When you shall please to play the thieves for wives, Enter JESSICA above, in boy's clothes. Jes. Who are you? Tell me for more certainty, Albeit I'll swear that I do know your tongue. Lor. Lorenzo, and thy love. Jes. Lorenzo, certain; and my love, indeed, For whom love I so much? And now who knows, But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours? Lor. Heaven, and thy thoughts are witness that thou art. Jes. Here, catch this casket: it is worth the pains. I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me, Lor. Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer. For the close night doth play the run-away, This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt ;"Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath." How shall I know if I do choose the right? Por. The one of them contains my picture, prince: If you choose that, then I am yours withal. Mor. Some god direct my judgment! Let me see, I will survey th' inscriptions back again : What says this leaden casket? "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath." Must give-For what? for lead? hazard for lead! A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross; As much as he deserves?-Pause there, Morocco, If thou be'st rated by thy estimation, As much as I deserve ?-Why, that's the lady: Why, that's the lady; all the world desires her: Por. There, take it, prince; and if my form lie Then I am yours. Hell, what have we here! [He unlocks the golden casket. Mor. 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. SCENE VIII.-Venice. A Street. Enter SALARINO, and SALANIO. Salar. Why man, I saw Bassanio under sail : With him is Gratiano gone along; And in their ship, I'm sure, Lorenzo is not. Salan. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the duke, Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship. Salar. He came too late, the ship was under sail : But there the duke was given to understand, Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter! stones, Stol'n by my daughter!-Justice! find the girl! She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats!" Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him, Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats. Salan. Let good Antonio look he keep his day, Or he shall pay for this. Salar. Marry, well remember'd. I reason'd 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 wish'd in silence that it were not his. Salan. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear; Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him. Salar. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. I saw Bassanio and Antonio part. Bassanio told him, he would make some speed And for the Jew's bond, which he hath of me, Enter NERISSA, with a Servitor. Ner. Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the cur tain straight. The prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath, Enter the Prince of Arragon, PORTIA, and their Por. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble princ. If you choose that wherein I am contain'd, Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemniz'd; But if you fail, without more speech, my lord, You must be gone from hence immediately. Ar. I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three things First, never to unfold to any one 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. Por. To these injunctions every one doth swear, That comes to hazard for my worthless self. Ar. And so have I address'd me. Fortune now To my heart's hope!-Gold, silver, and base lead. "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath :" You shall look fairer, ere I give, or hazard. What many men desire:—that many may be meant I will not choose what many men desire, And well said too; for who shall go about To cozen fortune, and be honourable, O! that estates, degrees, and offices, Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear honour Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times, serves." I will assume desert :-Give me a key for this, Por. Too long a pause for that which you find there. Ar. What's here? the portrait of a blinking idiot. Presenting me a schedule? I will read it. "The fire seven times tried this: With one fool's head I came to woo, [Exeunt Arragon, and Train. Por. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. Ner. The ancient saying is no heresy:- Mess. Where is my lady? Por. To wit, (besides commends, and courteous breath,) A day in April never came so sweet, To show how costly summer was at hand, Por. No more, I pray thee: I am half afeard, 22 Enter SALANIO, and SALARINO. Salan. Now, what news on the Rialto? Salar. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd, that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wreck'd 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. Salan. 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 high-way of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio,-O, that I had a title good enough to keep his name company!— Salar. Come, the full stop. Salan. Ha!-what say'st thou ?-Why the end is, he hath lost a ship. Salar. I would it might prove the end of his losses. Salan. Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer; for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. Enter SHYLOCK. How now, Shylock? what news among the merchants? Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter's flight. Salar. That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal. Salan. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledg'd; and then, it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. Shy. She is damned for it. Salar. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge. Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel! Salan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at these years? Shy. I say, my daughter is my flesh and my blood. Salar. 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? Shy. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto;-a beggar, that 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. Salar. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what's that good for? Shy. 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. 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. Salan. Here comes another of the tribe: a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt SALAN., SALAR., and Servant. Enter TUBAL. Shy. How now, Tubal? what news from Genoa? hast thou found my daughter? Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her. 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 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 hearsed 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. Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa, Shy. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck? Tub. -hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. Shy. I thank God! I thank God! Is it true? is it true? Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck. 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. 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, Tubal: it was my turquoise; I had it of Leah, when I was a bachelor: I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone. SCENE II.-Belmont. An Apartment in PORTIA's Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA. |