d me to your honourable wife:
Tell her the process of Antonio's end;
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death.

* * * * *

_Shy_. We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.

_Por_. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.

_Shy_. Most rightful judge!

_Por_. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:
The law allows it, and the court awards it.

_Shy_. Most learned judge! A sentence; come, prepare.

_Por_. 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.

_Gra_. O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge!

_Shy_. Is that the law?

_Por_. Thyself shalt see the act:
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.

_Gra_. O learned judge! Mark, Jew; a learned judge!

_Shy_. I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice,
And let the Christian go.

_Bass_. Here is the money.

_Por_. Soft!
The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste:
He shall have nothing but the penalty.

_Gra_. O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!

_Por_. Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut'st more
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.

_Gra_. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip.

_Por_. Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture.

_Shy_. Give me my principal, and let me go.

_Bass_. I have it ready for thee; here it is.

_Por_. He hath refused it in the open court:
He shall have merely justice and his bond.

_Gra_. A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.

_Shy_. Shall I not have barely my principal?

_Por_. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture,
To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.

_Shy_. Why, then the devil g