Anthonio should go with him to a lawyer,
and there sign in merry sport a bond, that if he did not repay the
money by a certain day, he would forfeit a pound of flesh, to be cut
off from any part of his body that Shylock pleased.

"Content," said Anthonio: "I will sign to this bond, and say there is
much kindness in the Jew."

Bassanio said Anthonio should not sign to such a bond for him; but
still Anthonio insisted that he would sign it, for that before the
day of payment came, his ships would return laden with many times the
value of the money.

Shylock, hearing this debate, exclaimed, "O father Abraham, what
suspicious people these Christians are! Their own hard dealings teach
them to suspect the thoughts of others. I pray you tell me this,
Bassanio: if he should break this day, what should I gain by the
exaction of the forfeiture? A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man,
is not so estimable, nor profitable neither, as the flesh of mutton or
of beef. I say, to buy his favour I offer this friendship: if he will
take it, so; if not, adieu."

At last, against the advice of Bassanio, who, notwithstanding all the
Jew had said of his kind intentions, did not like his friend should
run the hazard of this shocking penalty for his sake, Anthonio signed
the bond, thinking it really was (as the Jew said) merely in sport.

The rich heiress that Bassanio wished to marry lived near Venice, at
a place called Belmont: her name was Portia, and in the graces of her
person and her mind she was nothing inferior to that Portia, of whom
we read, who was Cato's daughter, and the wife of Brutus.

Bassanio, being so kindly supplied with money by his friend Anthonio
at the hazard of his life, set out for Belmont with a splendid train,
and attended by a gentleman of the name of Gratiano.

Bassanio proving successful in his suit, Portia in a short time
consented to accept of him for a husband.

Bassanio confessed to Portia that he had no fortune, and that his
high birth and noble ancestry was all that he could boast of; she,
who loved him for his worthy qualities, and had riches enough not to
regard wealth in a husband, answered with a graceful modesty, that she
would wish herself a thousand times more fair, and ten thousand times
more rich, to be more worthy of him; and then the accomplished Portia
prettily dispraised herself, and said she was an unlessoned girl,
unschooled, unpractised, yet not so old but that she could learn, and