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 Trojan walls,And sigh’d his soul toward the Grecian tentsWhere CressidCressida, the Trojan woman proverbial for betraying her lover Troilus and therefore an emblem of female inconstancy. lay that night.
JESSICA
In such a nightDid Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew,And saw the lion’s shadow ere himself,And 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 nightMedeaMedea, a sorceress of Greek myth who restored Jason’s aged father to youth by magic. gathered the enchanted herbsThat did renew old ÆsonAeson, father of the Greek hero Jason, whose youth was restored by the sorceress Medea..
LORENZO
In such a nightDid Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew,And 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 faith,And 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-nightto surpass in brightness during the night. you did no body come;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 wordMy mistress will before the break of dayBe here at BelmontPortia’s country estate and home.. 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.
Enter Launcelet.
LAUNCELET
Solaa call used to attract attention or announce one’s presence., sola! wo ha, hoa cry commanding a horse to stop or slow down.! sola, sola!
LORENZO
Who calls?
LAUNCELET
Sola! Did you see Master Lorenzo? Master Lorenzo! Sola, sola!
LORENZO
Leave holloaing, man. Here!
LAUNCELET
Sola! Where, where?
LORENZO
Here!
LAUNCELET
Tell him there’s a post come from my master with his horn full of good news. My master will be here 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,And bring your music forth into the air.
Exit Stephano.
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 patensa shallow plate used to hold the bread during the Eucharist. 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.
Enter Musicians.
LORENZO
Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn.With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear,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 herdOr 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 naught so stockishstupid, senseless, or blockish., 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 mov’d 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 ErebusErebus, the dark region of the underworld in Greek mythology, invoked as an image of profound darkness..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
So doth the greater glory dim the less.A substitute shines brightly as a kingUntil a 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 larkWhen neither is attended; and I thinkThe nightingale, if she should sing by dayWhen 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! How the moon sleeps with EndymionEndymion, a beautiful youth in Greek mythology loved by the moon goddess and visited by her as he slept.,And would not be awak’d!
Music ceases.
LORENZO
That is the voice,Or I am much deceiv’d, 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’ welfare,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 beforeTo 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.
A tucketA short trumpet flourish used as a signal of arrival or departure. 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,It looks a little paler. ’Tis a daySuch 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,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 cutlers’ 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 death,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
He will, and 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 finger,And 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
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 awayUnto the judge that begg’d it, and indeedDeserv’d 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 receiv’d 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 ring,And would conceive for what I gave the ring,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,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 pleas’d 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 doctora scholar and practitioner holding a doctorate in Roman or civil law.,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 displeas’d away,Even he that had held up the very lifeOf my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?I was enforc’d 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 anything 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 ArgusArgus, the hundred-eyed watchman of Greek mythology, proverbial for vigilance.,If you do not, if I be left alone,Now by mine honour which is yet mine own,I’ll have that doctor for mine bedfellow.
NERISSA
And I his clerk. Therefore be well advis’dHow 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 th’ 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 friendsI 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 ringHad 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 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,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 deserv’d it?
PORTIA
Speak not so grossly. You are all amaz’d.Here is a letter; read it at your leisure.It comes from Padua from Bellarioa learned doctor of law and Portia’s cousin, whose authority supports her appearance in court..There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,Nerissa there, her clerk. Lorenzo hereShall witness I set forth as soon as you,And 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 bedfellow.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 gifta legal document transferring property to another person as a 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’gatoriesa formal question put in a legal examination.,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 darkTill 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.