Complete Plays, The

by William Shakespeare

  ’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;

  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,

  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

  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.

  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:

  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.

  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.

  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 offer’d thee.

  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

  Nearest the merchant’s heart. Be merciful:

  Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.

  Shylock

  When it is paid according to the tenor.

  It doth appear you are a worthy judge;

  You know the law, your exposition

  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.

  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

  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:

  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,

  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.

  Portia

  You, merchant, have you any thing to say?

  Antonio

  But little: I am arm’d and well prepared.

  Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!

  Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;

  For herein Fortune shows herself more kind

  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 lingering penance

  Of such misery doth she cut me off.

  Commend me to your honourable wife:

  Tell her the process of Antonio’s end;

  Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;

  And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge

  Whether Bassanio had not once a love.

  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 presently with all my heart.

  Bassanio

  Antonio, I am married to a wife

  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.

  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, whom, I protest, I love:

  I would she were in heaven, so she could

  Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.

  Nerissa

  ’Tis well you offer it behind her back;

  The wish would make else an unquiet house.

  Shylock

  These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter;

  Would any of the stock of Barrabas

  Had been her husband rather than a Christian!

  Aside

  We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.

  Portia

  A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine:

  The court awards it, and the law doth give it.

  Shylock

  Most rightful judge!

  Portia

  And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:

  The law allows it, and the court awards it.

  Shylock

  Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!

  Portia

  Tarry a little; there is something else.

  This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;

  The words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh:’

  Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;

  But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed

  One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods

  Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate

  Unto the state of Venice.

  Gratiano

  O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge!

  Shylock

  Is that the law?

  Portia

  Thyself shalt see the act:

  For, as thou urgest justice, be assured

>   Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.

  Gratiano

  O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge!

  Shylock

  I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice

  And let the Christian go.

  Bassanio

  Here is the money.

  Portia

  Soft!

  The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste:

  He shall have nothing but the penalty.

  Gratiano

  O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!

  Portia

  Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.

  Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more

  But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut’st more

  Or less than a just pound, be it but so much

  As makes it light or heavy in the substance,

  Or the division of the twentieth part

  Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn

  But in the estimation of a hair,

  Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.

  Gratiano

  A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!

  Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.

  Portia

  Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture.

  Shylock

  Give me my principal, and let me go.

  Bassanio

  I have it ready for thee; here it is.

  Portia

  He hath refused it in the open court:

  He shall have merely justice and his bond.

  Gratiano

  A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!

  I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.

  Shylock

  Shall I not have barely my principal?

  Portia

  Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture,

  To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.

  Shylock

  Why, then the devil give him good of it!

  I’ll stay no longer question.

  Portia

  Tarry, Jew:

  The law hath yet another hold on you.

  It is enacted in the laws of Venice,

  If it be proved against an alien

  That by direct or indirect attempts

  He seek the life of any citizen,

  The party ’gainst the which he doth contrive

  Shall seize one half his goods; the other half

  Comes to the privy coffer of the state;

  And the offender’s life lies in the mercy

  Of the duke only, ’gainst all other voice.

  In which predicament, I say, thou stand’st;

  For it appears, by manifest proceeding,

  That indirectly and directly too

  Thou hast contrived against the very life

  Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr’d

  The danger formerly by me rehearsed.

  Down therefore and beg mercy of the duke.

  Gratiano

  Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself:

  And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,

  Thou hast not left the value of a cord;

  Therefore thou must be hang’d at the state’s charge.

  Duke

  That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,

  I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:

  For half thy wealth, it is Antonio’s;

  The other half comes to the general state,

  Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.

  Portia

  Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.

  Shylock

  Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:

  You take my house when you do take the prop

  That doth sustain my house; you take my life

  When you do take the means whereby I live.

  Portia

  What mercy can you render him, Antonio?

  Gratiano

  A halter gratis; nothing else, for God’s sake.

  Antonio

  So please my lord the duke and all the court

  To quit the fine for one half of his goods,

  I am content; so he will let me have

  The other half in use, to render it,

  Upon his death, unto the gentleman

  That lately stole his daughter:

  Two things provided more, that, for this favour,

  He presently become a Christian;

  The other, that he do record a gift,

  Here in the court, of all he dies possess’d,

  Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.

  Duke

  He shall do this, or else I do recant

  The pardon that I late pronounced here.

  Portia

  Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?

  Shylock

  I am content.

  Portia

  Clerk, draw a deed of gift.

  Shylock

  I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;

  I am not well: send the deed after me,

  And I will sign it.

  Duke

  Get thee gone, but do it.

  Gratiano

  In christening shalt thou have two god-fathers:

  Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,

  To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.

  Exit Shylock

  Duke

  Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner.

  Portia

  I humbly do desire your grace of pardon:

  I must away this night toward Padua,

  And it is meet I presently set forth.

  Duke

  I am sorry that your leisure serves you not.

  Antonio, gratify this gentleman,

  For, in my mind, you are much bound to him.

  Exeunt Duke and his train

  Bassanio

  Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend

  Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted

  Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof,

  Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew,

  We freely cope your courteous pains withal.

  Antonio

  And stand indebted, over and above,

  In love and service to you evermore.

  Portia

  He is well paid that is well satisfied;

  And I, delivering you, am satisfied

  And therein do account myself well paid:

  My mind was never yet more mercenary.

  I pray you, know me when we meet again:

  I wish you well, and so I take my leave.

  Bassanio

  Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further:

  Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute,

  Not as a fee: grant me two things, I pray you,

  Not to deny me, and to pardon me.

  Portia

  You press me far, and therefore I will yield.

  To Antonio

  Give me your gloves, I’ll wear them for your sake;

  To Bassanio

  And, for your love, I’ll take this ring from you:

  Do not draw back your hand; I’ll take no more;

  And you in love shall not deny me this.

  Bassanio

  This ring, good sir, alas, it is a trifle!

  I will not shame myself to give you this.

  Portia

  I will have nothing else but only this;

  And now methinks I have a mind to it.

  Bassanio

  There’s more depends on this than on the value.

  The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,

  And find it out by proclamation:

  Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.

  Portia

  I see, sir, you are liberal in offers

  You taught me first to beg; and now methinks

  You teach me how a beggar should be answer’d.

  Bassanio

  Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife;
r />   And when she put it on, she made me vow

  That I should neither sell nor give nor lose it.

  Portia

  That ’scuse serves many men to save their gifts.

  An if your wife be not a mad-woman,

  And know how well I have deserved the ring,

  She would not hold out enemy for ever,

  For giving it to me. Well, peace be with you!

  Exeunt Portia and Nerissa

  Antonio

  My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring:

  Let his deservings and my love withal

  Be valued against your wife’s commandment.

  Bassanio

  Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him;

  Give him the ring, and bring him, if thou canst,

  Unto Antonio’s house: away! make haste.

  Exit Gratiano

  Come, you and I will thither presently;

  And in the morning early will we both

  Fly toward Belmont: come, Antonio.

  Exeunt

  SCENE II. THE SAME. A STREET.

  Enter Portia and Nerissa

  Portia

  Inquire the Jew’s house out, give him this deed

  And let him sign it: we’ll away to-night

  And be a day before our husbands home:

  This deed will be well welcome to Lorenzo.

  Enter Gratiano

  Gratiano

  Fair sir, you are well o’erta’en

  My Lord Bassanio upon more advice

  Hath sent you here this ring, and doth entreat

  Your company at dinner.

  Portia

  That cannot be:

  His ring I do accept most thankfully:

  And so, I pray you, tell him: furthermore,

  I pray you, show my youth old Shylock’s house.

  Gratiano

  That will I do.

  Nerissa

  Sir, I would speak with you.

  Aside to Portia

  I’ll see if I can get my husband’s ring,

  Which I did make him swear to keep for ever.

  Portia

  [Aside to Nerissa] Thou mayst, I warrant.

  We shall have old swearing

  That they did give the rings away to men;

  But we’ll outface them, and outswear them too.

  Aloud

  Away! make haste: thou knowist where I will tarry.

  Nerissa

  Come, good sir, will you show me to this house?

  Exeunt

  ACT V

  SCENE I. BELMONT. AVENUE TO PORTIA’S HOUSE.

  Enter Lorenzo and Jessica

  Lorenzo

  The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,

  When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees

  And they did make no noise, in such a night

  Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls

  And sigh’d his soul toward the Grecian tents,

  Where Cressid lay that night.

  Jessica

  In such a night

  Did Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew

  And saw the lion’s shadow ere himself

  And ran dismay’d away.