he will fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, Ishould marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me I would forgive him, for if he love me to madness, Ishall never requite him. NERISSA What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of England? PORTIA You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English.
He is a proper man's picture, but, alas, who can converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited!
I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany and his behavior every where. NERISSA What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? PORTIA That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman and swore he would pay him again when he was able:
I
think the Frenchman became his surety and sealed under for another. NERISSA How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew? PORTIA Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk:
when he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast:
and the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him. NERISSA If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should refuse to accept him. PORTIA Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a deep glass of rhenish wine on the contrary casket, for if the devil be within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere I'll be married to a sponge. NERISSA You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords: they have acquainted me with their determinations; which is, indeed, to return to their home and to trouble you with no more suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's imposition depending on the caskets. PORTIA If I live to be as old as Sibylla, Iwill die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant them a fair departure. NERISSA Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat? PORTIA Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, he was so called. NERISSA True, madam: he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady. PORTIA I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise.
Enter a Serving-man How now! what news? Servant The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of Morocco, who brings word the prince his master will be here to-night. PORTIA If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good a heart as I can bid the other four farewell, Ishould be glad of his approach: if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me. Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.
Whiles we shut the gates upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.