Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 4
Belmont. A room in PORTIA’S house.
Lorenzo : Madam, although I speak it in your presence,
[p]You have a noble and a
true conceit
[p]Of godlike amity; which appears most strongly
[p]In
bearing thus the absence of your lord.
[p]But if you knew to whom you
show this honour,
[p]How true a gentleman you send relief,
[p]How dear
a lover of my lord your husband,
[p]I know you would be prouder of the
work
[p]Than customary bounty can enforce you.
Portia : I never did repent for doing good,
[p]Nor shall not now: for in
companions
[p]That do converse and waste the time together,
[p]Whose
souls do bear an equal yoke Of love,
[p]There must be needs a like
proportion
[p]Of lineaments, of manners and of spirit;
[p]Which makes
me think that this Antonio,
[p]Being the bosom lover of my
lord,
[p]Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,
[p]How little is the
cost I have bestow'd
[p]In purchasing the semblance of my soul
[p]From
out the state of hellish misery!
[p]This comes too near the praising
of myself;
[p]Therefore no more of it: hear other things.
[p]Lorenzo,
I commit into your hands
[p]The husbandry and manage of my
house
[p]Until my lord's return: for mine own part,
[p]I have toward
heaven breathed a secret vow
[p]To live in prayer and
contemplation,
[p]Only attended by Nerissa here,
[p]Until her husband
and my lord's return:
[p]There is a monastery two miles off;
[p]And
there will we abide. I do desire you
[p]Not to deny this
imposition;
[p]The which my love and some necessity
[p]Now lays upon
you.
Lorenzo : Madam, with all my heart;
[p]I shall obey you in all fair commands.
Portia : My people do already know my mind,
[p]And will acknowledge you and
Jessica
[p]In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
[p]And so farewell,
till we shall meet again.
Lorenzo : Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
Jessica : I wish your ladyship all heart's content.
Portia : I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
[p]To wish it back on
you: fare you well Jessica.
[p][Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO]
[p]Now,
Balthasar,
[p]As I have ever found thee honest-true,
[p]So let me find
thee still. Take this same letter,
[p]And use thou all the endeavour
of a man
[p]In speed to Padua: see thou render this
[p]Into my
cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;
[p]And, look, what notes and garments
he doth give thee,
[p]Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined
speed
[p]Unto the tranect, to the common ferry
[p]Which trades to
Venice. Waste no time in words,
[p]But get thee gone: I shall be there
before thee.
Balthasar : Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
Portia : Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand
[p]That you yet know not of:
we'll see our husbands
[p]Before they think of us.
Nerissa : Shall they see us?
Portia : They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
[p]That they shall think we
are accomplished
[p]With that we lack. I'll hold thee any
wager,
[p]When we are both accoutred like young men,
[p]I'll prove the
prettier fellow of the two,
[p]And wear my dagger with the braver
grace,
[p]And speak between the change of man and boy
[p]With a reed
voice, and turn two mincing steps
[p]Into a manly stride, and speak of
frays
[p]Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
[p]How
honourable ladies sought my love,
[p]Which I denying, they fell sick
and died;
[p]I could not do withal; then I'll repent,
[p]And wish for
all that, that I had not killed them;
[p]And twenty of these puny lies
I'll tell,
[p]That men shall swear I have discontinued school
[p]Above
a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
[p]A thousand raw tricks of these
bragging Jacks,
[p]Which I will practise.
Nerissa : Why, shall we turn to men?
Portia : Fie, what a question's that,
[p]If thou wert near a lewd
interpreter!
[p]But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
[p]When I
am in my coach, which stays for us
[p]At the park gate; and therefore
haste away,
[p]For we must measure twenty miles to-day.
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Next: Act 3 - Scene 5
