Passage From the Text
Portia: You were to blame, I must be plain with you, to part so slightly with your wife's first gift, a thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger, and so riveted with faith unto your flesh. I gave my love a ring and make him swear never to part with it; and here he stands. I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it, nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth that the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano, you give your wife too unkind a cause of grief; and 'twere to me I should be mad at it.
Bassanio: Why, I were best to cut my left hand off, and swear I lost the ring defending it!
Gratiano: My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away unto the judge that begged it, and indeed deserved it too. And then the boy, his clerk, that took some pains in writing, he begged mine; and neither man nor master would take aught but the two rings.
Portia: What ring gave you, my lord? Not that, I hope, which you received of me!
Bassanio: If I could add a lie unto a fault, I would deny it; but you see my finger hath not the ring upon it. It is gone. (V.i.177-200)
Bassanio: Why, I were best to cut my left hand off, and swear I lost the ring defending it!
Gratiano: My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away unto the judge that begged it, and indeed deserved it too. And then the boy, his clerk, that took some pains in writing, he begged mine; and neither man nor master would take aught but the two rings.
Portia: What ring gave you, my lord? Not that, I hope, which you received of me!
Bassanio: If I could add a lie unto a fault, I would deny it; but you see my finger hath not the ring upon it. It is gone. (V.i.177-200)
Response to the Text
5) Bassanio feels at this point in the play that his true self has finally been revealed to Portia. At the same time this stings even more for Bassanio because Gratiano is the one who betrays Bassanio's trust by calling him out on his lie. Bassanio's first line is dramatically ironic because he is unaware that everyone else present knows that he is lying. At this point Bassanio is still attempting to make himself into a knight in shining armor for Portia that would valiantly fight for her and her love. It is also verbal irony that Bassanio says he would have to have his hand cut off in order to lose the ring, when in reality he willingly gave the ring away to someone that he barely knew. 5 Even after Gratiano has revealed to everyone around that Bassanio had just lied about the ring, Bassanio is so protective of his pride that he is unwilling to admit that he had just lied. It is possible that Bassanio is attempting to play off Gratiano's outburst as one of a drunken stupor; however, this is irrelevent in the long run as Nerissa and Portia already know the truth. My theory is that Gratiano is completely sober and aware of how he has just left his friend out to dry. Gratiano has just been scolded by Nerissa and Portia for his lack of judgement, and now he wants to see his friend go through the same as ultimately giving the rings away was Bassanio's fault. Bassanio finally feels that his facade that he has been putting on for the majority of the play, has been discovered and his fortress of lies is beginning to crumble.