Gra. 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 chang'd. Ant. I hold the world but as the world, A stage, where every man must play a part, Gra Gra. If they should speak, would almost damn those ears, I'll tell thee more of this another time: Lor. Well, we will leave you then till dinner- I must be one of these same dumb wise men, Within the eye of honour, be assur'd, My purse, my person, my extremest means, Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one I shot his fellow of the self-same flight Ant. You know me well; and herein spend but To wind about my love with circumstance; Bass. In Belmont is a lady richly left, Gra. Well, keep me company but two years To hold a rival place with one of them, more, I have a mind presages me such thrift, Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own That I should questionless be fortunate. tongue. Ant. Thou know'st, that all my fortunes are at sea; Ant. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear.] Gra. Thanks, i'faith; for silence is only com- Nor have I money, nor commodity mendable To raise a present sum: therefore go forth, In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. Try what my credit can in Venice do; [Exeunt Gratiano and Lorenzo. 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. SCENE II.-Belmont. A room in Portia's Ant. Is that any thing now? Ant. Well; tell me now, what lady is this same Bass. "Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, [Exeuni. house. Enter Portia and Nerissa. Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world. Ner. 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. Por. Good sentences, and well pronounced. Ner. They would be better, if well followed. Por. 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 Ant. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; twenty what were good to be done, than be one of And, if it stand, as you yourself still do, the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain (3) Formerly. may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper a beast: an the worst fall that ever fell, I hope, I leaps over a cold decree: such a hare is madness shall make shift to go without him. the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel Ner. If he should offer to choose, and choose the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion the right casket, you should refuse to perform your to choose me a husband :-O me, the word choose! father's will, if you should refuse to accept him. I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse Por. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter thee, set a deep glass of Rhenish wine on the concurb'd by the will of a dead father:-Is it not hard, trary casket: for, if the devil be within, and that Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none? temptation without, I know he will choose it. I Ner. Your father was ever virtuous; and holy will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I will be married to men, at their death, have good inspirations; there- a spunge. fore, the lottery, that he hath devised in these three Ner. You need not fear, lady, the having any chests, of gold, silver, and lead, (whereof who of these lords; they have acquainted me with their chooses his meaning, chooses you,) will, no doubt, determinations: which is, indeed, to return to their never be chosen by any rightly, but one who you home, and to trouble you with no more suit; unless shall rightly love. But what warmth is there in you may be won by some other sort than your fayour affection towards any of these princely suitors ther's imposition, depending on the caskets. that are already come? Por. I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will describe them; and, according to my description, level at my affection. Ner. First, there is the Neapolitan prince. Por. 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 afraid, my lady, his mother, played false with a smith. Por. If I live to be as old as Sybilla, 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. Ner. 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? Ner. Then is there the county Palatine. Por. He does nothing but frown; as who should say, An 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, so full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had Por. I remember him well; and I remember rather be married to a death's head with a bone in him worthy of thy praise.-How now! what news? his mouth, than to either of these. God defend me from these two! Por. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, so was he called. Ner. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best ing deserving a fair lady. Ner. How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon? for a man. Enter a Servant. Serv. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a forerunner come Por. God made him, and therefore let him pass from a fifth, the prince of Morocco; who brings In truth, I know it is a sin to be a word, the prince, his master, will be here to-night. mocker: But, he! why, he hath a horse better than Por. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so the Neapolitan's; a better bad habit of frowning good heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I than the count Palatine: he is every man in no should be glad of his approach: if he have the man: if a throstle sing, he falls straight a caper-condition of a saint, and the complexion of a devil, ing; he will fence with his own shadow: if I should I had rather he should shrive me than wive me. marry him, I should marry twenty husbands: If Come, Nerissa.-Sirrah, go before.-Whiles we he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at he love me to madness, I shall never requite him. the door. [Exeunt. Ner. What say you then to Falconbridge, the SCENE III.-Venice. A public place. Enter young baron of England? Bassanio and Shylock. Por. 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 penny-worth 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 behaviour every where. Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? Shy. Three thousand ducats,-well. Bass. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. Shy. Antonio shall become bound,-well. Bass. May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your answer? Shy. Three thousand ducats, for three months, and Antonio bound. Bass. Your answer to that. Por. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him for he borrowed a box of the ear of the English-Shy. man, and swore he would pay him again, when he was able: I think the Frenchman became his surety, and sealed under for another. Bass. Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? Shy. Ho, no, no, no, no ;-my meaning, in say Ner. How like you the young German, the duke ing he is a good man, is to have you understand of Saxony's nephew? me, that he is sufficient: yet his means are in sup Por. Very vilely in the morning, when he is so-position: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, ber; and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is another to the Indies: I understand moreover upor drunk: when he is best, he is a little worse than a the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for man; and when he is worst, he is little better than England,- -and other ventures he hath, squan (1) A heady, gay youngster. (2) Count. .(3) Temper, qualities. der'd abroad: But ships are but boards, sailors but And in the doing of the deed of kind," men: there be land-rats, and water-rats, water-He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes ; thieves, and land-thieves; I mean, pirates; and Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time then, there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks: Fall party-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's. The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient ;-three This was a way to thrive, and he was blest; thousand ducats ;-I think I may take his bond. And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. Bass. Be assured you may. Shy. I will be assured I may; and, that I may be assured, I will bethink me: May I speak with Antonio? Bass. If it please you to dine with us. A Ant. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd for; 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? Shy. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habita- Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams? tion which your prophet, the Nazarite, conjured Shy. I cannot tell: I make it breed as fast:the devil into: I will buy with you, sell with you, But note me, signior. 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. Bass. This is signior Antonio. Shy. [Aside.] How like a fawning publican he I hate him, for he is a Christian: He lends out money gratis, and brings down I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. Bass. Shylock, do you hear? Shy. I am debating of my present store; Of full three thousand ducats: "What of that? [To Antonio. Shy. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's sheep, Ant. And what of him? did he take interest? Should fall as Jacob's hire; the ewes, being rank, (1) Wants which admit no longer delay. Ant. Mark you this, Bassanio, O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! sum. Three months from twelve, then let me see the rate. A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or, Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; Ant. I am as like to call thee so again, Why, look you, how you storm! Ant. This were kindness. This kindness will I show:- (2) Informed. (3) Nature. (4) Interest. |