GRATIANO
This is the penthouse under which Lorenzo
Desired us to make stand.
SALERIO His hour is almost past.
GRATIANO And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,
For lovers ever run before the clock.
SALERIO O ten times faster Venus’ pigeons fly
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To seal love’s bonds new-made, than they are wont
To keep obliged faith unforfeited!
GRATIANO That ever holds: who riseth from a feast
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
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His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? – all things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy’d.
How like a younger or a prodigal
The scarfed bark puts from her native bay –
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Hugg’d and embraced by the strumpet wind!
How like the prodigal doth she return
With over-weather’d ribs and ragged sails –
Lean, rent, and beggar’d by the strumpet wind!
Enter LORENZO.
SALERIO Here comes Lorenzo, more of this hereafter.
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LORENZO
Sweet friends, your 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 as long for you then: approach –
Here dwells my father Jew. How! who’s within?
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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.
LORENZO Lorenzo and thy love.
JESSICA Lorenzo certain, and my love indeed,
For who love I so much? and now who knows
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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 asham’d of my exchange:
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But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit,
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.
LORENZO Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer.
40
JESSICA What, must I hold a candle to my shames? –
They in themselves (goodsooth) are too too light.
Why, ’tis an office of discovery (love),
And I should be obscur’d.
LORENZO So are you (sweet)
Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.
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But come at once,
For the close night doth play the runaway,
And we are stay’d for at Bassanio’s feast.
JESSICA I will make fast the doors and gild myself
With some moe ducats, and be with you straight.
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Exit above.
GRATIANO Now (by my hood) a gentle, and no Jew.
LORENZO Beshrew 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,
And true she is, as she hath prov’d herself:
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And therefore like herself, wise, fair, and true,
Shall she be placed in my constant soul.
Enter JESSICA.
What, art thou come? – on gentlemen, away!
Our masquing mates by this time for us stay.
Exit with Jessica and Salerio;
Gratiano is about to follow them.
Enter ANTONIO.
ANTONIO Who’s there?
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GRATIANO Signior Antonio?
ANTONIO Fie, fie Gratiano! where are all the rest?
’Tis nine o’clock, our friends all stay for you, –
No masque to-night, – the wind is come about –
Bassanio presently will go aboard, –
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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 to-night. Exeunt.
2.7 Flourish cornets. Enter PORTIA with
MOROCCO and both their trains.
PORTIA Go, draw aside the curtains and discover
The several caskets to this noble prince:
Now make your choice.
MOROCCO
This first of gold, who this inscription bears,
Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire.
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The second silver, which this promise carries,
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves.
This third, dull 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?
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PORTIA The one of them contains my picture prince,
If you choose that, then I am yours withal.
MOROCCO Some god direct my judgment! let me see,
I will survey th’inscriptions back again, –
What says this leaden casket?
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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,
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I’ll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead.
What says the silver with her virgin hue?
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves.
As much as he deserves, – pause there Morocco,
And weigh thy value with an even hand, –
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If thou be’st rated 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 of myself.
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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 stray’d no further, but chose here?
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Let’s see once more this saying grav’d 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 saint.
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The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds
Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now
For princes to come view fair Portia.
The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
Spets in the face of heaven, is no bar
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To stop the foreign spirits, but they come
As o’er a brook to see fair Portia.
One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is’t like that lead contains her? – ’twere damnation
To think so base a thought, it were too gross
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To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave, –
Or shall I think in silver she’s immur’d
Being ten times undervalued to try’d gold?
O sinful thought! never so rich a gem
Was set in worse than gold. They have in England
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A coin that bears the figure of an angel
Stamp’d in gold, but that’s insculp’d 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.
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PORTIA There take it prince, and if my form lie there
Then I am yours! [He unlocks the golden casket.]
MOROCCO O hell! what have we here?
A carrion Death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll, – I’ll read the writing.
[Reads.]
All that glisters is not gold,
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Often have you heard that told, –
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold, –
Gilded tombs do worms infold:
Had you been as wise as bold,
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Young in limbs, in judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscroll’d, –
Fare you well, your suit is cold.
Cold indeed and labour lost,
Then farewell heat, and welcome frost:
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Portia adieu! I have too griev’d a heart
To take a tedious leave: thus losers part.
Exit with his train.
PORTIA A gentle riddance, – draw the curtains, go, –
Let all of his complexion choose me so. Exeunt.
2.8 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 rais’d the duke,
Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.
5
SALERIO 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
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They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
SOLANIO I never heard a passion so confus’d,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets, –
‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
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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, stol’n from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,
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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, his daughter, and his ducats.
SOLANIO Let good Antonio look he keep his day
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Or he shall pay for this.
SALERIO Marry well rememb’red, –
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:
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I thought upon Antonio when he told me,
And wish’d 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, –
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I saw Bassanio and Antonio part,
Bassanio told him he would make some speed
Of his return: he answered, ‘Do not so,
Slubber not business for my sake Bassanio,
But stay the very riping of the time,
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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.’
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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.
SOLANIO I think he only loves the world for him, –
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I pray thee let us go and find him out
And quicken his embraced heaviness
With some delight or other.
SALERIO Do we so. Exeunt.
2.9 Enter NERISSA and 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.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 367
