Page 470 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Is dearly bought, ’tis mine, and I will have it. [100]
If you deny me, fie upon your law!
There is no force in the decrees of Venice.
I stand for judgement. Answer; shall I have it?

DUKE
Upon my power I may dismiss this court

Unless Bellario, a learned doctor [105]
Whom I have sent for to determine this,
Come here today.

SALERIO
My lord, here stays without

A messenger with letters from the doctor,
New come from Padua.

DUKE
Bring us the letters. Call the messenger. [110]

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 [115]
Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me.

You cannot better be employed, 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