Act V, Scene 1

Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA’S house.

[Enter LORENZO and JESSICA]

• Lorenzo. The moon shines bright: in such a night as this,
  When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees 2445
  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.

• Jessica. In such a night 2450
  Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew
  And saw the lion's shadow ere himself
  And ran dismay'd away.

• Lorenzo. In such a night
  Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 2455
  Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
  To come again to Carthage.

• Jessica. In such a night
  Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
  That did renew old AEson. 2460

• Lorenzo. In such a night
  Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew
  And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
  As far as Belmont.

• Jessica. In such a night 2465
  Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well,
  Stealing her soul with many vows of faith
  And ne'er a true one.

• Lorenzo. In such a night
  Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, 2470
  Slander her love, and he forgave it her.

• Jessica. I would out-night you, did no body come;
  But, hark, I hear the footing of a man.

[Enter STEPHANO]

• Lorenzo. Who comes so fast in silence of the night? 2475

• Stephano. A friend.

• Lorenzo. A friend! what friend? your name, I pray you, friend?

• Stephano. Stephano is my name; and I bring word
  My mistress will before the break of day
  Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about 2480
  By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
  For happy wedlock hours.

• Lorenzo. Who comes with her?

• Stephano. None but a holy hermit and her maid.
  I pray you, is my master yet return'd? 2485

• Lorenzo. He 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.

[Enter LAUNCELOT]

• Launcelot Gobbo. Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!

• Lorenzo. Who calls?

• Launcelot Gobbo. Sola! did you see Master Lorenzo?
  Master Lorenzo, sola, sola!

• Lorenzo. Leave hollaing, man: here. 2495

• Launcelot Gobbo. Sola! where? where?

• Lorenzo. Here.

• Launcelot Gobbo. Tell him there's a post come from my master, with
  his horn full of good news: my master will be here
  ere morning. 2500

[Exit]

• Lorenzo. Sweet 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; 2505
  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 2510
  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, 2515
  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.
  [Enter Musicians] 2520
  Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn!
  With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
  And draw her home with music.

[Music]

• Jessica. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. 2525

• Lorenzo. The 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; 2530
  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 2535
  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, 2540
  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.

[Enter PORTIA and NERISSA]

• Portia. That 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.

• Nerissa. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.

• Portia. So doth the greater glory dim the less: 2550
  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!

• Nerissa. It is your music, madam, of the house. 2555

• Portia. Nothing is good, I see, without respect:
  Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.

• Nerissa. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.

• Portia. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
  When neither is attended, and I think 2560
  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! 2565
  Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion
  And would not be awaked.

[Music ceases]

• Lorenzo. That is the voice,
  Or I am much deceived, of Portia. 2570

• Portia. He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
  By the bad voice.

• Lorenzo. Dear lady, welcome home.

• Portia. We have been praying for our husbands' healths,
  Which speed, we hope, the better for our words. 2575
  Are they return'd?

• Lorenzo. Madam, they are not yet;
  But there is come a messenger before,
  To signify their coming.

• Portia. Go in, Nerissa; 2580
  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]

• Lorenzo. Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet: 2585
  We are no tell-tales, madam; fear you not.

• Portia. This 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.
  [Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and] 2590
  their followers]

• Bassanio. We should hold day with the Antipodes,
  If you would walk in absence of the sun.

• Portia. Let me give light, but let me not be light;
  For a light wife doth make a heavy husband, 2595
  And never be Bassanio so for me:
  But God sort all! You are welcome home, my lord.

• Bassanio. I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my friend.
  This is the man, this is Antonio,
  To whom I am so infinitely bound. 2600

• Portia. You should in all sense be much bound to him.
  For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.

• Antonio. No more than I am well acquitted of.

• Portia. Sir, you are very welcome to our house:
  It must appear in other ways than words, 2605
  Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.

• Gratiano. [To 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. 2610

• Portia. A quarrel, ho, already! what's the matter?

• Gratiano. About 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.' 2615

• Nerissa. What 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, 2620
  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.

• Gratiano. He will, an if he live to be a man.

• Nerissa. Ay, if a woman live to be a man. 2625

• Gratiano. Now, 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. 2630

• Portia. You 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 2635
  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: 2640
  An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

• Bassanio. [Aside] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off
  And swear I lost the ring defending it.

• Gratiano. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
  Unto the judge that begg'd it and indeed 2645
  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.

• Portia. What ring gave you my lord? 2650
  Not that, I hope, which you received of me.

• Bassanio. If 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.

• Portia. Even so void is your false heart of truth. 2655
  By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed
  Until I see the ring.

• Nerissa. Nor I in yours
  Till I again see mine.

• Bassanio. Sweet Portia, 2660
  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, 2665
  You would abate the strength of your displeasure.

• Portia. If 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. 2670
  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: 2675
  I'll die for't but some woman had the ring.

• Bassanio. No, 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 2680
  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; 2685
  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. 2690

• Portia. Let 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, 2695
  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, 2700
  I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow.

• Nerissa. And I his clerk; therefore be well advised
  How you do leave me to mine own protection.

• Gratiano. Well, do you so; let not me take him, then;
  For if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen. 2705

• Antonio. I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels.

• Portia. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwithstanding.

• Bassanio. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
  And, in the hearing of these many friends,
  I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes, 2710
  Wherein I see myself—

• Portia. Mark 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. 2715

• Bassanio. Nay, but hear me:
  Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear
  I never more will break an oath with thee.

• Antonio. I once did lend my body for his wealth;
  Which, but for him that had your husband's ring, 2720
  Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again,
  My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
  Will never more break faith advisedly.

• Portia. Then you shall be his surety. Give him this
  And bid him keep it better than the other. 2725

• Antonio. Here, Lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring.

• Bassanio. By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!

• Portia. I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio;
  For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.

• Nerissa. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano; 2730
  For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
  In lieu of this last night did lie with me.

• Gratiano. Why, this is like the mending of highways
  In summer, where the ways are fair enough:
  What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it? 2735

• Portia. Speak 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 2740
  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; 2745
  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.

• Antonio. I am dumb. 2750

• Bassanio. Were you the doctor and I knew you not?

• Gratiano. Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?

• Nerissa. Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it,
  Unless he live until he be a man.

• Bassanio. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bed-fellow: 2755
  When I am absent, then lie with my wife.

• Antonio. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
  For here I read for certain that my ships
  Are safely come to road.

• Portia. How now, Lorenzo! 2760
  My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.

• Nerissa. Ay, 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. 2765

• Lorenzo. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
  Of starved people.

• Portia. It is almost morning,
  And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
  Of these events at full. Let us go in; 2770
  And charge us there upon inter'gatories,
  And we will answer all things faithfully.

• Gratiano. Let it be so: the first inter'gatory
  That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
  Whether till the next night she had rather stay, 2775
  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. 2780

[Exeunt]