I would she were in heaven so she could

Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.

NERISSA ⌈aside⌉

’Tis well you offer it behind her back;

The wish would make else an unquiet house.

SHYLOCK ⌈aside⌉

These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter.

Would any of the stock of Barabbas

Had been her husband rather than a Christian.

(Aloud) 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: (to Antonio) 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.

GRAZIANO 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 desir’st.

GRAZIANO

O learnèd judge! Mark, Jew—a learnèd 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.

GRAZIANO

O Jew, an upright judge, a learned judge!

PORTIA (to Shylock)

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 tak’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.

GRAZIANO

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.

GRAZIANO

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 incurred

The danger formerly by me rehearsed.

Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.

GRAZIANO (to Shylock)

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 hanged at the state’s charge.

DUKE (to Shylock)

That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit,

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?

GRAZIANO

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 possessed

Unto his son, Lorenzo, and his daughter.

DUKE

He shall do this, or else I do recant

The pardon that I late pronouncèd here.

PORTIA

Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say?

SHYLOCK

I am content.

PORTIA (to Nerissa) 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.

GRAZIANO (to Shylock)

In christ’ning shalt thou have two godfathers.

Had I been judge thou shouldst have had ten more,