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Enter Portia, Nerissa, Lorenzo, Jessica, and [Balthazar,] a man of Portia’s.

Lor.

Madam, although I speak it in your presence,

You have a noble and a true conceit

Of godlike amity, which appears most strongly

In bearing thus the absence of your lord.

But if you knew to whom you show this honor,

How true a gentleman you send relief,

How dear a lover of my lord your husband,

I know you would be prouder of the work

Than customary bounty can enforce you.

Por.

I never did repent for doing good,

Nor shall not now: for in companions

That do converse and waste the time together,

Whose souls do bear an egall yoke of love,

There must be needs a like proportion

Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit;

Which makes me think that this Antonio,

Being the bosom lover of my lord,

Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,

How little is the cost I have bestowed

In purchasing the semblance of my soul,

From out the state of hellish cruelty.

This comes too near the praising of myself,

Therefore no more of it. [Hear] other things:

Lorenzo, I commit into your hands

The husbandry and manage of my house

Until my lord’s return. For mine own part,

I have toward heaven breath’d a secret vow

To live in prayer and contemplation,

Only attended by Nerissa here,

Until her husband and my lord’s return.

There is a monast’ry two miles off,

And there we will abide. I do desire you

Not to deny this imposition,

The which my love and some necessity

Now lays upon you.

Lor.

Madam, with all my heart,

I shall obey you in all fair commands.

Por.

My people do already know my mind,

And will acknowledge you and Jessica

In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.

So fare you well till we shall meet again.

Lor.

Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!

Jes.

I wish your ladyship all heart’s content.

Por.

I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas’d

To wish it back on you. Fare you well, Jessica.

Exeunt [Jessica and Lorenzo].

Now, Balthazar,

As I have ever found thee honest-true,

So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,

And use thou all th’ endeavor of a man

In speed to [Padua]. See thou render this

Into my [cousin’s] hands, Doctor Bellario,

And look what notes and garments he doth give thee,

Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin’d speed

Unto the [traject], to the common ferry

Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words,

But get thee gone. I shall be there before thee.

Balth.

Madam, I go with all convenient speed.

[Exit.]

Por.

Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand

That you yet know not of. We’ll see our husbands

Before they think of us.

Ner.

Shall they see us?

Por.

They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit

That they shall think we are accomplished

With that we lack. I’ll hold thee any wager,

When we are both accoutered like young men,

I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two,

And wear my dagger with the braver grace,

And speak between the change of man and boy

With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps

Into a manly stride; and speak of frays

Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,

How honorable ladies sought my love,

Which I denying, they fell sick and died.

I could not do withal. Then I’ll repent,

And wish, for all that, that I had not kill’d them;

And twenty of these puny lies I’ll tell,

That men shall swear I have discontinued school

Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind

A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,

Which I will practice.

Ner.

Why, shall we turn to men?

Por.

Fie, what a question’s that,

If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!

But come, I’ll tell thee all my whole device

When I am in my coach, which stays for us

At the park-gate; and therefore haste away,

For we must measure twenty miles to-day.

Exeunt.

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