Shylock, crushed and beaten, had left the court, followed by the
yells and hooting of the crowds collected to hear the result of the
trial, and Antonio and his friends hastened to express their warmest
gratitude to the young Doctor of Laws who had so skilfully conducted
the case. They begged him to accept a handsome fee, but he refused to
take any money payment for his services. Bassanio insisted that he
must certainly accept some remembrance, not as a fee, but as a tribute
of their gratitude.
Thus urged, the young doctor yielded. He looked at Antonio.
“Give me your gloves; I’ll wear them for your sake.” Then, to Bassanio:
“And for your love I’ll take this ring from you.”
[Illustration: “And for your love I’ll take this ring from you.”]
But Bassanio drew back. He began to make excuses; the ring was a
trifle, he would not shame himself by offering it; it had been given
to him by his wife, etc. The more reluctant he showed himself, the
more the young doctor insisted. Finally he went off apparently in
deep offence. Then Antonio urged Bassanio to give him what he asked,
because of the services he had done, and Gratiano was sent after him
to present the ring to him.
* * * * *
Lorenzo and Jessica, meanwhile, had been staying at Belmont, but they
were very glad to welcome back the lady of the house. It was a lovely
moonlight night when Portia and Nerissa came home. Sweet music was
sounding, and all was peace and beauty. Their return was speedily
followed by the arrival of Bassanio, Antonio, and Gratiano. All was
rejoicing, but in the midst of the general gladness sounds of discord
were heard. Gratiano and his wife were having a hot dispute.
“A quarrel already? What’s the matter?” asked Portia.
“It’s about a paltry ring that Nerissa gave me, with a motto for all
the world like cutlers’ poetry upon a knife, ‘Love me and leave me
not,’” said Gratiano.
“Why do you talk of the motto or the value?” cried Nerissa. “You
swore to me when I gave it you that you would wear it till the hour
of death, and that it should lie with you in your grave. Even if not
for my sake, yet because of your oath, you ought to have held it in
respect, and kept it. Gave it to a judge’s clerk! No, indeed, the
clerk that had it will never wear hair on his face!”
“Yes, he will, if he lives to be a man.”
“Ay, if a woman lives to be a man!” said Nerissa scornfully.
“Now, by this hand. I gave it to a youth,” protested the exasperated
Gratiano; “a kind of boy--a little scrubby boy, no higher than
yourself, the judge’s clerk, a prating boy that begged it as a fee. I
could not find it in my heart to deny him.”
“You were to blame, Gratiano--I must be plain with you--to part so
lightly with your wife’s first gift,” said Portia gravely. “I gave
_my_ love a ring, and made him swear never to part with it,” she
added, looking tenderly at Bassanio. “Here he stands. I dare be sworn
he would not give it from his finger for all the wealth contained in
the world. Now, in faith, Gratiano, you have given your wife unkind
cause for grief. If it were me, I should be mad about it.”
How pleasant for Bassanio to hear this!
“I were best to cut my left hand off, and swear I lost the ring
defending it,” he thought ruefully.
“My lord Bassanio gave his ring to the judge, who indeed well deserved
it,” said Gratiano, in self-excuse. “And then the boy, his clerk, who
took some pains in writing, he begged mine. And neither man nor master
would take anything else but the two rings.”
“What ring did you give, my lord?” asked Portia. “Not, I hope, the one
you received from me.”
“If I could add a lie to the fault, I would deny it,” said Bassanio.
“But, you see, my finger has not the ring upon it; it is gone.”
Portia, on hearing this, pretended to get very angry and jealous, and
no excuses that Bassanio made could appease her.
“Sweet Portia,” he said, “if you knew to whom I gave the ring, if
you knew for whom I gave the ring, and would understand for what I
gave the ring, and how unwillingly I left the ring, when nothing
would be accepted but the ring, you would abate the strength of your
displeasure.”
“If you had known the virtue of the ring,” retorted Portia, “or half
her worthiness that gave the ring, or your own honour to retain the
ring, you would not then have parted with the ring.”
Portia thoroughly enjoyed the fun of teasing her husband, and she
and Nerissa made the poor men quite unhappy before the secret was
revealed. Finally Antonio, distressed at the discord which he imagined
he had brought between husband and wife, interceded for Bassanio, and
Portia allowed herself to be soothed.
“Since you will be surety for him,” she said to Antonio, “give him
this ring, and bid him keep it better than the other.”
“By heaven it is the same I gave the doctor!” cried Bassanio.
So all ended happily. The mystery was explained, and Bassanio and
Gratiano were duly forgiven. To add to the general pleasure, news
reached Portia that three of Antonio’s argosies had come safely to
harbour, so, after all, he was no longer a bankrupt, but once again a
rich and prosperous merchant of Venice.