Page 186 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

I had it of him.° Pardon me, Bassanio, 116 / I got it from him
117
But for this ring, the doctor lay with me.° / I lay with the young doctor.

—Nerissa
And pardon me, my gentle Gratziano,
For that same scrubbèd boy, the doctor’s clerk,
In lieu of° this [showing the ring] last night did lie with me. / In ‘change for / In hock for

—Gratziano
Why this is like the mending of highways
In summer, when no such repair is needed — 118
+Which makes the road all rough and ruined° for use., 119 120 / spoiled
You have cheated us,° ere we have deserved it! 121 {What, we are cuckolds}

—Portia
Speak not so grossly° —there is much confusion: 122 / crudely
+We were with you in Venice the whole time;
There never was a doctor nor his clerk., 123
Thus you shall find that I was the doctor,

116. {I had it of him. Pardon Bassanio}
Portia is echoing Bassanio and using his words against him. In 247-48 Bassanio asks for Portia’s pardon in
regards to his giving away the ring, saying: Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear | I never more will break an
oath with thee. Here she uses the same plea and asks him to pardon her for laying with the doctor (in order to get
back the ring that he gave away). It seems that Portia assigns a similar value to Bassanio’s vow (to keep the ring) as
she does to her own vow of chastity.
117. / But for this ring, I made love with the doctor
Portia telling Bassanio that she ‘lay’ with the doctor is a somewhat brutal claim—and perhaps, in her mind,
deservedly so. (This is mitigated by the fact that she only lets him squirm for a few seconds.) However, the affront
of this line could be assuaged by bringing in less certain image (which would then be dispelled before it was
realized). Hence, Porta could say: ‘Yes, that same doctor was with me last night,’ or ‘Yes, that same doctor visited
me last night.’ Nerissa’s echo reply (instead of, ‘In lieu of this last night did lie with me’) could be: ‘Was here last
night and visited with me.’
118. {Why this is like the mending of highways | In summer where the ways are fair enough}
/ In summer, when the roads need no such fixing
The insinuation with this metaphor—comparing Nerissa to a road—is that the road is being (or has been) dug up
and is therefore ruined in the sense that it cannot be traveled upon. Nerissa has been ruined by her sleeping with the
clerk and now Gratziano cannot travel upon that road (because it is unfit for use).
119./ And thus, the highway is not fit for use / Which makes the highway ruined for good use / And it but the
highway for use / And, in the meantime, are ruined for use / And they’re then ruined for fair travel and use
120. The following two lines, which could be added, help clarify Gratziano’s previous metaphor:
+Why the best fruit has been given away | Before we even had the chance to eat it!,
121. {What, we are cuckolds ere we have deserved it?} / We are betrayed before our wedding night! / Why we got
shafted ‘fore our wedding night!
// The fruit’s gone rancid ere it could be eaten / The fruit’s gone rancid before we could eat it! / The fruit’s been
plucked and no longer worth eating.
122. {Speak not so grossly. You are all amazed}
123. These two lines replace the following lines found in the original [268-69]:
{Here is a letter. Read it at your leisure. | It comes from Padua, from Bellario.} The line, ‘And here is a
letter which explains it all’ is emended to Portia’s speech a few lines later. This would then indicate that Portia
wrote the letter, not Bellario.
There seems to be no reason as to why (or when, or for whom, or for what purpose) Bellario would write
such a letter—and no reason as to why Portia would need to produce it. Portia’s simple telling of the story, and how
she was the doctor, would clear up all doubt, and she needn’t produce—nor go to the trouble of producing—any
supportive documentation. [See Additional Notes, 5.1.267]