SHYLOCK The Merchant of Venice By Alfred de Vigny

SHYLOCK The Merchant of Venice By Alfred de Vigny
ACT II
The gallery of Portia's castle with Italian colonnades giving on
beautiful gardens.
PORTIA: Yes, I detest a world where everything goes amiss.
My little being is weary of this great universe.
NERISSA: Where's this boredom come from in such abodes
That a dozing lover doesn't see more beauty in 'em
When he is dreaming of treasures in an enchanted palace?
With so much riches, with so much beauty.
Boredom! sighs! What would you do, madam
If you had, like many an honest woman,
To endure all the indignities of an obscure
Condition which comes with base extraction?
PORTIA: My God! how easy it is to tell me in a sentence
And to raise oneself by self important airs,
To tire people with false pity
Or to make them gay by saying: Laugh!
When one cannot change the depth of a character
One would do much better, Nerissa, to keep quiet
Than to speak at chance or go too far
Over afflictions about which one is often ignorant.
NERISSA: But—
PORTIA: (getting animated) I could thus preach to twenty persons
And argue in the manner that you are reasoning,
Indeed, more easily than I would accomplish
A fourth of the good advice that I was supplying.
A good preacher goes further for the appearance,
Listens to his sermon himself and conforms to it.
If the one you are making suffices all ills,
Tell it to yourself alone and profit by it.
ACT II 21