The Merchant Of Venice

1 Enter the Duke, the Magnificoes, Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, Salerio
2 and others.
3 DUKE.
4 What, is Antonio here?
5 ANTONIO.
6 Ready, so please your Grace.
7 DUKE.
8 I am sorry for thee, thou art come to answer
9 A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch,
10 Uncapable of pity, void and empty
11 From any dram of mercy.
12 ANTONIO.
13 I have heard
14 Your Grace hath ta’en great pains to qualify
15 His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate,
16 And that no lawful means can carry me
17 Out of his envy’s reach, I do oppose
18 My patience to his fury, and am arm’d
19 To suffer with a quietness of spirit
20 The very tyranny and rage of his.
21 DUKE.
22 Go one and call the Jew into the court.
23 SALARINO.
24 He is ready at the door. He comes, my lord.
25 Enter Shylock.
26 DUKE.
27 Make room, and let him stand before our face.
28 Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
29 That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice
30 To the last hour of act, and then, ’tis thought,
31 Thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
32 Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
33 And where thou now exacts the penalty,
34 Which is a pound of this poor merchant’s flesh,
35 Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
36 But, touch’d with human gentleness and love,
37 Forgive a moiety of the principal,
38 Glancing an eye of pity on his losses
39 That have of late so huddled on his back,
40 Enow to press a royal merchant down,
41 And pluck commiseration of his state
42 From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
43 From stubborn Turks and Tartars never train’d
44 To offices of tender courtesy.
45 We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.
46 SHYLOCK.
47 I have possess’d your Grace of what I purpose,
48 And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn
49 To have the due and forfeit of my bond.
50 If you deny it, let the danger light
51 Upon your charter and your city’s freedom!
52 You’ll ask me why I rather choose to have
53 A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
54 Three thousand ducats. I’ll not answer that,
55 But say it is my humour. Is it answer’d?
56 What if my house be troubled with a rat,
57 And I be pleas’d to give ten thousand ducats
58 To have it ban’d? What, are you answer’d yet?
59 Some men there are love not a gaping pig;
60 Some that are mad if they behold a cat;
61 And others, when the bagpipe sings i’ the nose,
62 Cannot contain their urine; for affection
63 Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
64 Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer:
65 As there is no firm reason to be render’d
66 Why he cannot abide a gaping pig,
67 Why he a harmless necessary cat,
68 Why he a woollen bagpipe, but of force
69 Must yield to such inevitable shame
70 As to offend, himself being offended,
71 So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
72 More than a lodg’d hate and a certain loathing
73 I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
74 A losing suit against him. Are you answered?
75 BASSANIO.
76 This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
77 To excuse the current of thy cruelty.
78 SHYLOCK.
79 I am not bound to please thee with my answer.
80 BASSANIO.
81 Do all men kill the things they do not love?
82 SHYLOCK.
83 Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
84 BASSANIO.
85 Every offence is not a hate at first.
86 SHYLOCK.
87 What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
88 ANTONIO.
89 I pray you, think you question with the Jew.
90 You may as well go stand upon the beach
91 And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
92 You may as well use question with the wolf,
93 Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
94 You may as well forbid the mountain pines
95 To wag their high tops and to make no noise
96 When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;
97 You may as well do anything most hard
98 As seek to soften that—than which what’s harder?—
99 His Jewish heart. Therefore, I do beseech you,
100 Make no moe offers, use no farther means,
101 But with all brief and plain conveniency.
102 Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will.
103 BASSANIO.
104 For thy three thousand ducats here is six.
105 SHYLOCK.
106 If every ducat in six thousand ducats
107 Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
108 I would not draw them, I would have my bond.
109 DUKE.
110 How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend’ring none?
111 SHYLOCK.
112 What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
113 You have among you many a purchas’d slave,
114 Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,
115 You use in abject and in slavish parts,
116 Because you bought them. Shall I say to you
117 “Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?
118 Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
119 Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
120 Be season’d with such viands”? You will answer
121 “The slaves are ours.” So do I answer you:
122 The pound of flesh which I demand of him
123 Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it.
124 If you deny me, fie upon your law!
125 There is no force in the decrees of Venice.
126 I stand for judgment. Answer; shall I have it?
127 DUKE.
128 Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
129 Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,
130 Whom I have sent for to determine this,
131 Come here today.
132 SALARINO.
133 My lord, here stays without
134 A messenger with letters from the doctor,
135 New come from Padua.
136 DUKE.
137 Bring us the letters. Call the messenger.
138 BASSANIO.
139 Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
140 The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all,
141 Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.
142 ANTONIO.
143 I am a tainted wether of the flock,
144 Meetest for death, the weakest kind of fruit
145 Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me.
146 You cannot better be employ’d, Bassanio,
147 Than to live still, and write mine epitaph.
148 Enter Nerissa dressed like a lawyer’s clerk.
149 DUKE.
150 Came you from Padua, from Bellario?
151 NERISSA.
152 From both, my lord. Bellario greets your Grace.
153 [_Presents a letter._]
154 BASSANIO.
155 Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
156 SHYLOCK.
157 To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.
158 GRATIANO.
159 Not on thy sole but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
160 Thou mak’st thy knife keen. But no metal can,
161 No, not the hangman’s axe, bear half the keenness
162 Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?
163 SHYLOCK.
164 No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
165 GRATIANO.
166 O, be thou damn’d, inexecrable dog!
167 And for thy life let justice be accus’d;
168 Thou almost mak’st me waver in my faith,
169 To hold opinion with Pythagoras
170 That souls of animals infuse themselves
171 Into the trunks of men. Thy currish spirit
172 Govern’d a wolf who, hang’d for human slaughter,
173 Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
174 And whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam,
175 Infus’d itself in thee; for thy desires
176 Are wolfish, bloody, starv’d and ravenous.
177 SHYLOCK.
178 Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
179 Thou but offend’st thy lungs to speak so loud.
180 Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
181 To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.
182 DUKE.
183 This letter from Bellario doth commend
184 A young and learned doctor to our court.
185 Where is he?
186 NERISSA.
187 He attendeth here hard by,
188 To know your answer, whether you’ll admit him.
189 DUKE OF VENICE.
190 With all my heart: some three or four of you
191 Go give him courteous conduct to this place.
192 Meantime, the court shall hear Bellario’s letter.
193 [_Reads._] _Your Grace shall understand that at the receipt of your
194 letter I am very sick, but in the instant that your messenger came, in
195 loving visitation was with me a young doctor of Rome. His name is
196 Balthazar. I acquainted him with the cause in controversy between the
197 Jew and Antonio the merchant. We turn’d o’er many books together. He is
198 furnished with my opinion, which, bettered with his own learning (the
199 greatness whereof I cannot enough commend), comes with him at my
200 importunity to fill up your Grace’s request in my stead. I beseech you
201 let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend
202 estimation, for I never knew so young a body with so old a head. I
203 leave him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish
204 his commendation._
205 You hear the learn’d Bellario what he writes,
206 And here, I take it, is the doctor come.
207 Enter Portia dressed like a doctor of laws.
208 Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario?
209 PORTIA.
210 I did, my lord.
211 DUKE.
212 You are welcome. Take your place.
213 Are you acquainted with the difference
214 That holds this present question in the court?
215 PORTIA.
216 I am informed throughly of the cause.
217 Which is the merchant here? And which the Jew?
218 DUKE.
219 Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
220 PORTIA.
221 Is your name Shylock?
222 SHYLOCK.
223 Shylock is my name.
224 PORTIA.
225 Of a strange nature is the suit you follow,
226 Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
227 Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
228 [_To Antonio_.] You stand within his danger, do you not?
229 ANTONIO.
230 Ay, so he says.
231 PORTIA.
232 Do you confess the bond?
233 ANTONIO.
234 I do.
235 PORTIA.
236 Then must the Jew be merciful.
237 SHYLOCK.
238 On what compulsion must I? Tell me that.
239 PORTIA.
240 The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
241 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
242 Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
243 It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
244 ’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
245 The throned monarch better than his crown.
246 His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
247 The attribute to awe and majesty,
248 Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
249 But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
250 It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
251 It is an attribute to God himself;
252 And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
253 When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
254 Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
255 That in the course of justice none of us
256 Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
257 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
258 The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
259 To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
260 Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
261 Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there.
262 SHYLOCK.
263 My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
264 The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
265 PORTIA.
266 Is he not able to discharge the money?
267 BASSANIO.
268 Yes, here I tender it for him in the court,
269 Yea, twice the sum, if that will not suffice,
270 I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er
271 On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart.
272 If this will not suffice, it must appear
273 That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you,
274 Wrest once the law to your authority.
275 To do a great right, do a little wrong,
276 And curb this cruel devil of his will.
277 PORTIA.
278 It must not be, there is no power in Venice
279 Can alter a decree established;
280 ’Twill be recorded for a precedent,
281 And many an error by the same example
282 Will rush into the state. It cannot be.
283 SHYLOCK.
284 A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel!
285 O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
286 PORTIA.
287 I pray you let me look upon the bond.
288 SHYLOCK.
289 Here ’tis, most reverend doctor, here it is.
290 PORTIA.
291 Shylock, there’s thrice thy money offered thee.
292 SHYLOCK.
293 An oath, an oath! I have an oath in heaven.
294 Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
295 No, not for Venice.
296 PORTIA.
297 Why, this bond is forfeit,
298 And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
299 A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
300 Nearest the merchant’s heart. Be merciful,
301 Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.
302 SHYLOCK.
303 When it is paid according to the tenour.
304 It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
305 You know the law; your exposition
306 Hath been most sound. I charge you by the law,
307 Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
308 Proceed to judgment. By my soul I swear
309 There is no power in the tongue of man
310 To alter me. I stay here on my bond.
311 ANTONIO.
312 Most heartily I do beseech the court
313 To give the judgment.
314 PORTIA.
315 Why then, thus it is:
316 You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
317 SHYLOCK.
318 O noble judge! O excellent young man!
319 PORTIA.
320 For the intent and purpose of the law
321 Hath full relation to the penalty,
322 Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
323 SHYLOCK.
324 ’Tis very true. O wise and upright judge,
325 How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
326 PORTIA.
327 Therefore lay bare your bosom.
328 SHYLOCK.
329 Ay, his breast
330 So says the bond, doth it not, noble judge?
331 “Nearest his heart”: those are the very words.
332 PORTIA.
333 It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
334 The flesh?
335 SHYLOCK.
336 I have them ready.
337 PORTIA.
338 Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
339 To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
340 SHYLOCK.
341 Is it so nominated in the bond?
342 PORTIA.
343 It is not so express’d, but what of that?
344 ’Twere good you do so much for charity.
345 SHYLOCK.
346 I cannot find it; ’tis not in the bond.
347 PORTIA.
348 You, merchant, have you anything to say?
349 ANTONIO.
350 But little. I am arm’d and well prepar’d.
351 Give me your hand, Bassanio. Fare you well,
352 Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you,
353 For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
354 Than is her custom: it is still her use
355 To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
356 To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
357 An age of poverty, from which ling’ring penance
358 Of such misery doth she cut me off.
359 Commend me to your honourable wife,
360 Tell her the process of Antonio’s end,
361 Say how I lov’d you, speak me fair in death.
362 And when the tale is told, bid her be judge
363 Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
364 Repent but you that you shall lose your friend
365 And he repents not that he pays your debt.
366 For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
367 I’ll pay it instantly with all my heart.
368 BASSANIO.
369 Antonio, I am married to a wife
370 Which is as dear to me as life itself,
371 But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
372 Are not with me esteem’d above thy life.
373 I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
374 Here to this devil, to deliver you.
375 PORTIA.
376 Your wife would give you little thanks for that
377 If she were by to hear you make the offer.
378 GRATIANO.
379 I have a wife who I protest I love.
380 I would she were in heaven, so she could
381 Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.
382 NERISSA.
383 ’Tis well you offer it behind her back,
384 The wish would make else an unquiet house.
385 SHYLOCK.
386 These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter—
387 Would any of the stock of Barabbas
388 Had been her husband, rather than a Christian!
389 We trifle time, I pray thee, pursue sentence.
390 PORTIA.
391 A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine,
392 The court awards it and the law doth give it.
393 SHYLOCK.
394 Most rightful judge!
395 PORTIA.
396 And you must cut this flesh from off his breast.
397 The law allows it and the court awards it.
398 SHYLOCK.
399 Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare.
400 PORTIA.
401 Tarry a little, there is something else.
402 This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood.
403 The words expressly are “a pound of flesh”:
404 Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh,
405 But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
406 One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
407 Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
408 Unto the state of Venice.
409 GRATIANO.
410 O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!
411 SHYLOCK.
412 Is that the law?
413 PORTIA.
414 Thyself shalt see the act.
415 For, as thou urgest justice, be assur’d
416 Thou shalt have justice more than thou desir’st.
417 GRATIANO.
418 O learned judge! Mark, Jew, a learned judge!
419 SHYLOCK.
420 I take this offer then. Pay the bond thrice
421 And let the Christian go.
422 BASSANIO.
423 Here is the money.
424 PORTIA.
425 Soft!
426 The Jew shall have all justice. Soft! no haste!
427 He shall have nothing but the penalty.
428 GRATIANO.
429 O Jew, an upright judge, a learned judge!
430 PORTIA.
431 Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
432 Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more,
433 But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak’st more
434 Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
435 As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
436 Or the division of the twentieth part
437 Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn
438 But in the estimation of a hair,
439 Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.
440 GRATIANO.
441 A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
442 Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
443 PORTIA.
444 Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.
445 SHYLOCK.
446 Give me my principal, and let me go.
447 BASSANIO.
448 I have it ready for thee. Here it is.
449 PORTIA.
450 He hath refus’d it in the open court,
451 He shall have merely justice and his bond.
452 GRATIANO.
453 A Daniel still say I, a second Daniel!
454 I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
455 SHYLOCK.
456 Shall I not have barely my principal?
457 PORTIA.
458 Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture
459 To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.
460 SHYLOCK.
461 Why, then the devil give him good of it!
462 I’ll stay no longer question.
463 PORTIA.
464 Tarry, Jew.
465 The law hath yet another hold on you.
466 It is enacted in the laws of Venice,
467 If it be proved against an alien
468 That by direct or indirect attempts
469 He seek the life of any citizen,
470 The party ’gainst the which he doth contrive
471 Shall seize one half his goods; the other half
472 Comes to the privy coffer of the state,
473 And the offender’s life lies in the mercy
474 Of the Duke only, ’gainst all other voice.
475 In which predicament I say thou stand’st;
476 For it appears by manifest proceeding
477 That indirectly, and directly too,
478 Thou hast contrived against the very life
479 Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr’d
480 The danger formerly by me rehears’d.
481 Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.
482 GRATIANO.
483 Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself,
484 And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,
485 Thou hast not left the value of a cord;
486 Therefore thou must be hang’d at the state’s charge.
487 DUKE.
488 That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit,
489 I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
490 For half thy wealth, it is Antonio’s;
491 The other half comes to the general state,
492 Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.
493 PORTIA.
494 Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.
495 SHYLOCK.
496 Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that.
497 You take my house when you do take the prop
498 That doth sustain my house; you take my life
499 When you do take the means whereby I live.
500 PORTIA.
501 What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
502 GRATIANO.
503 A halter gratis, nothing else, for God’s sake!
504 ANTONIO.
505 So please my lord the Duke and all the court
506 To quit the fine for one half of his goods,
507 I am content, so he will let me have
508 The other half in use, to render it
509 Upon his death unto the gentleman
510 That lately stole his daughter.
511 Two things provided more, that for this favour,
512 He presently become a Christian;
513 The other, that he do record a gift,
514 Here in the court, of all he dies possess’d
515 Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.
516 DUKE.
517 He shall do this, or else I do recant
518 The pardon that I late pronounced here.
519 PORTIA.
520 Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say?
521 SHYLOCK.
522 I am content.
523 PORTIA.
524 Clerk, draw a deed of gift.
525 SHYLOCK.
526 I pray you give me leave to go from hence;
527 I am not well; send the deed after me
528 And I will sign it.
529 DUKE.
530 Get thee gone, but do it.
531 GRATIANO.
532 In christ’ning shalt thou have two god-fathers.
533 Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
534 To bring thee to the gallows, not to the font.
535 [_Exit Shylock._]
536 DUKE.
537 Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner.
538 PORTIA.
539 I humbly do desire your Grace of pardon,
540 I must away this night toward Padua,
541 And it is meet I presently set forth.
542 DUKE.
543 I am sorry that your leisure serves you not.
544 Antonio, gratify this gentleman,
545 For in my mind you are much bound to him.
546 [_Exeunt Duke and his train._]
547 BASSANIO.
548 Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend
549 Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted
550 Of grievous penalties, in lieu whereof,
551 Three thousand ducats due unto the Jew
552 We freely cope your courteous pains withal.
553 ANTONIO.
554 And stand indebted, over and above
555 In love and service to you evermore.
556 PORTIA.
557 He is well paid that is well satisfied,
558 And I delivering you, am satisfied,
559 And therein do account myself well paid,
560 My mind was never yet more mercenary.
561 I pray you know me when we meet again,
562 I wish you well, and so I take my leave.
563 BASSANIO.
564 Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further.
565 Take some remembrance of us as a tribute,
566 Not as fee. Grant me two things, I pray you,
567 Not to deny me, and to pardon me.
568 PORTIA.
569 You press me far, and therefore I will yield.
570 [_To Antonio_.] Give me your gloves, I’ll wear them for your sake.
571 [_To Bassanio_.] And, for your love, I’ll take this ring from you.
572 Do not draw back your hand; I’ll take no more,
573 And you in love shall not deny me this.
574 BASSANIO.
575 This ring, good sir? Alas, it is a trifle,
576 I will not shame myself to give you this.
577 PORTIA.
578 I will have nothing else but only this,
579 And now methinks I have a mind to it.
580 BASSANIO.
581 There’s more depends on this than on the value.
582 The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,
583 And find it out by proclamation,
584 Only for this I pray you pardon me.
585 PORTIA.
586 I see, sir, you are liberal in offers.
587 You taught me first to beg, and now methinks
588 You teach me how a beggar should be answer’d.
589 BASSANIO.
590 Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife,
591 And when she put it on, she made me vow
592 That I should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it.
593 PORTIA.
594 That ’scuse serves many men to save their gifts.
595 And if your wife be not a mad-woman,
596 And know how well I have deserv’d this ring,
597 She would not hold out enemy for ever
598 For giving it to me. Well, peace be with you!
599 [_Exeunt Portia and Nerissa._]
600 ANTONIO.
601 My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring.
602 Let his deservings and my love withal
603 Be valued ’gainst your wife’s commandment.
604 BASSANIO.
605 Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him;
606 Give him the ring, and bring him if thou canst
607 Unto Antonio’s house. Away, make haste.
608 [_Exit Gratiano._]
609 Come, you and I will thither presently,
610 And in the morning early will we both
611 Fly toward Belmont. Come, Antonio.
612 [_Exeunt._]