The Merchant of Venice - Уильям Шекспир

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speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them they are not worth the search. 115

       Antonio

      Well; tell me now what lady is the same

To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, 120

      That you to-day promis’d to tell me of?

       Bassanio

      ’Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,

      How much I have disabled mine estate

      By something showing a more swelling port

Than my faint means would grant continuance; 125

      Nor do I now make moan to be abridg’d

      From such a noble rate; but my chief care

      Is to come fairly off from the great debts

      Wherein my time, something too prodigal,

Hath left me gag’d. To you, Antonio, 130

      I owe the most, in money and in love;

      And from your love I have a warranty

      To unburden all my plots and purposes

      How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

       Antonio

I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; 135

      And if it stand, as you yourself still do,

      Within the eye of honour, be assur’d

      My purse, my person, my extremest means,

      Lie all unlock’d to your occasions.

       Bassanio

In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, 140

      I shot his fellow of the self-same flight

      The self-same way, with more advised watch,

      To find the other forth; and by adventuring both

      I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof,

Because what follows is pure innocence. 145

      I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth,

      That which I owe is lost; but if you please

      To shoot another arrow that self way

      Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,

As I will watch the aim, or to find both, 150

      Or bring your latter hazard back again

      And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

       Antonio

      You know me well, and herein spend but time

      To wind about my love with circumstance;

And out of doubt you do me now more wrong 155

      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. 160

       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 165

      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, 170

      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 175

      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; 180

      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. 185

       [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 comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. 5

       Portia

Good sentences, and well pronounc’d. 10

       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

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