Page:Merchant of Venice (1923) Yale.djvu/105

The Merchant of Venice, V. i

And that it should lie with you in your grave:

Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,

You should have been respective and have kept it.

Gave it a judge's clerk! no, God's my judge,

The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it.

Gra. He will, an if he live to be a man.

Ner. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.

Gra. Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,

A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy,

No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk.

A prating boy, that begg'd it as a fee:

I could not for my heart deny it him.

Por. You were to blame,—I must be plain with you,—

To part so slightly with your wife's first gift;

A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger,

And riveted so with faith unto your flesh.

I gave my love a ring and made him swear

Never to part with it; and here he stands.

I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it

Nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth

That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,

You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief:

An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.

Bass. [Aside.] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off,

And swear I lost the ring defending it.

Gra. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away

Unto the judge that begg'd it, and indeed

Deserv'd it too; and then the boy, his clerk,

That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine;

And neither man nor master would take aught

 156 respective: considerate, careful

162 scrubbed: stunted

172 leave: give up

174 masters: owns

176 be mad: run mad 