The Merchant of Venice: Act 5, Scene 1
Enter LORENZO and JESSICA.
LORENZO
4. Troilus: Trojan prince and lover of Cressida, who proved faithless to him after she had been sent from Troy to the Greek camp.
1 The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
2 When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
3 And they did make no noise, in such a night
4 Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
5 And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
6 Where Cressid lay that night.
JESSICA
6 In such a night
7. Thisbe: Beloved of Pyramus who, arranging to meet him by night, was affrighted by a lion; their story is the subject of the play performed by Bottom and his fellows in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 5).
7 Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew
8 And saw the lion's shadow ere himself
9 And ran dismay'd away.
LORENZO
9 In such a night
10. Dido: queen of Carthage who loved Aeneas and was deserted by him. willow: The emblem of slighted love.
10 Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
11 Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
12 To come again to Carthage.
JESSICA
12 In such a night
13. Medea: a famous enchantress of Colchis who, after falling in love with Jason and helping him win the Golden Fleece, used her magic to renew [restore youth] to Aeson, Jason's father.
13 Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
14 That did renew old Aeson.
LORENZO
14 In such a night
15 Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew
16. unthrift: prodigal.
16 And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
17 As far as Belmont.
JESSICA
17 In such a night
18 Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
19 Stealing her soul with many vows of faith
20 And ne'er a true one.
LORENZO
20 In such a night
21. shrow: shrew.
21 Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrow,
22 Slander her love, and he forgave it her.
JESSICA
23 I would out-night you, did no body come;
24. footing: footsteps.
24 But, hark, I hear the footing of a man.
Enter a MESSENGER [STEPHANO].
LORENZO
25 Who comes so fast in silence of the night?
STEPHANO
26 A friend.
LORENZO
27 A friend! what friend? your name, I pray you, friend?
STEPHANO
28 Stephano is my name; and I bring word
29 My mistress will before the break of day
30 Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about
31. holy crosses: wayside crosses or shrines (common both in England and in Italy).
31 By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
32 For happy wedlock hours.
LORENZO
32 Who comes with her?
STEPHANO
33 None but a holy hermit and her maid.
34 I pray you, is my master yet return'd?
LORENZO
35 He is not, nor we have not heard from him.
36 But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,
37 And ceremoniously let us prepare
38 Some welcome for the mistress of the house.
Enter Clown [LAUNCELOT].
LAUNCELOT
39. Sola: Perhaps the imitation of a post horn (see lines 46‑48 which mention a post accompanied by a horn).
39 Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!
LORENZO
40 Who calls?
LAUNCELOT
41 Sola! did you see Master Lorenzo?
42 Master Lorenzo, sola, sola!
LORENZO
43 Leave hollowing, man: here.
LAUNCELOT
44 Sola! where? where?
LORENZO
45 Here.
LAUNCELOT
46 Tell him there's a post come from my master, with
47 his horn full of good news: my master will be here
48 ere morning.
[Exit.]
LORENZO
49. expect: await.
49 Sweet soul, let's in, and there expect their coming.
50 And yet no matter: why should we go in?
51. signify: give notice.
51 My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you,
52 Within the house, your mistress is at hand;
53 And bring your music forth into the air.
Exit Messenger.
54 How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
55 Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
56 Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
57. Become: suit, befit. touches: notes (literally, the fingering of a musical instrument).
57 Become the touches of sweet harmony.
58 Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
59. patens: thin metal plates or disks.
59 Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold:
60 There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
61 But in his motion like an angel sings,
62. quiring: singing in harmony. young-ey'd: i.e., eternally clear-sighted.
62 Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins;
63 Such harmony is in immortal souls;
64. muddy vesture of decay: i.e., mortal flesh.
64 But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
65. close it in: i.e., enclose the soul. hear it: i.e., hear the music of the spheres.
65 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
[Enter MUSICIANS.]
66. Diana: the moon-goddess.
66 Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!
67 With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
68 And draw her home with music.
Play Music.
JESSICA
69 I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
LORENZO
70. spirits are attentive: faculties are concentrated; the spirits would be in motion . . . more 71. wanton: untrained (cf. line 72 unhandled, with similar meaning). 72. race: herd.
70 The reason is, your spirits are attentive:
71 For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
72 Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
73 Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
74 Which is the hot condition of their blood;
75 If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
76 Or any air of music touch their ears,
77. mutual: common or simultaneous.
77 You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
78 Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze
79. the poet: perhaps Ovid, who tells the story of the Thracian musician Orpheus in his Metamorphoses. 80. Orpheus: legendary musician. drew: attracted, charmed. 81. stockish: resembling a block of wood; i.e., unfeeling.
79 By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
80 Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
81 Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
82 But music for the time doth change his nature.
83 The man that hath no music in himself,
84 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
85. stratagems: deceptive tricks. spoils: acts of plunder.
85 Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
86 The motions of his spirit are dull as night
87. Erebus: the hell of classical mythology; primeval darkness.
87 And his affections dark as Erebus:
88 Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.
Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.
PORTIA
89 That light we see is burning in my hall.
90 How far that little candle throws his beams!
91. naughty: wicked.
91 So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
NERISSA
92 When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
PORTIA
93 So doth the greater glory dim the less:
94 A substitute shines brightly as a king
95 Unto the king be by, and then his state
96 Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
97. main of waters: ocean.
97 Into the main of waters. Music! hark!
NERISSA
98 It is your music, madam, of the house.
PORTIA
99. respect: reference to other circumstances, comparison, context.
99 Nothing is good, I see, without respect:
100 Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.
NERISSA
101 Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.
PORTIA
102 The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
103. When neither is attended: i.e., when each sings alone.
103 When neither is attended, and I think
104 The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
105 When every goose is cackling, would be thought
106 No better a musician than the wren.
107. by season season'd are: are matured by favorable occasion.
107 How many things by season season'd are
108 To their right praise and true perfection!
109. Endymion: a shepherd loved by the moon-goddess, who caused him to be cast into a perpetual sleep in a cave on Mount Latmos where she could visit him.
109 Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion
110 And would not be awaked.
[Music ceases.]
LORENZO
110 That is the voice,
111 Or I am much deceived, of Portia.
PORTIA
112 He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
113 By the bad voice.
LORENZO
113 Dear lady, welcome home.
PORTIA
114 We have been praying for our husbands' healths,
115. Which speed: who thrive.
115 Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.
116 Are they return'd?
LORENZO
116 Madam, they are not yet;
117 But there is come a messenger before,
118 To signify their coming.
PORTIA
118 Go in, Nerissa;
119 Give order to my servants that they take
120 No note at all of our being absent hence;
121 Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you.
tucket: distinctive series of notes on a trumpet.
[A tucket sounds.]
LORENZO
122 Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet:
123 We are no tell-tales, madam; fear you not.
PORTIA
124 This night methinks is but the daylight sick;
125 It looks a little paler: 'tis a day,
126 Such as the day is when the sun is hid.
Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO,
GRATIANO, and their FOLLOWERS.
BASSANIO
127‑28. We should hold day with the Antipodes, / If you would walk in absence of the sun: i.e., if you, Portia, like a second sun, always walked at night (when it is day on the other side of the world), . . . more
127 We should hold day with the Antipodes,
128 If you would walk in absence of the sun.
PORTIA
129. not be light: not be wanton, unfaithful.
129 Let me give light, but let me not be light;
130. heavy: sad, sorrowful.
130 For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,
131 And never be Bassanio so for me:
132. sort: decide, dispose.
132 But God sort all! You are welcome home, my lord.
BASSANIO
133 I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
134 This is the man, this is Antonio,
135 To whom I am so infinitely bound.
PORTIA
136. in all sense: in every way, with every reason.
136 You should in all sense be much bound to him.
137 For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.
ANTONIO
138 No more than I am well acquitted of.
PORTIA
139 Sir, you are very welcome to our house:
140 It must appear in other ways than words,
141. scant: make brief. breathing courtesy: courteous speaking, utterance of welcome.
141 Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.
GRATIANO [To Nerissa.]
142 By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong;
143 In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk:
144. gelt: gelded [castrated]. for my part: as far as I'm concerned.
144 Would he were gelt that had it, for my part,
145 Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.
PORTIA
146 A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter?
GRATIANO
147 About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
148. posy: motto, sometimes in verse (posy ~ poesy), inscribed inside a ring.
148 That she did give me, whose posy was
149 For all the world like cutler's poetry
150. leave: part with.
150 Upon a knife, "Love me, and leave me not."
NERISSA
151 What talk you of the posy or the value?
152 You swore to me, when I did give it you,
153 That you would wear it till your hour of death
154 And that it should lie with you in your grave:
155 Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
156. respective: mindful, careful.
156 You should have been respective and have kept it.
157 Gave it a judge's clerk! no, God's my judge,
158 The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it.
GRATIANO
159 He will, an if he live to be a man.
NERISSA
160 Ay, if a woman live to be a man.
GRATIANO
161 Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
162. scrubbed: scrubby, stunted.
162 A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy,
163 No higher than thyself; the judge's clerk,
164 A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee:
165 I could not for my heart deny it him.
PORTIA
166 You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
167 To part so slightly with your wife's first gift:
168 A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger
169 And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.
170 I gave my love a ring and made him swear
171 Never to part with it; and here he stands;
172 I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it
173 Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
174. masters: possesses.
174 That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,
175 You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief:
176. mad: beside myself.
176 An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.
BASSANIO [Aside.]
177 Why, I were best to cut my left hand off
178 And swear I lost the ring defending it.
GRATIANO
179 My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
180 Unto the judge that begg'd it and indeed
181 Deserved it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
182 That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
183 And neither man nor master would take aught
184 But the two rings.
PORTIA
184 What ring gave you my lord?
185 Not that, I hope, which you received of me.
BASSANIO
186 If I could add a lie unto a fault,
187 I would deny it; but you see my finger
188 Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone.
PORTIA
189 Even so void is your false heart of truth.
190 By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed
191 Until I see the ring.
NERISSA
191 Nor I in yours
192 Till I again see mine.
BASSANIO
192 Sweet Portia,
193 If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
194 If you did know for whom I gave the ring
195 And would conceive for what I gave the ring
196 And how unwillingly I left the ring,
197 When nought would be accepted but the ring,
198 You would abate the strength of your displeasure.
PORTIA
199. virtue: power, efficacy.
199 If you had known the virtue of the ring,
200 Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
201. contain: retain.
201 Or your own honor to contain the ring,
202 You would not then have parted with the ring.
203 What man is there so much unreasonable,
204 If you had pleased to have defended it
205. wanted the modesty: who would have been so lacking in moderation as. 206. urge: insist on being given. ceremony: sacred pledge.
205 With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
206 To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
207 Nerissa teaches me what to believe:
208 I'll die for't but some woman had the ring.
BASSANIO
209 No, by my honor, madam, by my soul,
210. civil doctor: doctor of civil law.
210 No woman had it, but a civil doctor,
211 Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me
212 And begg'd the ring; the which I did deny him
213 And suffer'd him to go displeased away;
214 Even he that did uphold the very life
215 Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?
216 I was enforced to send it after him;
217 I was beset with shame and courtesy;
218 My honor would not let ingratitude
219 So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady;
220 For, by these blessed candles of the night,
221 Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd
222 The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.
PORTIA
223 Let not that doctor e'er come near my house:
224 Since he hath got the jewel that I loved,
225 And that which you did swear to keep for me,
226. liberal: (1) generous; (2) sexually free.
226 I will become as liberal as you;
227 I'll not deny him any thing I have,
228 No, not my body nor my husband's bed:
229 Know him I shall, I am well sure of it:
230. from: away from. Argus: a mythological hundred-eyed monster.
230 Lie not a night from home; watch me like Argus:
231 If you do not, if I be left alone,
232 Now, by mine honor, which is yet mine own,
233 I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow.
NERISSA
234 And I his clerk; therefore be well advised
235 How you do leave me to mine own protection.
GRATIANO
236 Well, do you so; let not me take him, then;
237. pen: With ribald second sense.
237 For if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen.
ANTONIO
238 I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels.
PORTIA
239 Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwithstanding.
BASSANIO
240 Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
241 And, in the hearing of these many friends,
242 I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
243 Wherein I see myself—
PORTIA
243 Mark you but that!
244 In both my eyes he doubly sees himself;
245. double: With play on the double reflection and the sense "deceitful." 246. of credit: worthy to be believed.
245 In each eye, one: swear by your double self,
246 And there's an oath of credit.
BASSANIO
246 Nay, but hear me:
247 Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear
248 I never more will break an oath with thee.
ANTONIO
249. wealth: welfare.
249 I once did lend my body for his wealth;
250 Which, but for him that had your husband's ring,
251 Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again,
252 My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
253. advisedly: intentionally, deliberately.
253 Will never more break faith advisedly.
PORTIA
254 Then you shall be his surety. Give him this
255 And bid him keep it better than the other.
ANTONIO
256 Here, Lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring.
BASSANIO
257 By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!
PORTIA
258 I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio;
259 For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.
NERISSA
260 And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano;
261 For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
262. In lieu of: in return for.
262 In lieu of this last night did lie with me.
GRATIANO
263‑264. this is like the mending of highways / In summer, where the ways are fair enough: this development makes what was fairly bad before even worse. 265. cuckolds: husbands whose wives are unfaithful.
263 Why, this is like the mending of highways
264 In summer, where the ways are fair enough:
265 What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?
PORTIA
266. amaz'd: bewildered.
266 Speak not so grossly. You are all amaz'd:
267 Here is a letter; read it at your leisure;
268 It comes from Padua, from Bellario:
269 There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,
270 Nerissa there her clerk: Lorenzo here
271 Shall witness I set forth as soon as you
272 And even but now return'd; I have not yet
273 Enter'd my house. Antonio, you are welcome;
274 And I have better news in store for you
275 Than you expect: unseal this letter soon;
276 There you shall find three of your argosies
277 Are richly come to harbour suddenly:
278 You shall not know by what strange accident
279 I chanced on this letter.
ANTONIO
279 I am dumb.
BASSANIO
280 Were you the doctor and I knew you not?
GRATIANO
281 Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?
NERISSA
282 Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it,
283 Unless he live until he be a man.
BASSANIO
284 Sweet doctor, you shall be my bed-fellow:
285 When I am absent, then lie with my wife.
ANTONIO
286 Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
287 For here I read for certain that my ships
288. road: anchorage.
288 Are safely come to road.
PORTIA
288 How now, Lorenzo!
289 My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.
NERISSA
290 Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.
291 There do I give to you and Jessica,
292 From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
293 After his death, of all he dies possess'd of.
LORENZO
294 Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
295 Of starved people.
PORTIA
295 It is almost morning,
296 And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
297 Of these events at full. Let us go in;
298. charge us there upon inter'gatories: require us to answer all things under oath.
298 And charge us there upon inter'gatories,
299 And we will answer all things faithfully.
GRATIANO
300 Let it be so: the first inter'gatory
301 That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
302. stay: wait.
302 Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
303 Or go to bed now, being two hours to day:
304 But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
305 That I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
306 Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing
307 So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.
Exeunt.