'Twere good you do so much for charity.
Shy. I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond.
Por. You, merchant, have you anything to say?
Ant. But little; I am arm'd and well prepar’d.

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

200

205

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.

210

Commend me to your honourable wife;

Tell her the process of Antonio's end;

Say how I lov'd you; speak me fair in death;

And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love.

215

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.

Bass. Antonio, I am married to a wife

Which is as dear to me as life itself;

But life itself, my wife, and all the world,

220

Por.

Are not with me esteem'd above thy life;

I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you.

225

Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
If she were by, to hear you make the offer.

Shy. (Aside.) These be the Christian husbands! I have a

daughter

209. Penance.-Punishment.

211. Your honourable wife.-Bassanio's wife was Portia, who was in the court all the time. It was to enable Bassanio to marry Portia, that Antonio had borrowed the money for him.

212. Process.-The means; the way it was brought about.

227. If she were by. She was by; the speaker was herself Bassanio's wife, but so disguised that he did not know her.

Would any of the stock of Barrabas

Had been her husband rather than a Christian!

230

(Aloud.) We trifle time; I pray thee, pursue sentence. Por. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine; The court awards it, and the law doth give it.

Shy. Most rightful judge!

Por.

And you must cut this flesh from off his breast; 235
The law allows it, and the court awards it.

Shy. Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!
Por. 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.

240

245

Shy.

Is that the law?

Por.

Thyself shall see the act;

For, as thou urgest justice, be assured

Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. Shy. I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice,

Bass.

And let the Christian go.

Here is the money.

250

229. Barrabas.-Pronounce it as spelt, with accent on first and last syllables. In the New Testament the word is Barabbas, with accent on second syllable. How entirely Shylock's disposition agrees with that of his countrymen in the time of our blessed Saviour; they prefer the robber Barabbas to Christ; shouting in their fury, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" he professes that he would choose as the husband of his daughter one of "the stock of Barrabas" rather than a Christian.

230. Had been her husband.-Shylock's daughter, very shortly before, had been married to a Christian.

244. Confiscate.-Forfeited; given up.

247. The act.-The written decree; as we should say,

Parliament."

"The Act of

250. I take this offer.-The offer Bassanio had made to pay the debt, "Yea, twice the sum."

The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste,
He shall have nothing but the penalty.
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

255

260

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.
Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.

265

Shy. Give me my principal, and let me go.
Bass. I have it ready for thee; here it is.
Por. He hath refused it in the open court;

He shall have merely justice and his bond.
Shy. Shall I not have barely my principal?
Por.

Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture
To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.

Shy. Why, then the devil give him good of it!
I'll stay no longer question.

270

262. One poor scruple.--Used, like the word dram, in the sense of "a very small quantity."

263. Estimation.-Reckoning; calculation. The phrase may here mean "by so much as the weight of a hair."

278. Alien.-Foreigner; the opposite word to the word citizen. In the middle ages Jews were considered "aliens" throughout the whole of Christendom.

280. Citizen.-A free man of a city, who had certain rights and privileges which an "alien" had not.

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 incurr'd

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.
Por. Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.
Shy. Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that;

Por.
Ant.

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.
What mercy can you render him, 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;

285

290

295

300

305

Two things provided more, that, for this favour, 310
He presently become a Christian;

283. Privy coffer.-Privy chest; treasury. 286. Predicament.--A difficult position.

293. Our spirits.-Our natures, our dispositions; the one guided by Christianity, the other ruled by the old thirst for revenge. 297. A fine. A payment of money instead of the wholesale confiscation

he was liable to.

305. To quit the fine.-To give up my share.

The other, that he do record a gift,
Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd
Unto his son Lorenzo, and his daughter.
Duke. He shall do this, or else I do recant
The pardon that I late pronounced here.

315

III.

AS YOU LIKE IT.

ACT i. SCENE 3.-BANISHMENT OF CELIA.

[Celia and Rosalind are cousins; Rosalind the daughter of a duke who has been banished from his dominions by his younger brother, and Celia the daughter of this younger brother, who has taken upon himself the title and powers of the elder brother whom he has banished. Throughout the play, the old duke is called Duke Senior; the younger being Duke Frederick. Although the fathers of Celia and Rosalind are estranged from one another. these ladies are firm friends, and Rosalind lives with her cousin Celia at Duke Frederick's palace, until he determines to banish his niece too. When he does this, Celia resolves to leave her father's house, and go with her cousin into banishment. This command of the duke, and resolution of Celia, are narrated in the following scene.]

SCENE: A room in the palace.

Duke F. Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste
And get you from our court.

Ros.

Duke F

Ros.

Me, uncle?

You, cousin.

Within these ten days if that thou be'st found
So near our public court as twenty miles,

Thou diest for it.

I do beseech your grace,

Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me;

5

312. A deed of gift.-A formal writing, drawn up according to law, making over property to another.

314. His son Lorenzo.-This is strictly "son-in-law;" Lorenzo is the Christian husband of Shylock's daughter, referred to in note 230. 315. Recant.-Call back.

4. Cousin.-Rosalind was really the duke's niece; but in Shakespeare's time nephews and nieces were often called "cousins."