ARKCODEX
Act V, Scene 1
1Belmont. Avenue to Portia’s house.
2Enter Lorenzo and Jessica.
3LorenzoThe moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
And they did make no noise, in such a night
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
And sigh’d his soul toward the Grecian tents,
Where Cressid lay that night.
4JessicaIn such a night
Did Thisbe fearfully o’ertrip the dew
And saw the lion’s shadow ere himself
And ran dismay’d away.
5LorenzoIn such a night
Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
To come again to Carthage.
6JessicaIn such a night
Medea gather’d the enchanted herbs
That did renew old Aeson.
7LorenzoIn such a night
Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew
And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
As far as Belmont.
8JessicaIn such a night
Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
Stealing her soul with many vows of faith
And ne’er a true one.
9LorenzoIn such a night
Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,
Slander her love, and he forgave it her.
10JessicaI would out-night you, did no body come;
But, hark, I hear the footing of a man.
11Enter Stephano.
12LorenzoWho comes so fast in silence of the night?
13StephanoA friend.
14LorenzoA friend! what friend? your name, I pray you, friend?
15StephanoStephano is my name; and I bring word
My mistress will before the break of day
Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about
By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
For happy wedlock hours.
16LorenzoWho comes with her?
17StephanoNone but a holy hermit and her maid.
I pray you, is my master yet return’d?
18LorenzoHe is not, nor we have not heard from him.
But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,
And ceremoniously let us prepare
Some welcome for the mistress of the house.
19Enter Launcelot.
20LauncelotSola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!
21LorenzoWho calls?
22LauncelotSola! did you see Master Lorenzo?
Master Lorenzo, sola, sola!
23LorenzoLeave hollaing, man: here.
24LauncelotSola! where? where?
25LorenzoHere.
26LauncelotTell him there’s a post come from my master, with his horn full of good news: my master will be here ere morning. Exit.
27LorenzoSweet soul, let’s in, and there expect their coming.
And yet no matter: why should we go in?
My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you,
Within the house, your mistress is at hand;
And bring your music forth into the air. Exit Stephano.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
28Enter Musicians.
29Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear,
And draw her home with music. Music.
30JessicaI am never merry when I hear sweet music.
31LorenzoThe reason is, your spirits are attentive:
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;
If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turn’d to a modest gaze
By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.
32Enter Portia and Nerissa.
33PortiaThat light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
34NerissaWhen the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
35PortiaSo doth the greater glory dim the less:
A substitute shines brightly as a king
Unto the king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters. Music! hark!
36NerissaIt is your music, madam, of the house.
37PortiaNothing is good, I see, without respect:
Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.
38NerissaSilence bestows that virtue on it, madam.
39PortiaThe crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended, and I think
The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.
How many things by season season’d are
To their right praise and true perfection!
Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion
And would not be awaked. Music ceases.
40LorenzoThat is the voice,
Or I am much deceived, of Portia.
41PortiaHe knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
By the bad voice.
42LorenzoDear lady, welcome home.
43PortiaWe have been praying for our husbands’ healths,
Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.
Are they return’d?
44LorenzoMadam, they are not yet;
But there is come a messenger before,
To signify their coming.
45PortiaGo in, Nerissa;
Give order to my servants that they take
No note at all of our being absent hence;
Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you. A tucket sounds.
46LorenzoYour husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet:
We are no tell-tales, madam; fear you not.
47PortiaThis night methinks is but the daylight sick;
It looks a little paler: ’tis a day,
Such as the day is when the sun is hid.
48Enter Bassanio, Antonio, Gratiano, and their followers.
49BassanioWe should hold day with the Antipodes,
If you would walk in absence of the sun.
50PortiaLet me give light, but let me not be light;
For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,
And never be Bassanio so for me:
But God sort all! You are welcome home, my lord.
51BassanioI thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
This is the man, this is Antonio,
To whom I am so infinitely bound.
52PortiaYou should in all sense be much bound to him.
For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.
53AntonioNo more than I am well acquitted of.
54PortiaSir, you are very welcome to our house:
It must appear in other ways than words,
Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.
55GratianoTo Nerissa. By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong;
In faith, I gave it to the judge’s clerk:
Would he were gelt that had it, for my part,
Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.
56PortiaA quarrel, ho, already! what’s the matter?
57GratianoAbout a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
That she did give me, whose posy was
For all the world like cutler’s poetry
Upon a knife, “Love me, and leave me not.”
58NerissaWhat talk you of the posy or the value?
You swore to me, when I did give it you,
That you would wear it till your hour of death
And that it should lie with you in your grave:
Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
You should have been respective and have kept it.
Gave it a judge’s clerk! no, God’s my judge,
The clerk will ne’er wear hair on’s face that had it.
59GratianoHe will, an if he live to be a man.
60NerissaAy, if a woman live to be a man.
61GratianoNow, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy,
No higher than thyself; the judge’s clerk,
A prating boy, that begg’d it as a fee:
I could not for my heart deny it him.
62PortiaYou were to blame, I must be plain with you,
To part so slightly with your wife’s first gift:
A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger
And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.
I gave my love a ring and made him swear
Never to part with it; and here he stands;
I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it
Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,
You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief:
An ’twere to me, I should be mad at it.
63BassanioAside. Why, I were best to cut my left hand off
And swear I lost the ring defending it.
64GratianoMy Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
Unto the judge that begg’d it and indeed
Deserved it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
That took some pains in writing, he begg’d mine;
And neither man nor master would take aught
But the two rings.
65PortiaWhat ring gave you my lord?
Not that, I hope, which you received of me.
66BassanioIf I could add a lie unto a fault,
I would deny it; but you see my finger
Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone.
67PortiaEven so void is your false heart of truth.
By heaven, I will ne’er come in your bed
Until I see the ring.
68NerissaNor I in yours
Till I again see mine.
69BassanioSweet Portia,
If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
If you did know for whom I gave the ring
And would conceive for what I gave the ring
And how unwillingly I left the ring,
When nought would be accepted but the ring,
You would abate the strength of your displeasure.
70PortiaIf you had known the virtue of the ring,
Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
Or your own honour to contain the ring,
You would not then have parted with the ring.
What man is there so much unreasonable,
If you had pleased to have defended it
With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
Nerissa teaches me what to believe:
I’ll die for’t but some woman had the ring.
71BassanioNo, by my honour, madam, by my soul,
No woman had it, but a civil doctor,
Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me
And begg’d the ring; the which I did deny him
And suffer’d him to go displeased away;
Even he that did uphold the very life
Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?
I was enforced to send it after him;
I was beset with shame and courtesy;
My honour would not let ingratitude
So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady;
For, by these blessed candles of the night,
Had you been there, I think you would have begg’d
The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.
72PortiaLet not that doctor e’er come near my house:
Since he hath got the jewel that I loved,
And that which you did swear to keep for me,
I will become as liberal as you;
I’ll not deny him any thing I have,
No, not my body nor my husband’s bed:
Know him I shall, I am well sure of it:
Lie not a night from home; watch me like Argus:
If you do not, if I be left alone,
Now, by mine honour, which is yet mine own,
I’ll have that doctor for my bedfellow.
73NerissaAnd I his clerk; therefore be well advised
How you do leave me to mine own protection.
74GratianoWell, do you so; let not me take him, then;
For if I do, I’ll mar the young clerk’s pen.
75AntonioI am the unhappy subject of these quarrels.
76PortiaSir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwithstanding.
77BassanioPortia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
And, in the hearing of these many friends,
I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
Wherein I see myself—
78PortiaMark you but that!
In both my eyes he doubly sees himself;
In each eye, one: swear by your double self,
And there’s an oath of credit.
79BassanioNay, but hear me:
Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear
I never more will break an oath with thee.
80AntonioI once did lend my body for his wealth;
Which, but for him that had your husband’s ring,
Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again,
My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
Will never more break faith advisedly.
81PortiaThen you shall be his surety. Give him this
And bid him keep it better than the other.
82AntonioHere, Lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring.
83BassanioBy heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!
84PortiaI had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio;
For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.
85NerissaAnd pardon me, my gentle Gratiano;
For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor’s clerk,
In lieu of this last night did lie with me.
86GratianoWhy, this is like the mending of highways
In summer, where the ways are fair enough:
What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?
87PortiaSpeak not so grossly. You are all amazed:
Here is a letter; read it at your leisure;
It comes from Padua, from Bellario:
There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,
Nerissa there her clerk: Lorenzo here
Shall witness I set forth as soon as you
And even but now return’d; I have not yet
Enter’d my house. Antonio, you are welcome;
And I have better news in store for you
Than you expect: unseal this letter soon;
There you shall find three of your argosies
Are richly come to harbour suddenly:
You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.
88AntonioI am dumb.
89BassanioWere you the doctor and I knew you not?
90GratianoWere you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?
91NerissaAy, but the clerk that never means to do it,
Unless he live until he be a man.
92BassanioSweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow:
When I am absent, then lie with my wife.
93AntonioSweet lady, you have given me life and living;
For here I read for certain that my ships
Are safely come to road.
94PortiaHow now, Lorenzo!
My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.
95NerissaAy, and I’ll give them him without a fee.
There do I give to you and Jessica,
From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
After his death, of all he dies possess’d of.
96LorenzoFair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.
97PortiaIt is almost morning,
And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
Of these events at full. Let us go in;
And charge us there upon inter’gatories,
And we will answer all things faithfully.
98GratianoLet it be so: the first inter’gatory
That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
Or go to bed now, being two hours to day:
But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
That I were couching with the doctor’s clerk.
Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing
So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring. Exeunt.