a holy hermit and her maid.
|
Lorenzo |
He is not, nor we have not heard from him.
|
Enter Launcelot. | |
Launcelot | Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola! |
Lorenzo | Who calls? |
Launcelot |
Sola! did you see Master Lorenzo?
|
Lorenzo | Leave hollaing, man: here. |
Launcelot | Sola! where? where? |
Lorenzo | Here. |
Launcelot | Tell him there’s a post come from my master, with his horn full of good news: my master will be here ere morning. Exit. |
Lorenzo |
Sweet soul, let’s in, and there expect their coming.
|
Enter Musicians. | |
Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!
|
|
Jessica | I am never merry when I hear sweet music. |
Lorenzo |
The reason is, your spirits are attentive:
|
Enter Portia and Nerissa. | |
Portia |
That light we see is burning in my hall.
|
Nerissa | When the moon shone, we did not see the candle. |
Portia |
So doth the greater glory dim the less:
|
Nerissa | It is your music, madam, of the house. |
Portia |
Nothing is good, I see, without respect:
|
Nerissa | Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam. |
Portia |
The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
|
Lorenzo |
That is the voice,
|
Portia |
He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
|
Lorenzo | Dear lady, welcome home. |
Portia |
We have been praying for our husbands’ healths,
|
Lorenzo |
Madam, they are not yet;
|
Portia |
Go in, Nerissa;
|
Lorenzo |
Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet:
|
Portia |
This night methinks is but the daylight sick;
|
Enter Bassanio, Antonio, Gratiano, and their followers. | |
Bassanio |
We should hold day with the Antipodes,
|
Portia |
Let me give light, but let me not be light;
|
Bassanio |
I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
|
Portia |
You should in all sense be much bound to him.
|
Antonio | No more than I am well acquitted of. |
Portia |
Sir, you are very welcome to our house:
|
Gratiano |
To Nerissa. By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong;
|
Portia | A quarrel, ho, already! what’s the matter? |
Gratiano |
About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
|
Nerissa |
What talk you of the posy or the value?
|
Gratiano | He will, an if he live to be a man. |
Nerissa | Ay, if a woman live to be a man. |
Gratiano |
Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
|
Portia |
You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
|
Bassanio |
Aside. Why, I were best to cut my left hand off
|
Gratiano |
My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
|
Portia |
What ring gave you my lord?
|
Bassanio |
If I could add a lie unto a fault,
|
Portia |
Even so void is your false heart of truth.
|
Nerissa |
Nor I in yours
|
Bassanio |
Sweet Portia,
|
Portia |
If you had known the virtue of the ring,
|
Bassanio |
No, by my honour, madam, by my soul,
|
Portia |
Let not that doctor e’er come near my house:
|
Nerissa |
And I his clerk; therefore be well advised
|
Gratiano |
Well, do you so; let not me take him, then;
|
Antonio | I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels. |
Portia | Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwithstanding. |
Bassanio |
Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
|
Portia |
Mark you but that!
|
Bassanio |
Nay, but hear me:
|
Antonio |
I once did lend my body for his wealth;
|
Portia |
Then you shall be his surety. Give him this
|
Antonio | Here, Lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring. |
Bassanio | By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor! |
Portia |
I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio;
|
Nerissa |
And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano;
|
Gratiano |
Why, this is like the mending of highways
|
Portia |
Speak not so grossly. You are all amazed:
|
Antonio | I am dumb. |
Bassanio | Were you the doctor and I knew you not? |
Gratiano | Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold? |
Nerissa |
Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it,
|
Bassanio |
Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow:
|
Antonio |
Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
|
Portia |
How now, Lorenzo!
|
Nerissa |
Ay, and I’ll give them him without a fee.
|
Lorenzo |
Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
|
Portia |
It is almost morning,
|
Gratiano |
Let it be so: the first inter’gatory
|
Colophon
The Merchant of Venice
was published in 1596 by
William Shakespeare.
This ebook was produced for
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Marc Gimpel,
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