The Merchant of Venice (11 page)

JESSICA
   When I was with him I have heard him swear
     To Tubal and to
Chus
²⁹¹
, his countrymen,
     That he would rather have Antonio’s flesh
     Than twenty times the value of the sum
     That he did owe him: and I know, my lord,
     If law, authority and power deny not,
     It will go
hard with
²⁹⁶
poor Antonio.

PORTIA
   Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?

BASSANIO
   The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
     The
best-conditioned
²⁹⁹
and unwearied spirit
     
In doing
courtesies
³⁰⁰
, and one in whom
     The ancient Roman honour more appears
     Than any that draws breath in Italy.

PORTIA
   What sum owes he the Jew?

BASSANIO
   For me three thousand ducats.

PORTIA
   What, no more?
     Pay him six thousand and
deface
³⁰⁶
the bond.
     Double six thousand and then treble that,
     Before a friend of this description
     Shall lose a hair through Bassanio’s fault.
     First go with me to church and call me wife,
     And then away to Venice to your friend,
     For never shall you lie by Portia’s side
     With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
     To pay the petty debt twenty times over.
     When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
     My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
     Will live as maids and widows. Come, away!
     For you shall
hence
³¹⁸
upon your wedding day.
     Bid your friends welcome, show a merry
cheer
³¹⁹
,
     Since you are
dear
³²⁰
bought, I will love you dear.
     But let me hear the letter of your friend.

BASSANIO
   ‘Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried,

Reads

     my creditors grow cruel, my
estate
³²³
is very low, my bond to
     the Jew is forfeit, and since in paying it, it is impossible I
     should live, all debts are cleared between you and I, if I might
     see you at my death.
Notwithstanding
³²⁶
, use your pleasure, if
     your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.’

PORTIA
   O love!
Dispatch
³²⁸
all business, and be gone!

BASSANIO
   Since I have your good leave to go away,
     I will make haste; but till I come again,
     No bed shall e’er be guilty of my stay,
     No rest be interposer
’twixt us twain
³³²
.

Exeunt

Location: Venice

Enter
[
Shylock
]
the Jew and Solanio and Antonio and the Jailer

SHYLOCK
   Jailer,
look
¹
to him, tell not me of mercy.
     This is the fool that lends out money
gratis
²
.
     Jailer, look to him.

ANTONIO
   Hear me yet, good Shylock.

SHYLOCK
   I’ll have my bond. Speak not against my bond,
     I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
     Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause,
     But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.
     The duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder,
     Thou
naughty
¹⁰
jailer, that thou art so fond
     To come
abroad
¹¹
with him at his request.

ANTONIO
   I pray thee hear me speak.

SHYLOCK
   I’ll have my bond. I will not hear thee speak.
     I’ll have my bond and therefore speak no more.
     I’ll not be made a soft and
dull-eyed
¹⁵
fool,
     To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
     To Christian intercessors. Follow not,
     I’ll have no speaking. I will have my bond.

Exit Jew

SOLANIO
   It is the most impenetrable cur
     That ever
kept
²⁰
with men.

ANTONIO
   Let him alone.
     I’ll follow him no more with
bootless
²²
prayers.
     He seeks my life, his reason well I know;
     I oft delivered from his forfeitures
     Many that have at times
made moan
²⁵
to me:
     Therefore he hates me.

SOLANIO
   I am sure the duke
     Will never
grant
²⁸
this forfeiture to hold.

ANTONIO
   The duke cannot deny the course of law,
     For the
commodity
³⁰
that strangers have
     With us in Venice, if it be denied,
     Will much impeach the justice of the state,
     
Since that
³³
the trade and profit of the city
     Consisteth of all nations. Therefore go.
     These griefs and losses have so
bated me
³⁵
,
     That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
     Tomorrow to my bloody creditor.
     Well, jailer, on. Pray God, Bassanio come
     To see me pay his debt, and then I care not.

Exeunt

Location: Belmont

Enter Portia, Nerissa, Lorenzo, Jessica and
[
Balthasar
,]
a man of Portia’s

LORENZO
   Madam, although I speak it in your presence,
     You have a noble and a true
conceit
²
     Of
godlike amity
³
, which appears most strongly
     In bearing thus the absence of your lord.
     But if you knew
to whom
⁵
you show this honour,
     How true a gentleman you send
relief
⁶
,
     How dear a
lover
⁷
of my lord your husband,
     I know you would be prouder of the work
     Than
customary bounty can enforce you
⁹
.

PORTIA
   I never did repent for doing good,
     Nor shall not now, for in companions
     That do converse and
waste
¹²
the time together,
     Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
     There must be
needs
¹⁴
a like proportion
     Of
lineaments
¹⁵
, of manners and of spirit;
     Which makes me think that this Antonio,
     
Being the
bosom lover
¹⁷
of my lord,
     Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,
     How little is the cost I have bestowed
     In purchasing the
semblance
²⁰
of my soul
     From out the state of hellish cruelty!
     This comes too near the praising of myself:
     Therefore no more of it. Hear other things.
     Lorenzo, I commit into your hands
     The
husbandry
²⁵
and manage of my house
     Until my lord’s return; for mine own part,
     I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow
     To live in prayer and contemplation,
     Only attended by Nerissa here,
     Until her husband and my lord’s return.
     There is a monastery two miles off,
     And there we will abide. I do desire you
     Not to
deny
³³
this imposition,
     The which my love and some necessity
     Now lays upon you.

LORENZO
   Madam, with all my heart,
     I shall obey you in all fair commands.

PORTIA
   My
people
³⁸
do already know my mind,
     And will acknowledge you and Jessica
     In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
     So fare you well till we shall meet again.

LORENZO
   Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.

JESSICA
   I wish your ladyship all heart’s content.

PORTIA
   I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
     To wish it back on you: fare you well Jessica.

Exeunt
[
Jessica and Lorenzo
]

     Now, Balthasar,
     As I have ever found thee
honest-true
⁴⁷
,
     So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,

Gives a letter

     And use thou all the endeavour of a man
     
In speed to Padua. See thou
render
⁵⁰
this
     Into my cousin’s hand, Doctor Bellario,
     And
look what
⁵²
notes and garments he doth give thee,
     Bring them, I pray thee with
imagined
⁵³
speed
     Unto the
traject
⁵⁴
, to the common ferry
     Which
trades
⁵⁵
to Venice; waste no time in words,
     But get thee gone. I shall be there before thee.

BALTHASAR
   Madam, I go with all convenient speed.

[
Exit
]

PORTIA
   Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand
     That you yet know not of; we’ll see our husbands
     Before they think of us.

NERISSA
   Shall they see us?

PORTIA
   They shall, Nerissa, but in such a
habit
⁶²
,
     That they shall think we are
accomplishèd
⁶³
     With
that we lack
⁶⁴
. I’ll hold thee any wager,
     When we are both
accoutred
⁶⁵
like young men,
     I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
     And wear my dagger with the
braver
⁶⁷
grace,
     And speak
between the change of man and boy
     With a reed voice
⁶⁸
, and turn two
mincing
⁶⁹
steps
     Into a manly stride, and speak of
frays
⁷⁰
     Like a fine bragging youth, and tell
quaint
⁷¹
lies,
     How honourable ladies sought my love,
     Which I denying, they fell sick and died.
     I could not
do withal
⁷⁴
. Then I’ll repent,
     And wish for all that, that I had not killed them;
     And twenty of these
puny
⁷⁶
lies I’ll tell,
     That men shall swear I have discontinued school
     
Above
⁷⁸
a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
     A thousand
raw
⁷⁹
tricks of these bragging Jacks,
     Which I will practise.

NERISSA
   Why, shall we
turn to
⁸¹
men?

PORTIA
   Fie, what a question’s that,
     If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!
     But come, I’ll tell thee all my whole
device
⁸⁴
     When I am in my coach, which stays for us
     At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
     For we must
measure
⁸⁷
twenty miles today.

Exeunt

Enter
[
Lancelet the
]
Clown and Jessica

LANCELET
   Yes, truly, for look you, the sins of the father are to
     be laid upon the children: therefore, I
promise
²
you, I fear you.
     I was always
plain
³
with you, and so now I speak my agitation
     of the matter: therefore be of good cheer, for truly I think you
     are damned. There is but one hope in it that can do you any
     good, and that is but a kind of
bastard
⁶
hope neither.

JESSICA
   And what hope is that, I pray thee?

LANCELET
   Marry, you may partly hope that your father
got
⁸
     you not, that you are not the Jew’s daughter.

JESSICA
   That were a kind of bastard hope indeed. So the sins
     of my mother should be visited upon me.

LANCELET
   Truly then I fear you are damned both by father and
     mother: thus when I shun
Scylla, your father, I fall into
     Charybdis
¹³
, your mother; well, you are
gone
¹⁴
both ways.

JESSICA
   
I shall be saved by my husband
¹⁵
. He hath made me a
     Christian.

LANCELET
   Truly, the more to blame he.
We were Christians
     enow
¹⁷
before, e’en as many as could well live one
by
¹⁸
another.
     
This making of Christians will
raise the price of hogs
¹⁹
. If we
     grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher
     on the coals for
money
²¹
.

Enter Lorenzo

JESSICA
   I’ll tell my husband, Lancelet, what you say. Here he
     comes.

LORENZO
   I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Lancelet, if you
     thus
get my wife into corners
²⁵
.

JESSICA
   Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo. Lancelet and I
     
are
²⁷
out. He tells me flatly there is no mercy for me in heaven
     because I am a Jew’s daughter. And he says, you are no good
     member of the commonwealth, for in converting Jews to
     Christians, you raise the price of pork.

LORENZO
   I shall answer that better to the commonwealth
     than you can the
getting up of the negro’s belly
³²
. The Moor is
     with child by you, Lancelet.

LANCELET
   It is
much
³⁴
that the Moor should be more than
     reason, but if she be
less than an honest woman, she is
     indeed more than I took her for
³⁵
.