Complete Plays, The (379 page)

Salanio

The villain Jew with outcries raised the duke,
Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.

Salarino

He came 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.

Salanio

I never heard a passion so confused,
So strange, outrageous, 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 sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,
Stolen by my daughter! Justice! find the girl;
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats.’

Salarino

Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.

Salanio

Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
Or he shall pay for this.

Salarino

Marry, well remember’d.
I reason’d with a Frenchman yesterday,
Who told me, in the narrow seas that part
The French and English, there miscarried
A vessel of our country richly fraught:
I thought upon Antonio when he told me;
And wish’d in silence that it were not his.

Salanio

You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.

Salarino

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 answer’d, ‘Do not so;
Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio
But stay the very riping of the time;
And for the Jew’s bond which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind of love:
Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship and such fair ostents of love
As shall conveniently become you there:’
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
And with affection wondrous sensible
He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.

Salanio

I think he only loves the world for him.
I pray thee, let us go and find him out
And quicken his embraced heaviness
With some delight or other.

Salarino

Do we so.

Exeunt

S
CENE
IX. B
ELMONT
. A
ROOM
IN
P
ORTIA
’
S
HOUSE
.

Enter Nerissa with a Servitor

Nerissa

Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight:
The Prince of Arragon hath ta’en his oath,
And comes to his election presently.

Flourish of cornets. Enter the Prince Of Arragon, Portia, and their trains

Portia

Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince:
If you choose that wherein I am contain’d,
Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized:
But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,
You must be gone from hence immediately.

Arragon

I am enjoin’d by oath to observe three things:
First, never to unfold to any one
Which casket ’twas I chose; next, if I fail
Of the right casket, never in my life
To woo a maid in way of marriage: Lastly,
If I do fail in fortune of my choice,
Immediately to leave you and be gone.

Portia

To these injunctions every one doth swear
That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

Arragon

And so have I address’d me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold; silver; and base lead.
‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’
You shall look fairer, ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? ha! let me see:
‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’
What many men desire! that ‘many’ may be meant
By the fool multitude, that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to the interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house;
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear:
‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves:’
And well said too; for who shall go about
To cozen fortune and be honourable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
O, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honour
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be glean’d
From the true seed of honour! and how much honour
Pick’d from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new-varnish’d! Well, but to my choice:
‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’
I will assume desert. Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

He opens the silver casket

Portia

Too long a pause for that which you find there.

Arragon

What’s here? the portrait of a blinking idiot,
Presenting me a schedule! I will read it.
How much unlike art thou to Portia!
How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
‘Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.’
Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?
Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?

Portia

To offend, and judge, are distinct offices
And of opposed natures.

Arragon

What is here?

[Reads]
 
The fire seven times tried this:
Seven times tried that judgment is,
That did never choose amiss.
Some there be that shadows kiss;
Such have but a shadow’s bliss:
There be fools alive, I wis,
Silver’d o’er; and so was this.
Take what wife you will to bed,
I will ever be your head:
So be gone: you are sped.
Still more fool I shall appear
By the time I linger here
With one fool’s head I came to woo,
But I go away with two.
Sweet, adieu. I’ll keep my oath,
Patiently to bear my wroth.

Exeunt Arragon and train

Portia

Thus hath the candle singed the moth.
O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose,
They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.

Nerissa

The ancient saying is no heresy,
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

Portia

Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.

Enter a Servant

Servant

Where is my lady?

Portia

 
Here: what would my lord?

Servant

Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify the approaching of his lord;
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets,
To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,
Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen
So likely an ambassador of love:
A day in April never came so sweet,
To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

Portia

No more, I pray thee: I am half afeard
Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
Thou spend’st such high-day wit in praising him.
Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see
Quick Cupid’s post that comes so mannerly.

Nerissa

Bassanio, lord Love, if thy will it be!

Exeunt

A
CT
III

S
CENE
I. V
ENICE
. A
STREET
.

Enter Salanio and Salarino

Salanio

Now, what news on the Rialto?

Salarino

Why, yet it lives there uncheck’d that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas; the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.

Salanio

I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,— O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!—

Salarino

Come, the full stop.

Salanio

Ha! what sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath lost a ship.

Salarino

I would it might prove the end of his losses.

Salanio

Let me say ‘amen’ betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.

Enter Shylock

How now, Shylock! what news among the merchants?

Shylock

You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter’s flight.

Salarino

That’s certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

Salanio

And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

Shylock

She is damned for it.

Salanio

That’s certain, if the devil may be her judge.

Shylock

My own flesh and blood to rebel!

Salanio

Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years?

Shylock

I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.

Salarino

There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and rhenish. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no?

Shylock

There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon the mart; let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond: he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond.

Salarino

Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what’s that good for?

Shylock

To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Enter a Servant

Servant

Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and desires to speak with you both.

Salarino

We have been up and down to seek him.

Enter Tubal

Salanio

Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew.

Exeunt Salanio, Salarino, and Servant

Shylock

How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter?

Tubal

I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

Shylock

Why, there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now: two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why, so: and I know not what’s spent in the search: why, thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no in luck stirring but what lights on my shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears but of my shedding.

Tubal

Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I heard in Genoa,—

Shylock

What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tubal

Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.

Shylock

I thank God, I thank God. Is’t true, is’t true?

Tubal

I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

Shylock

I thank thee, good Tubal: good news, good news! ha, ha! where? in Genoa?

Tubal

Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in one night fourscore ducats.

Shylock

Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

Tubal

There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.

Shylock

I am very glad of it: I’ll plague him; I’ll torture him: I am glad of it.

Tubal