Enter Bassanio, Portia, and all their trains, Gratiano,
Nerissa. PORTIA
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 5
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 10
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. 15
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, 20
Let Fortune go to hell for it, not I.
I speak too long, but ’tis to peize the time,
To eche it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election. BASSANIO Let me choose, 25
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 th’ enjoying of my love. 30
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. 35 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! 40
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. 45
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 deathbed for him. He may win,
And what is music then? Then music is 50
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, 55
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, 60
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. A song the whilst Bassanio comments on
the caskets to himself. "Tell me where is fancy bred, 65
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourishèd?
Reply, reply.
It is engendered in the eye,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies 70
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy’s knell.
I’ll begin it.—Ding, dong, bell." ALL "Ding, dong, bell." | In Belmont, Portia reveals her preference for Bassanio. She asks him to hang out with her for a month or two before he takes the casket test, as she'd rather have him around for a while before he's forced to leave her company if (when?) he makes the wrong choice. She wishes she could teach Bassanio how to interpret the challenge (read: cheat), but that would be breaking her oath, darn it. Bassanio says he wants to take the test now. All this waiting around is like being on the rack (a medieval torture device used to stretch people until they broke). Portia plays along and asks what treason Bassanio has committed that he deserves the rack. Just the treason of mistrust, Bassanio says. He's scared to love Portia fully now, since he doesn't know if he'll be sticking around. Then he confesses that he does love Portia, so they should just do this thing already. Portia has everyone back off so he can choose in peace. She insists that music be played, so if he loses, he can do it gracefully, but if he stays, then they've already got music playing for their party. How nice! (See the "Symbolism" section for more on this.) She compares Bassanio to Hercules ("Alcides"), rescuing the virgin paid as tribute by Troy to a sea monster. Portia says she herself is the sacrifice, and if Bassanio survives this test, then she will live again. Portia begins a song about how people fall in love while Bassanio considers the caskets. |
BASSANIO
So may the outward shows be least themselves; 75
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 80
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 85
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 valor’s excrement
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty, 90
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 maketh such wanton gambols with the wind 95
Upon supposèd fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulcher.
Thus ornament is but the guilèd shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf 100
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. 105
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
’Tween man and man. But thou, thou meager lead,
Which rather threaten’st than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I. Joy be the consequence! 110 Bassanio is given a key. PORTIA, aside
How all the other passions fleet to air,
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! 115
I feel too much thy blessing. Make it less,
For fear I surfeit. Bassanio opens the lead casket. BASSANIO What find I here?
Fair Portia’s counterfeit! What demigod
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? 120
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 125
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 130
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. He reads the scroll. "You that choose not by the view 135
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, 140
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 145
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, 150
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
Until confirmed, signed, ratified by you. | Bassanio begins by saying he knows that what's on the outside can often hide what's inside, like a guy with a really great beard—a beard worthy of Hercules—who's a coward at heart. He does some more philosophizing, adding that beauty can be deceptive, too. Women can wear makeup, and those who wear most are the least prized. Beautiful hair is nice, but wigs with pretty golden locks can be made from dead people's hair. Okay. What he's getting at, obviously, is that outer beauty might just be decoration and it can hide inner ugliness. Using all this reasoning, Bassanio makes his choice. He dismisses the gold casket for being like food touched by King Midas—shiny but inedible. He dismisses the silver casket as the paler of the two metals that are both made base because they're used to make coins of money. That leaves him the lead casket, which he admits is threatening, but moves him more with its paleness than the eloquence of the other two precious metal caskets. He hopes he's right and Portia, knowing he's made the right choice, is secretly flipping out with joy. All of her other passions have given way to love, and she now worries she feels the emotion in excess. She pleads with love to make itself felt moderately, as she worries she'll have too much of it at this rate. Bassanio opens the lead casket and finds Portia's portrait and a nice note that tells him to go ahead and kiss his new wife. Bassanio is so shocked he got it right that he says he won't accept what the scroll says as true until Portia accepts him. |
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 155
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, 160
Exceed account. But the full sum of me
Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,
Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; happier than this, 165
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 170
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’s. I give them with this ring, 175 Handing him a 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. BASSANIO
Madam, you have bereft me of all words.
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins, 180
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 185
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, 190
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. 195
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. BASSANIO
With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife. GRATIANO
I thank your Lordship, you have got me one. 200
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, 205
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 210
To have her love, provided that your fortune
Achieved her mistress. PORTIA Is this true, Nerissa? NERISSA
Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal. BASSANIO
And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith? 215 GRATIANO Yes, faith, my lord. BASSANIO
Our feast shall be much honored in your marriage. GRATIANO We’ll play with them the first boy for a
thousand ducats. NERISSA What, and stake down? 220 GRATIANO No, we shall ne’er win at that sport and
stake down. Enter Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio, a messenger
from Venice. But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel?
What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio? | Portia, of course, is stoked. She wishes she was better, prettier, and wealthier, so as to further please her new man. Though she admits she lacks experience, she's excited that she's neither too old nor too stupid to learn. She then gives herself over to Bassanio and says everything that was hers is now his, including her mansion, her servants, and herself. She gives him a ring to signify their new union and says that if he loses it or gives it away, it's as good as ruining their love. Bassanio, again, claims he's too stricken by all of these new developments to say anything meaningful. His feelings are like the cheering of a crowd after a good prince's speech: nothing distinct can be heard, but all joy is expressed without any specific expression. He declares that if the ring ever leaves his finger, he might as well be proclaimed dead. Nerissa congratulates Portia and Bassanio. Gratiano congratulates them, too, and then says, "Now can I marry Nerissa?" Turns out while Bassanio was focused on Portia, the Gratiano was wooing Nerissa, the lady's lady. Bassanio and Portia confirm with Gratiano and Nerissa respectively that they're both in love, and lo and behold, two weddings are planned in one scene. (Way to economize, Shakespeare.) |
BASSANIO
Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither— 225
If that the youth of my new int’rest here
Have power to bid you welcome. To Portia. By
your leave,
I bid my very friends and countrymen,
Sweet Portia, welcome. 230 PORTIA
So do I, my lord. They are entirely welcome. LORENZO, to Bassanio
I thank your Honor. 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 235
To come with him along. SALERIO I did, my lord,
And I have reason for it. Handing him a paper.
Signior Antonio
Commends him to you. 240 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. 245 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. 250 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 color from Bassanio’s cheek.
Some dear friend dead, else nothing in the world 255
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. 260 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 265
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 270
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, 275
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, 280
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, 285
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 290
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. 295 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, 300
If law, authority, and power deny not,
It will go hard with poor Antonio. | Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio show up in Belmont. They're welcomed by everyone, but Salerio brings bad news. He hands Bassanio a letter from Antonio Portia notes that as Bassanio reads the letter he grows pale and horrified—she's sure that its contents declare the death of a dear friend, as nothing else could provide cause for a man like Bassanio to suddenly look such a mess. She insists that Bassanio tell her what's in the letter, as she is now half of him and should share his grief as well as his joy. Bassanio now has to admit the whole truth: he's not wealthy. He was borrowing money from a buddy who is now totally broke. All of Antonio's ventures—every ship to every port—have failed. Salerio says that things are even worse than they seem. It looks like even if Antonio had the money to pay back the debt, Shylock would insist on getting that pound of Antonio's flesh, money be damned. Salerio says he's never seen a more greedy and inhuman man than Shylock, who has been bothering the Duke morning and night about the fact that justice must be served. Apparently twenty merchants and the Duke himself have tried to reason with Shylock, but he's not hearing any of it. He wants justice for Antonio's breaking the agreement, and justice means he gets to carve Antonio up like a roasted turkey. Jessica says, yeah, he did always seem way more interested in getting Antonio's flesh than getting his money back. This isn't going to go well for 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 305
In doing courtesies, and one in whom
The ancient Roman honor more appears
Than any that draws breath in Italy. PORTIA What sum owes he the Jew? BASSANIO
For me, three thousand ducats. 310 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. 315
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. 320
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; 325
Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
But let me hear the letter of your friend. BASSANIO 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 330
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." PORTIA
O love, dispatch all business and begone! 335 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,
Nor rest be interposer ’twixt us twain. They exit. | Portia asks if Bassanio's friend is in trouble, and her husband-to-be confirms that Antonio, his dearest friend in the world, as noble as the ancient Romans, is going to die for 3,000 ducats. Portia offers to pay off Antonio's debt twenty times over; no harm should come to Antonio because he is a friend of her new man. Still, though, she'd like to get something done first—Bassanio should go to church with her so they can get married. Then he can go to Venice to take care of other business. She says she and Nerissa will live like widows and virgins until everything in Venice is resolved. Still, she instructs Bassanio to have a good time with his buddies who have just shown up. Done with all her directions, she tells Bassanio to read her Antonio's letter. In the letter, Antonio basically says, "I'm screwed, and I owe Shylock my life, which he'll have. Please come and visit me before I die, since I'm sacrificing my life for you. Love, Antonio." Portia tells Bassanio to go as soon as he's done his business in Belmont. Bassanio says he'll go, but he won't rest while they're apart. |