The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents

  Where Cressid lay that night.

  JESSICA In such a night

  Did Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew

  And saw the lion’s shadow ere himself,

  And ran dismayed away.

  LORENZO In such a night

  Stood Dido with a willow in her hand

  Upon the wild sea banks, and waft her love

  To come again to Carthage.

  JESSICA In such a night

  Medea gathered the enchanted herbs

  That did renew old Aeson.

  LORENZO In such a night

  Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew,

  And with an unthrift love did run from Venice

  As far as Belmont.

  JESSICA In such a night

  Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,

  Stealing her soul with many vows of faith,

  And ne’er a true one.

  LORENZO In such a night

  Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,

  Slander her love, and he forgave it her.

  JESSICA

  I would outnight you, did nobody come.

  But hark, I hear the footing of a man.

  Enter Stefano, a messenger

  LORENZO

  Who comes so fast in silence of the night?

  STEFANO A friend.

  LORENZO

  A friend—what friend? Your name, I pray you, friend?

  STEFANO

  Stefano is my name, and I bring word

  My mistress will before the break of day

  Be here at Belmont. She doth stray about

  By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays

  For happy wedlock hours.

  LORENZO Who comes with her?

  STEFANO

  None but a holy hermit and her maid.

  I pray you, is my master yet returned?

  LORENZO

  He is not, nor we have not heard from him.

  But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,

  And ceremoniously let us prepare

  Some welcome for the mistress of the house.

  Enter Lancelot, the clown

  LANCELOT (calling) Sola, sola! Wo, ha, ho! Sola, sola!

  LORENZO Who calls?

  LANCELOT (calling) Sola!—Did you see Master Lorenzo?

  (Calling) Master Lorenzo! Sola, sola!

  LORENZO Leave hollering, man: here.

  LANCELOT (calling) Sola!—Where, where?

  LORENZO Here.

  LANCELOT Tell him there’s a post come from my master with his horn full of good news. My master will be here ere morning. Exit

  LORENZO (to Jessica)

  Sweet soul, let’s in, and there expect their coming.

  And yet no matter. Why should we go in?

  My friend Stefano, signify, I pray you,

  Within the house your mistress is at hand,

  And bring your music forth into the air. Exit Stefano

  How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

  Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

  Creep in our ears. Soft stillness and the night

  Become the touches of sweet harmony.

  Sit, Jessica.

  ⌈They⌉ sit

  Look how the floor of heaven

  Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.

  There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st

  But in his motion like an angel sings,

  Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

  Such harmony is in immortal souls,

  But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

  Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

  ⌈Enter Musicians⌉

  (To the Musicians) Come, ho, and wake Diana with a

  hymn.

  With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear,

  And draw her home with music.

  The Musicians play

  JESSICA

  I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

  LORENZO

  The reason is your spirits are attentive,

  For do but note a wild and wanton herd

  Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,

  Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,

  Which is the hot condition of their blood,

  If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,

  Or any air of music touch their ears,

  You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,

  Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze

  By the sweet power of music. Therefore the poet

  Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods,

  Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage

  But music for the time doth change his nature.

  The man that hath no music in himself,

  Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

  Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.

  The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

  And his affections dark as Erebus.

  Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

  Enter Portia and Nerissa, as themselves

  PORTIA

  That light we see is burning in my hall.

  How far that little candle throws his beams—

  So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

  NERISSA

  When the moon shone we did not see the candle.

  PORTIA

  So doth the greater glory dim the less.

  A substitute shines brightly as a king

  Until a king be by, and then his state

  Empties itself as doth an inland brook

  Into the main of waters. Music, hark.

  NERISSA

  It is your music, madam, of the house.

  PORTIA

  Nothing is good, I see, without respect.

  Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.

  NERISSA

  Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.

  PORTIA

  The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark

  When neither is attended, and I think

  The nightingale, if she should sing by day,

  When every goose is cackling, would be thought

  No better a musician than the wren.

  How many things by season seasoned are

  To their right praise and true perfection!

  ⌈She sees Lorenzo and Jessica⌉

  Peace, ho!

  ⌈Music ceases⌉

  The moon sleeps with Endymion,

  And would not be awaked.

  LORENZO ⌈rising⌉ That is the voice,

  Or I am much deceived, of Portia.

  PORTIA

  He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo—

  By the bad voice.

  LORENZO Dear lady, welcome home.

  PORTIA

  We have been praying for our husbands’ welfare,

  Which speed we hope the better for our words.

  Are they returned?

  LORENZO Madam, they are not yet,

  But there is come a messenger before

  To signify their coming.

  PORTIA Go in, Nerissa.

  Give order to my servants that they take

  No note at all of our being absent hence;

  Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you.

  ⌈A tucket sounds⌉

  LORENZO

  Your husband is at hand. I hear his trumpet.

  We are no tell-tales, madam. Fear you not.

  PORTIA

  This night, methinks, is but the daylight sick.

  It looks a little paler. ’Tis a day

  Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

  Enter Bassanio, Antonio, Graziano, and their followers. Graziano and Nerissa speak silently to one another

  BASSANIO

  We should hold day with the Antipodes

  If you would walk in absence of the sun.

 
; PORTIA

  Let me give light, but let me not be light;

  For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,

  And never be Bassanio so for me.

  But God sort all. You are welcome home, my lord.

  BASSANIO

  I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.

  This is the man, this is Antonio,

  To whom I am so infinitely bound.

  PORTIA

  You should in all sense be much bound to him,

  For as I hear he was much bound for you.

  ANTONIO

  No more than I am well acquitted of.

  PORTIA

  Sir, you are very welcome to our house.

  It must appear in other ways than words,

  Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.

  GRAZIANO (to Nerissa)

  By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong.

  In faith, I gave it to the judge’s clerk.

  Would he were gelt that had it for my part,

  Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

  PORTIA

  A quarrel, ho, already! What’s the matter?

  GRAZIANO

  About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring

  That she did give me, whose posy was

  For all the world like cutlers’ poetry

  Upon a knife—‘Love me and leave me not’.

  NERISSA

  What talk you of the posy or the value?

  You swore to me when I did give it you

  That you would wear it till your hour of death,

  And that it should lie with you in your grave.

  Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths

  You should have been respective and have kept it.

  Gave it a judge’s clerk?—no, God’s my judge,

  The clerk will ne’er wear hair on’s face that had it.

  GRAZIANO

  He will an if he live to be a man.

  NERISSA

  Ay, if a woman live to be a man.

  GRAZIANO

  Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth,

  A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy

  No higher than thyself, the judge’s clerk,

  A prating boy that begged it as a fee.

  I could not for my heart deny it him.

  PORTIA

  You were to blame, I must be plain with you,

  To part so slightly with your wife’s first gift,

  A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger,

  And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.

  I gave my love a ring, and made him swear

  Never to part with it; and here he stands.

  I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it,

  Nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth

  That the world masters. Now, in faith, Graziano,

  You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief.

  An ’twere to me, I should be mad at it.

  BASSANIO (aside)

  Why, I were best to cut my left hand off

  And swear I lost the ring defending it.

  GRAZIANO ⌈to Portia⌉

  My lord Bassanio gave his ring away

  Unto the judge that begged it, and indeed

  Deserved it, too, and then the boy his clerk,

  That took some pains in writing, he begged mine,

  And neither man nor master would take aught

  But the two rings.

  PORTIA (to Bassanio) What ring gave you, my lord?

  Not that, I hope, which you received of me.

  BASSANIO

  If I could add a lie unto a fault

  I would deny it; but you see my finger

  Hath not the ring upon it. It is gone.

  PORTIA

  Even so void is your false heart of truth.

  By heaven, I will ne’er come in your bed

  Until I see the ring.

  NERISSA (to Graziano) Nor I in yours

  Till I again see mine.

  BASSANIO Sweet Portia,

  If you did know to whom I gave the ring,

  If you did know for whom I gave the ring,

  And would conceive for what I gave the ring,

  And how unwillingly I left the ring

  When naught would be accepted but the ring,

  You would abate the strength of your displeasure.

  PORTIA

  If you had known the virtue of the ring,

  Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,

  Or your own honour to contain the ring,

  You would not then have parted with the ring.

  What man is there so much unreasonable,

  If you had pleased to have defended it

  With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty

  To urge the thing held as a ceremony?

  Nerissa teaches me what to believe.

  I’ll die for’t but some woman had the ring.

  BASSANIO

  No, by my honour, madam, by my soul,

  No woman had it, but a civil doctor

  Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me,

  And begged the ring, the which I did deny him,

  And suffered him to go displeased away,

  Even he that had held up the very life

  Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?

  I was enforced to send it after him.

  I was beset with shame and courtesy.

  My honour would not let ingratitude

  So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady,

  For by these blessèd candles of the night,

  Had you been there I think you would have begged

  The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.

  PORTIA

  Let not that doctor e’er come near my house.

  Since he hath got the jewel that I loved,

  And that which you did swear to keep for me,

  I will become as liberal as you.

  I’ll not deny him anything I have,

  No, not my body nor my husband’s bed.

  Know him I shall, I am well sure of it.

  Lie not a night from home. Watch me like Argus.

  If you do not, if I be left alone,

  Now by mine honour, which is yet mine own,

  I’ll have that doctor for my bedfellow.

  NERISSA (to Graziano)

  And I his clerk, therefore be well advised

  How you do leave me to mine own protection.

  GRAZIANO

  Well, do you so. Let not me take him then,

  For if I do, I’ll mar the young clerk’s pen.

  ANTONIO

  I am th’unhappy subject of these quarrels.

  PORTIA

  Sir, grieve not you. You are welcome notwithstanding.

  BASSANIO

  Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong,

  And in the hearing of these many friends

  I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,

  Wherein I see myself—

  PORTIA Mark you but that?

  In both my eyes he doubly sees himself,

  In each eye one. Swear by your double self,

  And there’s an oath of credit.

  BASSANIO Nay, but hear me.

  Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear

  I never more will break an oath with thee.

  ANTONIO (to Portia)

  I once did lend my body for his wealth

  Which, but for him that had your husband’s ring,

  Had quite miscarried. I dare be bound again,

  My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord

  Will never more break faith advisedly.

  PORTIA

  Then you shall be his surety. Give him this,

  And bid him keep it better than the other.

  ANTONIO

  Here, Lord Bassanio, swear to keep this ring.

  BASSANIO

  By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!

  PORTIA

  I had it of him. Par
don me, Bassanio,

  For by this ring, the doctor lay with me.

  NERISSA

  And pardon me, my gentle Graziano,

  For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor’s clerk,

  In lieu of this last night did lie with me.

  GRAZIANO

  Why, this is like the mending of highways

  In summer where the ways are fair enough I

  What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?

  PORTIA

  Speak not so grossly. You are all amazed.

  Here is a letter. Read it at your leisure.

  It comes from Padua, from Bellario.

  There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,

  Nerissa there her clerk. Lorenzo here

  Shall witness I set forth as soon as you,

  And even but now returned. I have not yet

  Entered my house. Antonio, you are welcome,

  And I have better news in store for you

  Than you expect. Unseal this letter soon.

  There you shall find three of your argosies

  Are richly come to harbour suddenly.

  You shall not know by what strange accident

  I chanced on this letter.

  ANTONIO I am dumb!

  BASSANIO (to Portia)

  Were you the doctor and I knew you not?

  GRAZIANO (to Nerissa)

  Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?

  NERISSA

  Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it

  Unless he live until he be a man.

  BASSANIO (to Portia)

  Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow.

  When I am absent, then lie with my wife.

  ANTONIO (to Portia)

  Sweet lady, you have given me life and living,

  For here I read for certain that my ships

  Are safely come to road.

  PORTIA How now, Lorenzo?

  My clerk hath some good comforts, too, for you.

  NERISSA

  Ay, and I’ll give them him without a fee.

  There do I give to you and Jessica

  From the rich Jew a special deed of gift,

  After his death, of all he dies possessed of.

  LORENZO

  Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way

  Of starved people.

  PORTIA It is almost morning,

  And yet I am sure you are not satisfied

  Of these events at full. Let us go in,

  And charge us there upon inter’gatories,

  And we will answer all things faithfully.

  GRAZIANO

  Let it be so. The first inter’gatory

  That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is

  Whether till the next night she had rather stay,

  Or go to bed now, being two hours to day.

  But were the day come, I should wish it dark