Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Act 4 - Scene 1

Venice. A court of justice.

Duke : What, is Antonio here?

Antonio : Ready, so please your grace.

Duke : I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer [p]A stony adversary, an
inhuman wretch [p]uncapable of pity, void and empty [p]From any dram
of mercy.

Antonio : I have heard [p]Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify [p]His
rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate [p]And that no lawful
means can carry me [p]Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose [p]My
patience to his fury, and am arm'd [p]To suffer, with a quietness of
spirit, [p]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.

Duke : Make room, and let him stand before our face. [p]Shylock, the world
thinks, and I think so too, [p]That thou but lead'st this fashion of
thy malice [p]To the last hour of act; and then 'tis
thought [p]Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange [p]Than is
thy strange apparent cruelty; [p]And where thou now exact'st the
penalty, [p]Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh, [p]Thou
wilt not only loose the forfeiture, [p]But, touch'd with human
gentleness and love, [p]Forgive a moiety of the principal; [p]Glancing
an eye of pity on his losses, [p]That have of late so huddled on his
back, [p]Enow to press a royal merchant down [p]And pluck
commiseration of his state [p]From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of
flint, [p]From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd [p]To offices
of tender courtesy. [p]We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.

Shylock : I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose; [p]And by our holy
Sabbath have I sworn [p]To have the due and forfeit of my bond: [p]If
you deny it, let the danger light [p]Upon your charter and your city's
freedom. [p]You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have [p]A weight of
carrion flesh than to receive [p]Three thousand ducats: I'll not
answer that: [p]But, say, it is my humour: is it answer'd? [p]What if
my house be troubled with a rat [p]And I be pleased to give ten
thousand ducats [p]To have it baned? What, are you answer'd
yet? [p]Some men there are love not a gaping pig; [p]Some, that are
mad if they behold a cat; [p]And others, when the bagpipe sings i' the
nose, [p]Cannot contain their urine: for affection, [p]Mistress of
passion, sways it to the mood [p]Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for
your answer: [p]As there is no firm reason to be render'd, [p]Why he
cannot abide a gaping pig; [p]Why he, a harmless necessary cat; [p]Why
he, a woollen bagpipe; but of force [p]Must yield to such inevitable
shame [p]As to offend, himself being offended; [p]So can I give no
reason, nor I will not, [p]More than a lodged hate and a certain
loathing [p]I bear Antonio, that I follow thus [p]A losing suit
against him. Are you answer'd?

Bassanio : This is no answer, thou unfeeling man, [p]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: [p]You may as well go
stand upon the beach [p]And bid the main flood bate his usual
height; [p]You may as well use question with the wolf [p]Why he hath
made the ewe bleat for the lamb; [p]You may as well forbid the
mountain pines [p]To wag their high tops and to make no noise, [p]When
they are fretten with the gusts of heaven; [p]You may as well do
anything most hard, [p]As seek to soften that--than which what's
harder?-- [p]His Jewish heart: therefore, I do beseech you, [p]Make no
more offers, use no farther means, [p]But with all brief and plain
conveniency [p]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 [p]Were in six parts and every part
a ducat, [p]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? [p]You have among you
many a purchased slave, [p]Which, like your asses and your dogs and
mules, [p]You use in abject and in slavish parts, [p]Because you
bought them: shall I say to you, [p]Let them be free, marry them to
your heirs? [p]Why sweat they under burthens? let their beds [p]Be
made as soft as yours and let their palates [p]Be season'd with such
viands? You will answer [p]'The slaves are ours:' so do I answer
you: [p]The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, [p]Is dearly
bought; 'tis mine and I will have it. [p]If you deny me, fie upon your
law! [p]There is no force in the decrees of Venice. [p]I stand for
judgment: answer; shall I have it?

Duke : Upon my power I may dismiss this court, [p]Unless Bellario, a learned
doctor, [p]Whom I have sent for to determine this, [p]Come here
to-day.

Salerio : My lord, here stays without [p]A messenger with letters from the
doctor, [p]New come from Padua.

Duke : Bring us the letter; call the messenger.

Bassanio : Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet! [p]The Jew shall have my
flesh, blood, bones and all, [p]Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of
blood.

Antonio : I am a tainted wether of the flock, [p]Meetest for death: the weakest
kind of fruit [p]Drops earliest to the ground; and so let me [p]You
cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio, [p]Than to live still and write
mine epitaph.

Duke : Came you from Padua, from Bellario?

Nerissa : From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace.

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, [p]Thou makest thy knife
keen; but no metal can, [p]No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the
keenness [p]Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?

Shylock : No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.

Gratiano : O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog! [p]And for thy life let justice be
accused. [p]Thou almost makest me waver in my faith [p]To hold opinion
with Pythagoras, [p]That souls of animals infuse themselves [p]Into
the trunks of men: thy currish spirit [p]Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd
for human slaughter, [p]Even from the gallows did his fell soul
fleet, [p]And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, [p]Infused
itself in thee; for thy desires [p]Are wolvish, bloody, starved and
ravenous.

Shylock : Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond, [p]Thou but offend'st
thy lungs to speak so loud: [p]Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will
fall [p]To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.

Duke : This letter from Bellario doth commend [p]A young and learned doctor
to our court. [p]Where is he?

Nerissa : He attendeth here hard by, [p]To know your answer, whether you'll
admit him.

Duke : With all my heart. Some three or four of you [p]Go give him courteous
conduct to this place. [p]Meantime the court shall hear Bellario's
letter.

Clerk : [Reads] [p]Your grace shall understand that at the receipt of [p]your
letter I am very sick: but in the instant that [p]your messenger came,
in loving visitation was with [p]me a young doctor of Rome; his name
is Balthasar. I [p]acquainted him with the cause in controversy
between [p]the Jew and Antonio the merchant: we turned o'er [p]many
books together: he is furnished with my [p]opinion; which, bettered
with his own learning, the [p]greatness whereof I cannot enough
commend, comes [p]with him, at my importunity, to fill up your
grace's [p]request in my stead. I beseech you, let his lack
of [p]years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend [p]estimation;
for I never knew so young a body with so [p]old a head. I leave him to
your gracious [p]acceptance, whose trial shall better publish
his [p]commendation.

Duke : You hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes: [p]And here, I take it,
is the doctor come. [p][Enter PORTIA, dressed like a doctor of
laws] [p]Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario?

Portia : I did, my lord.

Duke : You are welcome: take your place. [p]Are you acquainted with the
difference [p]That holds this present question in the court?

Portia : I am informed thoroughly of the cause. [p]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; [p]Yet in such rule that
the Venetian law [p]Cannot impugn you as you do proceed. [p]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 strain'd, [p]It droppeth as the gentle
rain from heaven [p]Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; [p]It
blesseth him that gives and him that takes: [p]'Tis mightiest in the
mightiest: it becomes [p]The throned monarch better than his
crown; [p]His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, [p]The
attribute to awe and majesty, [p]Wherein doth sit the dread and fear
of kings; [p]But mercy is above this sceptred sway; [p]It is enthroned
in the hearts of kings, [p]It is an attribute to God himself; [p]And
earthly power doth then show likest God's [p]When mercy seasons
justice. Therefore, Jew, [p]Though justice be thy plea, consider
this, [p]That, in the course of justice, none of us [p]Should see
salvation: we do pray for mercy; [p]And that same prayer doth teach us
all to render [p]The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much [p]To
mitigate the justice of thy plea; [p]Which if thou follow, this strict
court of Venice [p]Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant
there.

Shylock : My deeds upon my head! I crave the law, [p]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; [p]Yea, twice the sum: if
that will not suffice, [p]I will be bound to pay it ten times
o'er, [p]On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart: [p]If this will
not suffice, it must appear [p]That malice bears down truth. And I
beseech you, [p]Wrest once the law to your authority: [p]To do a great
right, do a little wrong, [p]And curb this cruel devil of his will.

Portia : It must not be; there is no power in Venice [p]Can alter a decree
established: [p]'Twill be recorded for a precedent, [p]And many an
error by the same example [p]Will rush into the state: it cannot be.

Shylock : A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! [p]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, there's thrice thy money offer'd thee.

Shylock : An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven: [p]Shall I lay perjury
upon my soul? [p]No, not for Venice.

Portia : Why, this bond is forfeit; [p]And lawfully by this the Jew may
claim [p]A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off [p]Nearest the
merchant's heart. Be merciful: [p]Take thrice thy money; bid me tear
the bond.

Shylock : When it is paid according to the tenor. [p]It doth appear you are a
worthy judge; [p]You know the law, your exposition [p]Hath been most
sound: I charge you by the law, [p]Whereof you are a well-deserving
pillar, [p]Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear [p]There is no
power in the tongue of man [p]To alter me: I stay here on my bond.

Antonio : Most heartily I do beseech the court [p]To give the judgment.

Portia : Why then, thus it is: [p]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 [p]Hath full relation to the
penalty, [p]Which here appeareth due upon the bond.

Shylock : 'Tis very true: O wise and upright judge! [p]How much more elder art
thou than thy looks!

Portia : Therefore lay bare your bosom.

Shylock : Ay, his breast: [p]So says the bond: doth it not, noble
judge? [p]'Nearest his heart:' those are the very words.

Portia : It is so. Are there balance here to weigh [p]The flesh?

Shylock : I have them ready.

Portia : Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, [p]To stop his wounds,
lest he do bleed to death.

Shylock : Is it so nominated in the bond?

Portia : It is not so express'd: but what of that? [p]'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 arm'd and well prepared. [p]Give me your hand,
Bassanio: fare you well! [p]Grieve not that I am fallen to this for
you; [p]For herein Fortune shows herself more kind [p]Than is her
custom: it is still her use [p]To let the wretched man outlive his
wealth, [p]To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow [p]An age of
poverty; from which lingering penance [p]Of such misery doth she cut
me off. [p]Commend me to your honourable wife: [p]Tell her the process
of Antonio's end; [p]Say how I loved you, speak me fair in
death; [p]And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge [p]Whether
Bassanio had not once a love. [p]Repent but you that you shall lose
your friend, [p]And he repents not that he pays your debt; [p]For if
the Jew do cut but deep enough, [p]I'll pay it presently with all my
heart.

Bassanio : Antonio, I am married to a wife [p]Which is as dear to me as life
itself; [p]But life itself, my wife, and all the world, [p]Are not
with me esteem'd above thy life: [p]I would lose all, ay, sacrifice
them all [p]Here to this devil, to deliver you.

Portia : Your wife would give you little thanks for that, [p]If she were by, to
hear you make the offer.

Gratiano : I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love: [p]I would she were in heaven,
so she could [p]Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.

Nerissa : 'Tis well you offer it behind her back; [p]The wish would make else an
unquiet house.

Shylock : These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter; [p]Would any of
the stock of Barrabas [p]Had been her husband rather than a
Christian! [p][Aside] [p]We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue
sentence.

Portia : A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine: [p]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: [p]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. [p]This bond doth give thee
here no jot of blood; [p]The words expressly are 'a pound of
flesh:' [p]Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; [p]But,
in the cutting it, if thou dost shed [p]One drop of Christian blood,
thy lands and goods [p]Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate [p]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: [p]For, as thou urgest justice, be
assured [p]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 [p]And let the Christian
go.

Bassanio : Here is the money.

Portia : Soft! [p]The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste: [p]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. [p]Shed thou no blood,
nor cut thou less nor more [p]But just a pound of flesh: if thou
cut'st more [p]Or less than a just pound, be it but so much [p]As
makes it light or heavy in the substance, [p]Or the division of the
twentieth part [p]Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do
turn [p]But in the estimation of a hair, [p]Thou diest and all thy
goods are confiscate.

Gratiano : A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew! [p]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: [p]He shall have merely justice
and his bond.

Gratiano : A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel! [p]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, [p]To be so taken at thy
peril, Jew.

Shylock : Why, then the devil give him good of it! [p]I'll stay no longer
question.

Portia : Tarry, Jew: [p]The law hath yet another hold on you. [p]It is enacted
in the laws of Venice, [p]If it be proved against an alien [p]That by
direct or indirect attempts [p]He seek the life of any citizen, [p]The
party 'gainst the which he doth contrive [p]Shall seize one half his
goods; the other half [p]Comes to the privy coffer of the
state; [p]And the offender's life lies in the mercy [p]Of the duke
only, 'gainst all other voice. [p]In which predicament, I say, thou
stand'st; [p]For it appears, by manifest proceeding, [p]That
indirectly and directly too [p]Thou hast contrived against the very
life [p]Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd [p]The danger
formerly by me rehearsed. [p]Down therefore and beg mercy of the
duke.

Gratiano : Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself: [p]And yet, thy wealth
being forfeit to the state, [p]Thou hast not left the value of a
cord; [p]Therefore thou must be hang'd at the state's charge.

Duke : That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits, [p]I pardon thee
thy life before thou ask it: [p]For half thy wealth, it is
Antonio's; [p]The other half comes to the general state, [p]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: [p]You take my house when
you do take the prop [p]That doth sustain my house; you take my
life [p]When you do take the means whereby I live.

Portia : What mercy can you render him, Antonio?

Gratiano : A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's sake.

Antonio : So please my lord the duke and all the court [p]To quit the fine for
one half of his goods, [p]I am content; so he will let me have [p]The
other half in use, to render it, [p]Upon his death, unto the
gentleman [p]That lately stole his daughter: [p]Two things provided
more, that, for this favour, [p]He presently become a
Christian; [p]The other, that he do record a gift, [p]Here in the
court, of all he dies possess'd, [p]Unto his son Lorenzo and his
daughter.

Duke : He shall do this, or else I do recant [p]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; [p]I am not well: send the
deed after me, [p]And I will sign it.

Duke : Get thee gone, but do it.

Gratiano : In christening shalt thou have two god-fathers: [p]Had I been judge,
thou shouldst have had ten more, [p]To bring thee to the gallows, not
the font.

Duke : Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner.

Portia : I humbly do desire your grace of pardon: [p]I must away this night
toward Padua, [p]And it is meet I presently set forth.

Duke : I am sorry that your leisure serves you not. [p]Antonio, gratify this
gentleman, [p]For, in my mind, you are much bound to him.

Bassanio : Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend [p]Have by your wisdom been
this day acquitted [p]Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof, [p]Three
thousand ducats, due unto the Jew, [p]We freely cope your courteous
pains withal.

Antonio : And stand indebted, over and above, [p]In love and service to you
evermore.

Portia : He is well paid that is well satisfied; [p]And I, delivering you, am
satisfied [p]And therein do account myself well paid: [p]My mind was
never yet more mercenary. [p]I pray you, know me when we meet
again: [p]I wish you well, and so I take my leave.

Bassanio : Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further: [p]Take some
remembrance of us, as a tribute, [p]Not as a fee: grant me two things,
I pray you, [p]Not to deny me, and to pardon me.

Portia : You press me far, and therefore I will yield. [p][To ANTONIO] [p]Give
me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake; [p][To BASSANIO] [p]And,
for your love, I'll take this ring from you: [p]Do not draw back your
hand; I'll take no more; [p]And you in love shall not deny me this.

Bassanio : This ring, good sir, alas, it is a trifle! [p]I will not shame myself
to give you this.

Portia : I will have nothing else but only this; [p]And now methinks I have a
mind to it.

Bassanio : There's more depends on this than on the value. [p]The dearest ring in
Venice will I give you, [p]And find it out by proclamation: [p]Only
for this, I pray you, pardon me.

Portia : I see, sir, you are liberal in offers [p]You taught me first to beg;
and now methinks [p]You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd.

Bassanio : Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife; [p]And when she put it
on, she made me vow [p]That I should neither sell nor give nor lose
it.

Portia : That 'scuse serves many men to save their gifts. [p]An if your wife be
not a mad-woman, [p]And know how well I have deserved the ring, [p]She
would not hold out enemy for ever, [p]For giving it to me. Well, peace
be with you!

Antonio : My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring: [p]Let his deservings and my
love withal [p]Be valued against your wife's commandment.

Bassanio : Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him; [p]Give him the ring, and bring
him, if thou canst, [p]Unto Antonio's house: away! make
haste. [p][Exit Gratiano] [p]Come, you and I will thither
presently; [p]And in the morning early will we both [p]Fly toward
Belmont: come, Antonio.

Previous: Act 3 - Scene 5

Next: Act 4 - Scene 2

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