Page 432 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,
In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
But more than these, in love I do deserve.
What if I strayed no farther, but chose here? [35]

Let’s see once more this saying graved in gold:
‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire’.
Why that’s the lady, all the world desires her;
From the four corners of the earth they come

To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. [40]
The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds
Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now
For princes to come view fair Portia.

The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar [45]
To stop the foreign spirits, but they come
As o’er a brook to see fair Portia.

One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is’t like that lead contains her? ’Twere damnation
To think so base a thought; it were too gross [50]
To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.

Or shall I think in silver she’s immured,
Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
Was set in worse than gold. They have in England [55]

A coin that bears the figure of an angel
Stampèd in gold − but that’s insculped upon;
But here an angel in a golden bed
Lies all within. Deliver me the key.

Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may! [60]

PORTIA
There, take it, Prince, and if my form lie there,
Then I am yours.

MOROCCO
O hell! What have we here?
A carrion Death, within whose empty eye

There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing.