THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

	Scene I Venice. A street
	Scene II: Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house
	Scene III Venice. A public place

Act II

	Scene I Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house
	Scene II Venice. A street
	Scene III The same. A room in SHYLOCK'S house
	Scene IV The same. A street
	Scene V The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house
	Scene VI The same
	Scene VII Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house
	Scene VIII Venice. A street
	Scene IX Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house

Act III

	Scene I Venice. A street
	Scene II Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house
	Scene III Venice. A street
	Scene IV Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house
	Scene V The same. A garden

Act IV

	Scene I Venice. A court of justice
	Scene II The same. A street

Act V

Scene I Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA'S house

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The DUKE OF VENICE (DUKE:)
The PRINCE OF MOROCCO (MOROCCO:) The PRINCE OF ARRAGON (ARRAGON:)	) ) ) suitors to Portia ) )
ANTONIO	a merchant of Venice
BASSANIO	his friend, suitor likewise to Portia
SALANIO SALARINO GRATIANO SALERIO)	) ) friends to Antonio and Bassanio ) )
LORENZO	in love with Jessica
SHYLOCK	a rich Jew
TUBAL	a Jew, his friend
LAUNCELOT GOBBO	the clown, servant to SHYLOCK (LAUNCELOT:)
OLD GOBBO	father to Launcelot (GOBBO:)
LEONARDO	servant to BASSANIO
BALTHASAA & STEPHANO	servants to PORTIA
PORTIA	a rich heiress
NERISSA	her waiting-maid
JESSICA	daughter to SHYLOCK
	Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants to Portia, and other attendants (Servant:) (Clerk:)

Scene

Partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of PORTIA, on the Continent

Act I

Scene I 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 want-wit 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 hour-glass run, But I should think of shallows and of flats, And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand, Vailing her high-top 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 vessel's 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 two-headed Janus, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time: Some that will evermore peep through their eyes And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper, And other of such vinegar aspect That they'll 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 stay'd 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	We'll 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 dinner-time, 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 dress'd 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. I'll 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: I'll end my exhortation after dinner.
LORENZO	Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time: 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: I'll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO	Thanks, i' faith, for silence is only commendable In a neat's 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 to-day 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 unlock'd to your occasions.
BASSANIO	In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same 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 Cato's 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 know'st 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 rack'd, 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]

Scene II: Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S 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 men's 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 o'er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er 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, over-name 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, that's 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 death's-head 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 Neapolitan's, 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 man's picture, but, alas, who can converse with a dumb-show? 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 Saxony's 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 father's 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 I'll 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 father's 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 father's 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 father's 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 Serving-man]
	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 to-night.
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]

Scene III 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 land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, 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 well-won 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, I'll break a custom. Is he yet possess'd 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 Laban's 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 streak'd and pied Should fall as Jacob's 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 peel'd 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 parti-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's. 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 sway'd and fashion'd 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, cut-throat 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 bondman's key, With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this; 'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; You spurn'd me such a day; another time You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies I'll 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 stain'd me with, Supply your present wants and take no doit Of usance for my moneys, and you'll 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 Express'd 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: I'll 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: I'll rather dwell in my necessity.
ANTONIO	Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it: Within these two months, that's 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 man's 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 notary's; 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 villain's mind.
ANTONIO	Come on: in this there can be no dismay; My ships come home a month before the day.
	[Exeunt]

Act II

Scene I Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S 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 shadow'd livery of the burnish'd 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 fear'd the valiant: by my love I swear The best-regarded 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 maiden's 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 look'd 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 she-bear, 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 cursed'st among men.
	[Cornets, and exeunt]

Scene II 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 man's son,' or rather an honest woman's 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 Jew's?
LAUNCELOT	[Aside] O heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not: I will try confusions with him.
GOBBO	Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way to master Jew's?
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 Jew's house.
GOBBO	By God's 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 man's 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 worship's 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, an't 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 hovel-post, 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 sand-blind; 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 man's 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, let's 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 Jew's man, and I am sure Margery your wife is my mother.
GOBBO	Her name is Margery, indeed: I'll 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 fill-horse has on his tail.
LAUNCELOT	It should seem, then, that Dobbin's 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 master's 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	Here's my son, sir, a poor boy,--
LAUNCELOT	Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's 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 worship's reverence, are scarce cater-cousins--
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 obtain'd thy suit: Shylock thy master spoke with me this day, And hath preferr'd thee, if it be preferment To leave a rich Jew's 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 speak'st 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 ne'er 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, here's a simple line of life: here's a small trifle of wives: alas, fifteen wives is nothing! eleven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man: and then to 'scape drowning thrice, and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed; here are simple scapes. Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear. Father, come; I'll 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 bestow'd, Return in haste, for I do feast to-night My best-esteem'd 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 obtain'd 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 prayer-books 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 to-night: you shall not gauge me By what we do to-night.
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 supper-time.
	[Exeunt]

Scene III The same. A room in SHYLOCK'S 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 master's 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 father's 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]

Scene IV The same. A street

	[Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALARINO, and SALANIO]
LORENZO	Nay, we will slink away in supper-time, 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 order'd, And better in my mind not undertook.
LORENZO	'Tis now but four o'clock: we have two hours To furnish us.
	[Enter LAUNCELOT, with a letter]
	Friend Launcelot, what's 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	Love-news, in faith.
LAUNCELOT	By your leave, sir.
LORENZO	Whither goest thou?
LAUNCELOT	Marry, sir, to bid my old master the Jew to sup to-night 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 torch-bearer.
SALANIO	Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight.
SALANIO	And so will I.
LORENZO	Meet me and Gratiano At Gratiano's 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 father's house, What gold and jewels she is furnish'd with, What page's suit she hath in readiness. If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven, It will be for his gentle daughter's 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 torch-bearer.
	[Exeunt]

Scene V The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house

	[Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT]
SHYLOCK	Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:-- What, Jessica!--thou shalt not gormandise, As thou hast done with me:--What, 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 I'll 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 a-brewing towards my rest, For I did dream of money-bags to-night.
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 a-bleeding on Black-Monday last at six o'clock i' the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday 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 wry-neck'd fife, Clamber not you up to the casements then, Nor thrust your head into the public street To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces, But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements: Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter My sober house. By Jacob's staff, I swear, I have no mind of feasting forth to-night: 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 Hagar's offspring, ha?
JESSICA	His words were 'Farewell mistress;' nothing else.
SHYLOCK	The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder; Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day More than the wild-cat: drones hive not with me; Therefore I part with him, and part with him To one that would have him help to waste His borrow'd 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]

Scene VI The same

	[Enter GRATIANO and SALARINO, masqued]
GRATIANO	This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo Desired us to make stand.
SALARINO	His hour is almost past.
GRATIANO	And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour, For lovers ever run before the clock.
SALARINO	O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly To seal love's bonds new-made, 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 enjoy'd. How like a younker or a prodigal The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind! How like the prodigal doth she return, With over-weather'd ribs and ragged sails, Lean, rent and beggar'd 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, I'll watch as long for you then. Approach; Here dwells my father Jew. Ho! who's within?
	[Enter JESSICA, above, in boy's clothes]
JESSICA	Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty, Albeit I'll 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, good-sooth, 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 stay'd for at Bassanio's 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	Who's there?
GRATIANO	Signior Antonio!
ANTONIO	Fie, fie, Gratiano! where are all the rest? 'Tis nine o'clock: our friends all stay for you. No masque to-night: the wind is come about; Bassanio presently will go aboard: I have sent twenty out to seek for you.
GRATIANO	I am glad on't: I desire no more delight Than to be under sail and gone to-night.
	[Exeunt]

Scene VII Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S 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; I'll 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 be'st 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, that's 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 stray'd no further, but chose here? Let's see once more this saying graved in gold 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.' Why, that's the lady; all the world desires her; From the four corners of the earth they come, To kiss this shrine, this mortal-breathing 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 o'er a brook, to see fair Portia. One of these three contains her heavenly picture. Is't 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 she's 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 that's insculp'd 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! I'll 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 inscroll'd: 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]

Scene VIII 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 Bassanio's 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 remember'd. I reason'd 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 wish'd 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 answer'd, 'Do not so; Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio But stay the very riping of the time; And for the Jew's 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 Bassanio's 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]

Scene IX Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house

	[Enter NERISSA with a Servitor]
NERISSA	Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight: The Prince of Arragon hath ta'en 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 contain'd, 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 enjoin'd 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 address'd me. Fortune now To my heart's 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 treasure-house; 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 glean'd From the true seed of honour! and how much honour Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times To be new-varnish'd! 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	What's 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 fool's 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 shadow's bliss: There be fools alive, I wis, Silver'd o'er; 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 fool's head I came to woo, But I go away with two. Sweet, adieu. I'll 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 fore-spurrer 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 spend'st such high-day wit in praising him. Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see Quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly.
NERISSA	Bassanio, lord Love, if thy will it be!
	[Exeunt]

Act III

Scene I Venice. A street

	[Enter SALANIO and SALARINO]
SALANIO	Now, what news on the Rialto?
SALARINO	Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd 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 Antonio,--O 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 daughter's flight.
SALARINO	That's 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	That's 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: what's 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 what's 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 what's 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. Is't true, is't 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 Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.
SHYLOCK	I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll 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, that's true, that's 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]

Scene II Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S 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. There's 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, you'll make me wish a sin, That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes, They have o'erlook'd 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 I'll 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 lock'd 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 swan-like end, Fading in music: that the comparison May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream And watery death-bed for him. He may win; And what is music then? Then music is Even as the flourish when true subjects bow To a new-crowned monarch: such it is As are those dulcet sounds in break of day That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's 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 sea-monster: 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 engender'd in the eyes, With gazing fed; and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies. Let us all ring fancy's knell I'll begin it,--Ding, 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 search'd, have livers white as milk; And these assume but valour's 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 rash-embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-eyed 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 Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? Or whether, riding on the balls of mine, Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd 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 unfurnish'd. 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. Here's the scroll, The continent and summary of my fortune.
	[Reads]

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Contents