The Merchant of Venice — Act 5, Scene 1

LORENZO

The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,When the sweet wind did gently kiss the treesAnd they did make no noise, in such a nightTroilus methinks mounted the Troyan wallsAnd sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,Where Cressid lay that night.

JESSICA

In such a nightDid Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dewAnd saw the lion's shadow ere himselfAnd ran dismay'd away.

LORENZO

In such a nightStood Dido with a willow in her handUpon the wild sea banks and waft her loveTo come again to Carthage.

JESSICA

In such a nightMedea gather'd the enchanted herbsThat did renew old AEson.

LORENZO

In such a nightDid Jessica steal from the wealthy JewAnd with an unthrift love did run from VeniceAs far as Belmont.

JESSICA

In such a nightDid young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,Stealing her soul with many vows of faithAnd ne'er a true one.

LORENZO

In such a nightDid 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.

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 wordMy mistress will before the break of dayBe here at Belmont; she doth stray aboutBy holy crosses, where she kneels and praysFor happy wedlock hours.

LORENZO

Who comes with her?

STEPHANO

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 prepareSome welcome for the mistress of the house.

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.

LAUNCELOT

Sola! where? where?

LORENZO

Here.

LAUNCELOT

Tell him there's a post come from my master, withhis horn full of good news: my master will be hereere morning.

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.

LORENZO

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

LORENZO

Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,And draw her home with 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,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 gazeBy the sweet power of music: therefore the poetDid 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,Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;The motions of his spirit are dull as nightAnd his affections dark as Erebus:Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

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:A substitute shines brightly as a kingUnto the king be by, and then his stateEmpties itself, as doth an inland brookInto the main of waters. Music! hark!

NERISSA

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,When neither is attended, and I thinkThe nightingale, if she should sing by day,When every goose is cackling, would be thoughtNo better a musician than the wren.How many things by season season'd areTo their right praise and true perfection!Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with EndymionAnd would not be awaked.

LORENZO

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

PORTIA

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.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;Give order to my servants that they takeNo note at all of our being absent hence;Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you.

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;It looks a little paler: 'tis a day,Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

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;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,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: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,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 ringThat she did give me, whose posy wasFor all the world like cutler's poetryUpon 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 deathAnd 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

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,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 fingerAnd so riveted with faith unto your flesh.I gave my love a ring and made him swearNever to part with it; and here he stands;I dare be sworn for him he would not leave itNor pluck it from his finger, for the wealthThat 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 offAnd swear I lost the ring defending it.

GRATIANO

My Lord Bassanio gave his ring awayUnto the judge that begg'd it and indeedDeserved 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 aughtBut 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 fingerHath 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 bedUntil I see the ring.

NERISSA

Nor I in yoursTill 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 ringAnd would conceive for what I gave the ringAnd 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,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 itWith any terms of zeal, wanted the modestyTo 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,Which did refuse three thousand ducats of meAnd begg'd the ring; the which I did deny himAnd suffer'd him to go displeased away;Even he that did uphold the very lifeOf my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?I was enforced to send it after him;I was beset with shame and courtesy;My honour would not let ingratitudeSo 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'dThe 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;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,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 advisedHow you do leave me to mine own protection.

GRATIANO

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;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;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 swearI never more will break an oath with thee.

ANTONIO

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 lordWill never more break faith advisedly.

PORTIA

Then you shall be his surety. Give him thisAnd 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.

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 highwaysIn 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:There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,Nerissa there her clerk: Lorenzo hereShall witness I set forth as soon as youAnd even but now return'd; I have not yetEnter'd my house. Antonio, you are welcome;And I have better news in store for youThan you expect: unseal this letter soon;There you shall find three of your argosiesAre richly come to harbour suddenly:You shall not know by what strange accidentI 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,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 shipsAre 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,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 wayOf starved people.

PORTIA

It is almost morning,And yet I am sure you are not satisfiedOf 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'gatoryThat 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.Well, while I live I'll fear no other thingSo sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.