gment: answer; shall I have it?

_Duke._ Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,
Whom I have sent for to determine this,
Come here to-day.

_Solanio._ My lord, here stays without
A messenger with letters from the doctor,
New come from Padua.

_Duke._ Bring us the letters; call the messenger.

_Bassanio._ Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all,
Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.

_Antonio._ I am a tainted wether of the flock,
Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit
Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me:
You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio,
Than to live still, and write mine epitaph.

_Enter_ NERISSA, _dressed like a lawyer's clerk._

_Duke._ Came you from Padua, from Bellario?

_Nerissa._ From both, my lord: Bellario greets your grace.

[_Presents a letter._

_Bassanio._ Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?

_Shylock._ To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.

_Gratiano._ Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
Thou mak'st thy knife keen; but no metal can,
No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness
Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?

_Shylock._ No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.

_Gratiano._ O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog!
And for thy life let justice be accus'd.
Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit
Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter,
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam,
Infus'd itself in thee; for thy desires
Are wolfish, bloody, starv'd, and ravenous.

_Shylock._ Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud:
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.
_Duke._ This letter from Bellario doth commend
A young and learned doctor to our court:--
Where is he?

_Nerissa._ He attendeth here hard by,
To know your answer, whether you'll admit him.

_Duke._ With all my heart.--Some three or four of you
Go give him courteous conduct to this place.--
Meantime the court shall hear Bellario's letter.

[Clerk reads.] _Your grace shall understand, that, at the receipt of
your letter, I am very sick: but, in the instant that your messenger
came, in loving vis