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nydus/The Merchant of VenicePublic

To help his friend Bassanio woo the beautiful Portia, the Venetian merchant Antonio borrows a large sum from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender.

Page 78 of 161
Table of Contents

Act III

Bassanio
Let me choose
For as I am, I live upon the rack.
Portia
Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
What treason there is mingled with your love.
Bassanio
None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
There may as well be amity and life
’Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
Portia
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
Where men enforced do speak anything.
Bassanio
Promise me life, and I’ll confess the truth.
Portia
Well then, confess and live.
Bassanio
“Confess” and “love”
Had been the very sum of my confession:
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
Portia
If you do love me, you will find me out.
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