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—Nerissa
Why talk you of the wording° or the value?— {poesy} / motto
You swore to me when I gave it to you° / I presented it
That you would wear it till the° hour of death, / thy
And that it should° lie with you in your grave. / would
Though not for me,° yet for your vehement oaths, > on my account
You should have been more careful° and have keep it. {been respective} / had more reverence
You gave it to a judge’s clerk? A man?
71
But well I know —that ‘clerk’ is yet a woman / No, God’s my judge
And she will ne’er grow hair upon her face. 72

—Gratziano
He will, an if he live to be a man.

—Nerissa
Ay, if a woman live to be a man.

—Gratziano
Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth,
A kind of boy, a little scrubbèd boy,° / scrub-brushed little boy
No higher° than thyself, the judge’s clerk, / taller
A prating boy, who begged it as a fee.
I could not, for my heart, deny it him. / hold him from it / stay his request

— Portia
73
I must be plain° with you: you are to blame, / frank
To part so slightly° with your wife’s first gift— / eas’ly / lightly
A thing placed° on with oaths upon your finger, {stuck}
And so riveted, with faith, unto your flesh.
I gave my love a ring and made him swear
Never to part with it—and here he stands.
I dare be sworn for him, he would not leave it,
Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth
That all the world could muster. Gratziano,° 74 / could give. Now Gratziano
You give your wife too unkind a cause for grief. 75
An ‘twere to me,° I would be fuming mad. 76 / If it were me

inscriptions he would on his knife. The irony is that Gratziano’s words, which are often crude and unpoetic, is now
placing some kind of value on poetry.
71. Q1: No, God’s my judge F: But well I know
72. {Gave it a judge’s clerk! No, God’s my judge, | The clerk will ne’er wear hair on’s face that had it}
73. {You were to blame, I must be plain with you}
74. {That the world masters. Now in faith, Gratziano}
75. / Your callous act does bring your wife much grief / Your blund’ring act is cause for all her grief.
76. {And ‘twere to me I should be mad at it}
‘twere to me: if it were up to me (to react in the same situation); if this were done to me