William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
W. G. Clark, W. Aldis Wright, Ed.

ACT III

SCENE I

Salan.
Now, what news on the Rialto?

Salar.
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 carcases of many a
tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
Report be an honest woman of her word.

Salan.
I would she were as lying a gossip in
that as ever knapped ginger or made her neighbors
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!--

Salar.
Come, the full stop.

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

Salar.
I would it might prove the end of his (21)
losses.

Salan.
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?

Shy.
You knew, none so well, none so well
as you, of my daughter's flight.

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

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

Shy.
She is damned for it.

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

Shy.
My own flesh and blood to rebel!

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

Shy.
40I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood.

Salar.
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?

Shy.
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.

Salar.
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou
wilt not take his flesh; what's that good for?

Shy.
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 this 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.

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

Salar.
We have been up and down to seek him. Enter TUBAL.

Salan.
Here comes another of the tribe: a
third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself
turn Jew. [Exeunt Salan., Salar., and Servant.

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

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

Shy.
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
ill luck stirring but what lights on my shoulders;
no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
(101)
but of my shedding.

Tub.
Yes, other men have ill luck too:

Antonio, as I heard in Genoa,--

Shy.
What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

Tub.
Hath an argosy cast away, coming
from Tripolis.

Shy.
I thank God, I thank God. Is't true,
is't true?

Tub.
I spoke with some of the sailors that (110)
escaped the wreck.

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

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

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

Tub.
There came divers of Antonio's creditors
in my company to Venice, that swear he (120)
cannot choose but break.

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

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

Shy.
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.

Tub.
But Antonio is certainly undone.

Shy.
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, go, Tubal,

and meet me at our synagogue; go, good
Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt.

SCENE II

Por.
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,-- (9)

I would detain you here some month or two

Before you venture for me. I could teach you

How to choose right, but I am then 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'erlook'd me and divided me;

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

Put bars between the owners and their rights!

And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so, (21)

Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.

I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,

To eke it and to draw it out in length,

To stay you from election.

Bass.
Let me choose;

For as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por.
Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess

What treason there is mingled with your love.

Bass.
None but that ugly treason of mistrust,

Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love: (30)

There may as well be amity and life

'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.

Por.
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,

Where men enforced do speak anything.

Bass.
Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.

Por.
Well then, confess and live.

Bass.
'Confess' and 'love'

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.

Por.
40Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:

If you 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 swan-like end,

Fading in music: that the comparison

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream

And watery death-bed for him. He may win;

And what is music then? Then music is

Even as the flourish when true subjects bow (50)

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 bleared visages, come forth to view (60)

The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!

Live thou, I live: with much, much more dismay

I view the fight than thou that makest the fray. Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself.


SONG.


Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart, or in the head?

How begot, how nourished?

Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies. (70)

Let us all ring fancy's knell:

I'll begin it--Ding, dong, bell.

All.
Ding, dong, bell.

Bass.
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, (80)

Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?

There is no vice so simple but assumes

Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:

How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false

As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins

The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,

Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;

And these assume but valor's excrement

To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,

And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight; (90)

Which therein works a miracle in nature,

Making them lightest that wear most of it:

So are those crisped snaky golden locks

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,

Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.

Thus ornament is but the guiled shore

To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf

Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,

The seeming truth which cunning time puts on (101)

To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,

Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;

Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge

'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,

Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,

Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;

And here choose I: joy be the consequence!

Por.
[Aside]
How all the other passions fleet to air,

As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,

And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!

O love,

Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy,

In measure rein thy joy; scant this excess.

I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,

For fear I surfeit.

Bass.
What find I here? [Opening the leaden casket.


Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?

Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,

Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,

Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs

The painter plays the spider and hath woven

A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,

Faster than gnats in cobwebs: but her eyes,--

How could he see to do them? having made one,

Methinks it should have power to steal both his

And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look, how far

The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow

In underprizing it, so far this shadow (130)

Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,

The continent and summary of my fortune.

Reads
You that choose not by the view,

Chance as fair and choose as true!

Since this fortune falls to you,

Be content and seek no new,

If you be well pleased with this

And hold your fortune for your bliss,

Turn you where your lady is

And claim her with a loving kiss. (140)

A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;

I come by note, to give and to receive.

Like one of two contending in a prize,

That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,

Hearing applause and universal shout,

Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt

Whether those pearls of praise be his or no;

So, thrice fair lady, stand I, even so;

As doubtful whether what I see be true,

Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you,

Por.
150You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,

Such as I am: though for myself alone

I would not be ambitious in my wish,

To wish myself much better; yet, for you

I would be trebled twenty times myself;

A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times

More rich;

That only to stand high in your account,

I might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends, (159)

Exceed account; but the full sum of me

Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,

Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;

Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn; happier than this,

She is not bred so dull but she can learn;

Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit

Commits itself to yours to be directed,

As from her lord, her governor, her king.

Myself and what is mine to you and yours

Is now converted: but now I was the lord

Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,

Queen o'er myself: and even now, but now,

This house, these servants and this same myself

Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring;

Which when you part from, lose, or give away,

Let it presage the ruin of your love

And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Bass.
Madam, you have bereft me of all words,

Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;

And there is such confusion in my powers, (180)

As after some oration fairly spoke

By a beloved prince, there doth appear

Among the buzzing pleased multitude;

Where every something, being blent together,

Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,

Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring

Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence:

O, then be bold to say Bassanio's dead!

Ner.
My lord and lady, it is now our time,

That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper,

To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady!

Gra.
My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady,

I wish you all the joy that you can wish;

For I am sure you can wish none from me:

And when your honors mean to solemnize

The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,

Even at that time I may be married too.

Bass.
With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.

Gra.
I thank your lordship, you have got me one.

My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours: (200)

You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;

You loved, I loved for intermission.

No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.

Your fortune stood upon the casket there,

And so did mine too, as the matter falls;

For wooing here until I sweat again,

And swearing till my very roof was dry

With oaths of love, at last, if promise last,

I got a promise of this fair one here

To have her love, provided that your fortune

Achieved her mistress. (210)

Por.
Is this true, Nerissa?

Ner.
Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.

Bass.
And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?

Gra.
Yes, faith, my lord.

Bass.
Our feast shall be much honour'd in
your marriage.

Gra.
We'll play with them the first boy for
a thousand ducats.

Ner.
What, and stake down?

Gra.
No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, (220)
and stake down.

But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel?

What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio? Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO,
a Messenger from Venice.

Bass.
Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;

If that the youth of my new interest here

Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,

I bid my friends and countrymen,

Sweet Portia, welcome.

Por.
So do I, my lord:

They are entirely welcome.

Lor.
I thank your honor. For my part, my lord, (230)

My purpose was not to have seen you here;

But meeting with Salerio by the way,

He did intreat me, past all saying nay,

To come with him along.

Saler.
I did, my lord;

And I have reason for it. Signor Antonio

Commends him to you. [Gives Bassanio a letter.

Bass.
Ere I ope his letter,

I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.

Saler.
Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;

Nor well, unless in mind: his letter there

Will show you his estate.

Gra.
240Nerissa, cheer yon stranger; bid her welcome.

Your hand, Salerio: what's the news from Venice?

How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio?

I know he will be glad of our success;

We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.

Saler.
I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.

Por.
There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper,

That steals the color from Bassanio's cheek:

Some dear friend dead; else nothing in the world

Could turn so much the constitution

Of any constant man. What, worse and worse! (251)

With leave, Bassanio; I am half yourself,

And I must freely have the half of anything

That this same paper brings you.

Bass.
O sweet Portia,

Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words

That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,

When I did first impart my love to you,

I freely told you, all the wealth I had

Ran in my veins, I was a gentleman;

And then I told you true: and yet, dear lady, (260)

Rating myself at nothing, you shall see

How much I was a braggart. When I told you

My state was nothing, I should then have told you

That I was worse than nothing; for, indeed,

I have engaged myself to a dear friend,

Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,

To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady;

The paper as the body of my friend,

And every word in it a gaping wound,

Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio? (270)

Have all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?

From Tripolis, from Mexico and England,

From Lisbon, Barbary and India?

And not one vessel 'scaped the dreadful touch

Of merchant-marring rocks?

Saler.
Not one, my lord.

Besides, it should appear, that if he had

The present money to discharge the Jew,

He would not take it. Never did I know

A creature, that did bear the shape of man,

So keen and greedy to confound a man: (280)

He plies the duke at morning and at night,

And doth impeach the freedom of the state,

If they deny him justice: twenty merchants,

The duke himself, and the magnificoes

Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him;

But none can drive him from the envious plea

Of forfeiture, of justice and his bond.

Jes.
When I was with him I have heard him swear

To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,

That he would rather have Antonio's flesh (290)

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 poor Antonio.

Por.
Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?

Bass.
The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,

The best condition'd and unwearied spirit

In doing courtesies, and one in whom

The ancient Roman honor more appears

Than any that draws breath in Italy.

Por.
300What sum owes he the Jew?

Bass.
For me three thousand ducats.

Por.
What, no more?

Pay him six thousand, and deface 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 (310)

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 upon your wedding-day:

Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer:

Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.

But let me hear the letter of your friend.

Bass.
[Reads] Sweet Bassanio, my ships
have all miscarried, my creditors grow cruel,
my estate 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 but see you at my death. Notwithstanding,
use your pleasure: if your love
do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.

Por.
O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!

Bass.
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, (330)

No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain. [Exeunt.

SCENE III

Shy.
Gaoler, look to him: tell not me of mercy;

This is the fool that lent out money gratis:

Gaoler, look to him.

Ant.
Hear me yet, good Shylock.

Shy.
I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond:

I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.

Thou call'dst 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 gaoler, that thou art so fond (10)

To come abroad with him at his request.

Ant.
I pray thee, hear me speak.

Shy.
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 fool,

To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield

To Christian inercessors. Follow not;

I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond. [Exit.

Salar.
It is the most impenetrable cur

That ever kept with men.

Ant.
Let him alone:

I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers. (21)

He seeks my life; his reason well I know:

I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures

Many that have at times made moan to me;

Therefore he hates me.

Salar.
I am sure the duke

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

Ant.
The duke cannot deny the course of law:

For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice, if it be denied,

Will much impeach the justice of his state; (30)

Since that the trade and profit of the city

Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go:

These griefs and losses have so bated me,

That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh

To-morrow to my bloody creditor.

Well, gaoler, on. Pray God, Bassanio come

To see me pay his debt, and then I care not! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV

Lor.
Madam, although I speak it in your presence,

You have a noble and a true conceit

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly

In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But if you knew to whom you show this honor,

How true a gentleman you send relief,

How dear a lover of my lord your husband,

I know you would be prouder of the work

Than customary bounty can enforce you.

Por.
10I never did repent for doing good,

Nor shall not now: for in companions

That do converse and waste the time together,

Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,

There must be needs a like proportion

Of lineaments, of manners and of spirit;

Which makes me think that this Antonio,

Being the bosom lover of my lord,

Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,

How little is the cost I have bestow'd (20)

In purchasing the semblance of my soul

From out the state of hellish misery!

This comes too near the praising of myself;

Therefore no more of it: hear other things.

Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry 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, (30)

Until her husband and my lord's return:

There is a monastery two miles off;

And there will we abide. I do desire you

Not to deny this imposition;

The which my love and some necessity

Now lays upon you.

Lor.
Madam, with all my heart;

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por.
My people do already know my mind,

And will acknowledge you and Jessica

In place of Lord Bassanio and myself. (40)

And so farewell, till we shall meet again.

Lor.
Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!

Jes.
I wish your ladyship all heart's content.

Por.
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,

So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,

And use thou all the endeavour of a man

In speed to Padua: see thou render this (50)

Into my cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,

Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined speed

Unto the tranect; to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words,

But get thee gone: I shall be there before thee.

Balth.
Madam, I go with all convenient speed. [Exit.

Por.
Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand

That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands

Before they think of us.

Ner.
Shall they see us?

Por.
60They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,

That they shall think we are accomplished

With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,

When we are both accoutred like young men,

I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,

And wear my dagger with the braver grace,

And speak between the change of man and boy

With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps

Into a manly stride, and speak of frays

Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies, (70)

How honorable ladies sought my love,

Which I denying, they fell sick and died;

I could not do withal; then I'll repent,

And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them;

And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,

That men shall swear I have discontinued school

Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind

A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,

Which I will practise.

Ner.
Why, shall we turn to men?

Por.
Fie, what a question's that, (80)

If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!

But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device

When I am in my coach, which stays for us

At the park gate; and therefore haste away,

For we must measure twenty miles to-day. [Exeunt.

SCENE V

Laun.
Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of
the father are to be laid upon the children:
therefore, I promise ye, I fear you. I was always
plain 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 hope
neither.

Jes.
10And what hope is that, I pray thee?

Laun.
Marry, you may partly hope that
your father got you not, that you are not the
Jew's daughter.

Jes.
That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed:
so the sins of my mother should be
visited upon me.

Laun.
Truly then I fear you are damned
both by father and mother: thus when I shun
Scylla, your father, I fall in Charybdis, your (20)
mother: well, you are gone both ways.

Jes.
I shall be saved by my husband; he
hath made me a Christian.

Laun.
Truly, the more to blame he: we
were Christians enow before; e'en as many as
could well live, one by another. This making
of Christians will raise the price of hogs: if we
grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly
have a rasher on the coals for money. Enter LORENZO.

Jes.
I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what (30)
you say: here he comes.

Lor.
I shall grow jealous of you shortly,
Launcelot, if you thus get my wife into corners.

Jes.
Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo:
Launcelot and I are 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 (39)
price of pork.

Lor.
I shall answer that better to the commonwealth

than you can the getting up of the
negro's belly: the Moor is with child by you,
Launcelot.

Laun.
It is much 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.

Lor.
How every fool can play upon the
word! I think the best grace of wit will shortly
turn into silence, and discourse grow commendable
in none only but parrots. Go in, (52)
sirrah; bid them prepare dinner.

Laun.
That is done, sir; they have all
stomachs.

Lor.
Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are
you! then bid them prepare dinner.

Laun.
That is done too, sir; only 'cover' is the word.

Lor.
Will you cover then, sir?

Laun.
Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.

Lor.
Yet more quarrelling with occasion!
Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in
an instant? I pray thee, understand a plain
man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows;
bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and
we will come in to dinner.

Laun.
For the table, sir, it shall be served
in; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered; for
your coming in to dinner, sir, why, let it be as
humors and conceits shall govern. [Exit.

Lor.
70O dear discretion, how his words are suited!

The fool hath planted in his memory

An army of good words; and I do know

A many fools, that stand in better place,

Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word

Defy the matter. How cheer'st thou, Jessica?

And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,

How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife?

Jes.
Past all expressing. It is very meet

The Lord Bassanio live an upright life; (80)

For, having such a blessing in his lady,

He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;

And if on earth he do not mean it, then

In reason he should never come to heaven.

Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match

And on the wager lay two earthly women,

And Portia one, there must be something else

Pawn'd with the other, for the poor rude world

Hath not her fellow.

Lor.
Even such a husband

Hast thou of me as she is for a wife.

Jes.
90Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.

Lor.
I will anon: first, let us go to dinner.

Jes.
Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach.

Lor.
No, pray thee, let it serve for tabletalk;

Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things

I shall digest it.

Jes.
Well, I'll set you forth. [Exeunt.