This casket threatens: Men that hazard all,
Do it in hope of fair advantages:

A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross;
I'll then nor give, nor hazard, aught for lead.
What says the silver, with her virgin hue?
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves.
As much as he deserves?-Pause there, Morocco,
And weigh thy value with an even hand:
If thou be'st rated by thy estimation,
Thou dost deserve enough; and yet enough
May not extend so far as to the lady;
And yet to be afeard of my deserving,
Were but a weak disabling of myself.

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,
That in a gondola were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica:
Besides, Antonio certify'd the duke,
They were not with Bassan o in his ship.
Salan. I never heard a passion so confus'd,
So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
My daughter!-O my ducats!-() my daughter!
Fied with a Christian?-O my Christian ducats!-
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter!
And jewels; two stones, two rich and precious stones,

As much as I deserve!-Why, that's the lady:
1 do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,
In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
But more than these, in love I do deserve.
What if I stay'd no further, but chose here?-Stol n by my daughter! Justice! find the girl!
Let's see once more this saying grav'd in gold:
Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.
Why, that's the lady; all the world desires her.
From the four corners of the earth they come,
To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint.
The Hyrcanian deserts, and the vasty wilds
Of wide Arabia, are as through-fares now,
For princes to come view fair Portia :
The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar
To stop the foreign spirits; but they come,
As o'er a brook, to see fair Portia.
One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is't like, that lead contains her? 'Twere dam-
nation,

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.

To think so base a thought: it were too gross
To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.
Or shall I think, in silver she's immur'd,
Being ten times undervalued to try'd gold?
O sinful thought! never so rich a gem
Was set in worse than gold. They have in
England

A coin, that bears the figure of an angel
Stamped in gold; but that's insculp'd upon;
But here an angel in a golden bed
Lies all within.-Deliver me the key;
Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!
Por. There, take it, prince, and if my form
lie there,

Then I am yours. [He unlocks the golden casket.
Mor.
O hell! what have we here?
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
Had been as wise as bold,
you

Young in limbs, in judgment old,

Your answer had not been inscroll'd:
Fare you well; your suit is cold.
Cold, indeed; and labour lost:

Then, farewell, heat; and welcome, frost.-
Portia, adien! I have too griev'd a heart
To take a tedious leave: thus lovers part. [Exit.
Por. A gentle riddance:-Draw the cur-
tains, go;

Let all of his complexion choose me so. [Exeunt.

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 am sure, Lorenzo is not.
Salan. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd
the duke;

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
Of his return: he answer'd-Do not so,
Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,
But stay the very riping of the time;
And for the Jew's bond, which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind of love:
Be merry; and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship and such fair ostents of love
As shall conveniently become you there:
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
And with affection wondrous sensible
He wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted.
Salan. I think, he only loves the world for him.
I pray thee, let us go, and find him out,
And quicken his embraced heaviness
With some delight or other.
Salar.

Do we so. [Exeunt.
SCENE IX. Belmont.

A Room in Portia's House.

Enter NERISSA, with a Servant.

Ner. Quick, quick, I pray thee, draw the cur

tain straight;

The prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath,
And comes to his election presently.

Flourish of Cornets.

Enter the Prince of Arragon, PORTIA, and their
Trains.

Por. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble
prince:

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.

[things:

Ar. I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three
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 says the golden chest? ha! let me see:
Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire.
What many men desire.-That many may be

meant

By the fool multitude, that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to the interior, but, like the
martlet,

Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire,

Ner. The ancient saying is no heresy ;-
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
Por. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.
Enter a Servant.

Serv. Where is my lady?

Por.
Here; what would my lord?
Serv. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify the approaching of his lord:
From whom he bringeth sensible regrets;
To wit, besides commends, and courteous breath,
Gifts of rich value; yet I have not scen
So likely an ambassador of love:
A day in April never came so sweet,
To show how costly summer was at hand,
As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

Por. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard,
Thou wilt say anon, he is some kin to thee,
Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising
Come, come, Nerissa; for I long to see [him.--
Ner. Bassanio, lord love, if thy will it be!

Because I will not jump with common spirits, Quick Cupid's post, that comes so mannerly.

And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house;
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear:
Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves;
And well said too: For who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honourable
Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
[nour
O, that estates, degrees, and offices,
Were not deriv'd corruptly! and that clear ho-
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover, that stand bare?
How many be commanded, that command?
How much low peasantry would then be glean'd
From the true seed of honour? and how much

honour

Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,

To be new varnish'd? Well, but to my choice:
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves:
I will assume desert;-Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

there.

Por. Too long a pause for that which you find
[idiot,
Ar. What's here? the portrait of a blinking
Presenting me a schedule. I will read it.
How much unlike art thou to Portia ?

How much unlike my hopes and my deservings?
Who chooseth me, shall have as much as he deserves.
Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?
Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?
Por. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices,
And of opposed natures.

Ar.

What is here?

The fire seven times tried this;
Seven times tried that judgment is,
That did never choose amiss:
Some there be, that shadows kiss ;
Such have but a shadow's bliss:
There be fools alive, I wis,
Silver'd d'er; and so was this.
Take what wife you will to bed,
I will ever be your head:
So begone, sir, you are sped.
Still more fool I shall appear
By the time I linger here;

With one fool's head I come to woo,
But I go away with two-
Sweet adieu! I'll keep my oath,
Patiently to hear my wroath.

[Exeunt Arragon and Train,
Por. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth.
O these deliberate fools! when they do choose,
They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.

Art Third.

SCENE I. Venice. A Street.

Enter SALANIO and SALARINO.

[Exeunt.

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 knapp'd 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 highway 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 likeuess 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 damn'd for it. Salar. That's certain, if the devil may be her Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel! Salan. Out upon it, old carrion! rebels it at

these years?

[judge.

Shy. I say, my daughter is my flesh and 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 sinug 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?

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.

A Room in Portia's House.

[Exeunt.

Shy. To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million; laughed | Shy. Nay, that's true, that's very true: Go, at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my Tubal, fee me an officer, bespeak him a fortnight nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, before: I will have the heart of him, if he for heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I feit; for were he out of Venice, I can make am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a what merchandise I will: Go, go, Tubal, and Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affec-meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubai; at tions, passions? fed with the same food, hurt our synagogue, Tubal. 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 villany 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.

Enter Tubal.

Salan. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew. [Exeunt SALAN. SALAR. and Servant. 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 hears'd 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. [is it true? Shy. I thank God, I thank God:-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 dncats.

Shy. Thou stick'st a dagger in me:--I shall never see my gold again: Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

I

Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA,
and Attendants. The caskets are set out.
Por. I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two,
Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
lose your company; therefore, forbear a while:
There's something tells me, (but it is not love),
I would not lose you: and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality:
But lest you should not understand me well
(And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought),
I would detain you here some month or two,
Before
How to choose right, but then I am forsworn;
you venture for me. I could teach you,
So will I never be: so may you miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'erlook'd me, and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours: O! these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights;
And so, though yours, not yours.-Prove it so,
Let fortune go to hell, for it,-not I.

I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time;
To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.

For, as I am, I live upon the rack.
Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confess
What treason there is mingled with your love.
Bass. None, but that ugly treason of mistrust,
Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
There may as well be amity and life
Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.

Por. Ay, but, I fear, you speak upon the rack,
Where men enforced do speak any thing.
Bass. Promise me life, and I'll confess the
Por. Well then, confess, and live. [truth.
Bass.
Confess, and love,
Had been the very sum of my confession:
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

Por. Away, then: I am lock'd in one of them;
If you do love me, you will find me out.-
Nerissa, and the rest, stand all aloof.-
Let musick sound, while he doth make the
choice;

Then, if he lose, he makes a swanlike end,
Fading in musick: that the comparison
May stand more proper, my eye shall be his
stream,

And wat'ry death-bed for him: He may win; Tub. There came divers of Antonio's creditors And what is musick then? then musick is

Even as the fourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch; such it is,
As are those dicet sounds in break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no less presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster; I stand for sacrifice,
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages, come forth to view
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules! [may
Live thou, I live:-With much much more dis-
I view the fight, than thou that mak'st the fray.
Musick, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets
to himself.

Fair Portia's counterfeit? What demi-god
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her
hairs

The painter plays the spider: and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs: But her eyes,-
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his
And leave itself unfurnish'd: Yet look, how far
The substance of my praise doth wrong this
In underprising it, so far this shadow [shadow
Doth limp behind the substance.-Here's the
scroll,

The continent and summary of my fortune.
You that choose not by the view,
Chance as fair, and choose as true!
Since this fortune falls to you,

Be content, and seek no new.

If you be well pleas'd with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,

And claim her with a loving kiss.

A gentle scroll: Fair lady, by your leave;

[Kissing her.

Bass. So may the outward shows be least I come by note, to give, and to receive.

themselves;

The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards, whose hearts areall as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars;
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as
milk?

[wind,

Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes
Hearing applause, and universal shout,
Giddy in spirit, still gazing, in a doubt
Whether those peals of praise be his or no,
So, thrice fair lady, stand 1, even so;
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.

Por. You see me. lord Bassanio, where I stand,
Such as I am: though, for myself alone,
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
To wish myself much better; but for you,
I would be trebled twenty times myself;
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times
More rich;

And these assume but valour's excrement, That only to stand high on your account,
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty, I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight; Exceed account: but the full sum of me
Which therein works a miracle in nature, Is sum of something; which, to term in gross,
Making them lightest that wear most of it; Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis a:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks,
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
Which make such wanton gambols with the But she may learn; happier than this,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
She is not bred so dull but she can learn ;
To be the dowry of a second head,
Happiest of all, is, that her gentle spirit
The scull that bred them, in the sepulchre Commits itself to yours to be directed,
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
As from her lord, her governer, her king.
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf Myself, and what is mine, to you, and yours
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
Is now converted: but now I was the lord
The seeming truth which cunning times put on Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee, [gold, This house, these servants, and this same myself,
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge Are yours, my lord; I give them with this ring
"Tween man and man: but thou, thou meager
lead,

Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
[aught, Let it presage the ruin of your love,
And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Which rather threat'nest, than dost promise
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I; Joy be the consequence!

Bass. Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins:
And there is such confusion in my powers,
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleased multitude:
Where every something being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing save of joy, [ring
Express'd, and not express'd: But when this
What find I here?
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hencu
[Opening the leaden casket. O, then be bold to say, Bassanio's dead.

For. How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts,and rash-embrac'd despair,
And shudd'ring fear and green-ey'd jealousy.
O love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy,
In measure rain thy joy, scant this excess;
I feel too much thy blessing, make it less,
For fear I surfeit!
Bass.