SHYLOCK The Merchant of Venice By Alfred de Vigny

More rich, more perfect, and I would have
To offer it to you, grandeur, rank, family and power.
But I've only got myself alone with my inheritance;
They are both yours and without share in it.
You will have to guide a woman without art
Who, despite this dazzle that she must risk
A bit weary of the world, loving solitude
Is not even at times incapable of study
Will love with your life, and sure of happiness
Already recognizes you for prince and lord.
SHYLOCK The Merchant of Venice By Alfred de Vigny
BASSANIO: Oh! you have taken the power to reply from me.
The test and success all have just confounded me.
Moved by your voice, all my senses and my heart
Have only one shout of happiness that they utter at once
And that no human word can express.
PORTIA: I intend to impose only one pain on you,
That's to wear my ring. You will know
That if the moment comes in which you must leave it
You will lose your wife with it at the same time.
BASSANIO: If ever I lose it, I will have lost my soul.
PORTIA: Come and for the afternoon—nap, afterwards, let's separate;
I perhaps need to rest more than you.
(They move away with their followers under the galleries, and remain
strolling there during the following scene. Portia and Bassanio leave
the stage for a moment then return with Lorenzo.)
NERISSA: At my knees!
GRATIANO: I'm there.
ACT II 28