| ACT V 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 |
| And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents, | 5 |
| 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 |
| And ran dismay'd away. | 10 |
| 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 | In such a night | 15 |
| Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs |
| That did renew old AEson. |
| LORENZO | In such a night |
| Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew |
| And with an unthrift love did run from Venice | 20 |
| 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 |
| And ne'er a true one. | 25 |
| 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; |
| But, hark, I hear the footing of a man. | 30 |
| [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 |
| My mistress will before the break of day | 35 |
| 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 | None but a holy hermit and her maid. | 40 |
| 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 |
| Some welcome for the mistress of the house. | 45 |
| [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 | Leave hollaing, man: here. | 50 |
| 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 |
| ere morning. | 55 |
| [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; |
| And bring your music forth into the air. | 60 |
[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. |
| Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven | 65 |
| 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; |
| Such harmony is in immortal souls; | 70 |
| 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, |
| And draw her home with music. | 75 |
| [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, |
| Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud, | 80 |
| 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, |
| Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze | 85 |
| 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. |
| The man that hath no music in himself, | 90 |
| 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: |
| Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. | 95 |
| [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 | So doth the greater glory dim the less: | 100 |
| 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 | It is your music, madam, of the house. | 105 |
| 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, |
| When neither is attended, and I think | 110 |
| 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 |
| To their right praise and true perfection! | 115 |
| 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 | He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo, | 120 |
| 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. |
| Are they return'd? | 125 |
| LORENZO | Madam, they are not yet; |
| But there is come a messenger before, |
| To signify their coming. |
| PORTIA | Go in, Nerissa; |
| Give order to my servants that they take | 130 |
| 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 | This night methinks is but the daylight sick; | 135 |
| 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 | Let me give light, but let me not be light; | 140 |
| 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. |
| This is the man, this is Antonio, | 145 |
| 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 | Sir, you are very welcome to our house: | 150 |
| 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: |
| Would he were gelt that had it, for my part, | 155 |
| 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 |
| For all the world like cutler's poetry | 160 |
| 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 |
| And that it should lie with you in your grave: | 165 |
| 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 | He will, an if he live to be a man. | 170 |
| 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, |
| A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee: | 175 |
| 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 |
| And so riveted with faith unto your flesh. | 180 |
| 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 |
| That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano, | 185 |
| 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 | My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away | 190 |
| 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 |
| But the two rings. | 195 |
| 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 |
| Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone. | 200 |
| 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 |
| Till I again see mine. | 205 |
| 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 |
| And how unwillingly I left the ring, | 210 |
| 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, |
| Or your own honour to contain the ring, | 215 |
| 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 |
| To urge the thing held as a ceremony? | 220 |
| 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, |
| Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me | 225 |
| 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? |
| I was enforced to send it after him; | 230 |
| 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, |
| Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd | 235 |
| 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, |
| I will become as liberal as you; | 240 |
| 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: |
| If you do not, if I be left alone, | 245 |
| 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 | Well, do you so; let not me take him, then; | 250 |
| 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; |
| And, in the hearing of these many friends, | 255 |
| 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; |
| In each eye, one: swear by your double self, | 260 |
| 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 | I once did lend my body for his wealth; | 265 |
| 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 | Then you shall be his surety. Give him this | 270 |
| 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; |
| For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me. | 275 |
| 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 |
| In summer, where the ways are fair enough: | 280 |
| 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: |
| There you shall find that Portia was the doctor, | 285 |
| 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; |
| And I have better news in store for you | 290 |
| 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 |
| I chanced on this letter. | 295 |
| 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, |
| Unless he live until he be a man. | 300 |
| 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 |
| Are safely come to road. | 305 |
| 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, |
| From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, | 310 |
| 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, |
| And yet I am sure you are not satisfied | 315 |
| 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 |
| That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is, | 320 |
| 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. |
| Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing | 325 |
| So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. |
| [Exeunt] |
