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
Spets 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 immur’d,
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
Stamp’d in gold, but that’s insculp’d 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!
Por.
There take it, Prince, and if my form lie there,
Then I am yours.
[He unlocks the golden casket.]
Mor.
O hell! what have we here?
A carrion Death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll! I’ll read the writing.
[Reads.]
“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 judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscroll’d.
Fare you well, your suit is cold.”
Cold indeed, and labor lost:
Then farewell heat, and welcome frost!
Portia, adieu. I have too griev’d a heart
To take a tedious leave; thus losers part.
Exit [with his Train].
Por.
A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
Let all of his complexion choose me so.
Exeunt.
¶
[Scene VIII]
Enter Salerio and Solanio.
Sal.
Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail,
With him is Gratiano gone along;
And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
Sol.
The villain Jew with outcries rais’d the Duke,
Who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.
Sal.
He came too late, the ship was under sail,
But there the Duke was given to understand
That in a gondilo were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.
Besides, Antonio certified the Duke
They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
Sol.
I never heard a passion so confus’d,
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!
Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealed 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.”
Sal.
Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.
Sol.
Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
Or he shall pay for this.
Sal.
Marry, well rememb’red.
I reason’d with a Frenchman yesterday,
Who told me, in the Narrow Seas that part
The French and English, there miscarried
A vessel of our country
