THE BA TTALION.
6
How frantic must have been her emotions as she saw him
deliberating between the three caskets! How horribly she
must have felt as she saw his gaze rest for a moment on the
gold and silver caskets! And, oh, what exquisite happiness
must have been hers when Bassanio said:
But thou, thou meagre lead ;
Which rather threat’nest than dos’t promise aught,
Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence ;
And here choose I, joy be the consequence !”
Joy was indeed the consequence, as sweetly expressed by
Portia in the following words;
“ How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealoussy!
Oh, love be moderate, allay thy ecstacy,
In measure rein thy joy, scant this excess;
I feel too much thy blessing! make it less,
For fear I surfeit !”
Though possessed of enough in wealth and beauty to make
almost any woman vain, she is not so. She wishes herself
“tribled twenty times,” “a thousand times more rich” and
“ten thousand times more fair,” all this to make her stand
higher in the estimation of her husband.
Portia is very gracious in her manner to Bassanio after
he has made his choice. She makes him complete mastter of
herself and all she has. She gives him a ring and warns him
never to part from it, lose it, or give it away, lest it presage
the ruin of his love and be her vantage to exclaim upon him.
Bassanio was over joyed with his success and could not
find words to express himself, but he swore to part from the
ring only in death. How great must have been his joy and
happiness to know that he was sole possessor of one so very