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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / The Merchant of Venice / Act IV Scene I
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The Merchant of Venice: Act 4 Scene 1
Scene I Venice. A court of justice.
- [Enter the DUKE, the Magnificoes, ANTONIO, BASSANIO,
- GRATIANO, SALERIO, and others]
- DUKE
- What, is Antonio here?
- ANTONIO
- Ready, so please your grace.
- DUKE
- I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer
- A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
- uncapable of pity, void and empty
- From any dram of mercy.
- ANTONIO
- I have heard
- Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify
- His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate
- And that no lawful means can carry me
- Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
- My patience to his fury, and am arm'd
- To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
- The very tyranny and rage of his.
- DUKE
- Go one, and call the Jew into the court.
- SALERIO
- He is ready at the door: he comes, my lord.
- [Enter SHYLOCK]
- DUKE
- Make room, and let him stand before our face.
- Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
- That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice
- To the last hour of act; and then 'tis thought
- Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
- Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
- And where thou now exact'st the penalty,
- Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
- Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
- But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
- Forgive a moiety 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 flint,
- From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd
- To offices of tender courtesy.
- We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.
- SHYLOCK
- I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose;
- And by our holy Sabbath 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 humour: is it answer'd?
- What if my house be troubled with a rat
- And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
- To have it baned? 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' the 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 render'd,
- 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 lodged hate and a certain loathing
- I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
- A losing suit against him. Are you answer'd?
- BASSANIO
- This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
- To excuse the current of thy cruelty.
- SHYLOCK
- I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
- BASSANIO
- Do all men kill the things they do not love?
- SHYLOCK
- Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
- BASSANIO
- Every offence is not a hate at first.
- SHYLOCK
- What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
- ANTONIO
- 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 bleat 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 anything most hard,
- As seek to soften that--than which what's harder?--
- His Jewish heart: therefore, I do beseech you,
- Make no more offers, use no farther means,
- But with all brief and plain conveniency
- Let me have judgment and the Jew his will.
- BASSANIO
- For thy three thousand ducats here is six.
- SHYLOCK
- What judgment shall I dread, doing
- 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, rendering none?
- SHYLOCK
- What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
- You have among you many a purchased 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; 'tis 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.
- SALERIO
- My lord, here stays without
- A messenger with letters from the doctor,
- New come from Padua.
- DUKE
- Bring us the letter; call the messenger.
- BASSANIO
- 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.
- ANTONIO
- 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?
- NERISSA
- From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace.
- [Presenting a letter]
- BASSANIO
- Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
- SHYLOCK
- To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.
- GRATIANO
- Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
- Thou makest 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?
- SHYLOCK
- No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
- GRATIANO
- O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!
- And for thy life let justice be accused.
- Thou almost makest 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 lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam,
- Infused itself in thee; for thy desires
- Are wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous.
- SHYLOCK
- 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?
- NERISSA
- 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.
- Meantime the court shall hear Bellario's letter.
- CLERK
- [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 Balthasar. I
- acquainted him with the cause in controversy between
- the Jew and Antonio the merchant: we turned o'er
- many books together: he is furnished with my
- opinion; which, bettered 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.
- DUKE
- You hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes:
- And here, I take it, is the doctor come.
- [Enter PORTIA, dressed like a doctor of laws]
- Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario?
- PORTIA
- 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?
- PORTIA
- I am informed thoroughly of the cause.
- Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?
- DUKE
- Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
- PORTIA
- Is your name Shylock?
- SHYLOCK
- Shylock is my name.
- PORTIA
- Of a strange nature is the suit you follow;
- Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
- Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
- You stand within his danger, do you not?
- ANTONIO
- Ay, so he says.
- PORTIA
- Do you confess the bond?
- ANTONIO
- I do.
- PORTIA
- Then must the Jew be merciful.
- SHYLOCK
- On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
- PORTIA
- The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
- It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
- Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
- It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
- 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
- The throned monarch better than his crown;
- His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
- The attribute to awe and majesty,
- Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
- But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
- It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
- It is an attribute to God himself;
- And earthly power doth then show likest God's
- When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
- Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
- That, in the course of justice, none of us
- Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
- And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
- The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
- To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
- Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
- Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
- SHYLOCK
- My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
- The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
- PORTIA
- Is he not able to discharge the money?
- BASSANIO
- Yes, here I tender it for him in the court;
- Yea, twice the sum: if that will not suffice,
- I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er,
- On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart:
- If this will not suffice, it must appear
- That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you,
- Wrest once the law to your authority:
- To do a great right, do a little wrong,
- And curb this cruel devil of his will.
- PORTIA
- It must not be; there is no power in Venice
- Can alter a decree established:
- 'Twill be recorded for a precedent,
- And many an error by the same example
- Will rush into the state: it cannot be.
- SHYLOCK
- A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!
- O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
- PORTIA
- I pray you, let me look upon the bond.
- SHYLOCK
- Here 'tis, most reverend doctor, here it is.
- PORTIA
- Shylock, there's thrice thy money offer'd thee.
- SHYLOCK
- An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven:
- Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
- No, not for Venice.
- PORTIA
- Why, this bond is forfeit;
- And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
- A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
- Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful:
- Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.
- SHYLOCK
- When it is paid according to the tenor.
- It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
- You know the law, your exposition
- Hath been most sound: I charge you by the law,
- Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
- Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear
- There is no power in the tongue of man
- To alter me: I stay here on my bond.
- ANTONIO
- Most heartily I do beseech the court
- To give the judgment.
- PORTIA
- Why then, thus it is:
- You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
- SHYLOCK
- O noble judge! O excellent young man!
- PORTIA
- For the intent and purpose of the law
- Hath full relation to the penalty,
- Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
- SHYLOCK
- 'Tis very true: O wise and upright judge!
- How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
- PORTIA
- Therefore lay bare your bosom.
- SHYLOCK
- Ay, his breast:
- So says the bond: doth it not, noble judge?
- 'Nearest his heart:' those are the very words.
- PORTIA
- It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
- The flesh?
- SHYLOCK
- I have them ready.
- PORTIA
- Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
- To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
- SHYLOCK
- Is it so nominated in the bond?
- PORTIA
- It is not so express'd: but what of that?
- 'Twere good you do so much for charity.
- SHYLOCK
- I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond.
- PORTIA
- You, merchant, have you any thing to say?
- ANTONIO
- But little: I am arm'd and well prepared.
- Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!
- Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;
- For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
- Than is her custom: it is still her use
- To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
- To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
- An age of poverty; from which lingering penance
- Of such misery doth she cut me off.
- Commend me to your honourable wife:
- Tell her the process of Antonio's end;
- Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;
- And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
- Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
- Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
- And he repents not that he pays your debt;
- For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
- I'll pay it presently with all my heart.
- 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 Barrabas
- Had been her husband rather than a Christian!
- [Aside]
- 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 assured
- Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.
- GRATIANO
- O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned 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 cut'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 refused 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 proved 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 rehearsed.
- 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 god-fathers:
- Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
- To bring thee to the gallows, not 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 and his 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 a 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!
- I will not shame myself to give you this.
- PORTIA
- I will have nothing else but only this;
- And now methinks I have a mind to it.
- BASSANIO
- There's more depends on this than on the value.
- The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,
- And find it out by proclamation:
- Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.
- PORTIA
- I see, sir, you are liberal in offers
- You taught me first to beg; and now methinks
- You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd.
- BASSANIO
- Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife;
- And when she put it on, she made me vow
- That I should neither sell nor give nor lose it.
- PORTIA
- That 'scuse serves many men to save their gifts.
- An if your wife be not a mad-woman,
- And know how well I have deserved the ring,
- She would not hold out enemy for ever,
- For giving it to me. Well, peace be with you!
- [Exeunt Portia and Nerissa]
- ANTONIO
- My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring:
- Let his deservings and my love withal
- Be valued against your wife's commandment.
- BASSANIO
- Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him;
- Give him the ring, and bring him, if thou canst,
- Unto Antonio's house: away! make haste.
- [Exit Gratiano]
- Come, you and I will thither presently;
- And in the morning early will we both
- Fly toward Belmont: come, Antonio.
- [Exeunt]
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