Act 3

Scene 1 / running scene 13

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 's report be an honest woman of her word.

SOLANIO I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger 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 sayest 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, for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. How now, Shylock! What news among the merchants?

Enter Shylock

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 fledged . and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam .

SHYLOCK She is damned for it.

SOLANIO 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 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 the 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

SERVANT 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 Gentlemen [ Solanio, Salerio and Servant ]

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 how much is 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.

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 [ separately ]

Scene 2 / running scene 14

Enter Bassanio, Portia, Gratiano, [ Nerissa ] and all their trains

PORTIA I pray you tarry . Pause a day or two

Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong

I lose your company: therefore forbear awhile.

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.

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 peise 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 .

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 the 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 enforcèd do speak anything.

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

PORTIA Well then, confess and live .

BASSANIO '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.

PORTIA Away, then! I am locked 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 wat'ry death-bed for him. He may win,

And what is music then? Then music is

Even as the flourish when true subjects bow

To a new-crownèd 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

[SINGER] Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart, or in the head?

How begot , how nourishèd?

Reply, reply.

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 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 damnèd error, but some sober brow

Will bless it and approve it with a text ,

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 searched , have livers white as milk .

And these assume but valour's excrement

To render them redoubted . Look on beauty,

And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight ,

Which therein works a miracle in nature,

Making them lightest that wear most of it:

So are those crispèd snaky golden locks

Which makes such wanton gambols with the wind

Upon supposèd fairness , often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull that bred them in the sepulchre .

Thus ornament is but the guilèd shore

To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf

Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,

The seeming truth which cunning times put on

To entrap the wisest. Therefore, then, 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 threaten'st than dost promise aught,

Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,

And here choose I. Joy be the consequence!

PORTIA How all the other passions fleet to air,

Aside

As doubtful thoughts and rash-embraced despair

And shudd'ring fear and green-eyed jealousy!

O love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy,

In measure rain thy joy, scant this excess.

I feel too much thy blessing. Make it less,

For fear I surfeit .

BASSANIO What find I here?

He opens the lead casket

Fair Portia's counterfeit ! What demigod

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes ?

Or whether , riding on the balls of mine ,

Seem they in motion? Here are severed 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 t'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 unfurnished . Yet look how far

The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow

In underprizing it, so far this shadow

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

The continent and summary of my fortune.

'You that choose not by the view

Reads

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.'

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 peals of praise be his or no,

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

As doubtful whether what I see be true,

Until confirmed, signed, ratified by you.

PORTIA You 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 virtues, beauties, livings , friends,

Exceed account . But the full sum of me

Is sum of nothing, which to term in gross

Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpractisèd ,

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.

Puts a ring on his finger

BASSANIO 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 ,

As after some oration fairly spoke

By a belovèd prince, there doth appear

Among the buzzing pleasèd multitude,

Where every something being blent together,

Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy

Expressed and not expressed . But when this ring

Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence.

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

NERISSA 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!

GRATIANO 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 honours mean to solemnize

The bargain of your faith , I do beseech you,

Even at that time I may be married too.

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

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

My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:

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 caskets 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.

PORTIA Is this true, Nerissa?

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

BASSANIO And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?

GRATIANO Yes, faith , my lord.

BASSANIO Our feast shall be much honoured in your marriage.

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

NERISSA What, and stake down ?

GRATIANO No, we shall ne'er win at that sport , and stake down .

But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel ?

What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio?

Enter Lorenzo, Jessica and Salerio

BASSANIO 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 very friends and countrymen,

Sweet Portia, welcome.

PORTIA So do I, my lord. They are entirely welcome.

LORENZO I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,

My purpose was not to have seen you here,

But meeting with Salerio by the way,

He did entreat me, past all saying nay,

To come with him along.

SALERIO I did, my lord,

And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio

Commends him to you.

Gives Bassanio a letter

BASSANIO Ere I ope his letter,

I pray you tell me how my good friend doth.

SALERIO Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind,

Nor well, unless in mind: his letter there

Will show you his estate .

[ Bassanio ] opens the letter

GRATIANO Nerissa, cheer yond 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.

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

PORTIA There are some shrewd contents in yond same paper,

That steals the colour 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?

With leave , Bassanio: I am half yourself ,

And I must freely have the half of anything

That this same paper brings you.

BASSANIO 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,

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?

Hath all his ventures failed? What, not one hit ?

From Tripolis, from Mexico and England,

From Lisbon, Barbary and India?

And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch

Of merchant-marring rocks?

SALERIO 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.

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.

JESSICA 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

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.

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

BASSANIO The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,

The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit

In doing courtesies , 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 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 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.

BASSANIO '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 see you at my death. Notwithstanding , use your pleasure , if your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.'

Reads

PORTIA O love! Dispatch 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 .

Exeunt

Scene 3 / running scene 15

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

SHYLOCK Jailer, look to him, tell not me of mercy.

This is the fool that lends out money gratis .

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 jailer, that thou art so fond

To come abroad 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 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 with men.

ANTONIO Let him alone.

I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.

He seeks my life, his reason well I know;

I oft delivered from his forfeitures

Many that have at times made moan to me:

Therefore he hates me.

SOLANIO I am sure the duke

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold .

ANTONIO 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 the state,

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

Tomorrow to my bloody creditor.

Well, jailer, on. Pray God, Bassanio come

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

Exeunt

Scene 4 / running scene 16

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

Of godlike amity , which appears most strongly

In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But if you knew to whom you show this honour,

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 .

PORTIA I 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 bestowed

In purchasing the semblance 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 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 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 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 ,

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 this

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 traject , to the common ferry

Which trades 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 ,

That they shall think we are accomplishèd

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,

How honourable 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 killed 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.

NERISSA Why, shall we turn to 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

When I am in my coach, which stays for us

At the park gate; and therefore haste away,

For we must measure twenty miles today.

Exeunt

Scene 5 / running scene 17

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 you, 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 .

JESSICA And what hope is that, I pray thee?

LANCELET Marry, you may partly hope that your father got 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 , your mother; well, you are gone both ways.

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

LANCELET 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

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 .

JESSICA Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo. Lancelet 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 price of pork.

LORENZO 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, Lancelet.

LANCELET 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 .

LORENZO 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, sirrah, bid them prepare for dinner.

LANCELET That is done, sir, they have all stomachs .

LORENZO Goodly lord, what a wit-snapper are you? Then bid them prepare dinner.

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

LORENZO Will you cover then, sir?

LANCELET Not so, sir, neither. I know my duty .

LORENZO 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.

LANCELET 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 humours and conceits shall govern.

Exit Clown [ Lancelet ]

LORENZO O 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 ,

Garnished like him, that for a tricksy word

Defy the matter . How cheerest thou , Jessica?

And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,

How dost thou like the lord Bassanio's wife?

JESSICA Past all expressing . It is very meet

The lord Bassanio live an upright life,

For, having such a blessing in his lady,

He finds the joys of heaven here on earth.

And if on earth he do not merit it,

In reason he should never come to heaven.

Why, if two gods should play some heav'nly match

And on the wager lay two earthly women,

And Portia one, there must be something else

Pawned with the other, for the poor rude world

Hath not her fellow .

LORENZO Even such a husband

Hast thou of me as she is for a wife.

JESSICA Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.

LORENZO I will anon. First, let us go to dinner.

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

LORENZO No, pray thee let it serve for table-talk,

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

I shall digest it.

JESSICA Well, I'll set you forth .

Exeunt AzTQHSoetnx0loWh9vGi4ji552J87pS4IfkZjDRw+U2fJrk+0CUj8O97PD+OEEXM