SHYLOCK If every ducat in six thousand ducats
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Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
I would not draw them, I would have my bond!
DUKE How shalt thou hope for mercy rend’ring none?
SHYLOCK What judgment shall I dread doing no wrong?
You have among you many a purchas’d slave,
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Which (like your asses, and your dogs and mules)
You use in abject and in slavish parts,
Because you bought them, – shall I say to you,
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?
Why sweat they under burthens? let their beds
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Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
Be season’d with such viands? you will answer
‘The slaves are ours,’ – so do I answer you:
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought, ’tis mine and I will have it:
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If you deny me, fie upon your law!
There is no force in the decrees of Venice:
I stand for judgment, – answer, shall I have it?
DUKE Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
Unless Bellario (a learned doctor,
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Whom I have sent for to determine this)
Come here to-day.
SALERIO My lord, here stays without
A messenger with letters from the doctor,
New come from Padua.
DUKE Bring us the letters! call the messenger!
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BASSANIO
Good cheer Antonio! what man, courage yet!
The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all,
Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.
ANTONIO I am a tainted wether of the flock,
Meetest for death, – the weakest kind of fruit
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Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me;
You cannot better be employ’d Bassanio,
Than to live still and write mine epitaph.
Enter NERISSA, dressed like a lawyer’s clerk.
DUKE Came you from Padua from Bellario?
NERISSA
From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace.
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[She presents a letter.]
BASSANIO Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
SHYLOCK
To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there!
GRATIANO Not on thy sole: but on thy soul (harsh Jew)
Thou mak’st thy knife keen: but no metal can, –
No, not the hangman’s axe – bear half the keenness
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Of thy sharp envy: can no prayers pierce thee?
SHYLOCK No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
GRATIANO O be thou damn’d, inexecrable dog!
And for thy life let justice be accus’d;
Thou almost mak’st me waver in my faith,
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To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit
Govern’d a wolf, who hang’d for human slaughter –
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
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And whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam,
Infus’d itself in thee: for thy desires
Are wolvish, bloody, starv’d, and ravenous.
SHYLOCK
Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but offend’st thy lungs to speak so loud:
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Repair thy wit good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.
DUKE This letter from Bellario doth commend
A young and learned doctor to our court:
Where is he?
NERISSA He attendeth here hard by
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To know your answer – whether you’ll admit him.
DUKE With all my heart: some three or four of you
Go give him courteous conduct to this place,
Meantime the court shall hear Bellario’s letter.
[Reads.] Your grace shall understand, that at the
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receipt of your letter I am very sick, but in the instant
that your messenger came, in loving visitation was with
me a young doctor of Rome, his name is Balthazar: I
acquainted him with the cause in controversy between the
Jew and Antonio the merchant, we turn’d o’er many
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books together, he is furnished with my opinion, which
(bettered with his own learning, the greatness whereof I
cannot enough commend), comes with him at my
importunity, to fill up your grace’s request in my stead. I
beseech you let his lack of years be no impediment to let
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him lack a reverend estimation, for I never knew so
young a body with so old a head: I leave him to your
gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his
commendation.
Enter PORTIA, dressed like a doctor of laws.
You hear the learn’d Bellario what he writes,
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And here (I take it) is the doctor come.
Give me your hand, – come you from old Bellario?
PORTIA I did my lord.
DUKE You are welcome, take your place:
Are you acquainted with the difference
That holds this present question in the court?
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PORTIA I am informed throughly of the cause, –
Which is the merchant here? and which the Jew?
DUKE Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
PORTIA Is your name Shylock?
SHYLOCK Shylock is my name.
PORTIA Of a strange nature is the suit you follow,
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Yet in such rule, that the Venetian law
Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
You stand within his danger, do you not?
ANTONIO Ay, so he says.
PORTIA Do you confess the bond?
ANTONIO I do.
PORTIA Then must the Jew be merciful.
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SHYLOCK On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
PORTIA The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes,
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’Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings:
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But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice: therefore Jew,
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Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer, doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
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To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.
SHYLOCK My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
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PORTIA Is he not able to discharge the money?
BASSANIO Yes, here I tender it
for him in the court,
Yea, twice the sum, – if that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart, –
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If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you
Wrest once the law to your authority, –
To do a great right, do a little wrong, –
And curb this cruel devil of his will.
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PORTIA It must not be, there is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree established:
’Twill be recorded for a precedent,
And many an error by the same example
Will rush into the state, – it cannot be.
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SHYLOCK A Daniel come to judgment: yea a Daniel!
O wise young judge how I do honour thee!
PORTIA I pray you let me look upon the bond.
SHYLOCK Here ’tis most reverend doctor, here it is.
PORTIA Shylock there’s thrice thy money off ‘red thee.
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SHYLOCK An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven, –
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
No not for Venice.
PORTIA Why this bond is forfeit,
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
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Nearest the merchant’s heart: be merciful,
Take thrice thy money, bid me tear the bond.
SHYLOCK When it is paid, according to the tenour.
It doth appear you are a worthy judge,
You know the law, your exposition
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Hath been most sound: I charge you by the law,
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear,
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me, – I stay here on my bond.
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ANTONIO Most heartily I do beseech the court
To give the judgment.
PORTIA Why then thus it is, –
You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
SHYLOCK O noble judge! O excellent young man!
PORTIA For the intent and purpose of the law
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Hath full relation to the penalty,
Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
SHYLOCK ’Tis very true: O wise and upright judge,
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
PORTIA Therefore lay bare your bosom.
SHYLOCK Ay, his breast,
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So says the bond, doth it not noble judge?
‘Nearest his heart,’ those are the very words.
PORTIA It is so, – are there balance here to weigh The flesh?
SHYLOCK I have them ready.
PORTIA
Have by some surgeon Shylock on your charge,
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To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
SHYLOCK Is it so nominated in the bond?
PORTIA It is not so express’d, but what of that?
’Twere good you do so much for charity.
SHYLOCK I cannot find it, ’tis not in the bond.
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PORTIA You merchant, have you any thing to say?
ANTONIO But little; I am arm’d and well prepar’d, –
Give me your hand Bassanio, fare you well,
Grieve not that I am fall’n to this for you:
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
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Than is her custom: it is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty: from which ling’ring penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off.
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Commend me to your honourable wife,
Tell her the process of Antonio’s end,
Say how I lov’d you, speak me fair in death:
And when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love:
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Repent but you that you shall lose your friend
And he repents not that he pays your debt.
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I’ll pay it instantly with all my heart.
BASSANIO Antonio, I am married to a wife
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Which is as dear to me as life itself,
But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
Are not with me esteem’d above thy life.
I would lose all, ay sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you.
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PORTIA Your wife would give you little thanks for that
If she were by to hear you make the offer.
GRATIANO I have a wife who I protest I love, –
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 372