Act 1, Scene 2

Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house

[Enter PORTIA and NERISSA.]
Portia
188 By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this
189 great world.
Nerissa
190 You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the
191 same abundance as your good fortunes are; and yet, for aught I
192 see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that
193 starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be
194 seated in the mean: superfluity come sooner by white hairs, but
195 competency lives longer.
Portia
196 Good sentences, and well pronounced.
Nerissa
197 They would be better, if well followed.
Portia
198 If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
199 chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes'
200 palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I
201 can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one
202 of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise
203 laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree;
204 such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good
205 counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to
206 choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose'! I may neither
207 choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a
208 living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father. Is it not
209 hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?
Nerissa
210 Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their death
211 have good inspirations; therefore the lott'ry that he hath
212 devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead, whereof
213 who chooses his meaning chooses you, will no doubt never be
214 chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love. But
215 what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these
216 princely suitors that are already come?
Portia
217 I pray thee over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will
218 describe them; and according to my description, level at my
219 affection.
Nerissa
220 First, there is the Neapolitan prince.
Portia
221 Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of
222 his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good
223 parts that he can shoe him himself; I am much afeard my lady his
224 mother play'd false with a smith.
Nerissa
225 Then is there the County Palatine.
Portia
226 He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'An you will
227 not have me, choose.' He hears merry tales and smiles not: I fear
228 he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so
229 full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married
230 to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of
231 these. God defend me from these two!
Nerissa
232 How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon?
Portia
233 God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In
234 truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker, but he! why, he hath a
235 horse better than the Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of
236 frowning than the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man. If a
237 throstle sing he falls straight a-capering; he will fence with
238 his own shadow; if I should marry him, I should marry twenty
239 husbands. If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he
240 love me to madness, I shall never requite him.
Nerissa
241 What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of
242 England?
Portia
243 You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me,
244 nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you
245 will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth
246 in the English. He is a proper man's picture; but alas, who can
247 converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited! I think he
248 bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet
249 in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere.
Nerissa
250 What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour?
Portia
251 That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he borrowed
252 a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him
253 again when he was able; I think the Frenchman became his surety,
254 and sealed under for another.
Nerissa
255 How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew?
Portia
256 Very vilely in the morning when he is sober, and most
257 vilely in the afternoon when he is drunk: when he is best, he is
258 a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little
259 better than a beast. An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I
260 shall make shift to go without him.
Nerissa
261 If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket,
262 you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should
263 refuse to accept him.
Portia
264 Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee set a deep
265 glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket; for if the devil be
266 within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I
267 will do anything, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge.
Nerissa
268 You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords;
269 they have acquainted me with their determinations, which is
270 indeed to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more
271 suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's
272 imposition, depending on the caskets.
Portia
273 If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as
274 Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will. I
275 am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not
276 one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God
277 grant them a fair departure.
Nerissa
278 Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a
279 scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis
280 of Montferrat?
Portia
281 Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, so was he called.
Nerissa
282 True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes
283 looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.
Portia
284 I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise.
[Enter a SERVANT.]
Portia
285 How now! what news?
Servant
286 The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their
287 leave; and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of
288 Morocco, who brings word the Prince his master will be here
289 to-night.
Portia
290 If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I
291 can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his
292 approach; if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion
293 of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me.
294 Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.
295 Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the
296 door.
[Exeunt]

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Notes

TLN 194historical topical
“seated in the mean: superfluity come sooner by white hairs”
Nerissa is giving a version of Aristotle's doctrine of the 'mean': the moderate, middle condition is best. 'Seated in the mean' means settled in sufficiency rather than excess or want. 'Superfluity come sooner by white hairs' means excess brings early old age. 'Competency lives longer' means having enough, without too much, prolongs life. The speech neatly caps Portia's complaint that great wealth is its own burden.
TLN 202cultural context
“The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree”
'Temper' means disposition or passionate impulse, not anger specifically. 'Blood' means passionate desire or appetite. 'Hot temper' and 'cold decree' set bodily passion against the rational mind's rules. The image is that reason can legislate but cannot always enforce: a hot mood simply vaults over a rational resolve, as a hare skips through a net meant to catch it. 'Cripple' applies to the 'counsel' (good advice), not to any person.
TLN 207historical topical
“will of a living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father”
Portia is legally bound by her late father's will to marry only the suitor who chooses correctly among three caskets of gold, silver, and lead. The pun on 'will' (desire vs. legal testament) is deliberate. In Elizabethan law a father's will could constrain a daughter's marriage even after his death; Portia cannot choose for herself or refuse anyone she dislikes. Nerissa defends the device as a holy inspiration given at the hour of death.
historical The three caskets
TLN 228classical allusion
“he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old”
The 'weeping philosopher' is Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535-475 BCE), who, according to ancient tradition, wept over the foolishness of mankind. He is contrasted with Democritus, the 'laughing philosopher.' Portia is predicting that the County Palatine, who frowns constantly and smiles at nothing now, will grow into the archetypal gloomy ancient sage — he will end up grieving over the world rather than enjoying it.
TLN 244historical topical
“he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English”
Portia cannot speak with the young English baron Falconbridge because she knows no English and he knows no other language. 'A poor pennyworth in the English' means she has very little English at all. 'Dumb-show' was a mime performance without words — she compares their entire relationship to a wordless pantomime. His eclectic wardrobe — doublet from Italy, round hose from France, bonnet from Germany — was a familiar joke about English gentlemen who tried too hard to follow continental fashion.
TLN 251historical topical
“he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him again when he was able; I think the Frenchman became his surety”
Portia describes the Scottish lord's 'neighbourly charity' as a financial joke: he borrowed a blow (a punch to the ear) from the Englishman and promised to repay it later — i.e. Scotland couldn't defend itself and owed England a beating. The Frenchman became his 'surety' (financial guarantor) meaning France co-signed the debt by fighting England on Scotland's behalf. The passage uses the legal language of bonds and suretyship to mock the old Franco-Scottish alliance against England.
TLN 273classical allusion
“If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana”
Sibylla (the Sibyl of Cumae) was a prophetess in Roman legend whom Apollo granted as many years of life as grains of sand she could hold in her hand — but she forgot to ask for eternal youth, and so shrank to a tiny, withered figure still alive after a thousand years. Portia's point: she would rather live forever in desiccated old age than marry a man she did not choose freely. Diana was the virgin goddess of the moon and the hunt, the classical emblem of lifelong chastity.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 292historical topical
“if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me”
'Complexion' here means skin colour (from the Latin 'complexio,' the mixture of humours that determined appearance). 'Condition' means inner character or disposition. Portia is saying that even if the Prince of Morocco were morally perfect, his dark skin still makes him repugnant to her as a husband — she would rather confess her sins to him (as to a priest: 'shrive') than marry him ('wive'). 'Shrive me' means to hear my confession and give absolution. The line is an act of racial prejudice and is consistent with Portia's frank contempt for all the suitors of colour.
historical The 'Moor' on the Elizabethan stage