Which is as dear to me as life itself; 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, whom, 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. These be the christian husbands: I have a daughter: 'Would any of the stock of Barrabas 21 Had been her husband, rather than a Christian! We trifle time: I pray [Aside. thee, pursue sentence. Por. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine; The court awards it, and the law doth give it. 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 21 Shakspeare seems to have followed the pronunciation usual to the theatre, Barabbas being sounded Barabas throughout Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Gra. O upright judge!-Mark, Jew;-O learned judge! Shy. Is that the law? Por. Thyself shall 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. Por. Soft; Here is the money. 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! Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate. Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip. Por. Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture. 22 Balthasar Gracian, the celebrated Spanish Jesuit, in his Hero, relates a similar judgment, which he attributes to the great Turk. Gregorio Leti in his Life of Sixtus V. has another story of the kind. The papacy of Sixtus began in 1583, and ended in 1599. The passages may be found in the Variorum Shakspeare. 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 party, 'gainst the which he doth contrive, Thou hast contriv'd against the very life Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the duke. Gra. Beg, that thou mayst have leave to hang And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, Therefore, thou must be hang'd at the state's charge. Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, 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, Por. Ay, for the state; not for Antonio. Shy. Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that: 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. Por. What mercy can you render him, Antonio? Gra. A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's sake. Ant. 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 23,-to render it, Two things provided more. That, for this favour, 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. Por. Art thou contented, Jew, what dost thou say? Shy. I am content. Por. Clerk, draw a deed of gift. Shy. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well; send the deed after me, And I will sign it. Duke. 23 Antonio's offer has been variously explained. It appears to be that he will quit his share of the fine, as the duke has already done that portion due to the state, if Shylock will let him have it in use (i. e. at interest) during his life, to render it at his death to Lorenzo. Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more 24; And it is meet I presently set forth. Duke. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not. Antonio, gratify this gentleman; For, in my mind, you are much bound to him. [Exeunt Duke, Magnificoes, and Train. Por. He is well paid that is well satisfied; Bass. Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further; 24 i. e. a jury of twelve men to condemn him. This appears to have been an old joke. So in the Devil is an Ass, by Ben Jonson : -I will leave you To your godfathers in law. Let twelve men work. And in Bullein's Dialogue of the Fever Pestilence, 1564, one of the speakers, to show his mean opinion of an ostler at an inn, says: I did see him aske blessinge to xii godfathers at once.' We have here a reference to the English trial by jury inapplicable to the forms of a Venetian trial. |