The Merchant of Venice


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'Tis very true: O wise and upright judge!  
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!  
PORTIA  
Therefore lay bare your bosom.  
SHYLOCK  
Ay, his breast:  
So says the bond: doth it not, noble judge?  
'
Nearest his heart:' those are the very words.  
PORTIA  
It is so. Are there balance here to weigh  
The flesh?  
SHYLOCK  
I have them ready.  
PORTIA  
Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,  
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.  
SHYLOCK  
Is it so nominated in the bond?  
PORTIA  
It is not so express'd: but what of that?  
'Twere good you do so much for charity.  
SHYLOCK  
I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond.  
PORTIA  
You, merchant, have you any thing to say?  
ANTONIO  
But little: I am arm'd and well prepared.  
Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!  
Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;  
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind  
Than is her custom: it is still her use  
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,  
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow  
An age of poverty; from which lingering penance  
Of such misery doth she cut me off.  
Commend me to your honourable wife:  
Tell her the process of Antonio's end;  
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;  
And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge  
Whether Bassanio had not once a love.  
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,  
And he repents not that he pays your debt;  
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,  
I'll pay it presently with all my heart.  
BASSANIO  
Antonio, I am married to a wife  
Which is as dear to me as life itself;  
But life itself, my wife, and all the world,  
Are not with me esteem'd above thy life:  


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60 61 62 63 64

Quick Jump
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