Portia Your wife would give you little thanks for that, Gratiano I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love; I would she were in heaven, so she could '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; Had been her husband, rather than a Christian! [Aside. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine; The court awards it, and the law doth give it. Shylock And you must cut this flesh from off his breast; Tarry a little; there is something else. 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 Unto the state of Venice. Gratiano O upright judge!- Mark, Jew; - O learned judge! Shylock Is that the law? Portia Thyself shall see the act: For, as thou urgest justice, be assured, Gratiano O learned judge! - Mark, Jew;-a learned judge! Shylock I take this offer then; And let the Christian go. pay the bond thrice, O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge! Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh. Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate. A second Daniel! a Daniel, Jew! Portia Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture. Shylock Give me my principal, and let me go. Bassanio I have it ready for thee; here it is. He hath refused it in the open court; A Daniel, still say I; a second Daniel I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. Shylock He seek the life of any citizen, The party, 'gainst the which he doth contrive, Thou hast contrived against the very life INTO THE BREACH. SPEECH OF HENRY V. TO HIS ARMY. BY SHAKESPEARE. Scene: France. - Before Harfleur. Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER and Soldiers, with scaling ladders. King Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Let it pry through the portage of the head O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof! That those whom you called fathers did beget you. And you, good yeomen, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture; let us swear That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George! [Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off. FALSTAFF AND THE PRINCE. BY SHAKESPEARE. Scene: London.- An apartment of the Prince's. Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF. Falstaff Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? Prince-Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes capons, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. Falstaff-Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go by the moon and seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he "that wandering knight so fair." And, I pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God save thy grace, majesty, I should say, for grace thou wilt have none Prince What, none? Falstaff-No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter. Prince Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. Falstaff Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal. Prince-Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing, "Lay by," and spent with crying, "Bring in"; now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder, and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows. Falstaff By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench? Prince - As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? Falstaff-How now, how now, mad wag? What, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin? Prince - Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern? Falstaff Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft. Prince - Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? Falstaff-No. I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there. Prince-Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not, I have used my credit. Falstaff-Yea, and so used it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent, but, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king! and resolution thus fobbed as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic, the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. Prince - No, thou shalt. Falstaff-Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge! |