TPTT The Merchant of Venice: ACT I
Introduction
ACT I
SCENE I. Venice. A street.
SCENE II: Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
SCENE III. Venice. A public place.
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II: Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
Enter PORTIA and NERISSA
PORTIA
      By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of
      this great world.
NERISSA
      You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in
      the same abundance as your good fortunes are: and
5     yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit
      with too much as they that starve with nothing. It
      is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the
      mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but
      competency lives longer.
PORTIA
10    Good sentences and well pronounced.
NERISSA
      They would be better, if well followed.
PORTIA
      If to do were as easy as to know what were good to
      do, chapels had been churches and poor men's
      cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that
15    follows his own instructions: I can easier teach
      twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
      twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may
      devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps
      o'er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the
20    youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the
      cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to
      choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose!' I may
      neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I
      dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed
25    by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard,
      Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?
NERISSA
      Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men at their
      death have good inspirations: therefore the lottery,
      that he hath devised in these three chests of gold,
30    silver and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning
      chooses you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any
      rightly but one who shall rightly love. But what
      warmth is there in your affection towards any of
      these princely suitors that are already come?
PORTIA
35    I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou namest
      them, I will describe them; and, according to my
      description, level at my affection.
NERISSA
      First, there is the Neapolitan prince.
PORTIA
      Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but
40    talk of his horse; and he makes it a great
      appropriation to his own good parts, that he can
      shoe him himself. I am much afeard my lady his
      mother played false with a smith.
NERISSA
      Then there is the County Palatine.
PORTIA
45    He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'If you
      will not have me, choose:' he hears merry tales and
      smiles not: I fear he will prove the weeping
      philosopher when he grows old, being so full of
      unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be
50    married to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth
      than to either of these. God defend me from these
      two!
NERISSA
      How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon?
PORTIA
      God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.
55    In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker: but,
      he! why, he hath a horse better than the
      Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of frowning than
      the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man; if a
      throstle sing, he falls straight a capering: he will
60    fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I
      should marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me
      I would forgive him, for if he love me to madness, I
      shall never requite him.
NERISSA
      What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron
65    of England?
PORTIA
      You know I say nothing to him, for he understands
      not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French,
      nor Italian, and you will come into the court and
      swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English.
70    He is a proper man's picture, but, alas, who can
      converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited!
      I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round
      hose in France, his bonnet in Germany and his
      behavior every where.
NERISSA
75    What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour?
PORTIA
      That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he
      borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman and
      swore he would pay him again when he was able: I
      think the Frenchman became his surety and sealed
80    under for another.
NERISSA
      How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew?
PORTIA
      Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and
      most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when
      he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and
85    when he is worst, he is little better than a beast:
      and the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall
      make shift to go without him.
NERISSA
      If he should offer to choose, and choose the right
      casket, you should refuse to perform your father's
90    will, if you should refuse to accept him.
PORTIA
      Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a
      deep glass of rhenish wine on the contrary casket,
      for if the devil be within and that temptation
      without, I know he will choose it. I will do any
95    thing, Nerissa, ere I'll be married to a sponge.
NERISSA
      You need not fear, lady, the having any of these
      lords: they have acquainted me with their
      determinations; which is, indeed, to return to their
      home and to trouble you with no more suit, unless
100   you may be won by some other sort than your father's
      imposition depending on the caskets.
PORTIA
      If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as
      chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner
      of my father's will. I am glad this parcel of wooers
105   are so reasonable, for there is not one among them
      but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant
      them a fair departure.
NERISSA
      Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a
      Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither
110   in company of the Marquis of Montferrat?
PORTIA
      Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, he was so called.
NERISSA
      True, madam: he, of all the men that ever my foolish
      eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.
PORTIA
      I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of
115   thy praise.

Enter a Serving-man

      How now! what news?
Servant
      The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take
      their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a
      fifth, the Prince of Morocco, who brings word the
120   prince his master will be here to-night.
PORTIA
      If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good a
      heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I should
      be glad of his approach: if he have the condition
      of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had
125   rather he should shrive me than wive me. Come,
      Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.
      Whiles we shut the gates
      upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.
Exeunt
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