Page 187 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

Nerissa there my clerk. Lorenzo here
Shall witness, I set forth as soon as you,
And have just° now returned. I have not yet / even
Entered my house. +And here is a letter [takes out a letter]
124
Explaining it all., Antonio, for you
I have much better news than you expect: [takes out a letter]
Unseal this letter soon, there you shall find
That suddenly, three of your argosies
125 126
Have come to port, their° hulls amassed with° riches. / with / replete / abound with
You’d not° believe the circumstance by which 127 / You won’t
I chanced upon this letter° 128 {I chancèd on}

—Antonio [reading the letter] I am speechless!° {dumb}

—Bassanio [to Portia]
Were you the doctor, and I knew you not? 129

—Gratziano [to Nerissa]
Were you the clerk who came and cheated on me?° {that is to make me cuckold}

—Nerissa
Ay, but the clerk who never means to do it / who’d ne’er do such a thing
Unless, through life, he turns into a man.° {Unless he live until he be a man}

—Bassanio 130
Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow.
When I am absent, then lie with my wife.

—Antonio
Sweet lady, you have given me life and living,

124. As mentioned in the previous note, the production of any explanatory letter, by Portia, is not needed. To
preserve the triplicate delivery of letters, however, this delivery could be included. If one prefers a more likely
scenario—where Portia simply explains everything in person, rather than deliver a letter—then this line could be
replaced with the following: +And soon I will explain | The whole thing to you,.
125. {. . . Unseal this letter soon. | There you shall find three of your argosies | Are richly come to harbor suddenly.}
126. Portia coming upon the news of Antonio’s argosies coming to port before Antonio stands out as an anomaly.
She must have come upon this news while on the road from Venice to Belmont. [See Additional Notes, 5.1.277]
127. {You shall not know by what strange accident} / You shall not know by what coincidence
you shall not know: you would not believe, you’d never guess
strange accident: coincidence, unlikely circumstance
128. Replace last three lines with two:
/ Have richly come to port. You shall not know° / you’d never guess
How strange it was I chanced upon this letter.
129. Portia never answers this question. When Gratziano asks the same question of Nerissa, she immediately
reassures him with a positive response.
130. In 280, Bassanio asks Portia a direct question; in 281, Gratziano asks Nerissa a direct question; in 282-283,
Nerrisa responds to Gratziano’s question; here Portia could answer, to complete the symmetry, but does not. It is
Bassanio who offers his own reassuring reply. In all, Portia does not give one reassuring word to Bassanio upon his
arrival in Belmont.