The Merchant of Venice


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I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all  
Here to this devil, to deliver you.  
PORTIA  
Your wife would give you little thanks for that,  
If she were by, to hear you make the offer.  
GRATIANO  
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.  
NERISSA  
'
Tis well you offer it behind her back;  
The wish would make else an unquiet house.  
SHYLOCK  
These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter;  
Would any of the stock of Barrabas  
Had been her husband rather than a Christian!  
Aside  
We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.  
PORTIA  
A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:  
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.  
SHYLOCK  
Most rightful judge!  
PORTIA  
And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:  
The law allows it, and the court awards it.  
SHYLOCK  
Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!  
PORTIA  
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.  
GRATIANO  
O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge!  
SHYLOCK  
Is that the law?  
PORTIA  
Thyself shalt see the act:  
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured  
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.  
GRATIANO  
O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge!  


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