|
2
[Enter SALANIO and SALARINO]
4
Now, what news on the Rialto?
6
Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
7
a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
8
the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
9
dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
10
a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
11
Report be an honest woman of her word.
13
I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
14
knapped ginger or made her neighbours believe she
15
wept for the death of a third husband. But it is
16
true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the
17
plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the
18
honest Antonio,—O that I had a title good enough
19
to keep his name company!—
23
Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath
26
I would it might prove the end of his losses.
28
Let me say 'amen' betimes, lest the devil cross my
29
prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.
31
How now, Shylock! what news among the merchants?
33
You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my
36
That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor
37
that made the wings she flew withal.
39
And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
40
fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all
45
That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.
47
My own flesh and blood to rebel!
49
Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years?
51
I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.
53
There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
54
than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods
55
than there is between red wine and rhenish. But
56
tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any
59
There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a
60
prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the
61
Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon
62
the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont to
63
call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was
64
wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him
67
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
68
his flesh: what's that good for?
70
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
71
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
72
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
73
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
74
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
75
enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
76
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
77
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
78
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
79
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
80
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
81
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
82
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
83
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
84
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
85
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
86
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
87
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
88
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
89
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
90
will better the instruction.
93
Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
94
desires to speak with you both.
96
We have been up and down to seek him.
99
Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be
100
matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew.
101
[Exeunt SALANIO, SALARINO, and Servant]
103
How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou
106
I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.
108
Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone,
109
cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse
110
never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it
111
till now: two thousand ducats in that; and other
112
precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
113
were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!
114
would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in
115
her coffin! No news of them? Why, so: and I know
116
not what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon
117
loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to
118
find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge:
119
nor no in luck stirring but what lights on my
120
shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
123
Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I
126
What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?
128
Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.
130
I thank God, I thank God. Is't true, is't true?
132
I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.
134
I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news!
135
ha, ha! where? in Genoa?
137
Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one
138
night fourscore ducats.
140
Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
141
gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting!
144
There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my
145
company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.
147
I am very glad of it: I'll plague him; I'll torture
148
him: I am glad of it.
150
One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
151
daughter for a monkey.
153
Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
154
turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:
155
I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.
157
But Antonio is certainly undone.
159
Nay, that's true, that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee
160
me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I
161
will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were
162
he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I
163
will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
164
go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.
1
Belmont. A room in PORTIA’S house.
2
[Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and Attendants]
4
I pray you, tarry: pause a day or two
5
Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
6
I lose your company: therefore forbear awhile.
7
There's something tells me, but it is not love,
8
I would not lose you; and you know yourself,
9
Hate counsels not in such a quality.
10
But lest you should not understand me well,—
11
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,—
12
I would detain you here some month or two
13
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
14
How to choose right, but I am then forsworn;
15
So will I never be: so may you miss me;
16
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
17
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
18
They have o'erlook'd me and divided me;
19
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
20
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
21
And so all yours. O, these naughty times
22
Put bars between the owners and their rights!
23
And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
24
Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
25
I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,
26
To eke it and to draw it out in length,
27
To stay you from election.
30
For as I am, I live upon the rack.
32
Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
33
What treason there is mingled with your love.
35
None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
36
Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
37
There may as well be amity and life
38
'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
40
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
41
Where men enforced do speak anything.
43
Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
45
Well then, confess and live.
48
Had been the very sum of my confession:
49
O happy torment, when my torturer
50
Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
51
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
53
Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:
54
If you do love me, you will find me out.
55
Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.
56
Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
57
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
58
Fading in music: that the comparison
59
May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
60
And watery death-bed for him. He may win;
61
And what is music then? Then music is
62
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
63
To a new-crowned monarch: such it is
64
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
65
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
66
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
67
With no less presence, but with much more love,
68
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
69
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
70
To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice
71
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
72
With bleared visages, come forth to view
73
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
74
Live thou, I live: with much, much more dismay
75
I view the fight than thou that makest the fray.
76
[Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself]
78
Tell me where is fancy bred,
79
Or in the heart, or in the head?
80
How begot, how nourished?
82
It is engender'd in the eyes,
83
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
84
In the cradle where it lies.
85
Let us all ring fancy's knell
86
I'll begin it,—Ding, dong, bell.
90
So may the outward shows be least themselves:
91
The world is still deceived with ornament.
92
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
93
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
94
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
95
What damned error, but some sober brow
96
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
97
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
98
There is no vice so simple but assumes
99
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
100
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
101
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
102
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
103
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
104
And these assume but valour's excrement
105
To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
106
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
107
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
108
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
109
So are those crisped snaky golden locks
110
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
111
Upon supposed fairness, often known
112
To be the dowry of a second head,
113
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
114
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
115
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
116
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
117
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
118
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
119
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
120
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
121
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
122
Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
123
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;
124
And here choose I; joy be the consequence!
126
[Aside]How all the other passions fleet to air,
127
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
128
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love,
129
Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy,
130
In measure rein thy joy; scant this excess.
131
I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
135
[Opening the leaden casket]
136
Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
137
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
138
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
139
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
140
Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar
141
Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
142
The painter plays the spider and hath woven
143
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
144
Faster than gnats in cobwebs; but her eyes,—
145
How could he see to do them? having made one,
146
Methinks it should have power to steal both his
147
And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look, how far
148
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
149
In underprizing it, so far this shadow
150
Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
151
The continent and summary of my fortune.
153
You that choose not by the view,
154
Chance as fair and choose as true!
155
Since this fortune falls to you,
156
Be content and seek no new,
157
If you be well pleased with this
158
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
159
Turn you where your lady is
160
And claim her with a loving kiss.
161
A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
162
I come by note, to give and to receive.
163
Like one of two contending in a prize,
164
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
165
Hearing applause and universal shout,
166
Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
167
Whether these pearls of praise be his or no;
168
So, thrice fair lady, stand I, even so;
169
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
170
Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.
172
You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
173
Such as I am: though for myself alone
174
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
175
To wish myself much better; yet, for you
176
I would be trebled twenty times myself;
177
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich;
178
That only to stand high in your account,
179
I might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends,
180
Exceed account; but the full sum of me
181
Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,
182
Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;
183
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
184
But she may learn; happier than this,
185
She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
186
Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
187
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
188
As from her lord, her governor, her king.
189
Myself and what is mine to you and yours
190
Is now converted: but now I was the lord
191
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
192
Queen o'er myself: and even now, but now,
193
This house, these servants and this same myself
194
Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring;
195
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
196
Let it presage the ruin of your love
197
And be my vantage to exclaim on you.
199
Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
200
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;
201
And there is such confusion in my powers,
202
As after some oration fairly spoke
203
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
204
Among the buzzing pleased multitude;
205
Where every something, being blent together,
206
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,
207
Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring
208
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence:
209
O, then be bold to say Bassanio's dead!
211
My lord and lady, it is now our time,
212
That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper,
213
To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady!
215
My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady,
216
I wish you all the joy that you can wish;
217
For I am sure you can wish none from me:
218
And when your honours mean to solemnize
219
The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
220
Even at that time I may be married too.
222
With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.
224
I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
225
My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
226
You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;
227
You loved, I loved for intermission.
228
No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
229
Your fortune stood upon the casket there,
230
And so did mine too, as the matter falls;
231
For wooing here until I sweat again,
232
And sweating until my very roof was dry
233
With oaths of love, at last, if promise last,
234
I got a promise of this fair one here
235
To have her love, provided that your fortune
236
Achieved her mistress.
238
Is this true, Nerissa?
240
Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.
242
And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
246
Our feast shall be much honour'd in your marriage.
248
We'll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.
250
What, and stake down?
252
No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down.
253
But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel? What,
254
and my old Venetian friend Salerio?
255
[Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO, a Messenger]
258
Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;
259
If that the youth of my new interest here
260
Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,
261
I bid my very friends and countrymen,
262
Sweet Portia, welcome.
265
They are entirely welcome.
267
I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,
268
My purpose was not to have seen you here;
269
But meeting with Salerio by the way,
270
He did entreat me, past all saying nay,
271
To come with him along.
274
And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio
276
[Gives Bassanio a letter]
278
Ere I ope his letter,
279
I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.
281
Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;
282
Nor well, unless in mind: his letter there
283
Will show you his estate.
285
Nerissa, cheer yon stranger; bid her welcome.
286
Your hand, Salerio: what's the news from Venice?
287
How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio?
288
I know he will be glad of our success;
289
We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.
291
I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.
293
There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper,
294
That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek:
295
Some dear friend dead; else nothing in the world
296
Could turn so much the constitution
297
Of any constant man. What, worse and worse!
298
With leave, Bassanio: I am half yourself,
299
And I must freely have the half of anything
300
That this same paper brings you.
303
Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
304
That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
305
When I did first impart my love to you,
306
I freely told you, all the wealth I had
307
Ran in my veins, I was a gentleman;
308
And then I told you true: and yet, dear lady,
309
Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
310
How much I was a braggart. When I told you
311
My state was nothing, I should then have told you
312
That I was worse than nothing; for, indeed,
313
I have engaged myself to a dear friend,
314
Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,
315
To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady;
316
The paper as the body of my friend,
317
And every word in it a gaping wound,
318
Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?
319
Have all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?
320
From Tripolis, from Mexico and England,
321
From Lisbon, Barbary and India?
322
And not one vessel 'scape the dreadful touch
323
Of merchant-marring rocks?
326
Besides, it should appear, that if he had
327
The present money to discharge the Jew,
328
He would not take it. Never did I know
329
A creature, that did bear the shape of man,
330
So keen and greedy to confound a man:
331
He plies the duke at morning and at night,
332
And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
333
If they deny him justice: twenty merchants,
334
The duke himself, and the magnificoes
335
Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him;
336
But none can drive him from the envious plea
337
Of forfeiture, of justice and his bond.
339
When I was with him I have heard him swear
340
To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,
341
That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
342
Than twenty times the value of the sum
343
That he did owe him: and I know, my lord,
344
If law, authority and power deny not,
345
It will go hard with poor Antonio.
347
Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?
349
The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
350
The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit
351
In doing courtesies, and one in whom
352
The ancient Roman honour more appears
353
Than any that draws breath in Italy.
355
What sum owes he the Jew?
357
For me three thousand ducats.
360
Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond;
361
Double six thousand, and then treble that,
362
Before a friend of this description
363
Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault.
364
First go with me to church and call me wife,
365
And then away to Venice to your friend;
366
For never shall you lie by Portia's side
367
With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
368
To pay the petty debt twenty times over:
369
When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
370
My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
371
Will live as maids and widows. Come, away!
372
For you shall hence upon your wedding-day:
373
Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer:
374
Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
375
But let me hear the letter of your friend.
377
[Reads]Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all
378
miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is
379
very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since
380
in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all
381
debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but
382
see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your
383
pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come,
386
O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!
388
Since I have your good leave to go away,
389
I will make haste: but, till I come again,
390
No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay,
391
No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.
2
[Enter SHYLOCK, SALARINO, ANTONIO, and Gaoler]
4
Gaoler, look to him: tell not me of mercy;
5
This is the fool that lent out money gratis:
8
Hear me yet, good Shylock.
10
I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond:
11
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
12
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
13
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:
14
The duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder,
15
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond
16
To come abroad with him at his request.
18
I pray thee, hear me speak.
20
I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
21
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
22
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
23
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
24
To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
25
I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond.
28
It is the most impenetrable cur
29
That ever kept with men.
32
I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.
33
He seeks my life; his reason well I know:
34
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures
35
Many that have at times made moan to me;
36
Therefore he hates me.
39
Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.
41
The duke cannot deny the course of law:
42
For the commodity that strangers have
43
With us in Venice, if it be denied,
44
Will much impeach the justice of his state;
45
Since that the trade and profit of the city
46
Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
47
These griefs and losses have so bated me,
48
That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
49
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
50
Well, gaoler, on. Pray God, Bassanio come
51
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not!
1
Belmont. A room in PORTIA’S house.
2
[Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHASAR]
4
Madam, although I speak it in your presence,
5
You have a noble and a true conceit
6
Of godlike amity; which appears most strongly
7
In bearing thus the absence of your lord.
8
But if you knew to whom you show this honour,
9
How true a gentleman you send relief,
10
How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
11
I know you would be prouder of the work
12
Than customary bounty can enforce you.
14
I never did repent for doing good,
15
Nor shall not now: for in companions
16
That do converse and waste the time together,
17
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke Of love,
18
There must be needs a like proportion
19
Of lineaments, of manners and of spirit;
20
Which makes me think that this Antonio,
21
Being the bosom lover of my lord,
22
Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,
23
How little is the cost I have bestow'd
24
In purchasing the semblance of my soul
25
From out the state of hellish misery!
26
This comes too near the praising of myself;
27
Therefore no more of it: hear other things.
28
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands
29
The husbandry and manage of my house
30
Until my lord's return: for mine own part,
31
I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow
32
To live in prayer and contemplation,
33
Only attended by Nerissa here,
34
Until her husband and my lord's return:
35
There is a monastery two miles off;
36
And there will we abide. I do desire you
37
Not to deny this imposition;
38
The which my love and some necessity
41
Madam, with all my heart;
42
I shall obey you in all fair commands.
44
My people do already know my mind,
45
And will acknowledge you and Jessica
46
In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
47
And so farewell, till we shall meet again.
49
Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
51
I wish your ladyship all heart's content.
53
I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
54
To wish it back on you: fare you well Jessica.
55
[Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO]
57
As I have ever found thee honest-true,
58
So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,
59
And use thou all the endeavour of a man
60
In speed to Padua: see thou render this
61
Into my cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;
62
And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,
63
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined speed
64
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry
65
Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words,
66
But get thee gone: I shall be there before thee.
68
Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
71
Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand
72
That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands
73
Before they think of us.
77
They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,
78
That they shall think we are accomplished
79
With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
80
When we are both accoutred like young men,
81
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
82
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
83
And speak between the change of man and boy
84
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
85
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
86
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
87
How honourable ladies sought my love,
88
Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
89
I could not do withal; then I'll repent,
90
And wish for all that, that I had not killed them;
91
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
92
That men shall swear I have discontinued school
93
Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
94
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
95
Which I will practise.
97
Why, shall we turn to men?
99
Fie, what a question's that,
100
If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!
101
But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
102
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
103
At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
104
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.
2
[Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA]
4
Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father
5
are to be laid upon the children: therefore, I
6
promise ye, I fear you. I was always plain with
7
you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter:
8
therefore be of good cheer, for truly I think you
9
are damned. There is but one hope in it that can do
10
you any good; and that is but a kind of bastard
13
And what hope is that, I pray thee?
15
Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you
16
not, that you are not the Jew's daughter.
18
That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed: so the
19
sins of my mother should be visited upon me.
21
Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and
22
mother: thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I
23
fall into Charybdis, your mother: well, you are
26
I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a
29
Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians
30
enow before; e'en as many as could well live, one by
31
another. This making Christians will raise the
32
price of hogs: if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we
33
shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.
36
I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say: here he comes.
38
I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if
39
you thus get my wife into corners.
41
Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo: Launcelot and I
42
are out. He tells me flatly, there is no mercy for
43
me in heaven, because I am a Jew's daughter: and he
44
says, you are no good member of the commonwealth,
45
for in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the
48
I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than
49
you can the getting up of the negro's belly: the
50
Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.
52
It is much that the Moor should be more than reason:
53
but if she be less than an honest woman, she is
54
indeed more than I took her for.
56
How every fool can play upon the word! I think the
57
best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence,
58
and discourse grow commendable in none only but
59
parrots. Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner.
61
That is done, sir; they have all stomachs.
63
Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid
66
That is done too, sir; only 'cover' is the word.
68
Will you cover then, sir?
70
Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.
72
Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show
73
the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray
74
tree, understand a plain man in his plain meaning:
75
go to thy fellows; bid them cover the table, serve
76
in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.
78
For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the
79
meat, sir, it shall be covered; for your coming in
80
to dinner, sir, why, let it be as humours and
81
conceits shall govern.
84
O dear discretion, how his words are suited!
85
The fool hath planted in his memory
86
An army of good words; and I do know
87
A many fools, that stand in better place,
88
Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
89
Defy the matter. How cheerest thou, Jessica?
90
And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,
91
How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife?
93
Past all expressing. It is very meet
94
The Lord Bassanio live an upright life;
95
For, having such a blessing in his lady,
96
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
97
And if on earth he do not mean it, then
98
In reason he should never come to heaven
99
Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match
100
And on the wager lay two earthly women,
101
And Portia one, there must be something else
102
Pawn'd with the other, for the poor rude world
106
Hast thou of me as she is for a wife.
108
Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.
110
I will anon: first, let us go to dinner.
112
Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach.
114
No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk;
117
Well, I'll set you forth.
|
