SERVANT ENTERS
MESSENGER : Where is my lady?
PORTIA : I am here; what do you want?
MESSENGER : Madam, at your gate, a young Venetian has just arrived,
one that comes ahead of his lord to tell us he is coming; He brings sensible
apologies from him; As noted,—besides greetings and courteous sayings,
— Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen such an ambassador of love. A
day in April never came so sweetly to show how expensive summer was
coming, as this forerunner comes so urgently before his lord.
PORTIA – JAGYANI : No more, please; I am half afraid you will now say
he is related to you; you spend such so many words in praising him. Come,
come, Nerissa, because I long to see quick Cupid’s messenger that comes
so politely.
NERISSA : Bassanio, lord Love, if it is your will!
EXEUNT
SCENE II - PORTIA’S HOUSE IN BELMONT.
BASSANIO LOVES PORTIA AND PORTIA RETURNS HIS LOVE.
PORTIA, IS OF COURCE WORRIED AS IS BASSANIO.
PORTIA – JAGAYANI : Choosing wrong will cost me your company, so
wait a while before you decide. I have a feeling, but it isn't love, that I won't
lose you, and you don't hate such premonitions. For fear that you don't
understand me well, a maiden can only think of a voice, I would keep you
here for a month or two before you gamble for me. If I teach you how to
choose right, I am breaking my oath; I will never do that; you may not win
me; and if you do not, you will make me wish I had sinned. I curse your
eyes, they have looked over me and divided me: One half of me is yours,
the other half is also yours; but if it is my love, then it is also yours. OH!
These bad times have raised the bar between owners and their rights; and
so, although I am yours, I am not yours. Prove it like this, luck goes to hell
for this, not me. I say too long, but to balance the time, say long, and
lengthen, so that you do not choose immediately.
THEY WALK TO THE VILLA TALKING AND TO THE ROOM WHERE
THE CASKETS ARE PLACED. PORTIA ORDERS EVERYONE TO BACK
OFFSO THAT BASSANIO CHOOSES THE RIGHT CASKET IN PEACE.
BASSANIO : Let me choose; Because as I am, I live in torture
PORTIA - SIMRAN : Away, then! I am locked in one of them: If you do
love me, you will find me out. Nerissa and the rest, stand away; Let music
sound while he makes his choice; Then, if he loses, he will die as a swan,
fading in music: so that the comparison may be extended, my eyes shall be
the stream and watery deathbed for him.
BASSANIO - PRACHETASH : These coffins may not be what they seem
on the outside: the world is still fooling around with decorations. What
assertion is so foul and corrupt in the law, that, uttered in a sweet voice, it
hides the evil beneath? What the hell is in religion that some sober face
blesses it and accepts it with a text, hiding the crudeness with a beautiful
decoration? Unless it is so simple a vice that it is given some outward sign
of virtue. How many cowards, whose hearts are as false as steps of sand,
still wear on their chins the beard of Hercules, and the wrinkled Mars,
whose liver, if sought, would be as white as milk; and the only thing these
men do to look awful is to put on velvet clothes, which look like things of
beauty, and you see it is bought by the pound: which works wonders in
nature, to make those who wear it most , the lightest. They too. spiky,
serpentine, golden locks that play with the wind, with makeup commonly
known as human hair wigs, the head that grew them is in the grave. So
decoration is only the deceived shore of the most dangerous sea; beautiful
scarf Indian beauty veiling; In short, apparent truth cleverly dressed up to
"fool smarter people". So, you bifurcated darling, hard food for Midas, I will
get nothing from you; nor from you, you pale and common passage
between man and man: but you, you vile conductor, who prefers to
threaten than to promise anything, your immediacy moves me more than
any speech, and I choose you: joy be the result!
PORTIA – SIMRAN : How all the other passions fly to the air, as doubtful
thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-
eyed jealousy! Oh, love! behave; hold back your thrills; Be happy slowly;
limit this excess; I feel your blessing too much; make it less, Because I am
afraid of having too much joy!
BASSANIO – ARUSH : What can I find here? Nice picture of Portia! What
little god came so close to creating a woman? Are those eyes moving? Or
do they seem to move because they ride my eyeballs? Here are parted
lips, part with sugary breath; such a sweet bar should tear such sweet
friends apart. Here is the painter playing with a spider in his hair, and
weaving a golden net to beat men's hearts faster than mosquitoes are
caught in a spider's web: but his eyes! How could he do them? When I
made one eye, I think it had power To steal both, and leave me poor: Yet
see how far my praise body Offends that shadow, esteeming it less, Till
this shadow remained behind the "substance." Here is the scroll, the world,
and the summary of my fate." You who do not choose by appearance, play
fair and choose the truth! Since this fortune falls to you, be content and
seek no new. If you are content with this that, and save your wealth for
happiness, turn to where your wife is and redeem her with a loving kiss."
Gentle roll. Beautiful woman, sorry; I step aside to give and receive. Like
one of the two prize-winners, who thinks himself successful in the eyes of
the people, hearing the applause and general uproar, mentally confused,
still looking doubtfully, whether these laudable results are his or not; So,
thrice beautiful woman, I am even so sceptical that what I see is true until
you confirm, sign and ratify it..
PORTIA – SIMRAN : You see me, Mr. Bassano, where I stand as I am:
although alone I do not wish for a much better fate. However, to you I
myself would be three times twenty times, a thousand times more beautiful,
ten thousand richer; If I were high in your account, I could surpass the
number of virtues, beauties, lives, and friends. But my whole sum is that of
one who is generally an uneducated, uneducated, uneducated girl; happy
in this state, he is not too old to learn; happier than that state, he is not so
dull that he cannot learn; Happiest of all, his gentle spirit undertakes to
guide you as his lord, governor and king. I and what is mine have now
turned to you and yours. But now I was the master of this beautiful
mansion, the master of my servants, my own queen; and yet now, but now,
this house, these servants, and I am your—my master. I give them this
ring, which if you part with it, lose it or give it away, let it foretell the ruin of
your love, and let it be my chance to cry out against you.
BASSANIO - ARUSH : Madam, you have made me speechless, only my
blood in my veins speaks to you, and I am so confused Just as there
appears buzzing among a happy crowd after a well given speech by a
beloved prince; where every piece, blended, turns to something wild,
expressed and not expressed, except for joy. But when this ring parts from
this finger, then life parts from my body; Oh! Then you can be strong and
say, “Bassanio’s dead.”
NERISSA : My lord and lady, now it is our turn, o cry, “Good joy,” We who
have stood by and seen our wishes for you come true, good joy, my lord
and lady!
