William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (216 page)

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Authors: William Shakespeare

Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare

BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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He is given a key
 
PORTIA
There, take it, Prince; and if my form lie there,
Then I am yours.
Morocco opens the golden casket
 
MOROCCO O hell! What have we here?
A carrion death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing.
‘All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms infold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgement old,
Your answer had not been enscrolled.
Fare you well; your suit is cold.’
Cold indeed, and labour lost.
Then farewell heat, and welcome frost.
 
Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart
To take a tedious leave. Thus losers part.
⌈
Flourish of cornetts.
⌉
Exit with his train
 
PORTIA
A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
Let all of his complexion choose me so.
The curtains are drawn. Exeunt
 
2.8
Enter Salerio and Solanio
 
SALERIO
Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail.
With him is Graziano gone along,
And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
SOLANIO
The villain Jew with outcries raised the Duke,
Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.
SALERIO
He came too late. The ship was under sail.
But there the Duke was given to understand
That in a gondola were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.
Besides, Antonio certified the Duke
They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
SOLANIO
I never heard a passion so confused,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets.
‘My daughter! O, my ducats! O, my daughter!
Fled with a Christian! O, my Christian ducats I
Justice! The law! My ducats and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealèd bags of ducats,
Of double ducats, stol’n from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,
Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl!
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats!’
SALERIO
Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
Crying, ‘His stones, his daughter, and his ducats!’
SOLANIO
Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
Or he shall pay for this.
SALERIO Marry, well remembered.
I reasoned with a Frenchman yesterday,
Who told me in the narrow seas that part
The French and English there miscarried
A vessel of our country, richly fraught.
I thought upon Antonio when he told me,
And wished in silence that it were not his.
SOLANIO
You were best to tell Antonio what you hear—
Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.
SALERIO
A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.
I saw Bassanio and Antonio part.
Bassanio told him he would make some speed
Of his return. He answered, ‘Do not so.
Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,
But stay the very riping of the time;
And for the Jew’s bond which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind of love.
Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship and such fair ostents of love
As shall conveniently become you there.’
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him
And, with affection wondrous sensible,
He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.
SOLANIO
I think he only loves the world for him.
I pray thee let us go and find him out,
And quicken his embraced heaviness
With some delight or other.
SALERIO Do we so.
Exeunt
2.9
Enter Nerissa and a servitor
 
NERISSA
Quick, quick, I pray thee, draw the curtain straight.
The Prince of Aragon hath ta’en his oath,
And comes to his election presently.
The servitor draws aside the curtain, revealing the three caskets
. ⌈
Flourish of cornetts.
⌉
Enter Aragon
,
his train, and Portia
 
PORTIA
Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince.
If you choose that wherein I am contained,
Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized.
But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,
You must be gone from hence immediately.
ARAGON
I am enjoined by oath to observe three things:
First, never to unfold to anyone 10
Which casket ’twas I chose. Next, if I fail
Of the right casket, never in my life
To woo a maid in way of marriage.
Lastly, if I do fail in fortune of my choice,
Immediately to leave you and be gone. 15
PORTIA
To these injunctions everyone doth swear
That comes to hazard for my worthless self.
ARAGON
And so have I addressed me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
He reads the leaden casket
 
‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’
You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’
‘What many men desire’—that ‘many’ may be meant
By the fool multitude, that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,
Which pries not to th’interior but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather on the outward wall
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure-house.
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves’—
And well said too, for who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honourable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
O, that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honour
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare,
How many be commanded that command?
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honour, and how much honour
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished? Well; but to my choice.
‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’
I will assume desert. Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.
He is given a key.
⌈
He
⌉
opens the silver casket
 
PORTIA
Too long a pause for that which you find there.
ARAGON
What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot
Presenting me a schedule. I will read it.
How much unlike art thou to Portia!
How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
‘Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.’
Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?
Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better?
PORTIA
To offend and judge are distinct offices,
And of opposed natures.
ARAGON What is here?
He reads the schedule
 
‘The fire seven times tried this;
Seven times tried that judgement is
That did never choose amiss.
Some there be that shadows kiss;
Such have but a shadow’s bliss.
There be fools alive, iwis,
Silvered o’er; and so was this.
Take what wife you will to bed,
I will ever be your head.
So be gone; you are sped.’
Still more fool I shall appear
By the time I linger here.
With one fool’s head I came to woo,
But I go away with two.
Sweet, adieu. I’ll keep my oath
Patiently to bear my wroth.
 
⌈
Flourish
of
cornetts.
⌉ Exit with his train
 
PORTIA
Thus hath the candle singed the moth.
O, these deliberate fools! When they do choose
They have the wisdom by their wit to lose. 80
NERISSA
The ancient saying is no heresy:
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
PORTIA
Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.
Nerissa draws the curtain.
Enter a Messenger
 
MESSENGER
Where is my lady?
PORTIA Here. What would my lord?
MESSENGER
Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify th’approaching of his lord,
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets,
To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,
Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen 90
So likely an ambassador of love.
A day in April never came so sweet
To show how costly summer was at hand
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.
PORTIA
No more, I pray thee, I am half afeard
Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
Thou spend’st such high-day wit in praising him.
Come, come, Nerissa, for I long to see
Quick Cupid’s post that comes so mannerly.
NERISSA
Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be!
Exeunt
3.1
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 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 sayst 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—
Enter Shylock
for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. How now, Shylock, what news among the merchants?
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 fledge, and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.
SHYLOCK She is damned for it.
SALERIO 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 my 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 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 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.

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