To pay the petty debt twenty times over:
305 When it is paid, bring your true friend along.

My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
Will live as maids and widows. Come, away!
For you shall hence upon your wedding-day :

Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer: 310 Since you are dear bought, I will love

you

dear. But let me hear the letter of

your

friend. Bass. [Reads] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, my

bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since in paying it, it is 315 impossible I should live, all debts are cleared between you

and I, if I might but see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.

Por. O love, despatch all business, and be gone ! 320

Bass. Since I have your good leave to go away,

I will make haste: but, till I come again,
No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay,

No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain. [Exeunt.

Enter SHYLOCK, SALARINO, ANTONIO, and GAOLER.
Shy. Gaoler, look to him: tell not me of mercy;
This is the fool that lent out money gratis:
Gaoler, look to him.
Ant.

Hear me yet, good Shylock.
Shy. I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond:
5 I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
Thou call’dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:
The duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder,

Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond 10 To come abroad with him at his request.

Ant. I pray thee, hear me speak.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.

I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
15 To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield

To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond.

(Exit.
Salar. It is the most impenetrable cur
That ever kept with men.
Ant.

Let him alone:
20 I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.

He seeks my life; his reason well I know:
I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures
Many that have at times made moan to me;
Therefore he hates me.
Salar.

I am sure the duke 25 Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.

Ant. The duke cannot deny the course of law:
For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice, if it be denied,

Will much impeach the justice of his state; 30 Since that the trade and profit of the city

Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go:
These griefs and losses have so bated me,
That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh

To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
35 Well, gaoler, on. Pray God, Bassanio come

To see me pay his debt, and then I care not ! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Belmont.

A room in PORTIA's house

Enter Portia, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHASAR.

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your presence, You have a noble and a true conceit

a

a

Of god-like amity; which appears most strongly In bearing thus the absence of your lord. 5 But if you knew to whom you show this honour,

How true a gentleman you send relief,
How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
I know you would be prouder of the work

Than customary bounty can enforce you. 10 Por. I never did repent for doing good,

Nor shall not now: for in companions
That do converse and waste the time together,
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,

There must be needs a like proportion
15 Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit;

Which makes me think that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,
Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,

How little is the cost I have bestow'd
20 In purchasing the semblance of my soul

From out the state of hellish misery!
This comes too near the praising of myself;
Therefore no more of it: hear other things.
Lorenzo, I commit into

your

hands
25 The husbandry and manage of my house

Until my lord's return: for mine own part,
I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow
To live in prayer and contemplation,

Only attended by Nerissa here,
30 Until her husband and my lord's return:

There is a monastery two miles off ;
And there will we abide. I do desire you
Not to deny this imposition;
The which my love and some necessity
Now lays upon you.
Lor.

Madam, with all my heart; I shall obey you in all fair commands.

35

Por. My people do already know my mind, And will acknowledge you and Jessica

In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
40 And so farewell, till we shall meet again.

Lor. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you !
Jes. I wish your ladyship all heart's content.

Por. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
To wish it back on you : fare you well, Jessica.

[Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO. 45 Now, Balthasar,

As I have ever found thee honest-true,
So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,
And use thou all the endeavour of a man

In speed to Padua : see thou render this 50 Into my cousin's hand, Doctor Bellario;

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee,
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined speed
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words, 55 But get thee gone: I shall be there before thee.

Balth. Madam, I go with all convenient speed. [Exit.

Por. Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand
That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands
Before they think of us.
Ner.

Shall they see us ?
60 Por. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit,

That they shall think we are accomplished
With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutred like young men,

I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
65 And wear my dagger with the braver grace,

And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,

70 How honourable ladies sought my love,

Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
I could not do withal; then I'll repent,
And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them;

And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
75 That men shall swear I have discontinued school

Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device 80 When I am in my coach, which stays for us

At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

The same. A garden Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA. Laun. Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children: therefore, I promise ye, I fear you. I was always plain with you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter: therefore be of good 5 cheer, for truly I think you are damned.

Jes. I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian.

Laun. Truly, the more to blame he: we were Christians enow before; e'en as many as could well live, one by another. 10 This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs: if

we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money.

Enter LORENZO. Jes. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say: here he comes. 15 Lor. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if

you thus get my wife into corners.