The Merchant of Venice: ACT V , SCENE I. Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA'S house.

The Merchant of Venice: ACT V


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

	ACT III

	ACT IV

	ACT V

		SCENE I. Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA'S house.

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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
5     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
10    And ran dismay'd away.

LORENZO

      In such a night
      Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
      Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
      To come again to Carthage.

JESSICA

15    In such a night
      Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
      That did renew old AEson.

LORENZO

      In such a night
      Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew
20    And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
      As far as Belmont.

JESSICA

      In such a night
      Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
      Stealing her soul with many vows of faith
25    And ne'er a true one.

LORENZO

      In such a night
      Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,
      Slander her love, and he forgave it her.

JESSICA

I would out-night you, did no body come;
30 But, hark, I hear the footing of a man.

Enter STEPHANO

LORENZO

Who comes so fast in silence of the night?

STEPHANO

A friend.

LORENZO

A friend! what friend? your name, I pray you, friend?

STEPHANO

      Stephano is my name; and I bring word
35    My mistress will before the break of day
      Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about
      By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
      For happy wedlock hours.

LORENZO

Who comes with her?

STEPHANO

40 None but a holy hermit and her maid.
I pray you, is my master yet return'd?

LORENZO

      He is not, nor we have not heard from him.
      But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,
      And ceremoniously let us prepare
45    Some welcome for the mistress of the house.

Enter LAUNCELOT

LAUNCELOT

Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!

LORENZO

Who calls?

LAUNCELOT

Sola! did you see Master Lorenzo?
Master Lorenzo, sola, sola!

LORENZO

50 Leave hollaing, man: here.

LAUNCELOT

Sola! where? where?

LORENZO

Here.

LAUNCELOT

      Tell him there's a post come from my master, with
      his horn full of good news: my master will be here
55    ere morning.

Exit

LORENZO

      Sweet soul, let's in, and there expect their coming.
      And yet no matter: why should we go in?
      My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you,
      Within the house, your mistress is at hand;
60    And bring your music forth into the air.

Exit Stephano

      How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
      Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
      Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
      Become the touches of sweet harmony.
65    Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
      Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
      There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
      But in his motion like an angel sings,
      Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
70    Such harmony is in immortal souls;
      But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
      Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

Enter Musicians

      Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!
      With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
75    And draw her home with music.

Music

JESSICA

I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

LORENZO

      The reason is, your spirits are attentive:
      For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
      Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
80    Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
      Which is the hot condition of their blood;
      If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
      Or any air of music touch their ears,
      You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
85    Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze
      By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
      Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
      Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
      But music for the time doth change his nature.
90    The man that hath no music in himself,
      Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
      Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
      The motions of his spirit are dull as night
      And his affections dark as Erebus:
95    Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA

PORTIA

      That light we see is burning in my hall.
      How far that little candle throws his beams!
      So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

NERISSA

When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.

PORTIA

100   So doth the greater glory dim the less:
      A substitute shines brightly as a king
      Unto the king be by, and then his state
      Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
      Into the main of waters. Music! hark!

NERISSA

105 It is your music, madam, of the house.

PORTIA

Nothing is good, I see, without respect:
Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.

NERISSA

Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.

PORTIA

      The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
110   When neither is attended, and I think
      The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
      When every goose is cackling, would be thought
      No better a musician than the wren.
      How many things by season season'd are
115   To their right praise and true perfection!
      Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion
      And would not be awaked.

Music ceases

LORENZO

That is the voice,
Or I am much deceived, of Portia.

PORTIA

120 He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
By the bad voice.

LORENZO

Dear lady, welcome home.

PORTIA

      We have been praying for our husbands' healths,
      Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.
125   Are they return'd?

LORENZO

      Madam, they are not yet;
      But there is come a messenger before,
      To signify their coming.

PORTIA

      Go in, Nerissa;
130   Give order to my servants that they take
      No note at all of our being absent hence;
      Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you.

A tucket sounds

LORENZO

Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet:
We are no tell-tales, madam; fear you not.

PORTIA

135   This night methinks is but the daylight sick;
      It looks a little paler: 'tis a day,
      Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their followers

BASSANIO

We should hold day with the Antipodes,
If you would walk in absence of the sun.

PORTIA

140   Let me give light, but let me not be light;
      For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,
      And never be Bassanio so for me:
      But God sort all! You are welcome home, my lord.

BASSANIO

      I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
145   This is the man, this is Antonio,
      To whom I am so infinitely bound.

PORTIA

You should in all sense be much bound to him.
For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.

ANTONIO

No more than I am well acquitted of.

PORTIA

150   Sir, you are very welcome to our house:
      It must appear in other ways than words,
      Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.

GRATIANO

      (To NERISSA) By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong;
      In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk:
155   Would he were gelt that had it, for my part,
      Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

PORTIA

A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter?

GRATIANO

      About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
      That she did give me, whose posy was
160   For all the world like cutler's poetry
      Upon a knife, 'Love me, and leave me not.'

NERISSA

      What talk you of the posy or the value?
      You swore to me, when I did give it you,
      That you would wear it till your hour of death
165   And that it should lie with you in your grave:
      Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
      You should have been respective and have kept it.
      Gave it a judge's clerk! no, God's my judge,
      The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it.

GRATIANO

170 He will, an if he live to be a man.

NERISSA

Ay, if a woman live to be a man.

GRATIANO

      Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
      A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy,
      No higher than thyself; the judge's clerk,
175   A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee:
      I could not for my heart deny it him.

PORTIA

      You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
      To part so slightly with your wife's first gift:
      A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger
180   And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.
      I gave my love a ring and made him swear
      Never to part with it; and here he stands;
      I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it
      Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
185   That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,
      You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief:
      An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

BASSANIO

(Aside) Why, I were best to cut my left hand off
And swear I lost the ring defending it.

GRATIANO

190   My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
      Unto the judge that begg'd it and indeed
      Deserved it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
      That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
      And neither man nor master would take aught
195   But the two rings.

PORTIA

What ring gave you my lord?
Not that, I hope, which you received of me.

BASSANIO

      If I could add a lie unto a fault,
      I would deny it; but you see my finger
200   Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone.

PORTIA

      Even so void is your false heart of truth.
      By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed
      Until I see the ring.

NERISSA

Nor I in yours
205 Till I again see mine.

BASSANIO

      Sweet Portia,
      If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
      If you did know for whom I gave the ring
      And would conceive for what I gave the ring
210   And how unwillingly I left the ring,
      When nought would be accepted but the ring,
      You would abate the strength of your displeasure.

PORTIA

      If you had known the virtue of the ring,
      Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
215   Or your own honour to contain the ring,
      You would not then have parted with the ring.
      What man is there so much unreasonable,
      If you had pleased to have defended it
      With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
220   To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
      Nerissa teaches me what to believe:
      I'll die for't but some woman had the ring.

BASSANIO

      No, by my honour, madam, by my soul,
      No woman had it, but a civil doctor,
225   Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me
      And begg'd the ring; the which I did deny him
      And suffer'd him to go displeased away;
      Even he that did uphold the very life
      Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?
230   I was enforced to send it after him;
      I was beset with shame and courtesy;
      My honour would not let ingratitude
      So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady;
      For, by these blessed candles of the night,
235   Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd
      The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.

PORTIA

      Let not that doctor e'er come near my house:
      Since he hath got the jewel that I loved,
      And that which you did swear to keep for me,
240   I will become as liberal as you;
      I'll not deny him any thing I have,
      No, not my body nor my husband's bed:
      Know him I shall, I am well sure of it:
      Lie not a night from home; watch me like Argus:
245   If you do not, if I be left alone,
      Now, by mine honour, which is yet mine own,
      I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow.

NERISSA

And I his clerk; therefore be well advised
How you do leave me to mine own protection.

GRATIANO

250 Well, do you so; let not me take him, then;
For if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen.

ANTONIO

I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels.

PORTIA

Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwithstanding.

BASSANIO

      Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
255   And, in the hearing of these many friends,
      I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
      Wherein I see myself--

PORTIA

      Mark you but that!
      In both my eyes he doubly sees himself;
260   In each eye, one: swear by your double self,
      And there's an oath of credit.

BASSANIO

      Nay, but hear me:
      Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear
      I never more will break an oath with thee.

ANTONIO

265   I once did lend my body for his wealth;
      Which, but for him that had your husband's ring,
      Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again,
      My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
      Will never more break faith advisedly.

PORTIA

270 Then you shall be his surety. Give him this
And bid him keep it better than the other.

ANTONIO

Here, Lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring.

BASSANIO

By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!

PORTIA

I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio;
275 For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.

NERISSA

      And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano;
      For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
      In lieu of this last night did lie with me.

GRATIANO

      Why, this is like the mending of highways
280   In summer, where the ways are fair enough:
      What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?

PORTIA

      Speak not so grossly. You are all amazed:
      Here is a letter; read it at your leisure;
      It comes from Padua, from Bellario:
285   There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,
      Nerissa there her clerk: Lorenzo here
      Shall witness I set forth as soon as you
      And even but now return'd; I have not yet
      Enter'd my house. Antonio, you are welcome;
290   And I have better news in store for you
      Than you expect: unseal this letter soon;
      There you shall find three of your argosies
      Are richly come to harbour suddenly:
      You shall not know by what strange accident
295   I chanced on this letter.

ANTONIO

I am dumb.

BASSANIO

Were you the doctor and I knew you not?

GRATIANO

Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?

NERISSA

Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it,
300 Unless he live until he be a man.

BASSANIO

Sweet doctor, you shall be my bed-fellow:
When I am absent, then lie with my wife.

ANTONIO

      Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
      For here I read for certain that my ships
305   Are safely come to road.

PORTIA

How now, Lorenzo!
My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.

NERISSA

      Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.
      There do I give to you and Jessica,
310   From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
      After his death, of all he dies possess'd of.

LORENZO

Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.

PORTIA

      It is almost morning,
315   And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
      Of these events at full. Let us go in;
      And charge us there upon inter'gatories,
      And we will answer all things faithfully.

GRATIANO

      Let it be so: the first inter'gatory
320   That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
      Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
      Or go to bed now, being two hours to day:
      But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
      That I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
325   Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing
      So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

Exeunt

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