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89 90
And funds enough° to clear° my former debts.° / And all I need // rest
—Antonio 91
You know me well, yet herein spend° but time, / waste
92
To try my love with needless circumstance°: / burdensome detail
And certainly,° you offer me° more wrong, 93 {And out of doubt} // do me now
94 95
In doubting° my utmost desire to help, / questioning
Than if you had made waste of° all I have.° / laid waste to // my wealth
Then do but say to me° what I should do, / All you need do is say
The most you know that° may be done by me, {That in your knowledge}
And I am pressed unto it.° Therefore speak. 96 / And I’ll be bound to do it
—Bassanio
Alas, there is in Belmont, a lady / Alas, there is a lady in Belmont
Who has since come upon a countless fortune;° 97 / great wealth and fortune
And she is fair and, fairer than all words,° 98 {that word}
Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes,° from her eyes,° / often // with her glance
89. / And funds° to clear my debtors from the past. / sums
90. {Or bring your latter hazard back again | And thankfully rest debtor for the first.}
or: and
latter hazard: your present loan or risk (which I will watch more carefully than I did your earlier loans).
debtors for the first: all my previous debts, debtors from before (i.e., the first arrow which has been lost).
thankfully rest: pay back (with gratitude); put to rest, clear up
Thus, I will bring back to you all the money you risk on me now (the second arrow) and, finding this second arrow
(which is all of Portia’s wealth) I will be able to play off all my previous debts (which are the first arrows that I lost).
[See Additional Notes, 1.1.151]
91. Antonio is so eager to accommodate Bassanio’s plans, that he agrees to help him without so much as hearing
it. (He assumes that Bassanio is going to woo Portia in accordance with customary acts of courtship; he hears
nothing of the hazardous risk involved). From what we come to know (and something which Bassanio intimates in
his proposed scheme to pay off his debts) the plan is decidedly a get-rich-quite scheme; it does not fall within the eye
of honor nor Antonio’s sense of Christian virtue—which is that money should be earned through the sweat of one’s
brow.
92. {To wind about my love with circumstance:}
wind: a) blow wind, be long-winded a) wind about, curve, meander, be indirect
wind about my love: not approach me directly; not know that I love you and will give you what you ask
(without you needing to waste breath on details).
with circumstance: needless details, circumlocutions, beating around the bush
93. {And, out of doubt, you do me more wrong}
out of doubt: beyond doubt
94. {In making question of my uttermost}
/ In questioning my uttermost compliance° / abidance
95. / And try my love° with circuitous pleas° / strain my heart // long-winded appeals
That one so dear as you need never make;
And now your doubt about my willingness
To give my uttermost,° does me more wrong / you everything
96. A loose rendering:
/ All you need do is tell me what you want; | Surely you know I will give it to you, | For my heart cannot say
‘no’: therefore speak.
97. {In Belmont is a lady richly left}
/ Who has recently come upon a fortune
/ Who has been left a fortune beyond measure
98. / And she is fair, and even more than ‘fair’/ And she is fair, more fair than words can say