The Merchant Of Venice Monologue
| The Merchant Of Venice Monologue by William Shakespeare | |
| Character: | Morocco |
| Gender: | Male |
| Age (range): | ? |
| Style: | Comedy |
| Length: | < 3 minutes |
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- MOROCCO: [Examining three caskets: one gold, one silver, one lead.]
- Some god direct my judgment! Let me see--
- I will survey th' inscriptions back again.
- What says this leaden casket?
- 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
- Must give -- for what? for lead! hazard for lead?
- This casket threatens; men that hazard all
- Do it in hope of fair advantages.
- A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross;
- I'll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead.
- What says the silver with her virgin hue?
- 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
- As much as he deserves? Pause there, Morocco,
- And weigh thy value with an even hand:
- If thou be'st rated by thy estimation,
- Thou dost deserve enough; and yet enough
- May not extend so far as to the lady;
- And yet to be afeard of my deserving
- Were but a weak disabling of myself.
- As much as I deserve? Why that's the lady!
- I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,
- In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
- But more than these, in love I do deserve.
- What if I strayed no farther, but chose here?
- Let's see once more this saying graved in gold:
- 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
- Why that's the lady! All the world desires her;
- From the four corners of the earth they come
- To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint.
- The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds
- Of wide Arabia are as thoroughfares now
- For princes to come view fair Portia.
- The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
- Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar
- To stop the foreign spirits, but they come
- As o'er a brook to see fair Portia.
- One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
- Is't like that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation
- To think so base a thought; it were too gross
- To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.
- Or shall I think in silver she's immured,
- Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
- O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
- Was set in worse than gold. They have in England
- A coin that bears the figure of an angel
- Stamped in gold -- but that's insculped upon;
- But here an angel in a golden bed
- Lies all within. Deliver me the key.
- Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!
