his the Jew
may lawfully claim a pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest
Antonio's heart." Then said she to Shylock, "Be merciful: take the
money, and bid me tear the bond." But no mercy would the cruel Shylock
show; and he said, "By my soul I swear, there is no power in the
tongue of man to alter me." "Why, then, Antonio," said Portia, "you
must prepare your bosom for the knife;" and while Shylock was
sharpening a long knife with great eagerness to cut off the pound of
flesh, Portia said to Antonio, "Have you anything to say?" Antonio,
with a calm resignation, replied that he had but little to say, for
that he had prepared his mind for death. Then he said to Bassanio,
"Give me your hand, Bassanio! Fare you well! Grieve not that I am
fallen into this misfortune for you. Commend me to your honorable
wife, and tell her how I have loved you!" Bassanio in the deepest
affliction replied, "Antonio, I am married to a wife who is as dear to
me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all the world are not
esteemed with me above your life: I would lose all, I would sacrifice
all to this devil here, to deliver you."

Portia, hearing this, though the kind-hearted lady was not at all
offended with her husband for expressing the love he owed to so true a
friend as Antonio in these strong terms, yet could not help answering,
"Your wife would give you little thanks, if she were present, to hear
you make this offer." And then Gratiano, who loved to copy what his
lord did, thought he must make a speech like Bassanio's, and he said,
in Nerissa's hearing, who was writing in her clerk's dress by the side
of Portia, "I have a wife, whom I protest I love; I wish she were in
heaven, if she could but entreat some power there to change the cruel
temper of this currish Jew." "It is well you wish this behind her
back, else you would have but an unquiet house," said Nerissa.

Shylock now cried out impatiently, "We trifle time; I pray pronounce
the sentence." And now all was awful expectation in the court, and
every heart was full of grief for Antonio.

Portia asked if the scales were ready to weigh the flesh; and she said
to the Jew, "Shylock, you must have some surgeon by, lest he bleed to
death." Shylock, whose whole intent was that Antonio should bleed to
death, said, "It is not so named in the bond." Portia replied, "It is
not so named in the bond, but what of that? It were good you did so
much for charity." To this all the answer