power came nearest to God’s, in proportion as mercy tempered justice:  and she bid Shylock remember that as we all pray for mercy, that same prayer should teach us to show mercy.  Shylock only answered her by desiring to have the penalty forfeited in the bond.  “Is he not able to pay the money?” asked Portia.  Bassanio then offered the Jew the payment of the three thousand ducats, as many times over as he should desire; which Shylock refusing, and still insisting upon having a pound of Anthonio’s flesh, Bassanio begged the learned young counsellor would endeavour to wrest the law a little, to save Anthonio’s life.  But Portia gravely answered, that laws once established must never be altered.  Shylock hearing Portia say that the law might not be altered, it seemed to him that she was pleading in his favour, and he said, “A Daniel has come to judgment!  O wise young judge, how I do honour you!  How much elder are you than your looks!”

Portia now desired Shylock to let her look at the bond; and when she had read it, she said, “This bond is forfeited, and by this the Jew may lawfully claim a pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest Anthonio’s heart.”  Then she said to Shylock, “Be merciful; take the money, and bid me tear the bond.”  But no mercy would the cruel Shylock shew; and he said, “By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.”—­“Why then, Anthonio,” said Portia, “you must prepare your bosom for the knife:”  and while Shylock was sharpening a long knife with great eagerness to cut off the pound of flesh, Portia said to Anthonio, “Have you any thing to say?” Anthonio with a calm resignation replied, that he had but little to say, for that he had prepared his mind for death.  Then he said to Bassanio, “Give me your hand, Bassanio!  Fare you well!  Grieve not that I am fallen into this misfortune for you.  Commend me to your honourable wife, and tell her how I have loved you!” Bassanio in the deepest affliction replied, “Anthonio, I am married to a wife, who is as dear to me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all the world, are not esteemed with me above your life:  I would lose all, I would sacrifice all to this devil here, to deliver you.”

Portia hearing this, though the kind-hearted lady was not at all offended with her husband for expressing the love he owed to so true a friend as Anthonio in these strong terms, yet could not help answering, “Your wife would give you little thanks, if she were present, to hear you make this offer.”  And then Gratiano, who loved to copy what his lord did, thought he must make a speech like Bassanio’s, and he said, in Nerissa’s hearing, who was writing in her clerk’s dress by the side of Portia, “I have a wife, whom I protest I love; I wish she were in heaven, if she could but entreat some power there to change the cruel temper of this currish Jew.”  “It is well you wish this behind her back, else you would have but an unquiet house,” said Nerissa.