Passage From the Text
Portia: I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two before you hazard, for in choosing wrong I lose your company. Therefore forbear awhile. There's something tells me (but it is not love) I would not lose you; and you know yourself hate counsels not in such a quality. But lest you should not understand me well--and yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought--I would detain you here some month or two before you venture for me. I could teach you how to choose right, but then I am forsworn; so will I never be. So may you miss me, but if you do, you'll make me wish a sin--that I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes! They have o'erlooked me and divided me. One half of me is yours, the other half yours--mine own I would say--but if mine then yours, and so all yours. O these naughty times puts bars between the owners and their rights. And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so, let fortune go to hell for it, not I. I speak too long, but 'tis to peise the time. To eke it and to draw it out in length to stay you from election. (III.ii.1-24)
A Song: Tell me where is fancy bred: or in the heart or in the head; how begot, how nourished? Reply, reply! It is engend'red in the eye, with gazing fed; and fancy dies in the cradle where it lies. Let us all ring fancy's knell. I'll begin it: ding dong, bell. (III.ii.65-73)
A Song: Tell me where is fancy bred: or in the heart or in the head; how begot, how nourished? Reply, reply! It is engend'red in the eye, with gazing fed; and fancy dies in the cradle where it lies. Let us all ring fancy's knell. I'll begin it: ding dong, bell. (III.ii.65-73)
Response to the Text
8) An interesting thought that I had as I read this portion of the play was how Portia was dropping hints to lead Bassanio to choose the lead casket. The first example of this being the use of the word hazard, which is prominent because of lead's deadly effects if it is ingested. When Portia says, "Beshrew your eyes" she is referring to lead because it is the only one of the three metals that has a negative connotation that could be perceived as evil. By saying that fortune can go to hell, Portia is saying that the gold and silver caskets are the wrong choice for Bassanio. Portia's song that she has sung to Bassanio is also important because of the many hints that are hidden among its lines. The words bred, head, and fed all rhyme with lead and would lead Bassanio to this conclusion. The song also refers to the death of fancy, likely meaning that the ornate caskets are not the ones that Bassanio should choose in order to win Portia. Portia's song also poses the question of where fanciness is derived from. By asking whether fancy is from the heart or the head, Bassanio knows to question his instincts. His heart would likely tell him to choose the gold casket because it is most in line with his normal thought process. Bassanio picks up on this subtle hint though and knows that he should use his head to think through the situation and choose the lead casket rather than the gold one that he would have chosen instinctively.