Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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2.3 Enter Jessica and Lancelot., the clown

JESSICA

I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so.

Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil,

Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.

But fare thee well. There is a ducat for thee.

And, Lancelot, soon at supper shalt thou see

Lorenzo, who is thy new master’s guest.

Give him this letter, do it secretly;

And so farewell. I would not have my father

See me in talk with thee.

LANCELOT Adieu. Tears exhibit my tongue, most beautiful pagan; most sweet Jew; if a Christian do not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived. But adieu. These foolish drops do something drown my manly spirit. Adieu.

JESSICA Farewell, good Lancelot. Exit Lancelot

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me

To be ashamed to be my father’s child!

But though I am a daughter to his blood,

I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,

If thou keep promise I shall end this strife,

Become a Christian and thy loving wife. Exit

2.4 Enter Graziano, Lorenzo, Salerio, and Salanio LORENZO

Nay, we will slink away in supper-time,

Disguise us at my lodging, and return

All in an hour.

GRAZIANO

We have not made good preparation.

SALERIO

We have not spoke as yet of torchbearers.

SOLANIO

’Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly ordered,

And better in my mind not undertook.

LORENZO

‘Tis now but four o’clock. We have two hours

To furnish us.

Enter Lancelot with a letter

Friend Lancelot, what’s the news?

LANCELOT (presenting the letter) An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to signify. 11

LORENZO (taking the letter)

I know the hand. In faith, ’tis a fair hand,

And whiter than the paper it writ on

Is the fair hand that writ.

GRAZIANO Love-news, in faith.

LANCELOT ⌈to Lorenzo⌉ By your leave, sir.

LORENZO Whither goest thou?

LANCELOT Marry, sir, to bid my old master the Jew to sup tonight with my new master the Christian.

LORENZO

Hold, here, take this. (Giving money) Tell gentle Jessica

I will not fail her. Speak it privately.

Go. Exit Lancelot

Gentlemen,

Will you prepare you for this masque tonight?

I am provided of a torchbearer.

SALERIO

Ay, marry, I’ll be gone about it straight.

SOLANIO

And so will I.

LORENZO Meet me and Graziano

At Graziano’s lodging some hour hence.

SALERIO ’Tis good we do so. Exit with Solanio

GRAZIANO

Was not that letter from fair Jessica?

LORENZO

I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed

How I shall take her from her father’s house,

What gold and jewels she is furnished with,

What page’s suit she hath in readiness.

If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven

It will be for his gentle daughter’s sake;

And never dare misfortune cross her foot

Unless she do it under this excuse:

That she is issue to a faithless Jew.

Come, go with me. Peruse this as thou goest.

He gives Graziano the letter

Fair Jessica shall be my torchbearer. Exeunt

2.5 Enter Shylock the Jew and his man that was, Lancelot the clown

SHYLOCK

Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge,

The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio.

(Calling) What, Jessica! (To Lancelot) Thou shalt not

gormandize

As thou hast done with me. (Calling) What, Jessica!

(To Lancelot) And sleep and snore and rend apparel

out.

(Calling) Why, Jessica, I say!

LANCELOT (calling) Why, Jessica!

SHYLOCK

Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call.

LANCELOT Your worship was wont to tell me I could do nothing without bidding.

Enter Jessica

JESSICA (to Shylock) Call you? What is your will?

SHYLOCK

I am bid forth to supper, Jessica.

There are my keys. But wherefore should I go?

I am not bid for love. They flatter me,

But yet I’ll go in hate, to feed upon

The prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl, 15

Look to my house. I am right loath to go.

There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,

For I did dream of money-bags tonight.

LANCELOT I beseech you, sir, go. My young master doth

expect your reproach.

SHYLOCK So do I his.

LANCELOT And they have conspired together. I will not say you shall see a masque, but if you do, then it was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o’clock i’th’ morning, falling out that year on Ash Wednesday was four year in th’afternoon.

SHYLOCK

What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica,

Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum

And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife,

Clamber not you up to the casements then,

Nor thrust your head into the public street

To gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces,

But stop my house’s ears—I mean my casements.

Let not the sound of shallow fopp’ry enter

My sober house. By Jacob’s staff I swear

I have no mind of feasting forth tonight.

But I will go. (To Lancelot) Go you before me, sirrah.

Say I will come.

LANCELOT I will go before, sir.

(Aside to Jessica)

Mistress, look out at window for all this.

There will come a Christian by

Will be worth a Jewës eye. Exit

SHYLOCK (to Jessica)

What says that fool of Hagar’s offspring, ha?

JESSICA

His words were ‘Farewell, mistress’; nothing else.

SHYLOCK

The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,

Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day

More than the wildcat. Drones hive not with me;

Therefore I part with him, and part with him

To one that I would have him help to waste

His borrowed purse. Well, Jessica, go in.

Perhaps I will return immediately.

Do as I bid you. Shut doors after you.

Fast bind, fast find—

A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

Exit at one door

JESSICA

Farewell; and if my fortune be not crossed,

I have a father, you a daughter lost.

Exit at another door

2.6 Enter the masquers, Graziano and Salerio, ⌈with torchbearers⌉

GRAZIANO

This is the penthouse under which Lorenzo

Desired us to make stand.

SALERIO His hour is almost past.

GRAZIANO

And it is marvel he outdwells his hour,

For lovers ever run before the clock.

SALERIO

O, ten times faster Venus’ pigeons fly

To seal love’s bonds new made than they are wont

To keep obligèd faith unforfeited.

GRAZIANO

That ever holds. Who riseth from a feast

With that keen appetite that he sits down?

Where is the horse that doth untread again

His tedious measures with the unbated fire

That he did pace them first? All things that are

Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.

How like a younker or a prodigal

The scarfed barque puts from her native bay,

Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind!

How like the prodigal doth she return,

With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind!

Enter Lorenzo, ⌈with a torch⌉

SALERIO

Here comes Lorenzo. More of this hereafter.

LORENZO

Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode.

Not I but my affairs have made you wait.

When you shall please to play the thieves for wives

I’ll watch as long for you therein. Approach.

Here dwells my father Jew. (Calling) Ho, who’s

within?

Enter Jessica above in boy’s apparel

JESSICA

Who are you? Tell me for more certainty,

Albeit I’ll swear that I do know your tongue.

LORENZO Lorenzo, and thy love.

JESSICA

Lorenzo, certain, and my love indeed,

For who love I so much? And now who knows

But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?

LORENZO

Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art.

JESSICA

Here, catch this casket. It is worth the pains.

I am glad ’tis night, you do not look on me,

For I am much ashamed of my exchange;

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see

The pretty follies that themselves commit;

For if they could, Cupid himself would blush

To see me thus transformèd to a boy.

LORENZO

Descend, for you must be my torchbearer.

JESSICA

What, must I hold a candle to my shames?

They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.

Why, ’tis an office of discovery, love,

And I should be obscured.

LORENZO So are you, sweet,

Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.

But come at once,

For the close night doth play the runaway,

And we are stayed for at Bassanio’s feast.

JESSICA

I will make fast the doors, and gild myself

With some more ducats, and be with you straight.

Exit above

GRAZIANO

Now, by my hood, a gentile, and no Jew.

LORENZO

Beshrew me but I love her heartily,

For she is wise, if I can judge of her;

And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true;

And true she is, as she hath proved herself;

And therefore like herself, wise, fair, and true,

Shall she be placed in my constant soul.

Enter Jessica below

What, art thou come? On, gentlemen, away.

Our masquing mates by this time for us stay.

Exit with Jessica and Salerio

Enter Antonio

ANTONIO

Who’s there?

GRAZIANO Signor Antonio? 60

ANTONIO

Fie, fie, Graziano, where are all the rest?

‘Tis nine o’clock. Our friends all stay for you.

No masque tonight. The wind is come about.

Bassanio presently will go aboard.

I have sent twenty out to seek for you. 65

GRAZIANO

I am glad on’t. I desire no more delight

Than to be under sail and gone tonight. Exeunt

2.7 ⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Enter Portia with Morocco and both their trains

PORTIA

Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover

The several caskets to this noble prince.

The curtains are drawn aside, revealing three caskets

(To Morocco) Now make your choice.

MOROCCO

This first of gold, who this inscription bears:

‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’

The second silver, which this promise carries:

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’

This third dull lead, with warning all as blunt:

‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’

How shall I know if I do choose the right?

PORTIA

The one of them contains my picture, Prince.

If you choose that, then I am yours withal.

MOROCCO

Some god direct my judgement! Let me see.

I will survey th‘inscriptions back again.

What says this leaden casket? 15

‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’

Must give, for what? For lead? Hazard for lead?

This casket threatens. Men that hazard all

Do it in hope of fair advantages.

A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross.

I’ll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead.

What says the silver with her virgin hue?

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’

‘As much as he deserves’: pause there, Morocco,

And weigh thy value with an even hand.

If thou beest rated by thy estimation

Thou dost deserve enough, and yet ‘enough’

May not extend so far as to the lady.

And yet to be afeard of my deserving

Were but a weak disabling of myself.

As much as I deserve—why, that’s the lady!

I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,

In graces, and in qualities of breeding;

But more than these, in love I do deserve.

What if I strayed no farther, but chose here?

Let’s see once more this saying graved in gold:

‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’

Why, that’s the lady! All the world desires her.

From the four corners of the earth they come

To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint.

The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds

Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now

For princes to come view fair Portia.

The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head

Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar

To stop the foreign spirits, but they come

As o‘er a brook to see fair Portia.

One of these three contains her heavenly picture.

Is’t like that lead contains her? ’Twere damnation

To think so base a thought. It were too gross

To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.

Or shall I think in silver she’s immured,

Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?

O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem

Was set in worse than gold. They have in England

A coin that bears the figure of an angel

Stamped in gold, but that’s insculped upon;

But here an angel in a golden bed

Lies all within. Deliver me the key.

Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may.

He is given a key

PORTIA

There, take it, Prince; and if my form lie there,

Then I am yours.

Morocco opens the golden casket

MOROCCO O hell! What have we here?

A carrion death, within whose empty eye

There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing.

‘All that glisters is not gold;

Often have you heard that told.

Many a man his life hath sold

But my outside to behold.

Gilded tombs do worms infold.

Had you been as wise as bold,

Young in limbs, in judgement old,

Your answer had not been enscrolled.

Fare you well; your suit is cold.’

Cold indeed, and labour lost.

Then farewell heat, and welcome frost.

Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart

To take a tedious leave. Thus losers part.

⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Exit with his train

PORTIA

A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.

Let all of his complexion choose me so.

The curtains are drawn. Exeunt

2.8 Enter Salerio and Solanio

SALERIO

Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail.

With him is Graziano gone along,

And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.

SOLANIO

The villain Jew with outcries raised the Duke,

Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.

SALERIO

He came too late. The ship was under sail.

But there the Duke was given to understand

That in a gondola were seen together

Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.

Besides, Antonio certified the Duke

They were not with Bassanio in his ship.

SOLANIO

I never heard a passion so confused,

So strange, outrageous, and so variable

As the dog Jew did utter in the streets.

‘My daughter! O, my ducats! O, my daughter!

Fled with a Christian! O, my Christian ducats I

Justice! The law! My ducats and my daughter!

A sealed bag, two sealèd bags of ducats,

Of double ducats, stol’n from me by my daughter!

And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones,

Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl!

She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats!’

SALERIO

Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,

Crying, ‘His stones, his daughter, and his ducats!’

SOLANIO

Let good Antonio look he keep his day,

Or he shall pay for this.

SALERIO Marry, well remembered.

I reasoned with a Frenchman yesterday,

Who told me in the narrow seas that part

The French and English there miscarried

A vessel of our country, richly fraught.

I thought upon Antonio when he told me,

And wished in silence that it were not his.

SOLANIO

You were best to tell Antonio what you hear—

Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.

SALERIO

A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.

I saw Bassanio and Antonio part.

Bassanio told him he would make some speed

Of his return. He answered, ‘Do not so.

Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,

But stay the very riping of the time;

And for the Jew’s bond which he hath of me,

Let it not enter in your mind of love.

Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts

To courtship and such fair ostents of love

As shall conveniently become you there.’

And even there, his eye being big with tears,

Turning his face, he put his hand behind him

And, with affection wondrous sensible,

He wrung Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.

SOLANIO

I think he only loves the world for him.

I pray thee let us go and find him out,

And quicken his embraced heaviness

With some delight or other.

SALERIO Do we so. Exeunt

2.9 Enter Nerissa and a servitor

NERISSA

Quick, quick, I pray thee, draw the curtain straight.

The Prince of Aragon hath ta’en his oath,

And comes to his election presently.

The servitor draws aside the curtain, revealing the three caskets. ⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Enter Aragon, his train, and Portia

PORTIA

Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince.

If you choose that wherein I am contained,

Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized.

But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,

You must be gone from hence immediately.

ARAGON

I am enjoined by oath to observe three things:

First, never to unfold to anyone 10

Which casket ’twas I chose. Next, if I fail

Of the right casket, never in my life

To woo a maid in way of marriage.

Lastly, if I do fail in fortune of my choice,

Immediately to leave you and be gone. 15

PORTIA

To these injunctions everyone doth swear

That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

ARAGON

And so have I addressed me. Fortune now

To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.

He reads the leaden casket

‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’

You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.

What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.

‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’

‘What many men desire’—that ‘many’ may be meant

By the fool multitude, that choose by show,

Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,

Which pries not to th’interior but, like the martlet,

Builds in the weather on the outward wall

Even in the force and road of casualty.

I will not choose what many men desire,

Because I will not jump with common spirits

And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure-house.

Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves’—

And well said too, for who shall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable

Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume

To wear an undeserved dignity.

O, that estates, degrees, and offices

Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honour

Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

How many then should cover that stand bare,

How many be commanded that command?

How much low peasantry would then be gleaned

From the true seed of honour, and how much honour

Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times

To be new varnished? Well; but to my choice.

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’

I will assume desert. Give me a key for this,

And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

He is given a key. ⌈He⌉ opens the silver casket

PORTIA

Too long a pause for that which you find there.

ARAGON

What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot

Presenting me a schedule. I will read it.

How much unlike art thou to Portia!

How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!

‘Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.’

Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?

Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better?

PORTIA

To offend and judge are distinct offices,

And of opposed natures.

ARAGON What is here?

He reads the schedule

‘The fire seven times tried this;

Seven times tried that judgement is

That did never choose amiss.

Some there be that shadows kiss;

Such have but a shadow’s bliss.

There be fools alive, iwis,

Silvered o’er; and so was this.

Take what wife you will to bed,

I will ever be your head.

So be gone; you are sped.’

Still more fool I shall appear

By the time I linger here.

With one fool’s head I came to woo,

But I go away with two.

Sweet, adieu. I’ll keep my oath

Patiently to bear my wroth.

⌈Flourish of cornetts.⌉ Exit with his train

PORTIA

Thus hath the candle singed the moth.

O, these deliberate fools! When they do choose

They have the wisdom by their wit to lose. 80

NERISSA

The ancient saying is no heresy:

Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

PORTIA

Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.

Nerissa draws the curtain.

Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER

Where is my lady?

PORTIA Here. What would my lord?

MESSENGER

Madam, there is alighted at your gate

A young Venetian, one that comes before

To signify th’approaching of his lord,

From whom he bringeth sensible regreets,

To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,

Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen 90

So likely an ambassador of love.

A day in April never came so sweet

To show how costly summer was at hand

As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.

PORTIA

No more, I pray thee, I am half afeard

Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,

Thou spend’st such high-day wit in praising him.

Come, come, Nerissa, for I long to see

Quick Cupid’s post that comes so mannerly.

NERISSA

Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be! Exeunt

3.1 Enter Solanio and Salerio

SOLANIO

Now, what news on the Rialto?

SALERIO Why, yet it lives there unchecked 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.

SOLANIO I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity or crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio—O that I had a title good enough to keep his name company—

SALERIO Come, the full stop.

SOLANIO Ha, what sayst thou? Why, the end is he hath lost a ship.

SALERIO I would it might prove the end of his losses.

SOLANIO Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer—

Enter Shylock

for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. How now, Shylock, what news among the merchants?

SHYLOCK You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my daughter’s flight.

SALERIO That’s certain. I for my part knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.

SOLANIO And Shylock for his own part knew the bird was fledge, and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

SHYLOCK She is damned for it.

SALERIO That’s certain, if the devil may be her judge.

SHYLOCK My own flesh and blood to rebel!

SOLANIO Out upon it, old carrion, rebels it at these years?

SHYLOCK I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood.

SALERIO There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red wine and Rhenish. 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.

SALERIO 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 villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Enter a Man from Antonio

MAN (to Solanio and Salerio) Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house and desires to speak with you both.

SALERIO We have been up and down to seek him.

Enter Tubal

SOLANIO Here comes another of the tribe. A third cannot be matched unless the devil himself turn Jew.

Exeunt Solanio and Salerio, with Antonio’s Man

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 Frankfurt. The curse never fell upon our nation till now—I never felt it till now. Two thousand ducats in that and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hearsed 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 ill luck stirring but what lights o’ my shoulders, no sighs but o’ my breathing, no tears but o’ 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 I thank God, I thank God! Is it true, is it 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—heard in Genoa?

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

SHYLOCK Thou stick’st a dagger in me. I shall never see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting? Fourscore ducats?

TUBAL There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.

SHYLOCK I am very glad of it. I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him. I am glad of it. 109

TUBAL One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.

SHYLOCK Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my turquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

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, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue. Go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. Exeunt severally