As seek to soften that (than which what's harder?)
His Jewish heart:-Therefore I do beseech you,
Make no more offers, use no further means,
But, with all brief and plain conveniency,
Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will.
Bass. For thy three thousand ducats here is six.
Shy. If every ducat in six thousand ducats
Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
I would not draw them, I would have my bond.
Duke. How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring
none?

Shy. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? You have among you many a purchas'd slave, Which, like your asses, and your dogs, and mules, You use in abject and in slavish parts,

Because you bought them :-Shall I say to you,
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?
Why sweat they under burdens? let their beds
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
Be season'd with such viands? You will answer,
The slaves are ours:- -So do I answer you:
The pound of flesh, which I demand of him,
Is dearly bought, 'tis mine, and I will have it:
If you deny me, fye upon your
law!

There is no force in the decrees of Venice:

I stand for judgment: answer; shall I have it? Duke. Upon my power, I may dismiss this court,

Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,

Whom I have sent for to determine this,

Come here to-day.

Salar. My lord, here stays without A messenger with letters from the doctor, New come from Padua.

Duke. Bring us the letters; Call the messenger. Bass. Good cheer, Antonio! What, man? cou

rage yet!

The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all, Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.

Ant. I am a tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me: You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio, Than to live still, and write mine epitaph.

Enter NERISSA, dressed like a Lawyer's Clerk. Duke. Came you from Padua, from Bellario? Ner. From both, my lord: Bellario greets your grace. [Presents a Letter.

Bass. Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly? Shy. To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there. Gra. Not on thy sole, but on thy soul 13, harsh Jew, Thou mak'st thy knife keen: but no metal can, No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness Of thy sharp envy 14. Can no prayers pierce thee? Shy. No, none that thou hast wit enough to make. Gra. O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog! And for thy life let justice be accus'd. Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith, To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men': thy currish spirit, Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, Infus'd itself in thee; for thy desires

Are wolfish, bloody, starv'd, and ravenous.

13 The conceit is that his soul was so hard that it might serve him for a whet-stone. So in K. Henry IV. Part II.

Thou hadst a thousand daggers in thy thoughts;

Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,

To stab at half an hour of my life.'

14 Malice.

VOL. III.

I

Shy. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond, Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud: Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall To cureless ruin.-I stand here for law.

Duke. This letter from Bellario doth commend A young and learned doctor to our court:Where is he?

Ner.
He attendeth here hard by,
To know your answer, whether you'll admit him.
Duke. With all my heart:—some three or four of
you,

Go, give him courteous conduct to this place.—
Mean time, the court shall hear Bellario's letter.

[Clerk reads.] Your grace shall understand, that, at the receipt of your letter, I am very sick: but in the instant that your messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a young doctor of Rome, his name is Balthasar: I acquainted him with the cause in controversy between the Jew and Antonio the merchant : we turned o'er many books together: he is furnish'd with my opinion; which, better'd with his own learning, (the greatness whereof I cannot enough commend,) comes with him, at my importunity, to fill up your grace's request in my stead. I beseech you, let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation; for I never knew so young a body with so old a head. I leave him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his commendation.

Duke. You hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes:

And here, I take it, is the doctor come.

Enter PORTIA, dressed like a Doctor of Laws.

Give me your

hand: Came you from old Bellario?

Por. I did, my lord.

Duke.

Are

You are welcome: take your place.

you acquainted with the difference That holds this present question in the court?

Por. I am inform'd thoroughly of the cause. Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew? Duke. Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth. Por. Is your name Shylock?

Shy.

Shylock is my name. Por. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow; Yet in such rule, that the Venetian law

Cannot impugn 15 you, as you do proceed.-
You stand within his danger 16, do

Por.

you

not?

[TO ANTONIO.

Do you confess the bond?

Then must the Jew be merciful. Shy. On what compulsion must I? tell me that. Por. The quality of mercy is not strain'd 17; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

15 To impugn is to oppose, to controvert.

16 i. e. within his reach or control. The phrase is thought to be derived from a similar one in the monkish Latin of the middle age. There are frequent instances of its use in the Paston Letters in the same sense. So in Powell's History of Wales, 1587.-' Laying for his excuse that he had offended manie noblemen of England, and therefore would not come in their danger.' Again in Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis:

'Come not within his danger by your will.'

17 Shakspeare probably recollected the following verse of Ecclesiasticus, xxxv. 20, in composing these beautiful lines: Mercy is seasonable in the time of affliction, as clouds of rain in the time of drought.'

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice 18. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,-
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy 19. I have spoke thus much,
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
Shy. My deeds upon my head? I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.

Por. Is he not able to discharge the money? Bass. Yes, here I tender it for him in the court; Yea, twice the sum: if that will not suffice, I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er, On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart: If this will not suffice, it must appear

That malice bears down truth 20. And, I beseech you, Wrest once the law to your authority:

18 So in K. Edward III. a Tragedy, 1596:

'And Kings approach the nearest unto God,

By giving life and safety unto men.'

And Thomas Achely quoted in England's Parnassus, under the head Mercie :'

་

Then come we nearest to the Gods on hie,

When we are farthest from extremitie,

Giving forthe sentence of our lawes with mercie.'

19 Portia referring the Jew to the Christian doctrine of Salvation, and the Lord's Prayer, is a little out of character.

20 i.e. malice oppressed honesty, a true man in old language is an honest man. We now call the jury good men and true.