The Merchant of Venice - Noyemi

By William Shakespeare

    To wind about my love with circumstance;
    And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
    In making question of my uttermost
    Than if you had made waste of all I have.
    Then do but say to me what I should do
    That in your knowledge may by me be done,
    And I am prest unto it; therefore, speak.
  BASSANIO. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
    And she is fair and, fairer than that word,
    Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes
    I did receive fair speechless messages.
    Her name is Portia- nothing undervalu'd
    To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.
    Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;
    For the four winds blow in from every coast
    Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks
    Hang on her temples like a golden fleece, 
    Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond,
    And many Jasons come in quest of her.
    O my Antonio, had I but the means
    To hold a rival place with one of them,
    I have a mind presages me such thrift
    That I should questionless be fortunate.
  ANTONIO. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea;
    Neither have I money nor commodity
    To raise a present sum; therefore go forth,
    Try what my credit can in Venice do;
    That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
    To furnish thee to Belmont to fair Portia.
    Go presently inquire, and so will I,
    Where money is; and I no question make
    To have it of my trust or for my sake.                Exeunt





SCENE II.
Belmont. PORTIA'S house

Enter PORTIA with her waiting-woman, NERISSA

  PORTIA. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this
    great world.
  NERISSA. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in
the
    same abundance as your good fortunes are; and yet, for aught
I
    see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that
    starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to
be
    seated in the mean: superfluity come sooner by white hairs,
but
    competency lives longer.
  PORTIA. Good sentences, and well pronounc'd.
  NERISSA. They would be better, if well followed.
  PORTIA. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
    chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes'
    palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own
instructions; I
    can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be
one
    of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may
devise
    laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold
decree;
    such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of
good 
    counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion
to
    choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose'! I may neither
    choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will
of a
    living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father. Is it
not
    hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?
  NERISSA. Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their
death
    have good inspirations; therefore the lott'ry that he hath
    devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead-
whereof
    who chooses his meaning chooses you- will no doubt never be
    chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love. But
    what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these
    princely suitors that are already come?
  PORTIA. I pray thee over-name them; and as thou namest them, I
will
    describe them; and according to my description, level at my
    affection.
  NERISSA. First, there is the Neapolitan prince.
  PORTIA. Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk
of
    his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own
good
    parts that he can shoe him himself; I am much afear'd my lady
his
    mother play'd false with a smith. 
  NERISSA. Then is there the County Palatine.
  PORTIA. He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'An you
will

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By William Shakespeare

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