Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Act 5 - Scene 1

Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA’S house.

Lorenzo : The moon shines bright: in such a night as this, [p]When the sweet
wind did gently kiss the trees [p]And they did make no noise, in such
a night [p]Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls [p]And sigh'd his
soul toward the Grecian tents, [p]Where Cressid lay that night.

Jessica : In such a night [p]Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew [p]And saw
the lion's shadow ere himself [p]And ran dismay'd away.

Lorenzo : In such a night [p]Stood Dido with a willow in her hand [p]Upon the
wild sea banks and waft her love [p]To come again to Carthage.

Jessica : In such a night [p]Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs [p]That did
renew old AEson.

Lorenzo : In such a night [p]Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew [p]And with
an unthrift love did run from Venice [p]As far as Belmont.

Jessica : In such a night [p]Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her
well, [p]Stealing her soul with many vows of faith [p]And ne'er a true
one.

Lorenzo : In such a night [p]Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, [p]Slander
her love, and he forgave it her.

Jessica : I would out-night you, did no body come; [p]But, hark, I hear the
footing of a man.

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 [p]My mistress will before the
break of day [p]Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about [p]By holy
crosses, where she kneels and prays [p]For happy wedlock hours.

Lorenzo : Who comes with her?

Stephano : None but a holy hermit and her maid. [p]I pray you, is my master yet
return'd?

Lorenzo : He is not, nor we have not heard from him. [p]But go we in, I pray
thee, Jessica, [p]And ceremoniously let us prepare [p]Some welcome for
the mistress of the house.

Launcelot Gobbo : Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!

Lorenzo : Who calls?

Launcelot Gobbo : Sola! did you see Master Lorenzo? [p]Master Lorenzo, sola, sola!

Lorenzo : Leave hollaing, man: here.

Launcelot Gobbo : Sola! where? where?

Lorenzo : Here.

Launcelot Gobbo : Tell him there's a post come from my master, with [p]his horn full of
good news: my master will be here [p]ere morning.

Lorenzo : Sweet soul, let's in, and there expect their coming. [p]And yet no
matter: why should we go in? [p]My friend Stephano, signify, I pray
you, [p]Within the house, your mistress is at hand; [p]And bring your
music forth into the air. [p][Exit Stephano] [p]How sweet the
moonlight sleeps upon this bank! [p]Here will we sit and let the
sounds of music [p]Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the
night [p]Become the touches of sweet harmony. [p]Sit, Jessica. Look
how the floor of heaven [p]Is thick inlaid with patines of bright
gold: [p]There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st [p]But in
his motion like an angel sings, [p]Still quiring to the young-eyed
cherubins; [p]Such harmony is in immortal souls; [p]But whilst this
muddy vesture of decay [p]Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear
it. [p][Enter Musicians] [p]Come, ho! and wake Diana with a
hymn! [p]With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear, [p]And draw
her home with music.

Jessica : I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

Lorenzo : The reason is, your spirits are attentive: [p]For do but note a wild
and wanton herd, [p]Or race of youthful and unhandled
colts, [p]Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud, [p]Which
is the hot condition of their blood; [p]If they but hear perchance a
trumpet sound, [p]Or any air of music touch their ears, [p]You shall
perceive them make a mutual stand, [p]Their savage eyes turn'd to a
modest gaze [p]By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet [p]Did
feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods; [p]Since nought so
stockish, hard and full of rage, [p]But music for the time doth change
his nature. [p]The man that hath no music in himself, [p]Nor is not
moved with concord of sweet sounds, [p]Is fit for treasons, stratagems
and spoils; [p]The motions of his spirit are dull as night [p]And his
affections dark as Erebus: [p]Let no such man be trusted. Mark the
music.

Portia : That light we see is burning in my hall. [p]How far that little candle
throws his beams! [p]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: [p]A substitute shines
brightly as a king [p]Unto the king be by, and then his
state [p]Empties itself, as doth an inland brook [p]Into the main of
waters. Music! hark!

Nerissa : It is your music, madam, of the house.

Portia : Nothing is good, I see, without respect: [p]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, [p]When neither is
attended, and I think [p]The nightingale, if she should sing by
day, [p]When every goose is cackling, would be thought [p]No better a
musician than the wren. [p]How many things by season season'd
are [p]To their right praise and true perfection! [p]Peace, ho! the
moon sleeps with Endymion [p]And would not be awaked.

Lorenzo : That is the voice, [p]Or I am much deceived, of Portia.

Portia : He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo, [p]By the bad voice.

Lorenzo : Dear lady, welcome home.

Portia : We have been praying for our husbands' healths, [p]Which speed, we
hope, the better for our words. [p]Are they return'd?

Lorenzo : Madam, they are not yet; [p]But there is come a messenger
before, [p]To signify their coming.

Portia : Go in, Nerissa; [p]Give order to my servants that they take [p]No note
at all of our being absent hence; [p]Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor
you.

Lorenzo : Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet: [p]We are no tell-tales,
madam; fear you not.

Portia : This night methinks is but the daylight sick; [p]It looks a little
paler: 'tis a day, [p]Such as the day is when the sun is
hid. [p][Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and] [p]their followers]

Bassanio : We should hold day with the Antipodes, [p]If you would walk in absence
of the sun.

Portia : Let me give light, but let me not be light; [p]For a light wife doth
make a heavy husband, [p]And never be Bassanio so for me: [p]But God
sort all! You are welcome home, my lord.

Bassanio : I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend. [p]This is the man,
this is Antonio, [p]To whom I am so infinitely bound.

Portia : You should in all sense be much bound to him. [p]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: [p]It must appear in other
ways than words, [p]Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.

Gratiano : [To NERISSA] By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong; [p]In faith, I
gave it to the judge's clerk: [p]Would he were gelt that had it, for
my part, [p]Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

Portia : A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter?

Gratiano : About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring [p]That she did give me, whose
posy was [p]For all the world like cutler's poetry [p]Upon a knife,
'Love me, and leave me not.'

Nerissa : What talk you of the posy or the value? [p]You swore to me, when I did
give it you, [p]That you would wear it till your hour of death [p]And
that it should lie with you in your grave: [p]Though not for me, yet
for your vehement oaths, [p]You should have been respective and have
kept it. [p]Gave it a judge's clerk! no, God's my judge, [p]The clerk
will ne'er wear hair on's 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, [p]A kind of boy, a little
scrubbed boy, [p]No higher than thyself; the judge's clerk, [p]A
prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee: [p]I could not for my heart deny
it him.

Portia : You were to blame, I must be plain with you, [p]To part so slightly
with your wife's first gift: [p]A thing stuck on with oaths upon your
finger [p]And so riveted with faith unto your flesh. [p]I gave my love
a ring and made him swear [p]Never to part with it; and here he
stands; [p]I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it [p]Nor pluck
it from his finger, for the wealth [p]That the world masters. Now, in
faith, Gratiano, [p]You give your wife too unkind a cause of
grief: [p]An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

Bassanio : [Aside] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off [p]And swear I lost
the ring defending it.

Gratiano : My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away [p]Unto the judge that begg'd it
and indeed [p]Deserved it too; and then the boy, his clerk, [p]That
took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine; [p]And neither man nor
master would take aught [p]But the two rings.

Portia : What ring gave you my lord? [p]Not that, I hope, which you received of
me.

Bassanio : If I could add a lie unto a fault, [p]I would deny it; but you see my
finger [p]Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone.

Portia : Even so void is your false heart of truth. [p]By heaven, I will ne'er
come in your bed [p]Until I see the ring.

Nerissa : Nor I in yours [p]Till I again see mine.

Bassanio : Sweet Portia, [p]If you did know to whom I gave the ring, [p]If you
did know for whom I gave the ring [p]And would conceive for what I
gave the ring [p]And how unwillingly I left the ring, [p]When nought
would be accepted but the ring, [p]You would abate the strength of
your displeasure.

Portia : If you had known the virtue of the ring, [p]Or half her worthiness
that gave the ring, [p]Or your own honour to contain the ring, [p]You
would not then have parted with the ring. [p]What man is there so much
unreasonable, [p]If you had pleased to have defended it [p]With any
terms of zeal, wanted the modesty [p]To urge the thing held as a
ceremony? [p]Nerissa teaches me what to believe: [p]I'll die for't but
some woman had the ring.

Bassanio : No, by my honour, madam, by my soul, [p]No woman had it, but a civil
doctor, [p]Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me [p]And begg'd
the ring; the which I did deny him [p]And suffer'd him to go
displeased away; [p]Even he that did uphold the very life [p]Of my
dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady? [p]I was enforced to send
it after him; [p]I was beset with shame and courtesy; [p]My honour
would not let ingratitude [p]So much besmear it. Pardon me, good
lady; [p]For, by these blessed candles of the night, [p]Had you been
there, I think you would have begg'd [p]The ring of me to give the
worthy doctor.

Portia : Let not that doctor e'er come near my house: [p]Since he hath got the
jewel that I loved, [p]And that which you did swear to keep for
me, [p]I will become as liberal as you; [p]I'll not deny him any thing
I have, [p]No, not my body nor my husband's bed: [p]Know him I shall,
I am well sure of it: [p]Lie not a night from home; watch me like
Argus: [p]If you do not, if I be left alone, [p]Now, by mine honour,
which is yet mine own, [p]I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow.

Nerissa : And I his clerk; therefore be well advised [p]How you do leave me to
mine own protection.

Gratiano : Well, do you so; let not me take him, then; [p]For if I do, I'll mar
the young clerk's 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; [p]And, in the hearing of
these many friends, [p]I swear to thee, even by thine own fair
eyes, [p]Wherein I see myself--

Portia : Mark you but that! [p]In both my eyes he doubly sees himself; [p]In
each eye, one: swear by your double self, [p]And there's an oath of
credit.

Bassanio : Nay, but hear me: [p]Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear [p]I
never more will break an oath with thee.

Antonio : I once did lend my body for his wealth; [p]Which, but for him that had
your husband's ring, [p]Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound
again, [p]My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord [p]Will never more
break faith advisedly.

Portia : Then you shall be his surety. Give him this [p]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; [p]For, by this ring, the doctor
lay with me.

Nerissa : And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano; [p]For that same scrubbed boy, the
doctor's clerk, [p]In lieu of this last night did lie with me.

Gratiano : Why, this is like the mending of highways [p]In summer, where the ways
are fair enough: [p]What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?

Portia : Speak not so grossly. You are all amazed: [p]Here is a letter; read it
at your leisure; [p]It comes from Padua, from Bellario: [p]There you
shall find that Portia was the doctor, [p]Nerissa there her clerk:
Lorenzo here [p]Shall witness I set forth as soon as you [p]And even
but now return'd; I have not yet [p]Enter'd my house. Antonio, you are
welcome; [p]And I have better news in store for you [p]Than you
expect: unseal this letter soon; [p]There you shall find three of your
argosies [p]Are richly come to harbour suddenly: [p]You shall not know
by what strange accident [p]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, [p]Unless he live until
he be a man.

Bassanio : Sweet doctor, you shall be my bed-fellow: [p]When I am absent, then
lie with my wife.

Antonio : Sweet lady, you have given me life and living; [p]For here I read for
certain that my ships [p]Are safely come to road.

Portia : How now, Lorenzo! [p]My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.

Nerissa : Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee. [p]There do I give to you
and Jessica, [p]From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, [p]After
his death, of all he dies possess'd of.

Lorenzo : Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way [p]Of starved people.

Portia : It is almost morning, [p]And yet I am sure you are not satisfied [p]Of
these events at full. Let us go in; [p]And charge us there upon
inter'gatories, [p]And we will answer all things faithfully.

Gratiano : Let it be so: the first inter'gatory [p]That my Nerissa shall be sworn
on is, [p]Whether till the next night she had rather stay, [p]Or go to
bed now, being two hours to day: [p]But were the day come, I should
wish it dark, [p]That I were couching with the doctor's
clerk. [p]Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing [p]So sore as
keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

Previous: Act 4 - Scene 2

Next: Act 5 - Scene 1

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