William Shakespeare,  The Merchant of Venice

 Abridged for Younger Players

(This abridgement copyright © Ruth Marshall, 2005)

The Players

The Duke of Venice
Antonio, a merchant of Venice
Bassanio, his friend
Salanio, friend to Antonio and Bassanio
Salarino, friend to Antonio and Bassanio
Gratiano, friend to Antonio and Bassanio
Shylock, a rich Jew
Tubal, a Jew, his friend

Portia, a rich heiress
Nerissa, her waiting-maid

Narrator

Courtiers to the Duke of Venice; Officers of the Court of Justice; and servants

Scene: Partly at Venice, and partly at Portia’s house in Belmont.

Act 1 ~ Scene 1
~
A Street in Venice

Narrator: Antonio, Salarino and Salanio enter. Antonio is looking rather unhappy, and his friends are concerned for him.

Antonio: In truth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ‘tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

Salarino: Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea,
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,
That curtsy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.

Salanio: Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind,
Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads;
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt
Would make me sad.

Salarino: I know, Antonio
Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

Antonio: Believe me, no: I thank my fortune for it,
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:
Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

Salarino: Why, then you are in love.

Antonio: Fie, fie!

Salarino: Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad,
Because you are not merry.

Narrator: Bassanio enters, looking for Antonio.

Salanio: Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,
Fare ye well:
We leave you now with better company.

Antonio: Your worth is very dear in my regard.
I take it your own business calls on you
And you embrace the occasion to depart.

Narrator: Salarino and Salanio leave. Antonio begins to ask Bassanio about a young lady of whom he had recently told him.

Antonio: Well, tell me now what lady is the same
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promised to tell me of?

Bassanio: ’Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate,
To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

Antonio: I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it;
And if it stand, as you yourself still do,
Within the eye of honour, be assured,
My purse, my person, my extremest means,
Lie all unlocked to your occasions.

Bassanio: In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the self-same flight
The self-same way with more advised watch,
To find the other forth, and by adventuring both
I oft found both: I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.
I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth,
That which I owe is lost; but if you please
To shoot another arrow that self way
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
As I will watch the aim, or to find both
Or bring your latter hazard back again
And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

Antonio: You know me well, and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance;
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have:
Then do but say to me what I should do.

Bassanio: In Belmont is a lady richly left;
And she is fair, and, fairer than that word,
Of wondrous virtues: sometimes from her eyes
I did receive fair speechless messages:
Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued
To Cato’s daughter, Brutus’ Portia:
Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth,
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;
Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos’ strand,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.
O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind presages me such thrift,
That I should questionless be fortunate!

Antonio: Thou knowest that all my fortunes are at sea;
Neither have I money nor commodity
To raise a present sum: therefore go forth;
Try what my credit can in Venice do:
That shall be racked, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,
Where money is, and I no question make
To have it of my trust or for my sake.

Narrator: They both leave.

Act 1 ~ Scene 3
~
A public place in Venice.

Narrator: Bassanio and Shylock enter, talking together.

Shylock: Three thousand ducats; well.

Bassanio: Ay, sir, for three months.

Shylock: For three months; well.

Bassanio: For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.

Shylock: Antonio shall become bound; well.

Bassanio: Will you pleasure me? shall I
know your answer?

Shylock: Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound.

Bassanio: Your answer to that.

Shylock: Antonio is a good man.

Bassanio: Have you heard any imputation to the contrary?

Shylock: Oh, no, no, no, no: my meaning in saying he is a
good man is to have you understand me that he is
sufficient. Yet his means are in supposition: he
hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the
Indies; I understand moreover, upon the Rialto, he
hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and
other ventures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships
are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats
and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I
mean pirates, and then there is the peril of waters,
winds and rocks. The man is, notwithstanding,
sufficient. Three thousand ducats; I think I may
take his bond.

Bassanio: Be assured you may.

Shylock: I will be assured I may; and, that I may be assured,
I will bethink me. May I speak with Antonio?

Bassanio: If it please you to dine with us.

Shylock: Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which
your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. I
will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you,
walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat
with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What
news on the Rialto? Who is he comes here?

Narrator: Antonio enters.

Bassanio: This is Signior Antonio.

Shylock: [Aside] How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian,
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe,
If I forgive him!

Bassanio: Shylock, do you hear?

Shylock: I am debating of my present store,
And, by the near guess of my memory,
I cannot instantly raise up the gross
Of full three thousand ducats. What of that?
Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe,
Will furnish me. But soft! how many months
Do you desire?
[He speaks to Antonio]
Rest you fair, good signior;
Your worship was the last man in our mouths.

Antonio: Shylock, although I neither lend nor borrow
By taking nor by giving of excess,
Yet, to supply the wants of my friend,
I’ll break a custom. Is he yet possessed
How much ye would?

Shylock: Ay, ay, three thousand ducats.

Antonio: And for three months.

Shylock: I had forgot; three months; you told me so.
Well then, your bond; and let me see; but hear you;
Methought you said you neither lend nor borrow
Upon advantage.

Antonio: I do never use it.

Shylock: When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban’s sheep—

Antonio: And what of him? did he take interest?

Shylock: No, not take interest, not, as you would say,
Directly interest...
But note me, signior.
Three thousand ducats; ‘tis a good round sum.
Three months from twelve; then, let me see; the rate—

Antonio: Well, Shylock, shall we be beholding to you?

Shylock: Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help:
Go to, then; you come to me, and you say
‘Shylock, we would have moneys:’ you say so;
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold: moneys is your suit
What should I say to you? Should I not say
‘Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?’ Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;
‘Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurned me such a day; another time
You called me dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys’?

Antonio: I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee, too.
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends;
But lend it rather to thine enemy,
Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face
Exact the penalty.

Shylock: Why, look you, how you storm!
I would be friends with you and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stained me with,
Supply your present wants and take no doit
Of usance for my moneys, and you’ll not hear me:
This is kind I offer.

Bassanio: This were kindness.

Shylock: This kindness will I show.
Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your single bond; and, in a merry sport,
If you repay me not on such a day,
In such a place, such sum or sums as are
Expressed in the condition, let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.

Antonio: Content, in faith: I’ll seal to such a bond
And say there is much kindness in the Jew.

Bassanio: You shall not seal to such a bond for me:
I’ll rather dwell in my necessity.

Antonio: Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it:
Within these two months, that’s a month before
This bond expires, I do expect return
Of thrice three times the value of this bond.

Shylock: O father Abram, what these Christians are,
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others! Pray you, tell me this;
If he should break his day, what should I gain
By the exaction of the forfeiture?
A pound of man’s flesh taken from a man
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say,
To buy his favour, I extend this friendship:
If he will take it, so; if not, adieu;
And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not.

Antonio: Yes Shylock, I will seal unto this bond.

Shylock: Then meet me forthwith at the notary’s;
Give him direction for this merry bond,
And I will go and purse the ducats straight,
See to my house, left in the fearful guard
Of an unthrifty knave, and presently
I will be with you.

Antonio: Hie thee, gentle Jew.

Narrator: Shylock leaves.

Antonio: The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind.

Bassanio: I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.

Antonio: Come on: in this there can be no dismay;
My ships come home a month before the day.

Narrator: The two men leave.

Act 3 ~ Scene 1
~
A street in Venice.

Narrator: Much has happened in Venice: Bassanio has gone to visit Portia,  the lady he hopes to marry. Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, has stolen some of her father’s gold and jewels, and run away from home, to marry Lorenzo, a friend of Bassanio’s. There have been rumours that some of Antonio’s merchant ships have been wrecked.
Now Salanio and Salarino enter, talking together.

Salanio: Now, what news on the Rialto?

Salarino: Why, yet it lives there uncheck’d 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.

Salanio: Ha! what sayest thou? He hath
lost a ship.

Salarino: I would it might prove the end of his losses.

Narrator: Shylock enters

Salarino: How now, Shylock! what news among the merchants?

Shylock: You know, none so well, none so well as you, of my
daughter’s flight.
My own flesh and blood to rebel!

Salarino: There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
than between jet and ivory. 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.

Salarino: 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 villany you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.

Narrator: A servant enters.

Servant: Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and
desires to speak with you both.

Narrator: Salanio, Salarino, and the servant leave. At the same time, one of Shylock’s friends, a Jew by the name of Tubal, enters.

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 Frankfort!
I would my daughter
were dead 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 in luck stirring but what lights on my
shoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tears
but of 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: Is’t true, is’t 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! where? in Genoa?

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

Shylock: Thou stickest a dagger in me: I shall never see my
gold again: fourscore ducats at a sitting!
fourscore ducats!

Tubal: But Antonio is certainly undone.

Shylock: Nay, that’s true, that’s very true. Go, Tubal, fee
me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I
will have the heart of him, if he forfeit; for, were
he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I
will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.

Narrator: They leave.

Act 3 ~ Scene 2
~
A room in Portia’s house at Belmont

Narrator: Bassanio has become betrothed to Portia; and his friend Gratiano has announced his intention to marry Portia’s maid, Nerissa. The four of them are talking together when Salerio arrives from Venice, with a letter. He gives it to Bassanio.

Salerio: Signior Antonio
Commends him to you.

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.

Gratiano: 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 unpleasantest 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?
Have 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
Of forfeiture, of justice and his bond.

Portia: Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?

Bassanio: The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit
In doing courtesies, and one in whom
The ancient Roman honour more appears
Than any that draws breath in Italy.

Portia: What sum owes he the Jew?

Bassanio: For me three thousand ducats.

Portia: What, no more?
Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond;
Double six thousand, and then treble that,
Before a friend of this description
Shall lose a hair through Bassanio’s fault.
First go with me to church and call me wife,
And then away to Venice to your friend.
For never shall you lie by Portia’s side
With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
To pay the petty debt twenty times over:
When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
Will live as maids and widows. Come, away!
For you shall hence upon your wedding-day:
Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer:
Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
But let me hear the letter of your friend.

Bassanio: [Reading the letter] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all
miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is
very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since
in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all
debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but
see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your
pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come,
let not my letter.

Portia: O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!

Bassanio: Since I have your good leave to go away,
I will make haste.

Narrator: Bassanio and Gratiano hastily marry Portia and Nerissa, and then hurry back to Venice. There they find that Shylock has had Antonio thrown into prison because he cannot repay the money he has borrowed.
Portia tells her friends and servants that until Bassanio returns, she and Nerissa plan to go into a monastery, to pray for the welfare of their husbands. Secretly, though, she has other plans. She sends a message to her uncle, asking for his help. She intends to disguise herself as a lawyer and go to Venice, too, to help at Antonio’s trial.

Act 4 ~ Scene 1
~
A court of justice in Venice.

Narrator: The Duke and members of his court enter, together with Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, clerks of the court, and other men.

Duke: What, is Antonio here?

Antonio: Ready, so please your grace.

Duke: I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy.

Antonio: I have heard
Your grace hath ta’en great pains to qualify
His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate
And that no lawful means can carry me
Out of his envy’s reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury, and am armed
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his.

Narrator: The Duke calls Shylock into the court. He enters, and stands before the Duke.

Duke: Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou but lead’st this fashion of thy malice
To the last hour of act; and then ’tis thought
Thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
And where thou now exact’st the penalty,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant’s flesh,
Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
But, touched with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal;
Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back,
Enow to press a royal merchant down
And pluck commiseration of his state
From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never trained
To offices of tender courtesy.
We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.

Shylock: I have possessed your grace of what I purpose;
And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn
To have the due and forfeit of my bond:
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter and your city’s freedom.
You’ll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
Three thousand ducats: I’ll not answer that:
But, say, it is my humour: is it answered?
I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
A losing suit against him. Are you answered?

Bassanio: This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
To excuse the current of thy cruelty.

Shylock: I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

Bassanio: Do all men kill the things they do not love?

Shylock: Hates any man the thing he would not kill?

Bassanio: Every offence is not a hate at first.

Shylock: What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?

Antonio: I pray you, think you question with the Jew:
You may as well go stand upon the beach
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You may as well use question with the wolf
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops and to make no noise,
When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;
You may as well do anything most hard,
As seek to soften that—than which what’s harder?—
His Jewish heart: therefore, I do beseech you,
Make no more offers, use no farther means,
But with all brief and plain conveniency
Let me have judgment and the Jew his will.

Bassanio: For thy three thousand ducats here is six.

Shylock: I would not draw them; I would have my bond.

Duke: How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?

Shylock: What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
The pound of flesh, which I demand of him,
Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it.
If you deny me, fie upon your law!
There is no force in the decrees of Venice.
I stand for judgment: answer; shall I have it?

Duke: Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,
Whom I have sent for to determine this,
Come here to-day.

Clerk: My lord, here stays without
A messenger with letters from the doctor,
New come from Padua.

Duke: Bring us the letter; call the messenger.

Bassanio: Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all,
Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.

Antonio: I am a tainted wether of the flock,
Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit
Drops earliest to the ground; and so let me
You cannot better be employed, Bassanio,
Than to live still and write mine epitaph.

Narrator: Nerissa enters, dressed like a lawyer’s clerk. She presents a letter to the Duke

Duke: Came you from Padua, from Bellario?

Nerissa: From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace.

Bassanio: Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?

Shylock: To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.

Gratiano: Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
Thou makest thy knife keen; but no metal can,
No, not the hangman’s axe, bear half the keenness
Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?

Shylock: No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.

Duke: This letter from Bellario doth commend
A young and learned doctor to our court.
Where is he?

Nerissa: He attendeth here hard by,
To know your answer, whether you’ll admit him.

Duke: With all my heart. Some three or four of you
Go give him courteous conduct to this place.
Meantime the court shall hear Bellario’s letter.

Clerk [Reading]: Your grace shall understand that at the receipt of
your letter I am very sick: but in the instant that
your messenger came, in loving visitation was with
me a young doctor of Rome; his name is Balthasar. I
acquainted him with the cause in controversy between
the Jew and Antonio the merchant: we turned o’er
many books together: he is furnished with my
opinion; which, bettered with his own learning, the
greatness whereof I cannot enough commend, comes
with him, at my importunity, to fill up your grace’s
request in my stead. I beseech you, let his lack of
years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend
estimation; for I never knew so young a body with so
old a head. I leave him to your gracious
acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his
commendation.

Duke: You hear the learn’d Bellario, what he writes:
And here, I take it, is the doctor come.

Narrator: Portia enters dressed like a doctor of laws.

Duke: Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario?

Portia: I did, my lord.

Duke: You are welcome: take your place.
Are you acquainted with the difference
That holds this present question in the court?

Portia: I am informed thoroughly of the cause.
Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?

Duke: Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.

Portia: Is your name Shylock?

Shylock: Shylock is my name.

Portia: Of a strange nature is the suit you follow;
Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
You stand within his danger, do you not?

Antonio: Ay, so he says.

Portia: Do you confess the bond?

Antonio: I do.

Portia: Then must the Jew be merciful.

Shylock: On what compulsion must I? tell me that.

Portia: The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there.

Shylock: My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.

Portia: Is he not able to discharge the money?

Bassanio: Yes, here I tender it for him in the court;
Yea, twice the sum: if that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er,
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart:
If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority:
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.

Portia: It must not be; there is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree established:
’Twill be recorded for a precedent,
And many an error by the same example
Will rush into the state: it cannot be.

Shylock: A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!
O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!

Portia: I pray you, let me look upon the bond.

Shylock: Here ‘tis, most reverend doctor, here it is.

Portia: Shylock, there’s thrice thy money offered thee.

Shylock: An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven:
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
No, not for Venice.

Portia: Why, this bond is forfeit;
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
Nearest the merchant’s heart. Be merciful:
Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.

Shylock: When it is paid according to the tenor.
It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
You know the law, your exposition
Hath been most sound: I charge you by the law,
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me: I stay here on my bond.

Antonio: Most heartily I do beseech the court
To give the judgment.

Portia: Why then, thus it is:
You must prepare your bosom for his knife.

Shylock: O noble judge! O excellent young man!

Portia: For the intent and purpose of the law
Hath full relation to the penalty,
Which here appeareth due upon the bond.

Shylock: ’Tis very true: O wise and upright judge!
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!

Portia: Therefore lay bare your bosom.

Shylock: Ay, his breast:
So says the bond: doth it not, noble judge?
‘Nearest his heart:’ those are the very words.

Portia: It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
The flesh?

Shylock: I have them ready.

Portia: Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.

Shylock: Is it so nominated in the bond?

Portia: It is not so expressed: but what of that?
’Twere good you do so much for charity.

Shylock: I cannot find it; ’tis not in the bond.

Portia: You, merchant, have you any thing to say?

Antonio: But little: I am armed and well prepared.
Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!
Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom: it is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty; from which lingering penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off.
Commend me to your honourable wife:
Tell her the process of Antonio’s end;
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;
And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
And he repents not that he pays your debt;
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I’ll pay it presently with all my heart.

Shylock: 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! 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.

Gratiano: 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 desirest.

Gratiano: O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned 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.

Gratiano: O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!

Portia: 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 cut’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.

Gratiano: A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!

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.

Gratiano: 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.

Narrator: Shylock is about to leave, but Portia calls him back.

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.

Duke: That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,
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.

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?

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 pronounced here.

Portia: Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?

Shylock: I am content.

Portia: 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.

Narrator: Shylock leaves the court, a broken man. The Duke invites Portia to dine with him, but she explains that she is unable to accept his invitation as she has to return to Padua immediately.
Antonio and Bassanio thank Portia for all that she has done for them, and seek to reward her. They do not realise that Portia is really Bassanio’s wife, and only discover this when they arrive at Belmont.
So everything ends happily for Antonio, Bassanio, Portia and all of their friends.

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