THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. William Shakespeare

There where your argosies, with portly sail—

       Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,

       Or as it were the pageants of the sea—

       Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

       That curtsy to them, do them reverence,

       As they fly by them with their woven wings.

       SALANIO.

       Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,

       The better part of my affections would

       Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still

       Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,

       Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;

       And every object that might make me fear

       Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt

       Would make me sad.

       SALARINO.

       My wind, cooling my broth

       Would blow me to an ague, when I thought

       What harm a wind too great might do at sea.

       I should not see the sandy hour-glass run

       But I should think of shallows and of flats,

       And see my wealthy Andrew dock’d in sand,

       Vailing her high top lower than her ribs

       To kiss her burial. Should I go to church

       And see the holy edifice of stone,

       And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,

       Which, touching but my gentle vessel’s side,

       Would scatter all her spices on the stream,

       Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,

       And, in a word, but even now worth this,

       And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought

       To think on this, and shall I lack the thought

       That such a thing bechanc’d would make me sad?

       But tell not me; I know Antonio

       Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

       ANTONIO.

       Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it,

       My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,

       Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate

       Upon the fortune of this present year;

       Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

       SALARINO.

       Why, then you are in love.

       ANTONIO.

       Fie, fie!

       SALARINO.

       Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad

       Because you are not merry; and ‘twere as easy

       For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry,

       Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,

       Nature hath fram’d strange fellows in her time:

       Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,

       And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper;

       And other of such vinegar aspect

       That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile

       Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

       [Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO.]

       SALANIO.

       Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,

       Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare ye well;

       We leave you now with better company.

       SALARINO.

       I would have stay’d till I had made you merry,

       If worthier friends had not prevented me.

       ANTONIO.

       Your worth is very dear in my regard.

       I take it your own business calls on you,

       And you embrace th’ occasion to depart.

       SALARINO.

       Good morrow, my good lords.

       BASSANIO.

       Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? Say when.

       You grow exceeding strange; must it be so?

       SALARINO.

       We’ll make our leisures to attend on yours.

       [Exeunt SALARINO and SALANIO.]

       LORENZO.

       My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,

       We two will leave you; but at dinner-time,

       I pray you, have in mind where we must meet.

       BASSANIO.

       I will not fail you.

       GRATIANO.

       You look not well, Signior Antonio;

       You have too much respect upon the world;

       They lose it that do buy it with much care.

       Believe me, you are marvellously chang’d.

       ANTONIO.

       I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;

       A stage, where every man must play a part,

       And mine a sad one.

       GRATIANO.

       Let me play the fool;

       With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;

       And let my liver rather heat with wine

       Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.

       Why should a man whose blood is warm within

       Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster,

       Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice

       By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio—

       I love thee, and ‘tis my love that speaks—

       There are a sort of men whose visages

       Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,

       And do a wilful stillness entertain,

       With purpose to be dress’d in an opinion

       Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;

       As who should say ‘I am Sir Oracle,

       And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.’

       O my Antonio, I do know of these

       That therefore only are reputed wise

       For saying nothing; when, I am very sure,

       If they should speak, would almost damn those ears

       Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.

       I’ll tell thee more of this another time.

       But fish not with this melancholy bait,

       For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.

       Come, good Lorenzo. Fare ye well awhile;

       I’ll end my exhortation after dinner.

       LORENZO.

       Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time.

       I must be one of these same dumb wise men,

       For Gratiano never lets me speak.

       GRATIANO.

       Well, keep me company but two years moe,

       Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.