Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Act 3 - Scene 2

Belmont. A room in PORTIA’S house.

Portia : I pray you, tarry: pause a day or two [p]Before you hazard; for, in
choosing wrong, [p]I lose your company: therefore forbear
awhile. [p]There's something tells me, but it is not love, [p]I would
not lose you; and you know yourself, [p]Hate counsels not in such a
quality. [p]But lest you should not understand me well,-- [p]And yet a
maiden hath no tongue but thought,-- [p]I would detain you here some
month or two [p]Before you venture for me. I could teach you [p]How to
choose right, but I am then forsworn; [p]So will I never be: so may
you miss me; [p]But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin, [p]That I
had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes, [p]They have o'erlook'd me and
divided me; [p]One half of me is yours, the other half yours, [p]Mine
own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, [p]And so all yours. O,
these naughty times [p]Put bars between the owners and their
rights! [p]And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so, [p]Let
fortune go to hell for it, not I. [p]I speak too long; but 'tis to
peize the time, [p]To eke it and to draw it out in length, [p]To stay
you from election.

Bassanio : Let me choose [p]For as I am, I live upon the rack.

Portia : Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess [p]What treason there is mingled
with your love.

Bassanio : None but that ugly treason of mistrust, [p]Which makes me fear the
enjoying of my love: [p]There may as well be amity and life [p]'Tween
snow and fire, as treason and my love.

Portia : Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, [p]Where men enforced do speak
anything.

Bassanio : Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.

Portia : Well then, confess and live.

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

Portia : Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them: [p]If you do love me, you will
find me out. [p]Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof. [p]Let music
sound while he doth make his choice; [p]Then, if he lose, he makes a
swan-like end, [p]Fading in music: that the comparison [p]May stand
more proper, my eye shall be the stream [p]And watery death-bed for
him. He may win; [p]And what is music then? Then music is [p]Even as
the flourish when true subjects bow [p]To a new-crowned monarch: such
it is [p]As are those dulcet sounds in break of day [p]That creep into
the dreaming bridegroom's ear, [p]And summon him to marriage. Now he
goes, [p]With no less presence, but with much more love, [p]Than young
Alcides, when he did redeem [p]The virgin tribute paid by howling
Troy [p]To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice [p]The rest aloof
are the Dardanian wives, [p]With bleared visages, come forth to
view [p]The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules! [p]Live thou, I live:
with much, much more dismay [p]I view the fight than thou that makest
the fray. [p][Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to
himself] [p]SONG. [p]Tell me where is fancy bred, [p]Or in the heart,
or in the head? [p]How begot, how nourished? [p]Reply, reply. [p]It is
engender'd in the eyes, [p]With gazing fed; and fancy dies [p]In the
cradle where it lies. [p]Let us all ring fancy's knell [p]I'll begin
it,--Ding, dong, bell.

All : Ding, dong, bell.

Bassanio : So may the outward shows be least themselves: [p]The world is still
deceived with ornament. [p]In law, what plea so tainted and
corrupt, [p]But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, [p]Obscures the
show of evil? In religion, [p]What damned error, but some sober
brow [p]Will bless it and approve it with a text, [p]Hiding the
grossness with fair ornament? [p]There is no vice so simple but
assumes [p]Some mark of virtue on his outward parts: [p]How many
cowards, whose hearts are all as false [p]As stairs of sand, wear yet
upon their chins [p]The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars; [p]Who,
inward search'd, have livers white as milk; [p]And these assume but
valour's excrement [p]To render them redoubted! Look on beauty, [p]And
you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight; [p]Which therein works a
miracle in nature, [p]Making them lightest that wear most of it: [p]So
are those crisped snaky golden locks [p]Which make such wanton gambols
with the wind, [p]Upon supposed fairness, often known [p]To be the
dowry of a second head, [p]The skull that bred them in the
sepulchre. [p]Thus ornament is but the guiled shore [p]To a most
dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf [p]Veiling an Indian beauty; in a
word, [p]The seeming truth which cunning times put on [p]To entrap the
wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold, [p]Hard food for Midas, I will
none of thee; [p]Nor none of thee, thou pale and common
drudge [p]'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead, [p]Which
rather threatenest than dost promise aught, [p]Thy paleness moves me
more than eloquence; [p]And here choose I; joy be the consequence!

Portia : [Aside] How all the other passions fleet to air, [p]As doubtful
thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, [p]And shuddering fear, and
green-eyed jealousy! O love, [p]Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy, [p]In
measure rein thy joy; scant this excess. [p]I feel too much thy
blessing: make it less, [p]For fear I surfeit.

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

Portia : You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, [p]Such as I am: though for
myself alone [p]I would not be ambitious in my wish, [p]To wish myself
much better; yet, for you [p]I would be trebled twenty times
myself; [p]A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more
rich; [p]That only to stand high in your account, [p]I might in
virtue, beauties, livings, friends, [p]Exceed account; but the full
sum of me [p]Is sum of something, which, to term in gross, [p]Is an
unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised; [p]Happy in this, she is not
yet so old [p]But she may learn; happier than this, [p]She is not bred
so dull but she can learn; [p]Happiest of all is that her gentle
spirit [p]Commits itself to yours to be directed, [p]As from her lord,
her governor, her king. [p]Myself and what is mine to you and
yours [p]Is now converted: but now I was the lord [p]Of this fair
mansion, master of my servants, [p]Queen o'er myself: and even now,
but now, [p]This house, these servants and this same myself [p]Are
yours, my lord: I give them with this ring; [p]Which when you part
from, lose, or give away, [p]Let it presage the ruin of your
love [p]And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Bassanio : Madam, you have bereft me of all words, [p]Only my blood speaks to you
in my veins; [p]And there is such confusion in my powers, [p]As after
some oration fairly spoke [p]By a beloved prince, there doth
appear [p]Among the buzzing pleased multitude; [p]Where every
something, being blent together, [p]Turns to a wild of nothing, save
of joy, [p]Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring [p]Parts
from this finger, then parts life from hence: [p]O, then be bold to
say Bassanio's dead!

Nerissa : My lord and lady, it is now our time, [p]That have stood by and seen
our wishes prosper, [p]To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady!

Gratiano : My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady, [p]I wish you all the joy that
you can wish; [p]For I am sure you can wish none from me: [p]And when
your honours mean to solemnize [p]The bargain of your faith, I do
beseech you, [p]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. [p]My eyes, my lord, can
look as swift as yours: [p]You saw the mistress, I beheld the
maid; [p]You loved, I loved for intermission. [p]No more pertains to
me, my lord, than you. [p]Your fortune stood upon the casket
there, [p]And so did mine too, as the matter falls; [p]For wooing here
until I sweat again, [p]And sweating until my very roof was
dry [p]With oaths of love, at last, if promise last, [p]I got a
promise of this fair one here [p]To have her love, provided that your
fortune [p]Achieved her mistress.

Portia : Is this true, Nerissa?

Nerissa : Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.

Bassanio : And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?

Gratiano : Yes, faith, my lord.

Bassanio : Our feast shall be much honour'd in your marriage.

Gratiano : We'll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.

Nerissa : What, and stake down?

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

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

Portia : So do I, my lord: [p]They are entirely welcome.

Lorenzo : I thank your honour. For my part, my lord, [p]My purpose was not to
have seen you here; [p]But meeting with Salerio by the way, [p]He did
entreat me, past all saying nay, [p]To come with him along.

Salerio : I did, my lord; [p]And I have reason for it. Signior
Antonio [p]Commends him to you.

Bassanio : Ere I ope his letter, [p]I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.

Salerio : Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind; [p]Nor well, unless in mind:
his letter there [p]Will show you his estate.

Gratiano : Nerissa, cheer yon stranger; bid her welcome. [p]Your hand, Salerio:
what's the news from Venice? [p]How doth that royal merchant, good
Antonio? [p]I know he will be glad of our success; [p]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, [p]That steals the
colour from Bassanio's cheek: [p]Some dear friend dead; else nothing
in the world [p]Could turn so much the constitution [p]Of any constant
man. What, worse and worse! [p]With leave, Bassanio: I am half
yourself, [p]And I must freely have the half of anything [p]That this
same paper brings you.

Bassanio : O sweet Portia, [p]Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words [p]That
ever blotted paper! Gentle lady, [p]When I did first impart my love to
you, [p]I freely told you, all the wealth I had [p]Ran in my veins, I
was a gentleman; [p]And then I told you true: and yet, dear
lady, [p]Rating myself at nothing, you shall see [p]How much I was a
braggart. When I told you [p]My state was nothing, I should then have
told you [p]That I was worse than nothing; for, indeed, [p]I have
engaged myself to a dear friend, [p]Engaged my friend to his mere
enemy, [p]To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady; [p]The paper as
the body of my friend, [p]And every word in it a gaping
wound, [p]Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio? [p]Have all his
ventures fail'd? What, not one hit? [p]From Tripolis, from Mexico and
England, [p]From Lisbon, Barbary and India? [p]And not one vessel
'scape the dreadful touch [p]Of merchant-marring rocks?

Salerio : Not one, my lord. [p]Besides, it should appear, that if he had [p]The
present money to discharge the Jew, [p]He would not take it. Never did
I know [p]A creature, that did bear the shape of man, [p]So keen and
greedy to confound a man: [p]He plies the duke at morning and at
night, [p]And doth impeach the freedom of the state, [p]If they deny
him justice: twenty merchants, [p]The duke himself, and the
magnificoes [p]Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him; [p]But
none can drive him from the envious plea [p]Of forfeiture, of justice
and his bond.

Jessica : When I was with him I have heard him swear [p]To Tubal and to Chus,
his countrymen, [p]That he would rather have Antonio's flesh [p]Than
twenty times the value of the sum [p]That he did owe him: and I know,
my lord, [p]If law, authority and power deny not, [p]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, [p]The best-condition'd and
unwearied spirit [p]In doing courtesies, and one in whom [p]The
ancient Roman honour more appears [p]Than any that draws breath in
Italy.

Portia : What sum owes he the Jew?

Bassanio : For me three thousand ducats.

Portia : What, no more? [p]Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond; [p]Double
six thousand, and then treble that, [p]Before a friend of this
description [p]Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault. [p]First go
with me to church and call me wife, [p]And then away to Venice to your
friend; [p]For never shall you lie by Portia's side [p]With an unquiet
soul. You shall have gold [p]To pay the petty debt twenty times
over: [p]When it is paid, bring your true friend along. [p]My maid
Nerissa and myself meantime [p]Will live as maids and widows. Come,
away! [p]For you shall hence upon your wedding-day: [p]Bid your
friends welcome, show a merry cheer: [p]Since you are dear bought, I
will love you dear. [p]But let me hear the letter of your friend.

Bassanio : [Reads] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all [p]miscarried, my creditors
grow cruel, my estate is [p]very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit;
and since [p]in paying it, it is impossible I should live,
all [p]debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but [p]see you
at my death. Notwithstanding, use your [p]pleasure: if your love do
not persuade you to come, [p]let not my letter.

Portia : O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!

Bassanio : Since I have your good leave to go away, [p]I will make haste: but,
till I come again, [p]No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay, [p]No
rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.

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Next: Act 3 - Scene 3

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