Read The Merchant of Venice Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice (8 page)
GRATIANO
That
ever
9
holds: who riseth from a feast
With
that
10
keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth
untread
11
again
His tedious
measures
12
with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chasèd than enjoyed.
How like a
younger
15
or a prodigal
The
scarfèd bark
16
puts from her native bay,
Hugged and embracèd by the
strumpet
17
wind!
How like a prodigal doth she return,
With
over-withered ribs
19
and ragged sails,
Lean,
rent
20
and beggared by the strumpet wind!
Enter Lorenzo
SALERIO
Here comes Lorenzo. More of this hereafter.
LORENZO
Sweet friends,
your
22
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
25
as long for you then. Approach.
Here dwells my
father
26
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
28
.
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
36
.
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The
pretty
38
follies that themselves commit,
For if they could,
Cupid
39
himself would blush
To see me thus transformèd to a boy.
LORENZO
Descend, for you must be my torchbearer.
JESSICA
What, must I
hold a candle to
42
my shames?
They in themselves, good
sooth
43
, are too too light.
Why, ’tis an
office of discovery
44
, love,
And I should be obscured.
LORENZO
So you are, sweet,
Even in the lovely
garnish
47
of a boy.
But come at once,
For the
close
49
night doth play the runaway,
And we are
stayed for
50
at Bassanio’s feast.
JESSICA
I will
make fast
51
the doors and gild myself
With some more ducats, and be with you straight.
[
Exit above
]
GRATIANO
Now, by my hood, a
gentle
53
and no Jew.
LORENZO
Beshrew
54
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
56
,
And
true
57
she is, as she hath proved herself,
And therefore, like herself, wise, fair and true,
Shall she be placèd 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 Salerio
]
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
65
for you.
No masque tonight, the wind
is come about
66
.
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 tonight.
Exeunt
running scene 10
Location: Belmont
[
Flourish of cornets.
]
Enter Portia with
[
the Prince of
]
Morocco and both their
trains
PORTIA
Go, draw aside the curtains and
discover
1
The
several
2
caskets to this noble prince.
Now make your choice.
The curtains are opened
MOROCCO
The first, of gold,
who
4
this inscription bears:
‘
Who
5
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
8
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
12
.
MOROCCO
Some god direct my judgement! Let me see.
I will survey the inscriptions
back
14
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
20
,
I’ll then
nor
21
give nor hazard aught for lead.
What says the silver with her
virgin hue
22
?
‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’
As much as he deserves; pause there, Morocco,
And
weigh
25
thy value with an even hand:
If thou be’st
rated
26
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
30
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 strayed no further, but chose here?
Let’s see once more this saying
graved
36
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
40
saint.
The
Hyrcanian deserts
41
and the vasty wilds
Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now
For princes to come view fair Portia.
The
watery kingdom
44
, whose ambitious head
Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar
To stop the foreign
spirits
46
, but they come,
As o’er a brook, to see fair Portia.
One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is’t
like
49
that lead contains her? ’Twere damnation
To think so
base
50
a thought, it were too gross
To
rib
51
her cerecloth in the obscure grave.
Or shall I think in silver she’s
immured
52
,
Being ten times
undervalued to
53
trièd gold?
O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
Was
set
55
in worse than gold! They have in England
A coin that bears the figure of an
angel
56
Stamped in gold, but that’s
insculped
57
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
61
lie there,
Then I am yours.
He unlocks the gold casket
MOROCCO
O hell! What have we here?
A
carrion
64
Death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll; I’ll read the writing.
‘All that glisters is not gold,
Reads
Often have you heard that told;
Many a man his life hath sold
But
69
my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs,
in judgement old
72
,
Your answer had not been
inscrolled
73
:
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
78
leave. Thus losers part.
Exit
[
with his train. Flourish of cornets
]
PORTIA
A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
Let all of his
complexion
80
choose me so.
[
They close the curtains and
]
exeunt
running scene 11
Location: Venice
Enter Salerio and Solanio
SALERIO
Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail.
With him is Gratiano gone along;
And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
SOLANIO
The villain Jew with outcries
raised
4
the duke,
Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.
SALERIO
He comes 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.
SOLANIO
I never heard a
passion
12
so confused,
So strange,
outrageous
13
, 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 sealèd bag, two sealèd bags of ducats,
Of
double ducats
19
, stol’n from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two
stones
20
, two rich and precious stones,
Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl,
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats.’
SALERIO
Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
Crying, his
stones
24
, his daughter, and his ducats.
SOLANIO
Let good Antonio
look
25
he keep his day,
Or he shall pay for this.
SALERIO
Marry, well remembered.
I
reasoned
28
with a Frenchman yesterday,
Who told me, in the
narrow seas that part
The French and English
29
there
miscarried
30
A vessel of our country richly
fraught
31
.
I thought
upon
32
Antonio when he told me,
And wished in silence that it were not his.
SOLANIO
You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.
SALERIO
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 answered, ‘Do not so,
Slubber
40
not business for my sake, Bassanio,
But
stay
41
the very riping of the time.
And
for
42
the Jew’s bond which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind
of
43
love.
Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship and such fair
ostents
45
of love
As shall conveniently
become you
46
there.’
And even
there
47
, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
And with
affection wondrous sensible
49
He wrung Bassanio’s hand, and so they parted.
SOLANIO
I think
he only loves the world for him
51
.
I pray thee let us go and find him out,
And
quicken
53
his embracèd heaviness
With some delight or other.
SALERIO
Do we so.
Exeunt
running scene 12
Location: Belmont
Enter Nerissa and a
Servitor