act scene venice a street enter antonio salarino and salanio antonio in sooth i know not why i am so sad it wearies me you say it wearies you but how i caught it found it or came by it what stuff tis made of whereof it is born i am to learn and such a wantwit sadness makes of me that i have much ado to know myself salarino your mind is tossing on the ocean there where your argosies with portly sail like signiors and rich burghers on the flood or as it were the pageants of the sea do overpeer the petty traffickers that curtsy to them do them reverence as they fly by them with their woven wings salanio believe me sir had i such venture forth the better part of my affections would be with my hopes abroad i should be still plucking the grass to know where sits the wind peering in maps for ports and piers and roads and every object that might make me fear misfortune to my ventures out of doubt would make me sad salarino my wind cooling my broth would blow me to an ague when i thought what harm a wind too great at sea might do i should not see the sandy hourglass run but i should think of shallows and of flats and see my wealthy andrew dockd in sand vailing her hightop lower than her ribs to kiss her burial should i go to church and see the holy edifice of stone and not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks which touching but my gentle vessels side would scatter all her spices on the stream enrobe the roaring waters with my silks and in a word but even now worth this and now worth nothing shall i have the thought to think on this and shall i lack the thought that such a thing bechanced would make me sad but tell not me i know antonio is sad to think upon his merchandise antonio believe me no i thank my fortune for it my ventures are not in one bottom trusted nor to one place nor is my whole estate upon the fortune of this present year therefore my merchandise makes me not sad salarino why then you are in love antonio fie fie salarino not in love neither then let us say you are sad because you are not merry and twere as easy for you to laugh and leap and say you are merry because you are not sad now by twoheaded janus nature hath framed strange fellows in her time some that will evermore peep through their eyes and laugh like parrots at a bagpiper and other of such vinegar aspect that theyll not show their teeth in way of smile though nestor swear the jest be laughable enter bassanio lorenzo and gratiano salanio here comes bassanio your most noble kinsman gratiano and lorenzo fare ye well we leave you now with better company salarino i would have stayd till i had made you merry if worthier friends had not prevented me antonio your worth is very dear in my regard i take it your own business calls on you and you embrace the occasion to depart salarino good morrow my good lords bassanio good signiors both when shall we laugh say when you grow exceeding strange must it be so salarino well make our leisures to attend on yours exeunt salarino and salanio lorenzo my lord bassanio since you have found antonio we two will leave you but at dinnertime i pray you have in mind where we must meet bassanio i will not fail you gratiano you look not well signior antonio you have too much respect upon the world they lose it that do buy it with much care believe me you are marvellously changed antonio i hold the world but as the world gratiano a stage where every man must play a part and mine a sad one gratiano let me play the fool with mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come and let my liver rather heat with wine than my heart cool with mortifying groans why should a man whose blood is warm within sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster sleep when he wakes and creep into the jaundice by being peevish i tell thee what antonio i love thee and it is my love that speaks there are a sort of men whose visages do cream and mantle like a standing pond and do a wilful stillness entertain with purpose to be dressd in an opinion of wisdom gravity profound conceit as who should say i am sir oracle and when i ope my lips let no dog bark o my antonio i do know of these that therefore only are reputed wise for saying nothing when i am very sure if they should speak would almost damn those ears which hearing them would call their brothers fools ill tell thee more of this another time but fish not with this melancholy bait for this fool gudgeon this opinion come good lorenzo fare ye well awhile ill end my exhortation after dinner lorenzo well we will leave you then till dinnertime i must be one of these same dumb wise men for gratiano never lets me speak gratiano well keep me company but two years moe thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue antonio farewell ill grow a talker for this gear gratiano thanks i faith for silence is only commendable in a neats tongue dried and a maid not vendible exeunt gratiano and lorenzo 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 to whom you swore a secret pilgrimage that you today promised to tell me of bassanio tis not unknown to you antonio how much i have disabled mine estate by something showing a more swelling port than my faint means would grant continuance nor do i now make moan to be abridged from such a noble rate but my chief care is to come fairly off from the great debts wherein my time something too prodigal hath left me gaged to you antonio i owe the most in money and in love and from your love i have a warranty to unburden all my plots and purposes how to get clear of all the debts i owe antonio i pray you good bassanio let me know it and if it stand as you yourself still do within the eye of honour be assured my purse my person my extremest means lie all unlockd to your occasions bassanio in my schooldays when i had lost one shaft i shot his fellow of the selfsame flight the selfsame way with more advised watch to find the other forth and by adventuring both i oft found both i urge this childhood proof because what follows is pure innocence i owe you much and like a wilful youth that which i owe is lost but if you please to shoot another arrow that self way which you did shoot the first i do not doubt as i will watch the aim or to find both or bring your latter hazard back again and thankfully rest debtor for the first antonio you know me well and herein spend but time to wind about my love with circumstance and out of doubt you do me now more wrong in making question of my uttermost than if you had made waste of all i have then do but say to me what i should do that in your knowledge may by me be done and i am prest unto it therefore speak bassanio in belmont is a lady richly left and she is fair and fairer than that word of wondrous virtues sometimes from her eyes i did receive fair speechless messages her name is portia nothing undervalued to catos daughter brutus portia nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth for the four winds blow in from every coast renowned suitors and her sunny locks hang on her temples like a golden fleece which makes her seat of belmont colchos strand and many jasons come in quest of her o my antonio had i but the means to hold a rival place with one of them i have a mind presages me such thrift that i should questionless be fortunate antonio thou knowst that all my fortunes are at sea neither have i money nor commodity to raise a present sum therefore go forth try what my credit can in venice do that shall be rackd even to the uttermost to furnish thee to belmont to fair portia go presently inquire and so will i where money is and i no question make to have it of my trust or for my sake exeunt act scene belmont a room in portias 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 mens 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 oer a cold decree such a hare is madness the youth to skip oer 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 overname 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 thats 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 deathshead 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 neapolitans 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 mans picture but alas who can converse with a dumbshow 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 saxonys 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 fathers 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 ill 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 fathers 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 fathers 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 fathers 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 servingman 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 tonight 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 act scene 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 landrats and waterrats waterthieves and landthieves 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 i hate him for he is a christian but more for that in low simplicity he lends out money gratis and brings down the rate of usance here with us in venice if i can catch him once upon the hip i will feed fat the ancient grudge i bear him he hates our sacred nation and he rails even there where merchants most do congregate on me my bargains and my wellwon thrift which he calls interest cursed be my tribe if i forgive him bassanio shylock do you hear shylock i am debating of my present store and by the near guess of my memory i cannot instantly raise up the gross of full three thousand ducats what of that tubal a wealthy hebrew of my tribe will furnish me but soft how many months do you desire to antonio rest you fair good signior your worship was the last man in our mouths antonio shylock although i neither lend nor borrow by taking nor by giving of excess yet to supply the ripe wants of my friend ill break a custom is he yet possessd how much ye would shylock ay ay three thousand ducats antonio and for three months shylock i had forgot three months you told me so well then your bond and let me see but hear you methought you said you neither lend nor borrow upon advantage antonio i do never use it shylock when jacob grazed his uncle labans sheep this jacob from our holy abram was as his wise mother wrought in his behalf the third possessor ay he was the third antonio and what of him did he take interest shylock no not take interest not as you would say directly interest mark what jacob did when laban and himself were compromised that all the eanlings which were streakd and pied should fall as jacobs hire the ewes being rank in the end of autumn turned to the rams and when the work of generation was between these woolly breeders in the act the skilful shepherd peeld me certain wands and in the doing of the deed of kind he stuck them up before the fulsome ewes who then conceiving did in eaning time fall particolourd lambs and those were jacobs this was a way to thrive and he was blest and thrift is blessing if men steal it not antonio this was a venture sir that jacob served for a thing not in his power to bring to pass but swayd and fashiond by the hand of heaven was this inserted to make interest good or is your gold and silver ewes and rams shylock i cannot tell i make it breed as fast but note me signior antonio mark you this bassanio the devil can cite scripture for his purpose an evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek a goodly apple rotten at the heart o what a goodly outside falsehood hath shylock three thousand ducats tis a good round sum three months from twelve then let me see the rate antonio well shylock shall we be beholding to you shylock signior antonio many a time and oft in the rialto you have rated me about my moneys and my usances still have i borne it with a patient shrug for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe you call me misbeliever cutthroat dog and spit upon my jewish gaberdine and all for use of that which is mine own well then it now appears you need my help go to then you come to me and you say shylock we would have moneys you say so you that did void your rheum upon my beard and foot me as you spurn a stranger cur over your threshold moneys is your suit what should i say to you should i not say hath a dog money is it possible a cur can lend three thousand ducats or shall i bend low and in a bondmans key with bated breath and whispering humbleness say this fair sir you spit on me on wednesday last you spurnd me such a day another time you calld me dog and for these courtesies ill lend you thus much moneys antonio i am as like to call thee so again to spit on thee again to spurn thee too if thou wilt lend this money lend it not as to thy friends for when did friendship take a breed for barren metal of his friend but lend it rather to thine enemy who if he break thou mayst with better face exact the penalty shylock why look you how you storm i would be friends with you and have your love forget the shames that you have staind me with supply your present wants and take no doit of usance for my moneys and youll not hear me this is kind i offer bassanio this were kindness shylock this kindness will i show go with me to a notary seal me there your single bond and in a merry sport if you repay me not on such a day in such a place such sum or sums as are expressd in the condition let the forfeit be nominated for an equal pound of your fair flesh to be cut off and taken in what part of your body pleaseth me antonio content i faith ill seal to such a bond and say there is much kindness in the jew bassanio you shall not seal to such a bond for me ill rather dwell in my necessity antonio why fear not man i will not forfeit it within these two months thats a month before this bond expires i do expect return of thrice three times the value of this bond shylock o father abram what these christians are whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect the thoughts of others pray you tell me this if he should break his day what should i gain by the exaction of the forfeiture a pound of mans flesh taken from a man is not so estimable profitable neither as flesh of muttons beefs or goats i say to buy his favour i extend this friendship if he will take it so if not adieu and for my love i pray you wrong me not antonio yes shylock i will seal unto this bond shylock then meet me forthwith at the notarys give him direction for this merry bond and i will go and purse the ducats straight see to my house left in the fearful guard of an unthrifty knave and presently i will be with you antonio hie thee gentle jew exit shylock the hebrew will turn christian he grows kind bassanio i like not fair terms and a villains mind antonio come on in this there can be no dismay my ships come home a month before the day exeunt act scene belmont a room in portias 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 shadowd livery of the burnishd 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 feard the valiant by my love i swear the bestregarded 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 maidens 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 lookd 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 shebear 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 cursedst among men cornets and exeunt act scene 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 mans son or rather an honest womans 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 jews launcelot aside o heavens this is my truebegotten father who being more than sandblind highgravel blind knows me not i will try confusions with him gobbo master young gentleman i pray you which is the way to master jews 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 jews house gobbo by gods 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 mans 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 worships 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 ant 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 hovelpost 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 sandblind 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 mans 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 lets 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 jews man and i am sure margery your wife is my mother gobbo her name is margery indeed ill 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 fillhorse has on his tail launcelot it should seem then that dobbins 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 masters 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 heres my son sir a poor boy launcelot not a poor boy sir but the rich jews 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 worships reverence are scarce catercousins 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 obtaind thy suit shylock thy master spoke with me this day and hath preferrd thee if it be preferment to leave a rich jews 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 speakst 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 launcelot father in i cannot get a service no i have neer 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 heres a simple line of life heres a small trifle of wives alas fifteen wives is nothing eleven widows and nine maids is a simple comingin for one man and then to scape drowning thrice and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a featherbed here are simple scapes well if fortune be a woman shes a good wench for this gear father come ill 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 these things being bought and orderly bestowd return in haste for i do feast tonight my bestesteemd 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 bassanio gratiano gratiano i have a suit to you bassanio you have obtaind 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 prayerbooks 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 tonight you shall not gauge me by what we do tonight 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 suppertime exeunt act scene the same a room in shylocks 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 masters 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 fathers 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 scene the same a street enter gratiano lorenzo salarino and salanio lorenzo nay we will slink away in suppertime 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 orderd and better in my mind not undertook lorenzo tis now but four oclock we have two hours to furnish us enter launcelot with a letter friend launcelot whats 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 and whiter than the paper it writ on is the fair hand that writ gratiano lovenews in faith launcelot by your leave sir lorenzo whither goest thou launcelot marry sir to bid my old master the jew to sup tonight 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 torchbearer salanio ay marry ill be gone about it straight salanio and so will i lorenzo meet me and gratiano at gratianos lodging some hour hence 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 how i shall take her from her fathers house what gold and jewels she is furnishd with what pages suit she hath in readiness if eer the jew her father come to heaven it will be for his gentle daughters 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 torchbearer exeunt act scene the same before shylocks house enter shylock and launcelot shylock well thou shalt see thy eyes shall be thy judge the difference of old shylock and bassanio what jessicathou shalt not gormandise as thou hast done with mewhat jessica and sleep and snore and rend apparel out why jessica i say 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 there are my keys but wherefore should i go i am not bid for love they flatter me but yet ill 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 abrewing towards my rest for i did dream of moneybags tonight 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 ableeding on blackmonday last at six oclock i the morning falling out that year on ashwednesday 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 wryneckd fife clamber not you up to the casements then nor thrust your head into the public street to gaze on christian fools with varnishd faces but stop my houses ears i mean my casements let not the sound of shallow foppery enter my sober house by jacobs staff i swear i have no mind of feasting forth tonight 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 hagars offspring ha jessica his words were farewell mistress nothing else shylock the patch is kind enough but a huge feeder snailslow in profit and he sleeps by day more than the wildcat drones hive not with me therefore i part with him and part with him to one that would have him help to waste his borrowd 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 scene the same enter gratiano and salarino masqued gratiano this is the penthouse under which lorenzo desired us to make stand salarino his hour is almost past gratiano and it is marvel he outdwells his hour for lovers ever run before the clock salarino o ten times faster venus pigeons fly to seal loves bonds newmade 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 enjoyd how like a younker or a prodigal the scarfed bark puts from her native bay huggd and embraced by the strumpet wind how like the prodigal doth she return with overweatherd ribs and ragged sails lean rent and beggard by the strumpet wind salarino here comes lorenzo more of this hereafter enter lorenzo lorenzo sweet friends your patience for my long abode not i but my affairs have made you wait when you shall please to play the thieves for wives ill watch as long for you then approach here dwells my father jew ho whos within enter jessica above in boys clothes jessica who are you tell me for more certainty albeit ill 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 goodsooth 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 stayd for at bassanios 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 lorenzo beshrew me but i love her heartily for she is wise if i can judge of her and fair she is if that mine eyes be true and true she is as she hath proved herself and therefore like herself wise fair and true shall she be placed in my constant soul enter jessica below what art thou come on gentlemen away our masquing mates by this time for us stay exit with jessica and salarino enter antonio antonio whos there gratiano signior antonio antonio fie fie gratiano where are all the rest tis nine oclock our friends all stay for you no masque tonight the wind is come about bassanio presently will go aboard i have sent twenty out to seek for you gratiano i am glad ont i desire no more delight than to be under sail and gone tonight exeunt act scene belmont a room in portias 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 ill 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 best 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 thats 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 strayd no further but chose here lets see once more this saying graved in gold who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire why thats the lady all the world desires her from the four corners of the earth they come to kiss this shrine this mortalbreathing 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 oer a brook to see fair portia one of these three contains her heavenly picture ist 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 shes 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 thats insculpd 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 morocco o hell what have we here a carrion death within whose empty eye there is a written scroll ill read the writing reads all that glitters is not gold often have you heard that told many a man his life hath sold but my outside to behold gilded tombs do worms enfold had you been as wise as bold young in limbs in judgment old your answer had not been inscrolld fare you well your suit is cold cold indeed and labour lost then farewell heat and welcome frost portia adieu i have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave thus losers part exit with his train flourish of cornets portia a gentle riddance draw the curtains go let all of his complexion choose me so exeunt act scene 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 bassanios 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 rememberd i reasond 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 wishd 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 answerd do not so slubber not business for my sake bassanio but stay the very riping of the time and for the jews 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 bassanios 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 scene belmont a room in portias house enter nerissa with a servitor nerissa quick quick i pray thee draw the curtain straight the prince of arragon hath taen his oath and comes to his election presently flourish of cornets enter the prince of arragon portia and their trains portia behold there stand the caskets noble prince if you choose that wherein i am containd 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 enjoind 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 arragon and so have i addressd me fortune now to my hearts hope gold silver and base lead who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath you shall look fairer ere i give or hazard what says the golden chest ha let me see who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire what many men desire that many may be meant by the fool multitude that choose by show not learning more than the fond eye doth teach which pries not to the interior but like the martlet builds in the weather on the outward wall even in the force and road of casualty i will not choose what many men desire because i will not jump with common spirits and rank me with the barbarous multitudes why then to thee thou silver treasurehouse tell me once more what title thou dost bear who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves and well said too for who shall go about to cozen fortune and be honourable without the stamp of merit let none presume to wear an undeserved dignity o that estates degrees and offices were not derived corruptly and that clear honour were purchased by the merit of the wearer how many then should cover that stand bare how many be commanded that command how much low peasantry would then be gleand from the true seed of honour and how much honour pickd from the chaff and ruin of the times to be newvarnishd well but to my choice who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves i will assume desert give me a key for this and instantly unlock my fortunes here he opens the silver casket portia too long a pause for that which you find there arragon whats 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 fools head is that my prize are my deserts no better portia to offend and judge are distinct offices and of opposed natures arragon what is here reads the fire seven times tried this seven times tried that judgment is that did never choose amiss some there be that shadows kiss such have but a shadows bliss there be fools alive i wis silverd oer and so was this take what wife you will to bed i will ever be your head so be gone you are sped still more fool i shall appear by the time i linger here with one fools head i came to woo but i go away with two sweet adieu ill keep my oath patiently to bear my wroth exeunt arragon and train 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 forespurrer 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 spendst such highday wit in praising him come come nerissa for i long to see quick cupids post that comes so mannerly nerissa bassanio lord love if thy will it be exeunt act scene venice a street enter salanio and salarino salanio now what news on the rialto salarino why yet it lives there uncheckd 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 antonioo 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 daughters flight salarino thats 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 thats 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 whats 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 whats 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 whats 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 ist true ist 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 antonios creditors in my company to venice that swear he cannot choose but break shylock i am very glad of it ill plague him ill 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 thats true thats 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 scene belmont a room in portias 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 theres 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 youll make me wish a sin that i had been forsworn beshrew your eyes they have oerlookd 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 ill 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 portia away then i am lockd 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 then if he lose he makes a swanlike end fading in music that the comparison may stand more proper my eye shall be the stream and watery deathbed for him he may win and what is music then then music is even as the flourish when true subjects bow to a newcrowned monarch such it is as are those dulcet sounds in break of day that creep into the dreaming bridegrooms ear and summon him to marriage now he goes 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 seamonster i stand for sacrifice the rest aloof are the dardanian wives 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 engenderd in the eyes with gazing fed and fancy dies in the cradle where it lies let us all ring fancys knell ill begin itding dong bell all 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 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 searchd have livers white as milk and these assume but valours 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 rashembraced despair and shuddering fear and greeneyed 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 bassanio what find i here opening the leaden casket fair portias counterfeit what demigod hath come so near creation move these eyes or whether riding on the balls of mine seem they in motion here are severd 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 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 unfurnishd yet look how far the substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow in underprizing it so far this shadow doth limp behind the substance heres the scroll the continent and summary of my fortune reads you that choose not by the view 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 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 that thinks he hath done well in peoples 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 as doubtful whether what i see be true until confirmd signd 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 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 unlessond girl unschoold 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 oer 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 expressd and not expressd but when this ring parts from this finger then parts life from hence o then be bold to say bassanios 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 honourd in your marriage gratiano well play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats nerissa what and stake down gratiano no we shall neer win at that sport and stake down 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 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 whats 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 bassanios 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 unpleasantst 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 lifeblood but is it true salerio have all his ventures faild what not one hit from tripolis from mexico and england from lisbon barbary and india and not one vessel scape the dreadful touch of merchantmarring 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 antonios 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 bestconditiond 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 bassanios 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 portias 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 weddingday 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 eer be guilty of my stay no rest be interposer twixt us twain exeunt act scene 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 ill have my bond speak not against my bond i have sworn an oath that i will have my bond thou calldst 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 ill have my bond i will not hear thee speak ill have my bond and therefore speak no more ill not be made a soft and dulleyed fool to shake the head relent and sigh and yield to christian intercessors follow not ill 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 ill follow him no more with bootless prayers he seeks my life his reason well i know i oft deliverd 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 tomorrow to my bloody creditor well gaoler on pray god bassanio come to see me pay his debt and then i care not exeunt act scene belmont a room in portias 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 bestowd 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 lords 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 lords 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 hearts content portia i thank you for your wish and am well pleased to wish it back on you fare you well jessica exeunt jessica and lorenzo now balthasar as i have ever found thee honesttrue so let me find thee still take this same letter and use thou all the endeavour of a man in speed to padua see thou render this into my cousins hand doctor bellario and look what notes and garments he doth give thee bring them i pray thee with imagined speed unto the tranect to the common ferry which trades to venice waste no time in words but get thee gone i shall be there before thee balthasar madam i go with all convenient speed exit portia come on nerissa i have work in hand that you yet know not of well 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 ill hold thee any wager when we are both accoutred like young men ill 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 ill repent and wish for all that that i had not killed them and twenty of these puny lies ill 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 questions that if thou wert near a lewd interpreter but come ill 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 today exeunt act scene 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 jews 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 een as many as could well live one by another this making christians will raise the price of hogs if we grow all to be porkeaters we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money enter lorenzo jessica ill 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 jews 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 negros 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 witsnapper 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 garnishd 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 bassanios 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 pawnd 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 tabletalk then howsoer thou speakst mong other things i shall digest it jessica well ill set you forth exeunt act scene 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 taen great pains to qualify his rigorous course but since he stands obdurate and that no lawful means can carry me out of his envys reach i do oppose my patience to his fury and am armd 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 leadst this fashion of thy malice to the last hour of act and then tis thought thoult show thy mercy and remorse more strange than is thy strange apparent cruelty and where thou now exactst the penalty which is a pound of this poor merchants flesh thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture but touchd 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 traind to offices of tender courtesy we all expect a gentle answer jew shylock i have possessd 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 citys freedom youll ask me why i rather choose to have a weight of carrion flesh than to receive three thousand ducats ill not answer that but say it is my humour is it answerd 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 answerd 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 renderd 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 answerd 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 thatthan which whats 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 seasond 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 today 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 antonio i am a tainted wether of the flock meetest for death the weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground and so let me you cannot better be employd bassanio than to live still and write mine epitaph enter nerissa dressed like a lawyers 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 thou makest thy knife keen but no metal can no not the hangmans 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 damnd 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 governd a wolf who hangd for human slaughter even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet and whilst thou layst in thy unhallowd 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 offendst 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 youll 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 bellarios 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 oer 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 graces 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 hear the learnd bellario what he writes and here i take it is the doctor come 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 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 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 straind 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 gods 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 oer 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 theres thrice thy money offerd 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 merchants 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 welldeserving 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 expressd 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 armd 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 antonios 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 ill 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 esteemd 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 merchants 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 cutst 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 ill 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 offenders life lies in the mercy of the duke only gainst all other voice in which predicament i say thou standst for it appears by manifest proceeding that indirectly and directly too thou hast contrived against the very life of the defendant and thou hast incurrd 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 hangd at the states 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 antonios 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 gods 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 possessd 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 shylock i am content 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 godfathers 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 duke i am sorry that your leisure serves you not antonio gratify this gentleman for in my mind you are much bound to him exeunt duke and his train 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 ill wear them for your sake to bassanio and for your love ill take this ring from you do not draw back your hand ill 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 theres 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 answerd 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 portia that scuse serves many men to save their gifts an if your wife be not a madwoman and know how well i have deserved the ring she would not hold out enemy for ever for giving it to me well peace be with you exeunt portia and nerissa antonio my lord bassanio let him have the ring let his deservings and my love withal be valued against your wifes commandment bassanio go gratiano run and overtake him give him the ring and bring him if thou canst unto antonios 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 scene the same a street enter portia and nerissa portia inquire the jews house out give him this deed and let him sign it well away tonight and be a day before our husbands home this deed will be well welcome to lorenzo enter gratiano gratiano fair sir you are well oertaen 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 shylocks house gratiano that will i do nerissa sir i would speak with you aside to portia ill see if i can get my husbands 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 well 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 act scene belmont avenue to portias house enter lorenzo and jessica lorenzo the moon shines bright in such a night as this when the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees and they did make no noise in such a night troilus methinks mounted the troyan walls and sighd his soul toward the grecian tents where cressid lay that night jessica in such a night did thisbe fearfully oertrip the dew and saw the lions shadow ere himself and ran dismayd away lorenzo in such a night stood dido with a willow in her hand upon the wild sea banks and waft her love to come again to carthage jessica in such a night medea gatherd the enchanted herbs that did renew old aeson lorenzo in such a night did jessica steal from the wealthy jew and with an unthrift love did run from venice as far as belmont jessica in such a night did young lorenzo swear he loved her well stealing her soul with many vows of faith and neer a true one lorenzo in such a night did pretty jessica like a little shrew slander her love and he forgave it her jessica i would outnight you did no body come but hark i hear the footing of a man 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 my mistress will before the break of day be here at belmont she doth stray about by holy crosses where she kneels and prays for happy wedlock hours lorenzo who comes with her stephano none but a holy hermit and her maid i pray you is my master yet returnd lorenzo he is not nor we have not heard from him but go we in i pray thee jessica and ceremoniously let us prepare some welcome for the mistress of the house enter launcelot launcelot sola sola wo ha ho sola sola lorenzo who calls launcelot sola did you see master lorenzo master lorenzo sola sola lorenzo leave hollaing man here launcelot sola where where lorenzo here launcelot tell him theres a post come from my master with his horn full of good news my master will be here ere morning exit lorenzo sweet soul lets in and there expect their coming and yet no matter why should we go in my friend stephano signify i pray you within the house your mistress is at hand and bring your music forth into the air exit stephano how sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank here will we sit and let the sounds of music creep in our ears soft stillness and the night become the touches of sweet harmony sit jessica look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold theres not the smallest orb which thou beholdst but in his motion like an angel sings still quiring to the youngeyed cherubins such harmony is in immortal souls but whilst this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close it in we cannot hear it enter musicians come ho and wake diana with a hymn with sweetest touches pierce your mistress ear and draw her home with music music jessica i am never merry when i hear sweet music lorenzo the reason is your spirits are attentive for do but note a wild and wanton herd or race of youthful and unhandled colts fetching mad bounds bellowing and neighing loud which is the hot condition of their blood if they but hear perchance a trumpet sound or any air of music touch their ears you shall perceive them make a mutual stand their savage eyes turnd to a modest gaze by the sweet power of music therefore the poet did feign that orpheus drew trees stones and floods since nought so stockish hard and full of rage but music for the time doth change his nature the man that hath no music in himself nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds is fit for treasons stratagems and spoils the motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as erebus let no such man be trusted mark the music enter portia and nerissa portia that light we see is burning in my hall how far that little candle throws his beams so shines a good deed in a naughty world nerissa when the moon shone we did not see the candle portia so doth the greater glory dim the less a substitute shines brightly as a king unto the king be by and then his state empties itself as doth an inland brook into the main of waters music hark nerissa it is your music madam of the house portia nothing is good i see without respect methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day nerissa silence bestows that virtue on it madam portia the crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark when neither is attended and i think the nightingale if she should sing by day when every goose is cackling would be thought no better a musician than the wren how many things by season seasond are to their right praise and true perfection peace ho the moon sleeps with endymion and would not be awaked music ceases lorenzo that is the voice or i am much deceived of portia portia he knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo by the bad voice lorenzo dear lady welcome home portia we have been praying for our husbands healths which speed we hope the better for our words are they returnd lorenzo madam they are not yet but there is come a messenger before to signify their coming portia go in nerissa give order to my servants that they take no note at all of our being absent hence nor you lorenzo jessica nor you a tucket sounds lorenzo your husband is at hand i hear his trumpet we are no telltales madam fear you not portia this night methinks is but the daylight sick it looks a little paler tis a day such as the day is when the sun is hid enter bassanio antonio gratiano and their followers bassanio we should hold day with the antipodes if you would walk in absence of the sun portia let me give light but let me not be light for a light wife doth make a heavy husband and never be bassanio so for me but god sort all you are welcome home my lord bassanio i thank you madam give welcome to my friend this is the man this is antonio to whom i am so infinitely bound portia you should in all sense be much bound to him for as i hear he was much bound for you antonio no more than i am well acquitted of portia sir you are very welcome to our house it must appear in other ways than words therefore i scant this breathing courtesy gratiano to nerissa by yonder moon i swear you do me wrong in faith i gave it to the judges clerk would he were gelt that had it for my part since you do take it love so much at heart portia a quarrel ho already whats the matter gratiano about a hoop of gold a paltry ring that she did give me whose posy was for all the world like cutlers poetry upon a knife love me and leave me not nerissa what talk you of the posy or the value you swore to me when i did give it you that you would wear it till your hour of death and that it should lie with you in your grave though not for me yet for your vehement oaths you should have been respective and have kept it gave it a judges clerk no gods my judge the clerk will neer wear hair ons face that had it 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 a kind of boy a little scrubbed boy no higher than thyself the judges clerk a prating boy that beggd it as a fee i could not for my heart deny it him portia you were to blame i must be plain with you to part so slightly with your wifes first gift a thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger and so riveted with faith unto your flesh i gave my love a ring and made him swear never to part with it and here he stands i dare be sworn for him he would not leave it nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth that the world masters now in faith gratiano you give your wife too unkind a cause of grief an twere to me i should be mad at it bassanio aside why i were best to cut my left hand off and swear i lost the ring defending it gratiano my lord bassanio gave his ring away unto the judge that beggd it and indeed deserved it too and then the boy his clerk that took some pains in writing he beggd mine and neither man nor master would take aught but the two rings portia what ring gave you my lord not that i hope which you received of me bassanio if i could add a lie unto a fault i would deny it but you see my finger hath not the ring upon it it is gone portia even so void is your false heart of truth by heaven i will neer come in your bed until i see the ring nerissa nor i in yours till i again see mine bassanio sweet portia if you did know to whom i gave the ring if you did know for whom i gave the ring and would conceive for what i gave the ring and how unwillingly i left the ring when nought would be accepted but the ring you would abate the strength of your displeasure portia if you had known the virtue of the ring or half her worthiness that gave the ring or your own honour to contain the ring you would not then have parted with the ring what man is there so much unreasonable if you had pleased to have defended it with any terms of zeal wanted the modesty to urge the thing held as a ceremony nerissa teaches me what to believe ill die fort but some woman had the ring bassanio no by my honour madam by my soul no woman had it but a civil doctor which did refuse three thousand ducats of me and beggd the ring the which i did deny him and sufferd him to go displeased away even he that did uphold the very life of my dear friend what should i say sweet lady i was enforced to send it after him i was beset with shame and courtesy my honour would not let ingratitude so much besmear it pardon me good lady for by these blessed candles of the night had you been there i think you would have beggd the ring of me to give the worthy doctor portia let not that doctor eer come near my house since he hath got the jewel that i loved and that which you did swear to keep for me i will become as liberal as you ill not deny him any thing i have no not my body nor my husbands bed know him i shall i am well sure of it lie not a night from home watch me like argus if you do not if i be left alone now by mine honour which is yet mine own ill have that doctor for my bedfellow nerissa and i his clerk therefore be well advised how you do leave me to mine own protection gratiano well do you so let not me take him then for if i do ill mar the young clerks pen 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 and in the hearing of these many friends i swear to thee even by thine own fair eyes wherein i see myself portia mark you but that in both my eyes he doubly sees himself in each eye one swear by your double self and theres an oath of credit bassanio nay but hear me pardon this fault and by my soul i swear i never more will break an oath with thee antonio i once did lend my body for his wealth which but for him that had your husbands ring had quite miscarried i dare be bound again my soul upon the forfeit that your lord will never more break faith advisedly portia then you shall be his surety give him this and bid him keep it better than the other 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 for by this ring the doctor lay with me nerissa and pardon me my gentle gratiano for that same scrubbed boy the doctors clerk in lieu of this last night did lie with me gratiano why this is like the mending of highways in summer where the ways are fair enough what are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it portia speak not so grossly you are all amazed here is a letter read it at your leisure it comes from padua from bellario there you shall find that portia was the doctor nerissa there her clerk lorenzo here shall witness i set forth as soon as you and even but now returnd i have not yet enterd my house antonio you are welcome and i have better news in store for you than you expect unseal this letter soon there you shall find three of your argosies are richly come to harbour suddenly you shall not know by what strange accident i chanced on this letter 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 unless he live until he be a man bassanio sweet doctor you shall be my bedfellow when i am absent then lie with my wife antonio sweet lady you have given me life and living for here i read for certain that my ships are safely come to road portia how now lorenzo my clerk hath some good comforts too for you nerissa ay and ill give them him without a fee there do i give to you and jessica from the rich jew a special deed of gift after his death of all he dies possessd of lorenzo fair ladies you drop manna in the way of starved people portia it is almost morning and yet i am sure you are not satisfied of these events at full let us go in and charge us there upon intergatories and we will answer all things faithfully gratiano let it be so the first intergatory that my nerissa shall be sworn on is whether till the next night she had rather stay or go to bed now being two hours to day but were the day come i should wish it dark that i were couching with the doctors clerk well while i live ill fear no other thing so sore as keeping safe nerissas ring exeunt