Por. ^note
I pray you, tarry: pause a day or two
Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
I lose your company: therefore ^note forbear awhile.
There's something tells me, but it is not love,
I would not lose you; and you know yourself,
Hate counsels not in such a quality.
But lest you should not understand me well,—
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,—
I would detain you here some month or two
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How to choose right, but I am then ^note forsworn;
So will I never be: so may you miss me;
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'er-look'd me, and divided me;
One half of me is yours, the other half yours ^note,
Mine own, I would say; but if ^note mine, then yours,
And so all yours! O ^note, these naughty times
Put ^note bars between the owners and their rights!

And so, though yours, not yours ^note. Prove it so ^note,
Let fortune go to hell for it, not I ^note.
I speak too long; but 'tis to peize ^note the time,
To eke ^note it ^note and to draw ^note it out ^note in length,
To stay you from election.

Bass.
Let me choose;
For as I am, I live upon the rack.

Por.
Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
What treason there is mingled with your love.

Bass.
None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
There may as well be amity and life ^note
'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.

Por.
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
Where men enforced do ^note speak any thing.

Bass.
Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.

Por.
Well then, confess and live.

Bass.
‘Confess,’ and ‘love,’
Had been the very sum of my confession:
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

Por.
Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:
If you do love me, you will find me out.
Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.
Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
Then ^note, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music: that the comparison
May stand more proper ^note, my eye shall be the stream,
And watery death-bed for him. He may win;
And what is music then? Then music is

Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch: such it is
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
With no less presence ^note, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice;
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages, come forth to view
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
Live thou ^note, I live: with much much ^note more dismay
I ^note view the fight than thou that makest the fray. Music, ^note whilst ^note Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself.

Song.

Tell me where is ^note fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
  Reply, reply ^note.
It is engender'd in the eye ^note,
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
  Let us all ring fancy's knell;
  I'll begin it ^note,—Ding, dong, bell.

All.
Ding, dong, bell.

Bass.
So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow

Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice ^note so simple, but assumes
Some mark ^note of virtue on his outward parts:
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
And these assume but valour's excrement
To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks
Which make ^note such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled ^note shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; ^note in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times ^note put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore ^note, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food ^note for Midas, I will none of thee;
Nor none of thee, thou pale ^note and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness ^note moves me more than eloquence;
And here choose I: joy be the consequence!

Por. [Aside ^note]
How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
And shuddering ^note fear, and green-eyed ^note jealousy!
O love, be moderate ^note; allay thy ecstasy;
In measure rein ^note thy joy; scant this excess!
I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
For fear I surfeit ^note!

Bass.
What find I ^note here? [Opening ^note the leaden casket.
Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether ^note, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar ^note breath: so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap ^note the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs: but her eyes,—
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his
And leave itself ^note unfurnish'd ^note. Yet look, how far
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In underprizing it, so far this shadow
Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
The continent and summary of my fortune.

[Reads]
You that choose not by the view,
Chance as fair, and choose as true!
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content and seek no new.

If you be well pleased with this,
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,
And claim her with a loving kiss.
A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
I come by note, to give and to receive.
Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
Hearing applause and universal shout,
Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a ^note doubt
Whether those peals ^note of praise be his or no;
So, thrice-fair lady, stand I, even so;
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.

Por.
You see me ^note, Lord Bassanio ^note, where I stand,
Such as I am: though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish,
To wish myself much better; yet, for you
I would be trebled twenty times myself;
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand ^note times ^note
More rich;
That only ^note to stand high in your account,
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account; but the full sum of me
Is sum of something, ^note which, to term in gross,
Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; happier than ^note this, ^note
She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
Happiest of all is ^note that her gentle spirit

Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her king.
Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted: but now I ^note was the lord ^note
Of this fair mansion, master ^note of my servants,
Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself,
Are yours, my lord ^note: I give them with this ring;
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let it presage the ruin of your love,
And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

Bass.
Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;
And there is such confusion in my powers,
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleased multitude;
Where every something, being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,
Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence:
O, then be bold to say Bassanio's ^note dead!

Ner.
My lord and lady, it is now our time,
That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper,
To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady!

Gra.
My Lord Bassanio and my gentle lady,
I wish you all the joy that you can wish;
For I am sure you can wish none from me:
And when your honours mean to solemnize
The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
Even at that time I may be married too.

Bass.
With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.

Gra.
I thank your lordship, you have ^note got me one.
My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;

You loved, I loved for intermission. ^note
No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
Your fortune stood upon the casket ^note there,
And so did mine too, as the matter falls;
For wooing here ^note until I sweat ^note again,
And swearing till my very roof ^note was dry
With oaths of love, at last, if promise last,
I got a promise of this fair one here
To have her love, provided that your fortune
Achieved her mistress.

Por.
Is this true, Nerissa?

Ner.
Madam, it is, so ^note you stand pleased withal.

Bass.
And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?

Gra.

Yes, faith, my lord.

Bass.

Our feast shall be much honour'd in your marriage.

Gra.

We'll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.

Ner.

What, and stake down?

Gra.

No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down.