Act III, Scene I
Salarino and Salanio enter and wonder what
Rialto is abuzz with
Salarino answers that:
1. There are unconfirmed reports that
Antonio has had his rich ships wrecked in the narrow seas called the Goodwins
2. This strip of water is risky and
shallow and this is where many ship wrecks have taken place
3. Salarino compares the many ships with
the dead remains of the human bodies. It is an example of metaphor.
4. He personifies gossip as Report, a woman,
who may or may not be true.
Salanio wishes that:
1. Report (the personified Gossip) was as
untrue a woman as ever knapped (nibbled/bit) Ginger (a reference to old women
in Elizabethan England), or one who tried to convince her neighbours about her
loyalty to marriage by weeping on the death of her third husband. (Since she is
thrice married, she is disloyal.)
2. He however wants to avoid the long
phrases and talk directly.
3. He confirms that Antonio, the honest
merchant, has lost his money.
Important figures of speech:
Metaphor: Salanio compares the direct and
straightforward manner of talking with a highway;
Personification: Salanio continues to
address gossip as a woman.
Shylock Enters:
Salanio asks Shylock what the news
prevails among the merchants.
Shylock takes it
as an attempt to ridicule him and answers that the merchants are talking and
gossiping about Jessica’s flight (elopement).
Salarino insults
Shylock punning on the word flight (escape and flying off), saying that he knew
the ‘the tailor’ (an indirect reference to Lorenzo) that had stitched the wings
of the bird (Jessica) that flew away with.
Salanio also
continues the pun (and the insult) and mocks Shylock suggesting that Shylock
knew that Jessica was in that age when daughters elope with their lovers (the
pun being that the mother bird knows that the fledgling will fly away)
Shylock responds
with his own pun on the word ‘dam’ and curses Jessica (dam: the mother bird;
damn: the curse)
Salarino and
Salanio tell Shylock that
1. He is in no position to judge Jessica
2. That the difference between Jessica’s
‘flesh’ (here character) and his is as stark as between ‘ivory’ and ‘jet’
3. That the difference between her blood
and Shylock’s is as plain as it is between Rhenish wine and Red wine
Shylock tells
Salarino and Salanio that he has run into a bad deal with Antonio
He calls Antonio a
bankrupt, a prodigal, who once used to insult Shylock and call him a ‘userer’
(a term of insult). Antonio used to lend money out of courtesy to people,
damaging Shylock’s business. Now he will have a hard time saving himself from
the penalty.
Salarino hopes
that Shylock will not pursue the bond in letter and spirit if the Bond is
forfeited. He wonders what a pound of flesh is good for.
Shylock’s answers
and reveals his intentions in the following speech:
To bait fish withal: (he will catch
fish with Antonio’s flesh) if it will feed nothing else, it will feed
my revenge. (Antonio’s flesh will satisfy Shylock’s revenge
if nothing else) same weapons, (does
he not eat what others eat? Is he not hurt with the same weapons that hurt
others?) subject to the same diseases, healed by the same
means, (is he not subject to the same diseases and cures that others are
used to?) warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer,
as a Christian is? (does not the weather behave with the Jew as it does
with everybody else?)
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you
tickle us, do we not laugh? (if you penetrate a Jews’ body with a needle
it will bleed; if you tickle a Jew he will laugh) if you
poison us, do we not die? (the effect of poison on the body of the Jew is
that same as it is on the body of others) and if you wrong us, shall
we not revenge? (and if a Jew is wronged ill treated,
he will seek revenge much as any
other man would do the same) If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. (Since a Jew is no different from the others in
respect of his human qualities, he will be very like the others is respect to
revenge)
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his
humility? Revenge. (Shylock refers to the one quality that Christians are
supposed to have: humility. But they don’t have it. They are revengeful.)
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian
example? Why, revenge. (Therefore, Shylock argues that by the Christian
example, the Jew shall show no mercy if a Christian has wronged him.) The
villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction. (The evil behavior taught by the Christians
will be practiced against them. And Shylock will be more aggressive than the
Christians in his execution of revenge.)
Tubal Enters
Tubal, a friend of
Shylock’s and a Jew, enters. Shylock asks him if he has been to Genoa to look
for Jessica and Lorenzo.
Tubal announces
that he cannot find Jessica.
Shylock rants
against his daughter, and he wishes her dead as he bemoans his losses. He
refers in particular to:
1. A diamond that cost him two thousand
ducats in Frankfort that Jessica has carried with her
2. The Jewish race, Shylock says, has felt
the curse so strongly for the first time (in light of his personal loss).
Shylock uses a Biblical allusion to carry the point home. He refers to the
Curse of God on the Jews that condemned them to exile.)
3. He wishes Jessica dead at his foot with
the jewels in ear
4. He wishes that she was placed in her
coffin (hearsed) at his foot with his money in the coffin
5. He laments that he has spent an
incalculable sum in her search and has not been able to find his daughter, who
has robbed him. He calls his misfortune ‘loss upon loss’.
Tubal informs
Shylock of Antonio’s great loss. One of his other ships, coming from Tripolis,
has been reported missing.
Shylock is
especially embittered when Tubal reports that Jessica spent eighty ducats in
one night. Shylock is saddened by the news but the news of Antonio’s loss
gladdens him.
Tubal informs him
of Antonio’s many creditors
He informs him
also about a turquoise (a precious metal) ring Jessica has taken with her—given
to Shylock in his bachelor days by a woman named Leah, presumably Jessica’s
mother— and has traded that ring for a monkey.
Shylock’s spirits
brighten, however, when Tubal reports that Antonio’s ships have run into
trouble and that Antonio’s creditors are certain Antonio is ruined.
He asks Tubal to
hire him a lawyer to pursue his bond well in advance (fourteen days before the
bond is forfeited)
He declares that
he will pursue the bond to the bitter end. He will try to eliminate Antonio as
it will lead him to better profits (Antonio used to oppose Shylock’s
moneylending.)
He asks Tubal to
see him at the Synagogue (the Jewish temple).
Act III Scene II
In Belmont, Portia begs Bassanio to delay
choosing the casket for a day or two.
If Bassanio
chooses incorrectly, Portia reasons, she will lose his company.
She tells him that
she feels that she will not lose him (although she stops initially short of
confessing love)
Her instincts that
Bassanio will make the right selection cannot be said to be guided by hate, if
not love
She confesses that
a maiden in the affairs of love and marriage has no speech ‘tongue’ to express
herself; only ‘thought’
She would like to
detain Basaanio for a month or two before he risks his chances in casket
selection
She wishes she
could teach Bassanio how to choose right but expresses her helplessness as she
will break her oath to the will of her father
If Bassanio moves
towards making the wrong casket selection and fails to get Portia, Portia will
have the wish and the desire of breaking the oath she has been under. Thus
Bassanio’s failure will ‘make’ Portia wish a sin (sin of breaking her oath)
Bassanio’s ‘eyes’
(his gaze) should be ‘beshrewed’ (treated as the culprit) as it has cast a
spell on Portia
Portia declares
openly that she is not her own mistress now. She gives her ‘one half’ to
Bassanio and the other half that comes to her goes to him too. Portia is
entirely his.
She curses the
time (the naughty times) that puts barriers between ‘the owners’ and ‘their
rights’ {between Bassanio and Portia}
Despite her
declaration, if Portia and Bassanio can’t get together, the blame should lie on
Fortune not on Portia
If it is proved so
Portia blames Fortune, not herself (as she has dedicated herself to Bassanio
already)
She blames her
desire of keeping Bassanio with her for extended
period of time for her long speech as she
intends to hold him back from choosing the casket for as long as she can
In response to
Portia Bassanio says that he is living on the ‘rack’, a torture bed, hinting at
his emotional torture (he is desperate to make the selection)
Portia plays along
the torture bed metaphor and asks Bassanio what treason (crime) has been mixed
with his love
Bassanio answers
that the only treason (crime) there has ever been is that he has doubted his
success in love. He argues that much as there will never be friendship between
fire and ice, there will never be treason in Bassanio’s love.
Portia still
playfully refers to the Rack. She says that as men on the rack will say
anything to ensure their life and save them from torture so will Bassanio say
anything to save himself.
Playing the rack
metaphor further Bassanio asks Portia to ‘promise me life’ (tell him the secret
of the caskets)
Portia asks
Bassanio to proceed for casket selection and says that he must choose the one
that she is locked in
She tells Bassanio
that he will find her if he loves her
She asks for music
while Bassanio makes the casket selection saying that music will bring about
romance in the effort:
1. If Bassanio loses he will be like the
dying swan whose grave will be Portia’s tears (simile)
2. If Bassanio wins, he will be like a new
crowned monarch before whom his subjects will bow
3. Music will be like the sound of the
drums into the ears of the dreaming bridegroom summoning him to marriage on the
day of the wedding, if Bassanio wins.
She remarks on how
Bassanio moves towards the caskets, comparing Bassanio with Hercules (the young
Alcides) when he saved the Trojan Princess, Hesoine, from virgin sacrifice to
the Sea Monster (she uses a classical allusion). At that time the whole of Troy
gathered to mourn (howl) at the spectacle.
Presently Portia
compares herself with the virgin who is about to be sacrificed and people
around her (Nerissa and others) with the Dardinian (Trojan) wives who are so
tense and miserable that their faces are tear-streaked.
She asks Bassanio
to approach the caskets in the manner of Hercules and conveys to him that she
is much more anxious than he is considering that she is merely a spectator and
not a participant in the exercise.
Notes on the song
The song guides
Bassanio towards the right selection of the casket. It tells him that ‘Fancy’
(attraction) is false and dies very much in the cradle where it is born.
Therefore, they should not pay attention to Fancy (attraction). {Bassanio
should not pay any attention to the charm and the fancy of the gold and the
silver caskets}
Bassanio says:
What appears does
not always become true
The world
(society) is misled by outward embellishments (decoration)
The most corrupt
plea (request) in law is that which is uttered smoothly and presented in a
melodious voice to conceal the evil intent
In religion errors
are sanctioned by pious looking men who justify them citing the text (religious
books)
The most plain
vice (sin) is that which appears as virtue on the outside
Cowards with scary
hearts and temperaments try to look brave sporting the beard of Hercules and
Mars (the God of war)
Beauty is not
always natural; it is created and purchased in the form of cosmetics (by the
weight)
The outward
appearance could be miraculous if beautiful and those who are beautiful in this
way are light of character (not serious people)
The
crispy/snaky/golden locks (the blonde hair) that sway in the wind on the heads
of beautiful women may actually be artificial; their true possessor might be
dead with her head in the tomb (sepulchre)
In this manner
ornament (fake show) is very like (simile) the peaceful and misleading shore to
an actually stormy sea; the beautiful scarf on the face of an Indian beauty
(ordinary looking woman)
Outward charm is
the falsehood that cunning people assume to befool the wise.
Gold should
therefore be rejected as it was once the curse for king Midas (allusion to the
King whose touch would convert everything to Gold)
Silver should also
be rejected as it is a common metal that exchanges hands in the form of coins
Lead, which
threatens instead of promising anything, with its lackluster appearance
impresses Bassanio more than the fine words written on the gold and silver
He chooses lead
and wishes himself joy.
Portia says that:
All her feelings
except those leading to love have vanished
Feelings such as
those that led her to doubt Bassanio, become rashly hopeless, shiver in fear
and harbor jealousy have all fled away
She wants her love
to be moderate and not drive her into excessive ecstasy (Figure of speech
Apostrophe: love is addressed here directly)
The joy of love
should be like gentle rain upon her (figure of speech, metaphor: joy of love is
to fall on her like soft rain)
She has felt the
blessing of love in excess; it must be less or she will be surfeited (too full
with it).
Bassanio finds Portia’s picture in the
casket
He calls the
artist who has drawn Portia’s sketch ‘a demi God’
He calls the
artist ‘a demi God’ as the artist has succeeded in capturing Portia very
closely in the image (that Bassanio has found)
1. Bassanio wonders if Portia’s eyes are
moving
2. Or whether he feels that they are
moving (Bassanio comments upon liveliness in the picture. The picture is so
full of life that its stillness is gone.)
Portia’s lips in
the picture are parted only by her sweet breath; such a barrier is welcome even
between two sweet friends (metaphor again: the upper lip and the lower lip are
the two friends that are separated by Portia’s fragrant breath)
Bassanio compares
the painter (who has done the portrait) with the spider (metaphor again), who
has woven a golden web in Portia’s hair to capture the hearts (feelings) of men.
Portia’s golden
hair thus capture the feelings of men faster than gnats (insects trapped in
cobwebs)
Bassanio wonders
how the painter could have done the eyes; how he was able to resist the
brilliance of Portia’s gaze. In Bassanio’s love stricken assessment, Portia’s
one eye should have had the power to steal both the eyes of the painter and,
thus, the painting should have had only one eye.
Finally Bassanio
says that he is far from able to convey the beauty of the portrait much as the
portrait is far from able to convey Portia’s beauty: the degree by which he can’t
convey the beauty of the portrait corresponds with the degree by which the
portrait cant convey Portia’s beauty.
He picks up the
scroll and reads it finally, calling it the essence and gist of his destiny
The Scroll:
1. Bassanio is told that his choice has
not been influenced by his outward appearance
2. On his true choice Bassanio stands a
fair chance of success
3. This ‘fortune’ (Portia and her wealth)
falls to him he should be happy and satisfied
4. Bassanio’s happiness should augur him
well; his luck has and will fetch him happiness
5. He should turn to Portia and claim her
with a loving kiss Bassanio calls the scroll ‘gentle’ and turns to Portia to
claim her as instructed
He intends to
accept her in marriage and asks her to accept him
He uses a SIMILE
to convey that his state is like that of a contender who has impressed the
general public but is not quite able to believe that he has done so, although
people have appreciated him
Continuing the
simile Bassanio says that such a contender is Giddy (nauseated/exhausted) in
his response to the crowd and dazed, not quite able to understand that the
‘peals of praise’ (sound of applause) are meant for him
Bassanio calls
Portia ‘thrice fair’ and tells her that his confusion is as great as that of
the above mentioned contender
He
asks her to confirm/ratify and sign his achievement for him
Portia:
You
see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, (Portia refers to her own condition
and state here; asking Bassanio to look over her perspective) Such as I
am (in her state as Portia, the heiress of Belmont): though for
myself alone I would not be ambitious in my wish (For the
woman Portia, who has inherited her father’s estate, she does not want anything
more from life), To wish myself much better (she has no need to
want to be better); yet, for you I would be trebled
twenty times myself (For his sake/ so as to be worthy of him, she wants
that she should be sixty times her better in her attitude and approach); A
thousand times more fair (a thousand times prettier), ten
thousand
times more rich (ten thousand times richer); That only to stand
high in your account (so that she could win his complete affection), I
might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends, Exceed account (people
might say that Portia is the full of qualities/ pretty/has friends and
inheritance); but the full sum of me (but in
totality) Is sum of something, which, to term in gross, (her
value put crudely) Is an unlesson’d girl, unschool’d, unpractised; {is
that she is an uneducated/ untaught girl; unexposed to society and cultures (she
undervalues herself)} Happy in this, she is not yet so old But
she may learn (Her biggest happiness being that she is not so old that
she may not learn) and; happier than this (still happier
thinking), She is not bred so dull but she can learn (that her
upbringing has given her the means to learn); Happiest of all is that
her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be directed (and
her greatest source of happiness is that she and her essence is Bassanio’s to direct),
As from her lord, her governor, her king (that Bassanio is her Lord,
Governor and King).
Myself
and what is mine to you and yours Is now converted (Everything that is
hers is Bassanio’s): but now I was the lord
Of
this fair mansion, master of my servants (before Bassanio
succeeded
Portia was the owner of the house, servants and
her
own Queen) Queen
o’er myself: and even now, but now,
This
house, these servants and this same myself Are yours, my lord: (But at
this very moment she giver herself and all her possessions to
Bassanio) marked by the giving of this ring)
Which
when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let
it presage the ruin of your love
And
be my vantage to exclaim on you. (If, and as and when,
Bassanio
loses the ring, the loss will give Portia the
justification
to accuse Bassanio and lead to the destruction
of
their love)
Bassanio
confesses that Portia has robbed him of all words; that he has no ability to
thank her
He blushes (blood speaks to you in my
veins)
He also says that he is terribly confused
in his thoughts as a
result
of his great success
In a simile, he compares his own confusion
with the confusion
of
a favorite Prince after the Prince has delivered a great speech
The buzzing of the crowd around the Prince
is such that the
Prince
is not able to understand the response
Every little response of the crowd gets
mixed with the other
responses
and what comes out is a ‘wild nothing’ (no meaningful
interpretation)
The one element of the Prince’s
understanding is that the crowd
is
happy with him, and he can feel the joy – both expressed and
unexpressed
He promises Portia that he will not let
the ring part from his
finger
ever
That the parting of the ring will be akin
to Bassanio’s death
Portia should then say that Bassanio is
dead. Nerissa tells Portia and Bassanio that:
It is now her time and Gratiano’s that the
two of them, having seen Portia and Bassanio prosper in their hopes of wedlock,
would like to celebrate the event
Gratiano expresses his joy at the union of
Bassanio and Portia
He calls it the happiest event in their
lives
He expresses his wish to marry at the time
Bassanio and Portia
will
‘solemnise the bargain of your faith’ (formalize their
marriage).
Bassanio
wonders who it is that Gratiano wishes to marry. Gratiano:
I
thank your lordship (he thanks Bassanio), you have got me
one
(Bassanio has found him a wife without quite realising
it).
My
eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours: (He congratulates
himself
on being as alert as his friend and master, Bassanio.
He
tells us why in the next line) You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid; (While
Bassanio wooed Portia, Gratiano set her eyes on Nerissa) You loved, I
loved, for intermission. {While Bassanio expressed his love for Portia,
Gratiano expressed his love for Nerissa
as
he does not believe in ‘intermission’ (wasting time) either}
No
more pertains to me, my lord, than you. (It does not suit
him
to waste time much as it does not suit Bassanio)
Your
fortune stood upon the casket there (while Bassanio’s
fate
depended on the selection of the right casket)
And
so did mine too (even Gratiano’s luck and fate depended
on
Bassanio’s right casket selection), as the matter falls (to
conclude);
For
wooing here until I sweat again (he made the effort to
impress
and persuade Nerissa about marriage), And sweating until my very roof was
dry (metaphor: it means that he was completely exhausted trying to
persuade Nerissa) With oaths of love (with promises of love), at
last, if promise last (finally, he managed to get a promise), I
got a promise of this fair one here (he managed to get Nerissa’s word) To
have her love, provided that your fortune (to be able to obtain her love
if you were lucky enough to get her mistress)
Achieved
her mistress.
Portia asks Nerissa if this is all true
Nerissa replies in the positive and tells
her that she has taken
fancy
to Gratiano
Bassanio asks Gratiano if he meant to
marry Nerissa and gets a
reply
in the positive
At this point Lorenzo and Jessica along
with Salerio enter
Bassanio:
Lorenzo………………………….. welcome
1.
Bassanio welcomes Lorenzo and Salerio in Belmont
2.
He wonders if his newly acquired status as the Lord of Belmont
gives
him the capacity to welcome Lorenzo and Jessica there
3.
He welcomes them on behalf of Portia
Portia welcomes them too
Lorenzo tells them that he did not intend
to be there in Belmont
but
Salerio requested him to accompany him there and that despite
his
saying no many times Salerio insisted that he be there
Salerio tells them that Antonio has sent
Bassanio a letter that he
has
borne from Venice
Bassanio asks them how Antonio is
Salerio makes an indirect reference to
Antonio’s sickness; that
he
is sick in mind and body
Bassanio reads the letter
Portia:
There are some shrewd contents……brings you
1.
Portia notices the changing expression of Bassanio and says
that
contents of the letter are shrewd (sharp/bitter)
2.
She tries to guess what the letter could contain. It could be thenews of a dead
friend; or something equally grave as Bassanio’s
constitution
(complexion) would not have changed in this manner
as
no ordinary letter would have changed it in any firm man
3.
Portia notices Bassanio’s constitution getting worse and worse
and
finally asks what the letter contains
4.
Portia tells him that she is Bassanio’s half and therefore must
have
half the share of everything that Bassanio gets
1.
Bassanio tells Portia that:
The letter contains some of the most
unpleasant words that were
ever
written by man
When he first declared his love for Portia
he told her that all his
wealth
was his gentleman’s background (it ran in his veins)
Bassanio told Portia that he was a
gentleman and he did not
misinform
her
Yet, in telling her that he had no wealth
he bragged and spoke a
lie
as he was in debt
At the time he told Portia that he was
valued at a zero he should
actually
have told her that he was worse than zero
He has been bound to a dear friend
(Antonio)
It is on his account that Antonio has got
indebted further to his
enemies
He shows Portia the letter and in a
metaphor
a)
Compares the letter to the body of Antonio
b)
Every word of the letter to the open and bleeding wound on
Antonio’s
body
He asks Salerio if none of his ships have
returned from Tripolis,
Mexico
and England, Lisbon, Barbary and India
He asks if all Antonio’s ships have been
drowned: not one has
escaped
the rocks that destroy merchants?
Salerio:
Not one…………………………………his bondSalerio answers in the negative. He confirms that
Antonio’s ships
have
drowned indeed.
He also tells Bassanio that Shylock won’t
accept the money
even
if he is offered it
He confirms that Shylock has been
importuning the Duke (who
had
the authority to sanction the bond) day and night
He calls Shylock a creature who in the
shape of man is desperate
to
ruin Antonio
Shylock has been questioning the freedom
of Venetian law and
constitution
as he has so far not been given the chance to move
court
for Antonio’s flesh and if he has been denied Justice
Twenty merchants, the Duke and the
Magnificoes have tried to
convince
Shylock to drop his cruel plea
But they have not been able to move him
from the envious plea
that
he be given his bond, its forfeiture and Justice
Jessica:
When I was ……………………….. poor Antonio
Jessica tells Bassanio that she heard
Shylock swear to Tubal
and
Chus, his two friends, that
a)
Shylock will have Antonio’s pound of flesh
b)
He will deny even twenty times the value of money he
lent
Antonio if he is made that offer
She tells them that law and power of
authority alone can save
Antonio;
Shylock will destroy him
Portia
asks Bassanio if his friend Antonio is in such trouble and
in
response to that Bassanio answers:
He calls Antonio his dearest friend and
the kindest man
Antonio is one in whom the best and
untired spirit for helping
others
is visible
He is someone in whom the ancient Roman
values live on
It is thus ironical that he has to face
Shylock’s ire
Portia
asks him further what sum he owes the Jew and Bassanio
gives
her the three thousand ducats figure. To this Portia responds: PORTIA
What,
no more (Is three thousand ducats responsible for such
a
fate; she is amazed at the paltry sum of money)?
Pay
him six thousand, and deface (cancel, destroy) the bond;
Double
six thousand, and then treble that, (multiple twelve by
three
and pay him thirty six thousand and pay the bond)
Before
a friend of this description (before a friend of Antonio’s
nature
and description)
Shall
lose a hair through Bassanio’s fault (loses his life or faces
any
risks on Bassanio’s account).
First
go with me to church and call me wife (she tells Bassanio
to
undertake the oath of marriage first),
And
then away to Venice to your friend (and then tells him to
go
to Antonio);
For
never shall you lie by Portia’s side (as Bassanio should
never
be by Portia’s side with a guilty heart)
With
an unquiet soul (a guilty heart). You shall have gold
To
pay the petty debt twenty times over (she tells him to carry
so
much gold with him as to pay the debt twenty times over)
:
When
it is paid, bring your true friend along (when the debt is
settled
Antonio may join Bassanio in Belmont).
My
maid Nerissa and myself meantime (she and Nerissa)
Will
live as maids and widows (will live as women whose
husbands
are not there with them). Come, away!
For
you shall hence upon your wedding-day (she invites
Bassanio
to walk the aisle/participate in the marriage
ceremony
first):
Bid
your friends welcome (she asks him to welcome his
friends),
show
a merry cheer (and be cheerful):
Since
you are dear bought, I will love you dear (she tells him
that
he is her rare possession, another metaphor, and shewill love him very much) .
But
let me hear the letter of your friend (She asks him to read
her
the letter).
BASSANIO
reads
the letter aloud:
Antonio’s ships have all been lost
His creditors are after him for the debt
he has to settle
His finances are running very low
His bond to the Jew has been violated
He will lose his life as he has no option
but to pay the penalty
He absolves Bassanio from all the debts
that Bassanio owes
him
He expresses the wish to see Bassanio
before he loses his life
But he also tells him to travel back to
Venice at his leisure and
not
in forced by the letter
PORTIA
asks
Bassanio to conclude all his business here and go to
Venice
as soon as possible.
BASSANIO
tells
Portia that:
He will start for Venice as she has given
him the leave to do do
And he will try to save his friend and
come back to her as soon
as
he can
He will not rest and lie down till he gets
back
Nor will he rest till he is united with
Portia once again.