THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Act 5 Scene 1

(Enter Lorenzo and Jessica)
l1l	Lorenzo	 The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,
l2l		When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
l3l		And they did make no noise—in such a night
l4l		Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan walls,
l5l		And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents
l6l		Where Cressid lay that night.
	Jessica	In such a night
l7l		Did Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew
l8l		And saw the lion’s shadow ere himself,
l9l		And ran dismayed away.
	Lorenzo	In such a night
l10l		Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
l11l		Upon the wild sea banks, and waft her love
l12l		To come again to Carthage.
	Jessica	In such a night
l13l		Medea gatherèd the enchanted herbs
l14l		That did renew old Aeson.
	Lorenzo	In such a night
l15l		Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew,
l16l		And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
l17l		As far as Belmont.
	Jessica	In such a night
l18l		Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
l19l		Stealing her soul with many vows of faith,
l20l		And ne’er a true one.
	Lorenzo	In such a night
l21l		Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,
l22l		Slander her love, and he forgave it her.
l23l	Jessica	I would outnight you, did nobody come.
l24l		But hark, I hear the footing of a man.
		(Enter Stefano, a messenger)
l25l	Lorenzo	 Who comes so fast in silence of the night?
l26l	Stefano	A friend.
l27l	Lorenzo	A friend—what friend? Your name, I pray you, friend?
l28l	Stefano	Stefano is my name, and I bring word
l29l		My mistress will before the break of day
l30l		Be here at Belmont. She doth stray about
l31l		By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
l32l		For happy wedlock hours.
	Lorenzo	Who comes with her?
l33l	Stefano	None but a holy hermit and her maid.
l34l		I pray you, is my master yet returned?
l35l	Lorenzo	He is not, nor we have not heard from him.
l36l		But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,
l37l		And ceremoniously let us prepare
l38l		Some welcome for the mistress of the house.
		(Enter Lancelot, the clown)
l39l	Lancelot	(calling)
		 Sola, sola! Wo, ha, ho! Sola, sola!
l40l	Lorenzo	Who calls?
l41l	Lancelot	(calling)
		 Sola!—Did you see Master Lorenzo?
l42l		(Calling)
		 Master Lorenzo! Sola, sola!
l43l	Lorenzo	Leave hollering, man: here.
l44l	Lancelot	(calling)
		 Sola! —Where, where?
l45l	Lorenzo	Here.
l46l	Lancelot	Tell him there’s a post come from my master
l47l		with his horn full of good news. My master will be here
l48l		ere morning.
		(Exit)
l49l	Lorenzo	(to Jessica)
		 Sweet soul, let’s in, and there expect their coming.
l50l		And yet no matter. Why should we go in?
l51l		My friend Stefano, signify, I pray you,
l52l		Within the house your mistress is at hand,
l53l		And bring your music forth into the air.
		(Exit Stefano)
l54l		How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
l55l		Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
l56l		Creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night
l57l		Become the touches of sweet harmony.
l58l		Sit, Jessica.
		(They sit)
		 Look how the floor of heaven
l59l		Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.
l60l		There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
l61l		But in his motion like an angel sings,
l62l		Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubins.
l63l		Such harmony is in immortal souls,
l64l		But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
l65l		Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
		(Enter Musicians)
l66l		(To the Musicians)
		 Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn.
l67l		With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear,
l68l		And draw her home with music.
		(The Musicians play)
l69l	Jessica	 I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
l70l	Lorenzo	The reason is your spirits are attentive,
l71l		For do but note a wild and wanton herd
l72l		Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
l73l		Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
l74l		Which is the hot condition of their blood,
l75l		If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
l76l		Or any air of music touch their ears,
l77l		You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
l78l		Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze
l79l		By the sweet power of music. Therefore the poet
l80l		Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods,
l81l		Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage
l82l		But music for the time doth change his nature.
l83l		The man that hath no music in himself,
l84l		Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
l85l		Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
l86l		The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
l87l		And his affections dark as Erebus.
l88l		Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.
		(Enter Portia and Nerissa, as themselves)
l89l	Portia	 That light we see is burning in my hall.
l90l		How far that little candle throws his beams—
l91l		So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
l92l	Nerissa	When the moon shone we did not see the candle.
l93l	Portia	So doth the greater glory dim the less.
l94l		A substitute shines brightly as a king
l95l		Until a king be by, and then his state
l96l		Empties itself as doth an inland brook
l97l		Into the main of waters. Music, hark.
l98l	Nerissa	It is your music, madam, of the house.
l99l	Portia	Nothing is good, I see, without respect.
l100l		Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.
l101l	Nerissa	Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.
l102l	Portia	The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark
l103l		When neither is attended, and I think
l104l		The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
l105l		When every goose is cackling, would be thought
l106l		No better a musician than the wren.
l107l		How many things by season seasoned are
l108l		To their right praise and true perfection!
		(She sees Lorenzo and Jessica)
l109l		Peace, ho!
		(Music ceases)
		 The moon sleeps with Endymion,
l110l		And would not be awaked.
	Lorenzo	
		(rising)
		 That is the voice,
l111l		Or I am much deceived, of Portia.
l112l	Portia	He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo—
l113l		By the bad voice.
	Lorenzo	Dear lady, welcome home.
l114l	Portia	We have been praying for our husbands’ welfare,
l115l		Which speed we hope the better for our words.
l116l		Are they returned?
	Lorenzo	Madam, they are not yet,
l117l		But there is come a messenger before
l118l		To signify their coming.
	Portia	Go in, Nerissa.
l119l		Give order to my servants that they take
l120l		No note at all of our being absent hence#
l121l		Nor you, Lorenzo# Jessica, nor you.
		(A tucket sounds)
l122l	Lorenzo	 Your husband is at hand. I hear his trumpet.
l123l		We are no tell-tales, madam. Fear you not.
l124l	Portia	This night, methinks, is but the daylight sick.
l125l		It looks a little paler. ’Tis a day
l126l		Such as the day is when the sun is hid.
		(Enter Bassanio, Antonio, Graziano, and their followers. Graziano and Nerissa speak silently to one another)
l127l	Bassanio	 We should hold day with the Antipodes
l128l		If you would walk in absence of the sun.
l129l	Portia	Let me give light, but let me not be light#
l130l		For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,
l131l		And never be Bassanio so for me.
l132l		But God sort all. You are welcome home, my lord.
l133l	Bassanio	I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
l134l		This is the man, this is Antonio,
l135l		To whom I am so infinitely bound.
l136l	Portia	You should in all sense be much bound to him,
l137l		For as I hear he was much bound for you.
l138l	Antonio	No more than I am well acquitted of.
l139l	Portia	Sir, you are very welcome to our house.
l140l		It must appear in other ways than words,
l141l		Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.
l142l	Graziano	(to Nerissa)
		 By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong.
l143l		In faith, I gave it to the judge’s clerk.
l144l		Would he were gelt that had it for my part,
l145l		Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.
l146l	Portia	A quarrel, ho, already! What’s the matter?
l147l	Graziano	About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
l148l		That she did give me, whose posy was
l149l		For all the world like cutlers’ poetry
l150l		Upon a knife—“Love me and leave me not”.
l151l	Nerissa	What talk you of the posy or the value?
l152l		You swore to me when I did give it you
l153l		That you would wear it till your hour of death,
l154l		And that it should lie with you in your grave.
l155l		Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths
l156l		You should have been respective and have kept it.
l157l		Gave it a judge’s clerk?—no, God’s my judge,
l158l		The clerk will ne’er wear hair on ’s face that had it.
l159l	Graziano	He will an if he live to be a man.
l160l	Nerissa	Ay, if a woman live to be a man.
l161l	Graziano	Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
l162l		A kind of boy, a little scrubbèd boy
l163l		No higher than thyself, the judge’s clerk,
l164l		A prating boy that begged it as a fee.
l165l		I could not for my heart deny it him.
l166l	Portia	You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
l167l		To part so slightly with your wife’s first gift,
l168l		A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger,
l169l		And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.
l170l		I gave my love a ring, and made him swear
l171l		Never to part with it# and here he stands.
l172l		I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it,
l173l		Nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth
l174l		That the world masters. Now, in faith, Graziano,
l175l		You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief.
l176l		An ’twere to me, I should be mad at it.
l177l	Bassanio	(aside)
		 Why, I were best to cut my left hand off
l178l		And swear I lost the ring defending it.
l179l	Graziano	(to Portia)
		 My lord Bassanio gave his ring away
l180l		Unto the judge that begged it, and indeed
l181l		Deserved it, too, and then the boy his clerk,
l182l		That took some pains in writing, he begged mine,
l183l		And neither man nor master would take aught
l184l		But the two rings.
	Portia	
		(to Bassanio)
		 What ring gave you, my lord?
l185l		Not that, I hope, which you received of me.
l186l	Bassanio	If I could add a lie unto a fault
l187l		I would deny it# but you see my finger
l188l		Hath not the ring upon it. It is gone.
l189l	Portia	Even so void is your false heart of truth.
l190l		By heaven, I will ne’er come in your bed
l191l		Until I see the ring.
	Nerissa	
		(to Graziano)
		 Nor I in yours
l192l		Till I again see mine.
	Bassanio	Sweet Portia,
l193l		If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
l194l		If you did know for whom I gave the ring,
l195l		And would conceive for what I gave the ring,
l196l		And how unwillingly I left the ring
l197l		When naught would be accepted but the ring,
l198l		You would abate the strength of your displeasure.
l199l	Portia	If you had known the virtue of the ring,
l200l		Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
l201l		Or your own honour to contain the ring,
l202l		You would not then have parted with the ring.
l203l		What man is there so much unreasonable,
l204l		If you had pleased to have defended it
l205l		With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
l206l		To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
l207l		Nerissa teaches me what to believe.
l208l		I’ll die for ’t but some woman had the ring.
l209l	Bassanio	No, by my honour, madam, by my soul,
l210l		No woman had it, but a civil doctor
l211l		Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me,
l212l		And begged the ring, the which I did deny him,
l213l		And suffered him to go displeased away,
l214l		Even he that had held up the very life
l215l		Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?
l216l		I was enforced to send it after him.
l217l		I was beset with shame and courtesy.
l218l		My honour would not let ingratitude
l219l		So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady,
l220l		For by these blessèd candles of the night,
l221l		Had you been there I think you would have begged
l222l		The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.
l223l	Portia	Let not that doctor e’er come near my house.
l224l		Since he hath got the jewel that I loved,
l225l		And that which you did swear to keep for me,
l226l		I will become as liberal as you.
l227l		I’ll not deny him anything I have,
l228l		No, not my body nor my husband’s bed.
l229l		Know him I shall, I am well sure of it.
l230l		Lie not a night from home. Watch me like Argus.
l231l		If you do not, if I be left alone,
l232l		Now by mine honour, which is yet mine own,
l233l		I’ll have that doctor for my bedfellow.
l234l	Nerissa	(to Graziano)
		 And I his clerk, therefore be well advised
l235l		How you do leave me to mine own protection.
l236l	Graziano	Well, do you so. Let not me take him then,
l237l		For if I do, I’ll mar the young clerk’s pen.
l238l	Antonio	I am th’ unhappy subject of these quarrels.
l239l	Portia	Sir, grieve not you. You are welcome notwithstanding.
l240l	Bassanio	Portia, forgive me this enforcèd wrong,
l241l		And in the hearing of these many friends
l242l		I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
l243l		Wherein I see myself—
	Portia	Mark you but that?
l244l		In both my eyes he doubly sees himself,
l245l		In each eye one. Swear by your double self,
l246l		And there’s an oath of credit.
	Bassanio	Nay, but hear me.
l247l		Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear
l248l		I never more will break an oath with thee.
l249l	Antonio	(to Portia)
		 I once did lend my body for his wealth
l250l		Which, but for him that had your husband’s ring,
l251l		Had quite miscarried. I dare be bound again,
l252l		My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
l253l		Will never more break faith advisedly.
l254l	Portia	Then you shall be his surety. Give him this,
l255l		And bid him keep it better than the other.
l256l	Antonio	Here, Lord Bassanio, swear to keep this ring.
l257l	Bassanio	By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!
l258l	Portia	I had it of him. Pardon me, Bassanio,
l259l		For by this ring, the doctor lay with me.
l260l	Nerissa	And pardon me, my gentle Graziano,
l261l		For that same scrubbèd boy, the doctor’s clerk,
l262l		In lieu of this last night did lie with me.
l263l	Graziano	Why, this is like the mending of highways
l264l		In summer where the ways are fair enough!
l265l		What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?
l266l	Portia	Speak not so grossly. You are all amazed.
l267l		Here is a letter. Read it at your leisure.
l268l		It comes from Padua, from Bellario.
l269l		There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,
l270l		Nerissa there her clerk. Lorenzo here
l271l		Shall witness I set forth as soon as you,
l272l		And even but now returned. I have not yet
l273l		Entered my house. Antonio, you are welcome,
l274l		And I have better news in store for you
l275l		Than you expect. Unseal this letter soon.
l276l		There you shall find three of your argosies
l277l		Are richly come to harbour suddenly.
l278l		You shall not know by what strange accident
l279l		I chancèd on this letter.
	Antonio	I am dumb!
l280l	Bassanio	(to Portia)
		 Were you the doctor and I knew you not?
l281l	Graziano	(to Nerissa)
		 Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?
l282l	Nerissa	Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it
l283l		Unless he live until he be a man.
l284l	Bassanio	(to Portia)
		 Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow.
l285l		When I am absent, then lie with my wife.
l286l	Antonio	(to Portia)
		 Sweet lady, you have given me life and living,
l287l		For here I read for certain that my ships
l288l		Are safely come to road.
	Portia	How now, Lorenzo?
l289l		My clerk hath some good comforts, too, for you.
l290l	Nerissa	Ay, and I’ll give them him without a fee.
l291l		There do I give to you and Jessica
l292l		From the rich Jew a special deed of gift,
l293l		After his death, of all he dies possessed of.
l294l	Lorenzo	Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
l295l		Of starvèd people.
	Portia	It is almost morning,
l296l		And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
l297l		Of these events at full. Let us go in,
l298l		And charge us there upon inter’gatories,
l299l		And we will answer all things faithfully.
l300l	Graziano	Let it be so. The first inter’gatory
l301l		That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is
l302l		Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
l303l		Or go to bed now, being two hours to day.
l304l		But were the day come, I should wish it dark
l305l		Till I were couching with the doctor’s clerk.
l306l		Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing
l307l		So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring.
		(Exeunt)