Array MyBooks Classics - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Illustrated edition (37 plays, 160 sonnets and 5 Poetry Books With Active Table of Contents)

Forgive a moi’ty of the principal,

Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,

That have of late so huddled on his back,

Enow to press a royal merchant down,

And pluck commiseration of [his state]

From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flints,

From stubborn Turks, and Tartars never train’d

To offices of tender courtesy.

We all expect a gentle answer, Jew!

Shy.

I have possess’d your Grace of what I purpose,

And by our holy Sabaoth have I sworn

To have the due and forfeit of my bond.

If you deny it, let the danger light

Upon your charter and your city’s freedom!

You’ll ask me why I rather choose to have

A weight of carrion flesh than to receive

Three thousand ducats. I’ll not answer that;

But say it is my humor, is it answer’d?

What if my house be troubled with a rat,

And I be pleas’d to give ten thousand ducats

To have it ban’d? What, are you answer’d yet?

Some men there are love not a gaping pig;

Some that are mad if they behold a cat;

And others, when the bagpipe sings i’ th’ nose,

Cannot contain their urine: for affection,

[Mistress] of passion, sways it to the mood

Of what it likes or loathes. Now for your answer:

As there is no firm reason to be rend’red

Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;

Why he, a harmless necessary cat;

Why he, a woollen bagpipe, but of force

Must yield to such inevitable shame

As to offend, himself being offended;

So can I give no reason, nor I will not,

More than a lodg’d hate and a certain loathing

I bear Antonio, that I follow thus

A losing suit against him. Are you answered?

Bass.

This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,

To excuse the current of thy cruelty.

Shy.

I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

Bass.

Do all men kill the things they do not love?

Shy.

Hates any man the thing he would not kill?

Bass.

Every offense is not a hate at first.

Shy.

What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?

Ant.

I pray you think you question with the Jew:

You may as well go stand upon the beach

And bid the main flood bate his usual height;

You may as well use question with the wolf

Why he hath made the ewe bleak for the lamb;

You may as well forbid the mountain pines

To wag their high tops, and to make no noise

When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;

You may as well do any thing most hard

As seek to soften that—than which what’s harder?—

His Jewish heart! Therefore I do beseech you

Make no moe offers, use no farther means,

But with all brief and plain conveniency

Let me have judgment and the Jew his will.

Bass.

For thy three thousand ducats here is six.

Shy.

If every ducat in six thousand ducats

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?

Shy.

What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?

You have among you many a purchas’d slave,

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

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 as mine, and I will have it.

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,

Whom I have sent for to determine this,

Come here to-day.

Sal.

My lord, here stays without

A messenger with letters from the doctor,

New come from Padua.

Duke.

Bring us the letters; call the messenger.

Bass.

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.

Ant.

I am a tainted wether of the flock,

Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit

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?

Ner.

From both, my lord. Bellario greets your Grace.

[Presenting a letter.]

Bass.

Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?

Shy.

To cut the forfeiture from that bankrout there.

Gra.

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

Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?

Shy.

No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.

Gra.

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

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,

And whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam,

Infus’d itself in thee; for thy desires

Are wolvish, bloody, starv’d, and ravenous.

Shy.

Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,

Thou but offend’st thy lungs to speak so loud.

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?

Ner.

He attendeth here hard by

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.

Mean time the court shall hear Bellario’s letter.

[Reads.]

“Your Grace shall understand that at the 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 books together. He is furnish’d with my opinion, which better’d 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 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 for Balthazar.

You hear the learn’d Bellario, what he writes,

And here I take it is the doctor come.

Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario?

Por.

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?

Por.