To cry ’Good joy, good joy, my lord and ladyl’

GRAZIANO

My lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady,

I wish you all the joy that you can wish,

For I am sure you can wish none from me.

And when your honours mean to solemnize

The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you

Even at that time I may be married too.

BASSANIO

With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.

GRAZIANO

I thank your lordship, you have got me one.

My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours.

You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid.

You loved, I loved; for intermission

No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.

Your fortune stood upon the caskets there,

And so did mine too, as the matter falls;

For wooing here until I sweat again,

And swearing till my very roof was dry

With oaths of love, at last—if promise last—

I got a promise of this fair one here

To have her love, provided that your fortune

Achieved her mistress.

PORTIA Is this true, Nerissa?

NERISSA

Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.

BASSANIO

And do you, Graziano, mean good faith? 210

GRAZIANO Yes, faith, my lord.

BASSANIO

Our feast shall be much honoured in your marriage.

GRAZIANO (to Nerissa)

We’ll play with them the first boy for a thousand

ducats.

NERISSA What, and stake down?

GRAZIANO

No, we shall ne’er win at that sport and stake down.

Enter Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio, a messenger from Venice

But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel!

What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio!

BASSANIO

Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither,

If that the youth of my new int’rest here

Have power to bid you welcome. (To Portia) By your

leave,

I bid my very friends and countrymen,

Sweet Portia, welcome.

PORTIA

So do I, my lord. They are entirely welcome.

LORENZO

I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,

My purpose was not to have seen you here,

But meeting with Salerio by the way

He did entreat me past all saying nay

To come with him along.

SALERIO I did, my lord,

And I have reason for it. Signor Antonio

Commends him to you.

He gives Bassanio a letter

BASSANIO Ere I ope his letter

I pray you tell me how my good friend doth.

SALERIO

Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;

Nor well, unless in mind. His letter there

Will show you his estate.

Bassanio opens the letter and reads

GRAZIANO

Nerissa, (indicating Jessica) cheer yon stranger. Bid her

welcome. 235

Your hand, Salerio. What’s the news from Venice?

How doth that royal merchant good Antonio?

I know he will be glad of our success.

We are the Jasons; we have won the fleece.

SALERIO

I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.

PORTIA

There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper

That steals the colour from Bassanio’s cheek.

Some dear friend dead, else nothing in the world

Could turn so much the constitution

Of any constant man. What, worse and worse?

With leave, Bassanio, I am half yourself,

And I must freely have the half of anything

That this same paper brings you.

BASSANIO O sweet Portia,

Here are a few of the unpleasant’st words

That ever blotted paper. Gentle lady,

When I did first impart my love to you

I freely told you all the wealth I had

Ran in my veins: I was a gentleman;

And then I told you true; and yet, dear lady,

Rating myself at nothing, you shall see

How much I was a braggart. When I told you

My state was nothing, I should then have told you

That I was worse than nothing, for indeed

I have engaged myself to a dear friend,

Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,

To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady,

The paper as the body of my friend,

And every word in it a gaping wound

Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?

Hath all his ventures failed? What, not one hit?

From Tripolis, from Mexico, and England,

From Lisbon, Barbary, and India,

And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch

Of merchant-marring rocks?

SALERIO Not one, my lord.

Besides, it should appear that if he had

The present money to discharge the Jew

He would not take it. Never did I know

A creature that did bear the shape of man

So keen and greedy to confound a man.

He plies the Duke at morning and at night,

And doth impeach the freedom of the state

If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants,

The Duke himself, and the magnificoes

Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him,

But none can drive him from the envious plea 280

Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond.

JESSICA

When I was with him I have heard him swear

To Tubal and to Cush, his countrymen,

That he would rather have Antonio’s flesh

Than twenty times the value of the sum

That he did owe him; and I know, my lord,

If law, authority, and power deny not,