ACT V.

SCENE I.-The Avenue to Portia's House at Belmont.

LORENZO, R., and JESSICA, L., discovered, seated on Garden Seat.

Lor. The moon shines bright :-In such a night as this Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew;

And with an unthrift love did run from Venice,
As far as Belmont.

Jes. And in such a night

Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well;
Stealing her soul with many vows of faith,
And ne'er a true one.

Lor. And in such a night.

Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,
Slander her love, and he forgave it her.

Jes. I would outnight you, did nobody come;
But, hark! I hear the footing of a man.

Enter BALTHAZAr, l.

Lor. Who comes so fast in silence of the night?
Bal. A friend.

Lor. A friend? what friend? your name, I

friend?

pray you,

Bal. Balthazar is my name; and I bring word, My mistress will, before the break of day,

Be here at Belmont.

I pray you, is my master yet returned?

Lor. 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.

Laun. [Without, L.] Sola, sola, wo ha, ho, sola, sola! Lor. Who calls?

Enter LAUNCELOT, L.

Laun. Sola! did you see master Lorenzo, and mistres Lorenzo? sola, sola!

Lor. Leave holloaing, man; here.

Laun. Sola! where? where ?

Lor. Here.

Laun. Tell him, there's a post come from my master Crosses, R.] with his horn full of good news; my master ill be here ere morning. [Exit, R. Lor. My friend Balthazar, signify, I pray you, Within the house, your mistress is at hand.

[Exit Balthazar, R. Enter PORTIA and Nerissa at a distance, L. U. E.

Por. That light we see is burning in my

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Lor. That is the voice,

Or I am much deceived, of Portia.

hall.

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

Lor. Dear lady, welcome home.

Por. We have been praying for our husbands' welfare, Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.

Are they returned?

Lor. Madam, they are not yet;
But there is come a messenger before,

To signify their coming.

Por. Go in, Nerissa,

Give order to my servants, that they take
No note at all of our being absent hence ;-

Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you.

[A trumpet sounds, L. U. E.

Lor. Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet.

Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, and GRATIANO, L. S. E.
Por. You are welcome home, my lord.

Bass. I thank you, madam: give welcome to my friend.
[Gratiano and Nerissa go up the Stage.

This is the man, this is Antonio,

To whom I am so infinitely bound.

Por. You should in all sense be much bound to him;

For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.

Ant. No more than I am well acquitted of.

Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house;

It must appear in other way than words,
Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.

Gra. Advancing with Ner.] By yonder moon I swear,

you do me wrong;

In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk:

Would he were hanged that had it, for my part,
Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.

Por. A quarrel, ho, already? what's the matter?
Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
That she did give to me; whose posy was,
For all the world, like cutler's poetry
Upon a knife, "Love me, and leave me not.”

Ner. (L.) 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,
You should have been respective, and have kept it.
Gave it a judge's clerk !—but well I know,

The clerk will ne'er wear hair on his face, that had it.
Gra. He will, an if he live to be a man.

Ner. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.

Gra. 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 begged it as a fee;

I could not for my heart deny it him.

Por. (R.) 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 riveted so with faith unto your flesh. I gave my love a ring, and made him swear 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; And 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

Bass. [Aside, R.] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off,

And swear I lost the ring defending it.

Gra. (L. c.) My lord Bassanio gave his ring away Unto the judge that begged it, and, indeed,

Deserved it, too; and then the boy, his clerk,

at took some pains in writing, he begged mine: nd neither man nor master would take aught ut the two rings.

Por. (R. c.) What ring gave you, my lord? ot that, I hope, which you received of me. Bass. (R. c.) If I could add a lie unto a fault, would deny it, but you see, my finger

ath not the ring upon it-it is gone.

Por. Even so void is your false heart of truth By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed,

Until I see the ring.

Ner. Nor I in yours,

Till I again see mine.
Bass. Sweet Portia,

If

you did know to whom I gave the ring, If you did know for whom I gave the ring, gave the ring, And how unwillingly I left the ring,

And would conceive for what I

When naught would be accepted but the ring,
You would abate the strength of your displeasure.
Por. If you had known the virtue of the ring,
Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
Or your own honour to retain the ring,
You would not then have parted with the ring.
What man is there so much unreasonable,
you had pleased to have defended it

If

With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
Nerissa teaches me what to believe;

I'll die for't, but some woman had the ring.

[She walks about-Bass. follows her, Bass. No, by mine honour, madam, by my soul,

No woman had it, but a civil doctor,

Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me,
And begged the ring; the which I did deny him,
And suffered him to go displeased away;

Even he that had held

up the very life

Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?
I was enforced to send it after him.

Had you been there, I think you would have begged
The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.

Por (R.) 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 anything I have,

No, not 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 my own,
I'll have that doctor for my bed-fellow.

Ner. (L.) And I his clerk; therefore be well advised, How you do leave me to mine own protection.

Gra. (R.) Well, do you so: let me not take him then For if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen.

Ant. (c.) I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels Por. (R.) Sir, grieve not you: you are welcome, not withstanding.

Bass. (R.) Portia, forgive me this enforcéd wrong;
And, in the hearing of these many friends,
I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
I never more will break an oath with thee.

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

Por. Then you shall be his surety: give him this,
And bid him keep it better than the other.

Ant. Here, Lord Bassanio: swear to keep this ring. Bass. [Amazed.) By heaven-it is the same I gave the

doctor!

Por. I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio:

For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.

Ner. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano;

For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
In lieu of this last night did lie with me.

Gra. [Amazed.] Why, this is like the mending of high

ways

In summer, where the ways are fair enough:
What are we cuckolds ere we have deserved it?

Por. (R. c.) Speak not so grossly.-You are all amazed Here is a letter, read it at your leisure;