_Shylock._ '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._ Come, merchant, have you anything to say? _Antonio._ But little: I am arm'd, and well prepar'd.-- 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 a misery doth she cut me off. Commend me to your honorable wife: Tell her the process of Antonio's end; Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death; And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge Whether Bassanio had not once a love. Repent not 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 instantly 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: 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._ [_Aside._] These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter; Would any of the stock of Barrabas Had been her husband rather than a Christian!-- [_To_ PORTIA.] 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.