ACT 2, SCENE 7


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 further, but chose here?21


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-breathing22 saint.


The Hyrcanian deserts23 and the vasty24 wilds Of wide Arabia are as throughfares25 now For princes to come view fair Portia. The watery kingdom,26 whose ambitious head27 Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar


To stop the foreign spirits,28 but they come As o’er a brook29 to see fair Portia. One of these three contains her heavenly picture. Is’t like30 that lead contains her? ’Twere damnation To think so base31 a thought. It were too gross


To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.32 Or shall I think in silver she’s immured,33 Being ten times undervalued to tried34 gold? O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem Was set in worse than gold. They have in England


A coin that bears the figure of an angel Stamped in gold, but that’s insculped35 upon; But here an angel in a golden bed Lies all within.36 Deliver me the key. Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!37


PORTIA There, take it, Prince; and if my form38 lie there, Then I am yours.


MOROCCO unlocks the golden casket. 35


21. What if I didn’t consider the other caskets and just chose this one?


40


22. living


23. area of land south of the Caspian Sea 24. vast/huge 25. main roads


45


26. The sea 27. swelling waves of a storm


28. suitors 29. As if they were crossing a brook or stream


50


30. likely/probable 31. low


33. enclosed 34. purified


55 35. engraved 60


36. inside 37. let’s see how I get on


32. (lines 50–51) Lead is not good enough to cover her funeral shroud in a dark grave. (Shrouds often contained a layer of lead.)


38. image


Junior Cycle English 85


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