Por.
Your wife would give you little thanks for that
If she were by to hear you make the offer.
Gra.
I have a wife who I protest I love;
I would she were in heaven, so she could
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.
Ner.
’Tis well you offer it behind her back,
The wish would make else an unquiet house.
Shy. [Aside.]
These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter—
Would any of the stock of Barrabas
Had been her husband rather than a Christian!
– 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,
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.
Gra.
O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!
Shy.
Is that the law?
Por.
Thyself shalt see the act;
For as thou urgest justice, be assur’d
Thou shalt have justice more than thou desir’st.
Gra.
O learned judge! Mark, Jew, a learned judge!
Shy.
I take this offer then; pay the bond thrice
And let the Christian go.
Bass.
Here is the money.
Por.
Soft,
The Jew shall have all justice. Soft, no haste.
He shall have nothing but the penalty.
Gra.
O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!
Por.
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 tak’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 twentith part
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.
Gra.
A second Daniel! a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
Por.
Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.
Shy.
Give me my principal, and let me go.
Bass.
I have it ready for thee, here it is.
Por.
He hath refus’d it in the open court;
He shall have merely justice and his bond.
Gra.
A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
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.
Por.
Tarry, Jew,
The law hath yet another hold on you.
It
