Or he shall pay for this.

SALERIO Marry, well remembered.

I reasoned with a Frenchman yesterday,

Who told me in the narrow seas that part

The French and English there miscarried

A vessel of our country, richly fraught.

I thought upon Antonio when he told me,

And wished in silence that it were not his.

SOLANIO

You were best to tell Antonio what you hear—

Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.

SALERIO

A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.

I saw Bassanio and Antonio part.

Bassanio told him he would make some speed

Of his return. He answered, ‘Do not so.

Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,

But stay the very riping of the time;

And for the Jew’s bond which he hath of me,

Let it not enter in your mind of love.

Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts

To courtship and such fair ostents of love

As shall conveniently become you there.’

And even there, his eye being big with tears,

Turning his face, he put his hand behind him

And, with affection wondrous sensible,

He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.

SOLANIO

I think he only loves the world for him.

I pray thee let us go and find him out,

And quicken his embraced heaviness

With some delight or other.

SALERIO Do we so. Exeunt

2.9 Enter Nerissa and a servitor

NERISSA

Quick, quick, I pray thee, draw the curtain straight.

The Prince of Aragon hath ta’en his oath,

And comes to his election presently.

The servitor draws aside the curtain, revealing the three caskets. ⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Enter Aragon, his train, and Portia

PORTIA

Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince.

If you choose that wherein I am contained,

Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized.

But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,

You must be gone from hence immediately.

ARAGON

I am enjoined by oath to observe three things:

First, never to unfold to anyone 10

Which casket ’twas I chose. Next, if I fail

Of the right casket, never in my life

To woo a maid in way of marriage.

Lastly, if I do fail in fortune of my choice,

Immediately to leave you and be gone. 15

PORTIA

To these injunctions everyone doth swear

That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

ARAGON

And so have I addressed me. Fortune now

To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.

He reads the leaden casket

‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’

You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.

What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.

‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’

‘What many men desire’—that ‘many’ may be meant

By the fool multitude, that choose by show,

Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,

Which pries not to th’interior but, like the martlet,

Builds in the weather on the outward wall

Even in the force and road of casualty.

I will not choose what many men desire,

Because I will not jump with common spirits

And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure-house.

Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves’—

And well said too, for who shall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable

Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume

To wear an undeserved dignity.

O, that estates, degrees, and offices

Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honour

Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

How many then should cover that stand bare,

How many be commanded that command?

How much low peasantry would then be gleaned

From the true seed of honour, and how much honour

Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times

To be new varnished? Well; but to my choice.

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’

I will assume desert. Give me a key for this,

And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

He is given a key. ⌈He⌉ opens the silver casket

PORTIA

Too long a pause for that which you find there.

ARAGON

What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot

Presenting me a schedule. I will read it.

How much unlike art thou to Portia!

How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!

‘Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.’

Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?

Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better?

PORTIA

To offend and judge are distinct offices,

And of opposed natures.

ARAGON What is here?

He reads the schedule

‘The fire seven times tried this;

Seven times tried that judgement is

That did never choose amiss.

Some there be that shadows kiss;

Such have but a shadow’s bliss.

There be fools alive, iwis,