The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

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 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.

  SOLANIO

  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.

  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 Aragon hath ta’en his oath,

  And comes to his election presently.

  The servitor draws aside the curtain, revealing the three caskets. ⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Enter Aragon, his train, and Portia

  PORTIA

  Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince.

  If you choose that wherein I am contained,

  Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized.

  But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,

  You must be gone from hence immediately.

  ARAGON

  I am enjoined by oath to observe three things:

  First, never to unfold to anyone 10

  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. 15

  PORTIA

  To these injunctions everyone doth swear

  That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

  ARAGON

  And so have I addressed me. Fortune now

  To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.

  He reads the leaden casket

  ‘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 th’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 gleaned

  From the true seed of honour, and how much honour

  Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times

  To be new varnished? 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 is given a key. ⌈He⌉ opens the silver casket

  PORTIA

  Too long a pause for that which you find there.

  ARAGON

  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.

  ARAGON What is here?

  He reads the schedule

  ‘The fire seven times tried this;

  Seven times tried that judgement is

  That did never choose amiss.

  Some there be that shadows kiss;

  Such have but a shadow’s bliss.

  There be fools alive, iwis,

  Silvered 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.

  ⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Exit with his 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. 80

  NERISSA

  The ancient saying is no heresy:

  Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

  PORTIA

  Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.

  Nerissa draws the curtain.

  Enter a Messenger

  MESSENGER

  Where is my lady?

  PORTIA Here. What would my lord?

  MESSENGER

  Madam, there is alighted at your gate

  A young Venetian, one that comes before

  To signify th’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 90

  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

  3.1 Enter Solanio and Salerio

  SOLANIO

  Now, what news on the Rialto?

  SALERIO Why, yet it lives there unchecked 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.

  SOLANIO I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ging
er 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—

  SALERIO Come, the full stop.

  SOLANIO Ha, what sayst thou? Why, the end is he hath lost a ship.

  SALERIO I would it might prove the end of his losses.

  SOLANIO Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer—Enter Shylock

  for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. How now, Shylock, what news among the merchants?

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

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

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

  SHYLOCK She is damned for it.

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

  SHYLOCK My own flesh and blood to rebel!

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

  SHYLOCK I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood.

  SALERIO 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.

  SALERIO 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 villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

  Enter a Man from Antonio

  MAN (to Solanio and Salerio) Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and desires to speak with you both.

  SALERIO We have been up and down to seek him.

  Enter Tubal

  SOLANIO Here comes another of the tribe. A third cannot be matched unless the devil himself turn Jew.

  Exeunt Solanio and Salerio, with Antonio’s Man

  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 Frankfurt. 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 ill luck stirring but what lights o’ my shoulders, no sighs but o’ my breathing, no tears but o’ 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 it true, is it 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—heard in Genoa?

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

  SHYLOCK Thou stick’st 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. 109

  TUBAL One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

  SHYLOCK Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my turquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

  TUBAL, But Antonio is certainly undone.

  SHYLOCK Nay, that’s true, that’s very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an officer. Bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of him if he forfeit, for were he out of Venice I can make what merchandise I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue. Go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. Exeunt severally

  3.2 Enter Bassanio, Portia, Nerissa, Graziano, and all their trains. ⌈The curtains are drawn aside revealing the three caskets⌉

  PORTIA (to Bassanio)

  I pray you tarry. Pause a day or two

  Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong

  I lose your company. Therefore forbear a while.

  There’s something tells me—but it is not love—

  I would not lose you; and you know yourself

  Hate counsels not in such a quality.

  But lest you should not understand me well—

  And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought—

  I would detain you here some month or two

  Before you venture for me. I could teach you

  How to choose right, but then I am forsworn.

  So will I never be; so may you miss me.

  But if you do, you’ll make me wish a sin,

  That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,

  They have o‘erlooked me and divided me. 15

  One half of me is yours, the other half yours—

  Mine own, I would say, but if mine, then yours,

  And so all yours. O, these naughty times

  Puts bars between the owners and their rights;

  And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,

  Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.

  I speak too long, but ’tis to piece the time,

  To eke it, and to draw it out in length

  To stay you from election.

  BASSANIO Let me choose,

  For as I am, I live upon the rack. 25

  PORTIA

  Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess

  What treason there is mingled with your love.

  BASSANIO

  None but that ugly treason of mistrust

  Which makes me fear th‘enjoying of my love.

  There may as well be amity and life

  ’Tween snow and fire as treason and my love.

  PORTIA

  Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,

  Where men enforced do speak anything.

  BASSANIO

  Promise me life and I’ll confess the truth.

  PORTIA

  Well then, confess and live.

  BASSANIO ’Confess and love’ 35

  Had been the very sum of my confession.

  O happy torment, when my torturer

  Doth teach me answers for deliverance!

  But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

  PORTIA

  Away then. I am locked in one of them.

  If y
ou do love me, you will find me out.

  Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.

  Let music sound while he doth make his choice.

  Then if he lose he makes a swanlike end,

  Fading in music. That the comparison

  May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream

  And wat‘ry deathbed for him. He may win,

  And what is music then? Then music is

  Even as the flourish when true subjects bow

  To a new-crowned monarch. Such it is

  As are those dulcet sounds in break of day

  That creep into the dreaming bridegroom’s ear

  And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,

  With no less presence but with much more love

  Than young Alcides when he did redeem

  The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy

  To the sea-monster. I stand for sacrifice.

  The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,

  With blearèd visages come forth to view

  The issue of th’exploit. Go, Hercules.

  Live thou, I live. With much much more dismay

  I view the fight than thou that mak’st the fray.

  ⌈Here music.⌉ A song the whilst Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself

  ⌈ONE FROM PORTIA’S TRAIN⌉

  Tell me where is fancy bred,

  Or in the heart, or in the head?

  How begot, how nourished?

  ⌈ALL⌉ Reply, reply.

  ⌈ONE FROM PORTIA’S TRAIN⌉

  It is engendered in the eyes,

  With gazing fed; and fancy dies

  In the cradle where it lies.

  Let us all ring fancy’s knell.

  I’ll begin it: ding, dong, bell.

  ALL Ding, dong, bell.

  BASSANIO (aside)

  So may the outward shows be least themselves.

  The world is still deceived with ornament.

  In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt

  But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,

  Obscures the show of evil? In religion,

  What damned error but some sober brow

  Will bless it and approve it with a text,

  Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? 80