Page 454 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

That this same paper brings you.

BASSANIO
O sweet Portia, [250]
Here are a few of the unpleasant’st words
That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
When I did first impart my love to you,

I freely told you all the wealth I had
Ran in my veins − I was a gentleman − [255]
And then I told you true; and yet, dear lady,

Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
How much I was a braggart. When I told you
My state was nothing, I should then have told you
That I was worse than nothing; for indeed [260]
I have engaged myself to a dear friend,

Engaged my friend to his mere enemy
To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady,
The paper as the body of my friend,

And every word in it a gaping wound [265]
Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?
Hath all his ventures failed? What, not one hit?
From Tripolis, from Mexico and England,
From Lisbon, Barbary, and India,

And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch [270]
Of merchant-marring rocks?

SALERIO
Not one, my lord.
Besides, it should appear that if he had

The present money to discharge the Jew,
He would not take it. Never did I know
A creature that did bear the shape of man [275]
So keen and greedy to confound a man.

He plies the Duke at morning and at night,
And doth impeach the freedom of the state
If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants,
The Duke himself, and the magnificoes [280]

Of greatest port have all persuaded with him,