William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

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 Barabbas

Had been her husband, rather than a Christian!

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 assur’d

Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir’st.

GRATIANO.

O learned judge! Mark, Jew: alearned 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 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 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 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 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 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 contrived 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 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 godfathers;

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

To bring thee to the gallows, not to 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, Magnificoes, and 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 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;