[Opening the leading Casket.
Fair Portia's Counterfeit. What Demy-God
Hath come so near Creation? Move these Eyes?
Or whether riding on the Balls of mine
Seem they in Motion? Here are fever'd Lips
Parted with Sugar Breath; fo fweet a Bar
Should funder fuch fweet Friends: Here in her Hairs
The Painter plays the Spider, and hath woven
A golded Mesh t'intrap the Hearts of Men
Fafter than Gnats in Cobwebs: But her Eyes,
How could he fee to do them? Having made one,
Methinks it should have Power to steal both his,
And leave it felf unfinish'd: Yet look how far
The Subftance of my Praife doth wrong this Shadow
In underprifing it; fo far this Shadow
Doth limp behind the Subftance. Here's the Scrowl,
The Continent and Summary of my Fortune.
You that chufe not by the View,
Chance as fair, and chufe 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,
Tarn you where your Lady is,
And claim her with a loving Kifs.
A gentle Scrowl; Fair Lady, by your Leave, [Kiffing her. I come by Note to give, and to receive.
Like one of two contending in a Prize,
That thinks he hath done well in Peoples Eyes;
Hearing Applaufe and univerfal Shout,
Giddy in Spirit, ftill gazing in a Doubt,
Whether thofe Peals of Praise be his or no;
So thrice fair Lady ftand I even so,
As doubtful whether what I fee be true,
Until confirm'd, fign'd, ratify'd by you.
Por. You fee, my Lord Baffanio, where I ftand,
Such as I am; tho' for my felf alone,
I would not be ambitious in my With,
To with my felf much better; yet for you,
I would be trebled twenty Times my felf,
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand Times
More rich, that to ftand high in your Account,
I might in Virtues, Beauties, Livings, Friends,
Exceed Account; but the full Sum of me
Is Sum of nothing; which to term in grofs,
Is an unleffon'd Girl, unfchool'd, unpractis'd:
Happy in this, fhe is not yet fo old
But the may learn, happier then in this,
She is not bred fo dull but fhe can learn;
Happieft of all is, that her gentle Spirit
Commits it felf to yours to be directed,
As from her Lord, her Governor, her King,
My felf, and what is mine, to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the Lady
Of this fair Manfion, Mistress of my Servants,
Queen o'er my felf, and even now; but now
This Houfe, thefe Servants, and this fame my felf
Are yours my Lord, I give them with this Ring,
Which when you part from, lofe, or give away,
Let it prefage the Ruin of your Love,
And be my Vantage to exclaim on you.
Baff. Madam, you have bereft me of all Words.
Only my Blood fpeaks to you in my Veins,
And there is fuch Confufion in my Powers,
As after forne Oration fairly fpoke
By a beloved Prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleafed Multitude,
Where every fomething being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, fave of Joy
Expreft, and not expreft; but when this Ring
Parts from this Finger, then parts Life from hence;
O then be bold to fay, Baffanio's dead.
Ner. My Lord and Lady, it is now our time,
That have ftood by, and feen our Wishes profper,
To cry Good Joy, good Joy, my Lord and Lady.
Gra. My Lord Baffanio, and my gentle Lady,
I wish you all the Joy that you can with;
For I am fure you can with none from me:
And when your Honours mean to folemnize
H 2
The Bargain of your Faith, I do beseech you
Even at that time I may be married too.
Baff. With all my Heart, fo thou canst get a Wife.
Gra. I thank your Lordship, you have got me one.
My Eyes, my Lord, can look as fwift as yours:
You faw the Miftrefs, I beheld the Maid;
You lov'd; I lov'd for Intermiffion.
No more pertains to me, my Lord, than you:
Your Fortuue ftood upon the Caskets there,
And fo did mine too, as the Matter falls:
For wooing Herd, until I fweat again,
And fwearing 'till my very Roof was dry,
With Oaths of Love, at laft, if Promife last,
I got a Promife of this fair one here,
To have her Love, provided that your Fortune
Atchiev'd her Mistress.
Por. Is this true, Neriffa?
Ner. Madam, it is fo, fo you ftand pleas'd withal.
Baff. And do you, Gratiano, mean good Faith?
Gra. Yes Faith my Lord.
Baff. Our Feaft fhall be much honoured in your riage.
Gra. We'll play with them, the first Boy for a thousand Ducats.
Ner. What, and ftake down?
Gra. No, we fhall ne'er win at that Sport, and ftake down.
But who comes here? Lorenzo and his Infidel?
What, and my old Venetian Friend, Salanie?
Enter Lorenzo, Jeffica, and Salanio.
Baff. Lorenzo and Salanio, welcome hither.
If that the Youth of my new Intereft here
Have Power to bid you welcome. By your Leave
I bid my very Friends and Country-men,
Por. So do I, my Lord; they are intirely welcome.
Lor. I thank your Honour: For my part, my Lord,
My Purpose was not to have feen you here,
But meeting with Salanio by the way,
He did intreat me paft all faying nay,
To come with him along.
And I have reafon for it; Signior Anthonio
Commends him to you.
Baff. E'er I ope this Letter,
I pray you tell me how my good Friend doth.
Sal. Not fick, my Lord, unless it be in Mind:
Nor well, unlefs in Mind: His Letter there
Will fhew you his Eftate.
Baffanio opens the Letter.
Gra. Neriffa, cheer yond Stanger, bid her welcome. Your Hand, Salanio; what's the News from Venice? How doth that Royal Merchant, good Anthonio? I know he will be glad of our Success: We are the Jafons, we have won the Fleece.
Sal. I would you had won the Fleece that he hath loft. Por. There are fome fhrewd Contents in yond fame Paper, That steals the Colour from Baffanio's Check:
Some dear Friend dead, elfe nothing in the World
Could turn fo much the Conftitution
Of any conftant Man. What, worfe and worse!
With Leave, Baffanio, I am half your felf,
And muft freely have the half of any thing
That this fame Paper brings you.
Baff. O fweet Portia!
Here are a few of the unpleasant'ft Words
That ever blotted Paper. Gentle Lady,
When I did firft impart my Love to you,
I freely told you, all the Wealth I had
Ran in my Veins. I was a Gentleman,
And then I told you true; and yet dear Lady,
Rating my felf at nothing, you fhall fee
How much I was a Braggart, when I told you
My State was nothing, I fhould then have told you,
That I was worfe than nothing. For indeed
I have engag'd my felf to a dear Friend;
Engag'd my Friend to his meer Enemy,
To feed my Means. Here is a Letter, Lady;
The Paper as the Body of my Friend,
And every Word in it a gaping Wound,
Iffuing Life-blood. But is it true, Salanio?
Have all his Ventures fail'd! What, not one hitl
From Tripolis, from Mexico, from England,
From Lisbon, Barbary, and India,
And not one Veffel 'scape the dreadful Touch
Of Merchant-marring Rocks?
Sal. Not one, my Lord:
Befides, it should appear, that if he had
The prefent Mony to discharge the Jew,
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,
If they deny him Juftice. Twenty Merchants,
The Duke himself, and the Magnificoes
Of greatest Port have all perfuaded with him,
But none can drive him from the envious Plea
Of Forfeiture, of Juftice, and his Bond.
Jef. When I was with him, I have heard him fwear, To Tuball and to Chus, his Country-men,
That he would rather have Anthonio's Flesh,
Than twenty times the Value of the Sum
That he did owe him; and I know, my Lord,
If Law, Authority, and Power deny not,
It will go hard with poor Anthonio.
Por. Is it your dear Friend that is thus in Trouble?
Baff. The deareft Friend to me, the kindeft Man,
The beft condition'd, and unweary'd Spirit
In doing Courtefies; and one in whom
The ancient Roman Honour more appears
Than any that draws Breath in Italy.
Por. What Sum owes he the Jew?
Baff. For me three thousand Ducats.
Por. What, no more?
Pay him fix thousand, and deface the Bond;
Double fix thousand, and then treble that,
Before a Friend of this Defcription
Shall lofe a Hair through my Bassanio's Fault.
Firft go with me to Church, and call me Wife,
And then away to Venice to your Friend:
For never fhall you lye by Portia's Side
With an unquiet Soul. You fhall have Gold
|