Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/230

206 When he had answered thus, Portia plainly told the court that since the laws of Venice were immutable, and Antonio had given the bond freely, the forfeit of a pound of flesh was lawfully to be exacted, and must be awarded by the court.

At this a shudder ran through the listening court, which had sat breathless while Portia spoke. Antonio pressed to his heart his weeping friend Bassanio, who was utterly overwhelmed at the terrible calamity of which he had been the cause. The impetuous Gratiano could no longer keep silent, but vented curses and reproaches upon the triumphant Shylock. The Jew’s figure seemed to dilate with the near approach of his vengeance, and he advanced eagerly to Antonio with his bared steel uplifted. Just as he clutched the merchant’s breast, Portia bade him stay his hand a moment. Shylock turned, impatient at this new interruption, but quailed before the majesty of the gesture with which she waved him from the merchant’s side.

She bade him cut the flesh, since by law it belonged to him, but to mark that in cutting it he shed no drop of Christian blood. That the words of the bond were simply a pound of flesh and if one drop of blood were wrongly shed, the Jew’s lands and goods were confiscated. Shylock stood quivering with disappointment and