Silvered o’er; and so was this.

Take what wife you will to bed,

I will ever be your head.

So be gone; you are sped.’

Still more fool I shall appear

By the time I linger here.

With one fool’s head I came to woo,

But I go away with two.

Sweet, adieu. I’ll keep my oath

Patiently to bear my wroth.

⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Exit with his train

PORTIA

Thus hath the candle singed the moth.

O, these deliberate fools! When they do choose

They have the wisdom by their wit to lose. 80

NERISSA

The ancient saying is no heresy:

Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

PORTIA

Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.

Nerissa draws the curtain.

Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER

Where is my lady?

PORTIA Here. What would my lord?

MESSENGER

Madam, there is alighted at your gate

A young Venetian, one that comes before

To signify th’approaching of his lord,

From whom he bringeth sensible regreets,

To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,

Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen 90

So likely an ambassador of love.

A day in April never came so sweet

To show how costly summer was at hand

As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

PORTIA

No more, I pray thee, I am half afeard

Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,

Thou spend’st such high-day wit in praising him.

Come, come, Nerissa, for I long to see

Quick Cupid’s post that comes so mannerly.

NERISSA

Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be! Exeunt

3.1 Enter Solanio and Salerio

SOLANIO

Now, what news on the Rialto?

SALERIO Why, yet it lives there unchecked that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas—the Goodwins I think they call the place—a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.

SOLANIO I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio—O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company—

SALERIO Come, the full stop.

SOLANIO Ha, what sayst thou? Why, the end is he hath lost a ship.

SALERIO I would it might prove the end of his losses.

SOLANIO Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer—

Enter Shylock

for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. How now, Shylock, what news among the merchants?

SHYLOCK You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter’s flight.

SALERIO That’s certain. I for my part knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

SOLANIO And Shylock for his own part knew the bird was fledge, and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

SHYLOCK She is damned for it.

SALERIO That’s certain, if the devil may be her judge.

SHYLOCK My own flesh and blood to rebel!

SOLANIO Out upon it, old carrion, rebels it at these years?

SHYLOCK I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood.

SALERIO There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and Rhenish. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or no?

SHYLOCK There I have another bad match. A bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that was used to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond. He was wont to call me usurer: let him look to his bond. He was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy: let him look to his bond.

SALERIO Why, I am sure if he forfeit thou wilt not take his flesh. What’s that good for?

SHYLOCK To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason?—I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Enter a Man from Antonio

MAN (to Solanio and Salerio) Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and desires to speak with you both.

SALERIO We have been up and down to seek him.

Enter Tubal

SOLANIO Here comes another of the tribe. A third cannot be matched unless the devil himself turn Jew.

Exeunt Solanio and Salerio, with Antonio’s Man

SHYLOCK How now, Tubal? What news from Genoa? Hast thou found my daughter?

TUBAL I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

SHYLOCK Why, there, there, there, there. A diamond gone cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfurt. The curse never fell upon our nation till now—I never felt it till now. Two thousand ducats in that and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why, so. And I know not what’s spent in the search. Why thou, loss upon loss: the thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief, and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o’ my shoulders, no sighs but o’ my breathing, no tears but o’ my shedding.

TUBAL Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa—

SHYLOCK What, what, what? Ill luck, ill luck?

TUBAL Hath an argosy cast away coming from Tripolis.

SHYLOCK I thank God, I thank God! Is it true, is it true?

TUBAL I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

SHYLOCK I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news! Ha, ha—heard in Genoa?

TUBAL Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night fourscore ducats.

SHYLOCK Thou stick’st a dagger in me. I shall never see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting? Fourscore ducats?

TUBAL There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.

SHYLOCK I am very glad of it. I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him. I am glad of it. 109