Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;For herein Fortune shows herself more kind Than is her custom: it is still her use To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow An age of poverty; from which lingering penance Of such misery doth she cut me off.
Commend me to your honourable wife:
Tell her the process of Antonio's end;
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend, And he repents not that he pays your debt;For if the Jew do cut but deep enough, I'll pay it presently with all my heart. BASSANIO Antonio, I am married to a wife Which is as dear to me as life itself;But life itself, my wife, and all the world, Are not with me esteem'd above thy life:
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all Here to this devil, to deliver you. PORTIA Your wife would give you little thanks for that, If she were by, to hear you make the offer. GRATIANO I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love:
I would she were in heaven, so she could Entreat some power to change this currish Jew. NERISSA 'Tis well you offer it behind her back;The wish would make else an unquiet house. SHYLOCK These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter;Would any of the stock of Barrabas Had been her husband rather than a Christian!
Aside We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence. PORTIA A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:
The court awards it, and the law doth give it. SHYLOCK Most rightful judge! PORTIA And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:
The law allows it, and the court awards it. SHYLOCK Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare! PORTIA Tarry a little; there is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh:'
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Unto the state of Venice. GRATIANO O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge! SHYLOCK Is that the law? PORTIA Thyself shalt see the act:
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. GRATIANO O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge! SHYLOCK I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice And let the Christian go. BASSANIO Here is the money. PORTIA Soft!
The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste:
He shall have nothing but the penalty. GRATIANO O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge! PORTIA Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut'st more Or less than a just pound, be it but so much As makes it light or heavy in the substance, Or the division of the twentieth part Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn But in the estimation of a hair, Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate. GRATIANO A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip. PORTIA Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture. SHYLOCK Give me my principal, and let me go. BASSANIO I have it ready for thee; here it is. PORTIA He hath refused it in the open court:
He shall have merely justice and his bond. GRATIANO A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. SHYLOCK Shall I not have barely my principal? PORTIA Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture, To be so taken at thy peril, Jew. SHYLOCK Why, then the devil give him good of it!
I'll stay no longer question. PORTIA Tarry, Jew:
The law hath yet another hold on you.
It is enacted in the laws of Venice, If it be proved against an alien That by direct or indirect attempts He seek the life of any citizen, The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive Shall seize one half his goods; the other half Comes to the privy coffer of the state;And the offender's life lies in the mercy Of the duke only, 'gainst all other voice.
In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st;For it appears, by manifest proceeding, That indirectly and directly too Thou hast contrived against the very life Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd The danger formerly by me rehearsed.