The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Part 5

_Portia._ Therefore, lay bare your bosom.

_Shylock._ Ay, his breast: So says the bond:--doth it not, n.o.ble 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._ Come, merchant, have you anything to say?

_Antonio._ But little: I am arm'd, and well prepar'd.-- Give me your hand, Ba.s.sanio: 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 a misery doth she cut me off.

Commend me to your honorable 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 Ba.s.sanio had not once a love.

Repent not 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.

_Ba.s.sanio._ 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._ [_Aside._] These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter; Would any of the stock of Barrabas Had been her husband rather than a Christian!-- [_To_ PORTIA.] 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 a.s.sur'd 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.

_Ba.s.sanio._ 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 tak'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 thee on the hip.

_Portia._ Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.

_Shylock._ Give me my princ.i.p.al, and let me go.

_Ba.s.sanio._ I have it ready for thee; here it is.

_Portia._ He hath refus'd 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 princ.i.p.al?

_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 prov'd 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 contriv'd against the very life Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd The danger formerly by me rehears'd.

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 spirit, 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?