Meanwhile Shylock was listening eagerly; and feigning surprise, he exclaimed: "Oh, what suspicious people are these Christians! It is because of their own hard dealings that they doubt the truth of others.--Look here, my lord Ba.s.sanio. Suppose Antonio fail in his bond, what profit would it be to me to exact the penalty? A pound of man"s flesh is not of the value of a pound of beef or mutton! I offer friendship, that I may buy his favor. If he will take it, so; if not, adieu."
But still Ba.s.sanio mistrusted the Jew. However, he could not persuade his friend against the agreement, and Antonio signed the bond, thinking it was only a jest, as Shylock said.
The fair and beautiful lady whom Ba.s.sanio hoped to marry lived near Venice; and when her lover confessed that,--though of high birth,--he had no fortune to lay at her feet, Portia prettily said that she wished herself a thousand times more fair, and ten thousand times more rich, so that she might be less unworthy of him. Then, declaring that she gave herself to be in all things directed and governed by him, she presented Ba.s.sanio with a ring.
Overpowered with joy at her gracious answer to his suit, the young lord took the gift, vowing that he would never part with it.
Gratiano was in attendance upon his master during this interview; and after wishing Ba.s.sanio and his lovely lady joy, he begged leave to be married also; saying that Nerissa, the maid of Portia, had promised to be his wife, should her mistress wed Ba.s.sanio.
At this moment a messenger entered, bringing tidings from Antonio; which Ba.s.sanio reading, turned so pale that his lady asked him what was amiss.
"Oh, sweet Portia, here are a few of the most unpleasant words that ever blotted paper," he said. "When I spoke of my love, I freely told you I had no wealth, save the pure blood that runs in my veins; but I should have told you that I had less than nothing, being in debt."
And then Ba.s.sanio gave the history of Antonio"s agreement with Shylock, the Jew. He next read the letter which had been brought: "Sweet Ba.s.sanio--My ships are lost: my bond to the Jew is forfeited; and since in paying it, it is impossible I should live, I could wish to see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your pleasure: if your love for me do not persuade you to come, let not my letter."
Then Portia said such a friend should not lose so much as a hair of his head by the fault of Ba.s.sanio, and that gold must be found to pay the money; and in order to make all her possessions his, she would even marry her lover that day, so that he might start at once to the help of Antonio.
So in all haste the young couple were wedded, and also their attendants, Gratiano and Nerissa. Ba.s.sanio immediately set out for Venice, where he found his friend in prison.
The time of payment was past, and the Jew would not accept the money offered him: nothing would do now, he said, but the pound of flesh! So a day was appointed for the case to be tried before the Duke of Venice; and meanwhile the two friends must wait in anxiety and fear.
Portia had spoken cheeringly to her husband when he left her, but her own heart began to sink when she was alone; and so strong was her desire to save one who bad been so true a friend to her Ba.s.sanio, that she determined to go to Venice and speak in defence of Antonio.
There was a gentleman dwelling in the city named Bellario, a counsellor, who was related to Portia; and to him she wrote telling the case, and begging that he would send her the dress which she must wear when she appeared to defend the prisoner at his trial. The messenger returned, bringing her the robes of the counsellor, and also much advice as to how she should act; and, in company of her maid Nerissa, Portia started upon her errand, arriving at Venice on the day of the trial.
The duke and the senators were already in court, when a note was handed from Bellario saying that, by illness, he was prevented pleading for Antonio; but he begged that the young and learned Doctor Balthasar (for so he called Portia) might be allowed to take his place.
The duke marveled at the extremely youthful appearance of this stranger, but granted Bellario"s request; and Portia, disguised in flowing robes and large wig, gazed round the court, where she saw Ba.s.sanio standing beside his friend.
The importance of her work gave Portia courage; and she began her address to Shylock, the Jew, telling him of mercy:
"The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: "Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown."
But Shylock"s only answer was, that he would insist upon the penalty: upon which Portia asked if Antonio could not pay the sum. Ba.s.sanio then publicly offered the payment of the three thousand ducats; the hard Jew still refusing it, and declaring that he would take nothing but the promised pound of flesh.
Ba.s.sanio was now terribly grieved, and asked the learned young counsellor to "wrest the law a little."
"It must not be--there is no power in Venice can alter a decree established," said Portia. Shylock, hearing her say this, believed she would now favor him, and exclaimed: "A Daniel come to judgment! O wise young judge, how do I honor thee!"
He never guessed what was coming, when the young counsellor gravely asked to look at the bond. She read it, and declared that the Jew was lawfully ent.i.tled to the pound of flesh, but once more she begged him to take the offered money, and be merciful.
It was in vain to talk to Shylock of mercy. He began to sharpen a knife; and then Portia asked Antonio if he had anything to say. He replied that he could say but little; and prepared to take leave of his well-beloved Ba.s.sanio, bidding him tell his wife how he had died for friendship.
In his grief, Ba.s.sanio cried out that, dearly as he loved his wife, even she could not be more precious to him than Antonio"s life; and that he would lose her and all he had, could it avail to satisfy the Jew.
"Your wife would give you little thanks for that, if she were by to hear you make that offer," said Portia; not at all angry, however, with her husband for loving such a n.o.ble friend well enough to say this.
Then Ba.s.sanio"s servant exclaimed that _he_ had a wife whom he loved, but he wished she were in heaven, if, by being there, she could soften the heart of Shylock.
At this, Nerissa--who, in her clerk"s dress, was by Portia"s side--said, "It is well you wish this behind her back."
But Shylock was impatient to be revenged on his victim, and cried out that time was being lost. So Portia asked if the scales were in readiness; and if some surgeon were near, lest Antonio should bleed to death.
"It is not so named in the bond," said Shylock.
"It were good you did so much for charity," returned Portia.
But charity and mercy were nothing to the Jew, who sharpened his knife, and called upon Antonio to prepare. But Portia bade him tarry; there was something more to hear. Though the law, indeed, gave him a pound of flesh, it did not give him one single drop of blood; and if, in cutting off the flesh, he shed one drop of Antonio"s blood, his possessions were confiscated by the law to the State of Venice!
A murmur of applause ran through the court at the wise thought of the young counsellor; for it was clearly impossible for the flesh to be cut without the shedding of blood, and therefore Antonio was safe.
Shylock then said he would take the money Ba.s.sanio had offered; and Ba.s.sanio cried out gladly, "Here it is!" at which Portia stopped him, saying that the Jew should have nothing but the penalty named in the bond.
"Give me my money and I will go!" cried Shylock once more; and once more Ba.s.sanio would have given it, had not Portia again interfered.
"Tarry, Jew," she said; "the law hath yet another hold on you." Then she stated that, for conspiring against the life of a citizen of Venice, the law compelled him to forfeit all his wealth, and his own life was at the mercy of the duke.
The duke said he would grant him his life before he asked it; one-half of his riches only should go to the State, the other half should be Antonio"s.
More merciful of heart than his enemy could expect, Antonio declared that he did not desire the Jew"s property, if he would make it over at his death to his own daughter, whom he had discarded for marrying a Christian, to which Shylock reluctantly agreed.
THE AFFLICTED PRINCE.
A TALE OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.
I.
It is said by some ancient historians, and by those who have bestowed much pains in examining and comparing old conditions, that several kings reigned over Britain before Julius Caesar landed in the country.
Lud Hurdebras is supposed to have been the eighth king from Brute, whom the Bards, and after them, the monkish historians, report to have been the first monarch of Britain. I am going to tell you a story of Prince Bladud, the son of this Lud Hurdebras, which, there is reason to believe, is founded on fact.
Bladud was the only child of the king and queen, and he was not only tenderly beloved by his parents, but was also considered as a child of great beauty and promise by the chiefs and the people. It, however, unfortunately happened that he was attacked with that loathsome disease, so frequently mentioned in Scripture by the name of leprosy.
The dirty habits and gross feeding of the early natives of Britain, as well as of all other uncivilized people, rendered this malady common; but at the time in which Prince Bladud lived, no cure for it was known to the Britons. Being highly infectious, therefore, all persons afflicted with it were not only held in disgust and abhorrence, but, by the barbarous laws of the times, were doomed to be driven from the abodes of their fellow-creatures, and to take their chance of life or death in the forests and the deserts, exposed alike to hunger and to beasts of prey.
So great was the horror of this disease among the heathen Britons, and so strictly was the law for preventing its extension observed, that even the rank of the young prince caused no exception to be made in his favor. Neither was his tender youth suffered to plead for sympathy; and the king himself was unable to protect his own son from the cruel treatment accorded to the lepers of those days. No sooner was the report whispered abroad, that Prince Bladud was afflicted with leprosy, than the chiefs and elders of the council a.s.sembled together, and insisted that Lud Hurdebras should expel his son from the royal city, and drive him forth into the wilderness, in order to prevent the dreaded infection from spreading.
The fond mother of the unfortunate Bladud vainly endeavored to prevail on her royal husband to resist this barbarous injunction. All that maternal love and female tenderness could urge, she pleaded in behalf of her only child, whose bodily sufferings rendered him but the dearer object of affection to her fond bosom.
The distressed father, however deeply and painfully he felt the queen"s pa.s.sionate appeal, could not act in contradiction to the general voice of his subjects; he was compelled to stifle all emotions of natural compa.s.sion for his innocent son, and to doom him to perpetual banishment.
Bladud awaited his father"s decision, in tears and silence, without offering a single word of supplication, lest he should increase the anguish of his parent"s hearts. But, when the cruel sentence of banishment was confirmed by the voice of his. .h.i.therto doating sire, he uttered a cry of bitter sorrow, and covering his disfigured visage with both hands, turned about to leave the haunts of his childhood forever, exclaiming, "Who will have compa.s.sion upon me, now that I am abandoned by my parents?"
How sweet, how consoling, would have been the answer of a Christian parent to this agonizing question; but on Bladud"s mother the heavenly light of Revelation had never shone. She knew not how to speak comfort to the breaking heart of her son, in those cheering words of Holy Writ, which would have been so applicable to his case in that hour of desertion: _When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, I will take thee up_. She could only weep with her son, and try to soothe his sorrow by whispering a hope, which she was far from feeling, that the day might come, when he could return to his father"s court, cured of the malady which was the cause of his banishment.
"But years may pa.s.s away before that happy day, if it ever should come," replied the weeping boy; "and I shall be altered in stature and in features; the tones of my voice will have become strange to your ears, my mother! Toil and sorrow will have set their hard marks upon my brow. These garments, now so brightly stained with figures that denote my royal birth and princely station, will be worn bare, or exchanged for the sheep-skin vest of indigence. How, then, will you know that I am indeed your son, should I ever present myself before you cleansed of this dreadful leprosy?"