Shy. I say my daughter is my flesh and blood. Salar. There is more difference between thy flesh and ber's, 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?

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

Shy. She is damn'd for it.

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

Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel.
Salan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at
these years?

a

Shy. There I have another bad match : bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto;-a beggar, that used to come so smug upon the mari;-let him look to his bond: he was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his boud: he was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy ;-let him look to his bond.

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.

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 hears'd 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.

Enter TUBAL.

Salan. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himseif torn Jew.

[Exeunt SALAN. SALAR. and SERVANT. Shy. How now, Tabal, what news from Genoa bast thou found my daughter?

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

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too; Antonio, as I heard in Genoa,—

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

Shy. What, what, what? ill luek, ill luck? Tub. -bath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.

Shy. I thank God, I thank God:-Is it true? is it true?

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, Tnbal: it was my torquoise; I had it of leah, when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkies.

Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone.

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

Shy. Nay that's true, that's very true: Go, Tubal, fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight Shy. To bait fish withal: it it will feed no- before, I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit thing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath for were he out of Venice, I can make what disgraced me, and hindered me of half a mil-merchandise will: Go, go, Tubal, and meet lion; laughed at my losses, mocked at my me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; at our gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bar-synagogue, Tubal. [Exeunt. gains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies ; and what's his reason? I am a Jew: Hath not SCENE II.-Belmont.-A Room in PORTIA'S a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passious? 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 pot 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 ex-I ample? why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.

Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal ;-Good news, good news: ha! ha!-Where? in Genoa ?

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

Shy. Thou stick'st 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 cannot choose but break.

House.

Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA,
and Attendants. The caskets are set out.
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,)
would detain you here some month or two,
I could teach you,
Before you venture for me.
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'erlook'd me, and divided me;
One half of me is your's, the other half
your's,--

Mine own, I would say, but if mine, then
your's,

And so all your's: Oh! these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights;
And so, though your's, not your's.--Prove it so,
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. Upou the rack, Bassanio? then confess What treason there is mingled with your love.

A precious stone.

↑ Delay.

Bass. 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. Por. Ay, but I fear, you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do speak any thing. Bass. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.

To be the dowry of a second bead,
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 canning times put en
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gandy
gold,

Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common dradee
'Tween man and man: but thon, then meagre
lead,
Which rather threat'nest, than dost promise
aught,

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.

Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence,

Por. Away then: I am lock'd in one of And here choose I; Joy be the consequence!

Por. How all the other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash embrac'd despair,

And shudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealony.
O love, be moderate, allay thy extacy,
In measure rain 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 earket.
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 ber
hairs

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 nis 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 death-bed for him: He may win;
And what is music then? then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
Το 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
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules !
Live thou, I live:-With much much more dis-

may

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

SONG.

1. Tell me, where is fancy + bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourished? Reply. 2. It is engender'd in the cyes, With gazing jed; and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies:

Let us all ring fancy's knell:
I'll begin it,--Ding, dong, bell.
Ding, dong, bell.

themselves;

The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd 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?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards, whose hearts are all
false

as

The continent and summary of my fortume.
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 nets.
If you be well pleas'd with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,
And claim her with a loving kiss.

All.

Bass. So may the outward shows be least A gentle scroll;-Fair lady, by your leave; [Kissing her.

As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward search'd, have livers white
milk?

Dignity of mien. I Winning favour.

And these assume but valour's excrement,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped 3 suaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the
wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

The painter plays the spider; and hath wovER
A golden mesh to entrap the bearts 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 bock
his,

+ Love.
( Curled.

And

leave itself unfurnish'd: Yet look, ben 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,

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 shent,
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 confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.

Por. You see me, lord Bassanio, where I
stand,

Such as I am though for myself alone,
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
as 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;
Than only to stand high on your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account: but the full sum of me

Is sum cf something; which, to term in gros,
Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis`d:
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; and happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn ;

• Treacherous.

+ Likeness, pertrast.

Well, jailer, on:-Pray God, Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care Let!
[Erewat.
SCENE IV.-Belmont.-A Room in Pen-
TIA'S House.

Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA
and BALTHAZAR.

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your pre

sence,

You have a noble and a true conceit

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
To pay the petty debt twenty times over;
When it is paid, bring your true friend along :
My maid Nerissa, and myself, mean time,
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.

come,
be

gone.

Bass. Since I have your good leave to

go

away,

Por. I never did repent for doing good,

Por. O love, despatch all business, and

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 be-Nor shall not now: for in companions tween you and I, if I might but see you at That do converse and waste the time together, my death; notwithstanding, use your plea-Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love, sure if your love do not persuade you to There must be needs a like proportion let not my letter. 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, In purchasing the semblance of my soul From out the state of hellish cruelty I 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 p., I have toward heaven breath'd a secret ves To live in prayer and contemplation, Only attended by Nerissa bere,

Until her husband and my lord's return:
There is a monastery two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do desire yon,
Not to deny this imposition;

The which my love, and some necessity,
Now lays upon you.

Lor. Madam, with all my heart;

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 III.-Venice.-A Street.

Enter SHYLOCK, SALANIO, ANTONIO, AND
JAILER.
Sky. Jailer, look to him ;-Tell not
mercy ;-
This is the fool that lent out money gratis ;-
Jailer, 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

me

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly
In bearing thus the absence of your lord.
But, if you knew to whom you show
bonour,

[law;

Ant. The duke cannot deny the course of
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
Cousisteth 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.--
+ Fool.sh.

• Face.

How true a gentlemen 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.

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por. My people do already know my muri,
And will acknowledge you and Jessica
In place of lord Bassanio and myself.
So fare you well, till we shall meet agai..
Lor. Fair thoughts, and happy hours trad

on you.

Jes. I wish your ladyship all heart's content. Por. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd

To wish it back on you: fare you well, Jes-
sica.[Exeunt JESSICA and Loren100
Now, Balthazar,

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
Into my cousin's baud, doctor Bellario;
And look, what notes and garments he doth
give thee,

Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd sperd
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry
Which trades to Venice-waste no time a
words,

But get thee gone: I shall be there before thee.
Balth. Madam, I go with all Convenient
speed.
Kat

Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in band That you yet know not of: we'll see our bus bands,

Before they think of us.

Ner. Shall they see us?

Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a batut,
That they shall think we are accomplished
With what we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both acconter'd like young incal,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear ny dagger with a braver grace;