William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice

ACT 4. 1. SCENE I. Venice. A court of justice (continued)

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.
These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter;
Would any of the stock of Barabbas
Had been her husband, rather than a Christian!
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.

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

SHYLOCK.
Is that the law?

PORTIA.
Thyself shalt see the act;
For, as thou urgest justice, be assur'd
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir'st.