THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Act 3 Scene 2

(Enter Bassanio, Portia, Nerissa, Graziano, and all their trains. The curtains are drawn aside revealing the three caskets)
l1l	Portia	(to Bassanio)
		 I pray you tarry. Pause a day or two
l2l		Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong
l3l		I lose your company. Therefore forbear a while.
l4l		There’s something tells me—but it is not love—
l5l		I would not lose you# and you know yourself
l6l		Hate counsels not in such a quality.
l7l		But lest you should not understand me well—
l8l		And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought—
l9l		I would detain you here some month or two
l10l		Before you venture for me. I could teach you
l11l		How to choose right, but then I am forsworn.
l12l		So will I never be# so may you miss me.
l13l		But if you do, you’ll make me wish a sin,
l14l		That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
l15l		They have o’erlooked me and divided me.
l16l		One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
l17l		Mine own, I would say, but if mine, then yours,
l18l		And so all yours. O, these naughty times
l19l		Puts bars between the owners and their rights#
l20l		And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
l21l		Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
l22l		I speak too long, but tis to piece the time,
l23l		To eke it, and to draw it out in length
l24l		To stay you from election.
	Bassanio	Let me choose,
l25l		For as I am, I live upon the rack.
l26l	Portia	Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess
l27l		What treason there is mingled with your love.
l28l	Bassanio	None but that ugly treason of mistrust
l29l		Which makes me fear th’ enjoying of my love.
l30l		There may as well be amity and life
l31l		’Tween snow and fire as treason and my love.
l32l	Portia	Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
l33l		Where men enforcèd do speak anything.
l34l	Bassanio	Promise me life and I’ll confess the truth.
l35l	Portia	Well then, confess and live.
	Bassanio	“Confess and love”
l36l		Had been the very sum of my confession.
l37l		O happy torment, when my torturer
l38l		Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
l39l		But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
l40l	Portia	Away then. I am locked in one of them.
l41l		If you do love me, you will find me out.
l42l		Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.
l43l		Let music sound while he doth make his choice.
l44l		Then if he lose he makes a swanlike end,
l45l		Fading in music. That the comparison
l46l		May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
l47l		And wat’ry deathbed for him. He may win,
l48l		And what is music then? Then music is
l49l		Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
l50l		To a new-crownèd monarch. Such it is
l51l		As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
l52l		That creep into the dreaming bridegroom’s ear
l53l		And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
l54l		With no less presence but with much more love
l55l		Than young Alcides when he did redeem
l56l		The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
l57l		To the sea-monster. I stand for sacrifice.
l58l		The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
l59l		With blearèd visages come forth to view
l60l		The issue of th’ exploit. Go, Hercules.
l61l		Live thou, I live. With much much more dismay
l62l		I view the fight than thou that mak’st the fray.
		(Here music. A song the whilst Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself)
l63l	[One From Portia'S Train]	> Tell me where is fancy bred,
l64l		Or in the heart, or in the head?
l65l		How begot, how nourishèd?
l66l	[All]	Reply, reply.
l67l	[One From Portia'S Train]	It is engendered in the eyes,
l68l		With gazing fed# and fancy dies
l69l		In the cradle where it lies.
l70l		Let us all ring fancy’s knell.
l71l		I’ll begin it: ding, dong, bell.
l72l	All	Ding, dong, bell.
l73l	Bassanio	(aside)
		 So may the outward shows be least themselves.
l74l		The world is still deceived with ornament.
l75l		In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
l76l		But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
l77l		Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
l78l		What damnèd error but some sober brow
l79l		Will bless it and approve it with a text,
l80l		Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
l81l		There is no vice so simple but assumes
l82l		Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
l83l		How many cowards whose hearts are all as false
l84l		As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
l85l		The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
l86l		Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk?
l87l		And these assume but valour’s excrement
l88l		To render them redoubted. Look on beauty
l89l		And you shall see ’tis purchased by the weight,
l90l		Which therein works a miracle in nature,
l91l		Making them lightest that wear most of it.
l92l		So are those crispèd, snaky, golden locks
l93l		Which makes such wanton gambols with the wind
l94l		Upon supposèd fairness, often known
l95l		To be the dowry of a second head,
l96l		The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
l97l		Thus ornament is but the guilèd shore
l98l		To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf
l99l		Veiling an Indian beauty# in a word,
l100l		The seeming truth which cunning times put on
l101l		To entrap the wisest.
		(Aloud)
		 Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
l102l		Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee.
l103l		(To the silver casket)
		 Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
l104l		’Tween man and man. But thou, thou meagre lead,
l105l		Which rather threaten’st than dost promise aught,
l106l		Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
l107l		And here choose I. Joy be the consequence!
l108l	Portia	(aside)
		 How all the other passions fleet to air,
l109l		As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
l110l		And shudd’ring fear, and green-eyed jealousy.
l111l		O love, be moderate! Allay thy ecstasy.
l112l		In measure rain thy joy# scant this excess.
l113l		I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
l114l		For fear I surfeit.
		(Bassanio opens the leaden casket)
		
	Bassanio	 What find I here?
l115l		Fair Portia’s counterfeit. What demi-god
l116l		Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
l117l		Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
l118l		Seem they in motion? Here are severed lips
l119l		Parted with sugar breath. So sweet a bar
l120l		Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
l121l		The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
l122l		A golden mesh t’ untrap the hearts of men
l123l		Faster than gnats in cobwebs. But her eyes—
l124l		How could he see to do them? Having made one,
l125l		Methinks it should have power to steal both his
l126l		And leave itself unfurnished. Yet look how far
l127l		The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
l128l		In underprizing it, so far this shadow
l129l		Doth limp behind the substance. Here’s the scroll,
l130l		The continent and summary of my fortune.
l131l		“You that choose not by the view
l132l		Chance as fair and choose as true.
l133l		Since this fortune falls to you,
l134l		Be content, and seek no new.
l135l		If you be well pleased with this,
l136l		And hold your fortune for your bliss,
l137l		Turn you where your lady is,
l138l		And claim her with a loving kiss.”
l139l		A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave,
l140l		I come by note to give and to receive,
l141l		Like one of two contending in a prize,
l142l		That thinks he hath done well in people’s eyes,
l143l		Hearing applause and universal shout,
l144l		Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
l145l		Whether those peals of praise be his or no.
l146l		So, thrice-fair lady, stand I even so,
l147l		As doubtful whether what I see be true
l148l		Until confirmed, signed, ratified by you.
l149l	Portia	You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
l150l		Such as I am. Though for myself alone
l151l		I would not be ambitious in my wish
l152l		To wish myself much better, yet for you
l153l		I would be trebled twenty times myself,
l154l		A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich,
l155l		That only to stand high in your account
l156l		I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
l157l		Exceed account. But the full sum of me
l158l		Is sum of something which, to term in gross,
l159l		Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpractisèd,
l160l		Happy in this, she is not yet so old
l161l		But she may learn# happier than this,
l162l		She is not bred so dull but she can learn#
l163l		Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
l164l		Commits itself to yours to be directed
l165l		As from her lord, her governor, her king.
l166l		Myself and what is mine to you and yours
l167l		Is now converted. But now I was the lord
l168l		Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
l169l		Queen o’er myself# and even now, but now,
l170l		This house, these servants, and this same myself
l171l		Are yours, my lord’s. I give them with this ring,
l172l		Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
l173l		Let it presage the ruin of your love,
l174l		And be my vantage to exclaim on you.
l175l	Bassanio	Madam, you have bereft me of all words.
l176l		Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
l177l		And there is such confusion in my powers
l178l		As after some oration fairly spoke
l179l		By a belovèd prince there doth appear
l180l		Among the buzzing pleasèd multitude,
l181l		Where every something being blent together
l182l		Turns to a wild of nothing save of joy,
l183l		Expressed and not expressed. But when this ring
l184l		Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence.
l185l		O, then be bold to say Bassanio’s dead.
l186l	Nerissa	My lord and lady, it is now our time
l187l		That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper
l188l		To cry “Good joy, good joy, my lord and lady!”
l189l	Graziano	My lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady,
l190l		I wish you all the joy that you can wish,
l191l		For I am sure you can wish none from me.
l192l		And when your honours mean to solemnize
l193l		The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you
l194l		Even at that time I may be married too.
l195l	Bassanio	With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.
l196l	Graziano	I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
l197l		My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours.
l198l		You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid.
l199l		You loved, I loved# for intermission
l200l		No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
l201l		Your fortune stood upon the caskets there,
l202l		And so did mine too, as the matter falls#
l203l		For wooing here until I sweat again,
l204l		And swearing till my very roof was dry
l205l		With oaths of love, at last—if promise last—
l206l		I got a promise of this fair one here
l207l		To have her love, provided that your fortune
l208l		Achieved her mistress.
	Portia	Is this true, Nerissa?
l209l	Nerissa	Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.
l210l	Bassanio	And do you, Graziano, mean good faith?
l211l	Graziano	Yes, faith, my lord.
l212l	Bassanio	Our feast shall be much honoured in your marriage.
l213l	Graziano	(to Nerissa)
		 We’ll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.
l214l	Nerissa	What, and stake down?
l215l	Graziano	No, we shall ne’er win at that sport and stake down.
		( 215 Enter Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio, a messenger from Venice)
l216l		But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel!
l217l		What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio!
l218l	Bassanio	Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither,
l219l		If that the youth of my new int’rest here
l220l		Have power to bid you welcome.
		(To Portia)
		 By your leave,
l221l		I bid my very friends and countrymen,
l222l		Sweet Portia, welcome.
l223l	Portia	So do I, my lord. They are entirely welcome.
l224l	Lorenzo	I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,
l225l		My purpose was not to have seen you here,
l226l		But meeting with Salerio by the way
l227l		He did entreat me past all saying nay
l228l		To come with him along.
	Salerio	I did, my lord,
l229l		And I have reason for it. Signor Antonio
l230l		Commends him to you.
		(He gives Bassanio a letter)
		
	Bassanio	 Ere I ope his letter
l231l		I pray you tell me how my good friend doth.
l232l	Salerio	Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind#
l233l		Nor well, unless in mind. His letter there
l234l		Will show you his estate.
		(Bassanio opens the letter and reads)
l235l	Graziano	 Nerissa,
		(indicating Jessica)
		 cheer yon stranger. Bid her welcome.
l236l		Your hand, Salerio. What’s the news from Venice?
l237l		How doth that royal merchant good Antonio?
l238l		I know he will be glad of our success.
l239l		We are the Jasons# we have won the fleece.
l240l	Salerio	I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.
l241l	Portia	There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper
l242l		That steals the colour from Bassanio’s cheek.
l243l		Some dear friend dead, else nothing in the world
l244l		Could turn so much the constitution
l245l		Of any constant man. What, worse and worse?
l246l		With leave, Bassanio, I am half yourself,
l247l		And I must freely have the half of anything
l248l		That this same paper brings you.
	Bassanio	O sweet Portia,
l249l		Here are a few of the unpleasant’st words
l250l		That ever blotted paper. Gentle lady,
l251l		When I did first impart my love to you
l252l		I freely told you all the wealth I had
l253l		Ran in my veins: I was a gentleman#
l254l		And then I told you true# and yet, dear lady,
l255l		Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
l256l		How much I was a braggart. When I told you
l257l		My state was nothing, I should then have told you
l258l		That I was worse than nothing, for indeed
l259l		I have engaged myself to a dear friend,
l260l		Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,
l261l		To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady,
l262l		The paper as the body of my friend,
l263l		And every word in it a gaping wound
l264l		Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?
l265l		Hath all his ventures failed? What, not one hit?
l266l		From Tripolis, from Mexico, and England,
l267l		From Lisbon, Barbary, and India,
l268l		And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch
l269l		Of merchant-marring rocks?
	Salerio	Not one, my lord.
l270l		Besides, it should appear that if he had
l271l		The present money to discharge the Jew
l272l		He would not take it. Never did I know
l273l		A creature that did bear the shape of man
l274l		So keen and greedy to confound a man.
l275l		He plies the Duke at morning and at night,
l276l		And doth impeach the freedom of the state
l277l		If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants,
l278l		The Duke himself, and the magnificoes
l279l		Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him,
l280l		But none can drive him from the envious plea
l281l		Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond.
l282l	Jessica	When I was with him I have heard him swear
l283l		To Tubal and to Cush, his countrymen,
l284l		That he would rather have Antonio’s flesh
l285l		Than twenty times the value of the sum
l286l		That he did owe him# and I know, my lord,
l287l		If law, authority, and power deny not,
l288l		It will go hard with poor Antonio.
l289l	Portia	(to Bassanio)
		 Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?
l290l	Bassanio	The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
l291l		The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit
l292l		In doing courtesies, and one in whom
l293l		The ancient Roman honour more appears
l294l		Than any that draws breath in Italy.
l295l	Portia	What sum owes he the Jew?
l296l	Bassanio	For me, three thousand ducats.
	Portia	What, no more?
l297l		Pay him six thousand and deface the bond.
l298l		Double six thousand, and then treble that,
l299l		Before a friend of this description
l300l		Shall lose a hair thorough Bassanio’s fault.
l301l		First go with me to church and call me wife,
l302l		And then away to Venice to your friend#
l303l		For never shall you lie by Portia’s side
l304l		With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
l305l		To pay the petty debt twenty times over.
l306l		When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
l307l		My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
l308l		Will live as maids and widows. Come, away,
l309l		For you shall hence upon your wedding day.
l310l		Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer.
l311l		Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
l312l		But let me hear the letter of your friend.
l313l	[Bassanio]	(reads)
		 “Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all
l314l		miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very
l315l		low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit, and since in paying
l316l		it, it is impossible I should live, all debts are cleared
l317l		between you and I if I might but see you at my death.
l318l		Notwithstanding, use your pleasure. If your love do
l319l		not persuade you to come, let not my letter.”
l320l	Portia	 O, love! Dispatch all business, and be gone.
l321l	Bassanio	Since I have your good leave to go away
l322l		I will make haste, but till I come again
l323l		No bed shall e’er be guilty of my stay
l324l		Nor rest be interposer ’twixt us twain.
		(Exeunt)