Page 76 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

17
To stop these dauntless suitors,° who but leap° {foreign spirits} {but they come}
+Across her vast expanse,, as o’er° a brook, / ‘twere
To catch one sight° of the fair Portia. 18 / glimpse
One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
Is’t like° that lead contains her? ‘Twere damnation / Could’t be
To think so base a thought. It is° too gross° 19 {were} / It is abhorrent
That she be wrapped in common cerecloth
20
Like one who’s buried in the obscure grave. / one interred in the forgotten
Or shall I think in silver she’s immured,° / enclosed / contained
Which holds one-tenth the value° of tried° gold? {Being ten time undervalued} / true / pure
O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
Was set in worse° than gold. They have in England / less > anything less valuable
A coin that bears the figure of an angel
21 22
Stamped in gold; but that’s insculpted upon ° / engraved upon
The surface—here an angel lies within! 23
Deliver me the key, and straight away
24 25
Here do I choose, and prosper as I may.

—Portia
There, take it, prince. And if my form lie there,
Then I am yours.

Morocco unlocks the golden casket

17. foreign spirits: men of courage and determination (who hail from foreign lands).
18. {As o’er a book to see fair Portia} Two lines, above, replace one line in the original.
/ To glimpse one moment of fair Portia
19. / It is revolting / obscene / repugnant / unthinkable
20. {To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave}
cerecloth: waxed cloth which corpses were wrapped in for burial
obscure: a) dark, distant b) common, undistinguished, forgotten
It is an insult to think that she (her image) could be found in lead, or wrapped in a wax cerecloth, both of which
suggest the status of a commoner—one who gets buried in an obscure or unmarked grave.
21. insculpted upon: engraved upon the surface. This obscure word is found in the English translation of Gesta
Romanorum, the source from which the Author borrowed the casket story: ‘The third vessel was made of lead, full
within of precious stones, and thereupon was insculpt this posey: Who so chooseth me, shall find what God has
disposed for him.’ [See Additional Notes, 2.7.9]
22. / Could e’er be set° in something worse than gold. / Was ever set
There is° a coin in England, stamped in gold, / They have
That bears the figure of a rad’ant angel
But that’s insculped on° the outer surface;° / engraved upon
23. It is the picture of Portia, representing Portia, which lies within.
24. / Here I do choose, deliver me the key | And let my fortune fall as it may be.
/ I will stop here—deliver me the key | Here I do choose, and thrive as I may be.
25. The original reads:
{Stamped in gold, but that’s insculped upon;
But here an angel in a golden bed
Lies all within. Deliver me the key.
Here I do choose, and thrive as I may.}
The word key may have been pronounced kay and thus the intent of the original was for Morocco’s speech to end in
a final rhyme. (This was also the case with Bassanio’s speech before the caskets but not quite with Arragon’s:
Arragon’s last line ends with here, rhyming with Portia’s next line, ending with there.)