Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: Po

1.	Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: Portia: … but now I was the Lord Of this fair mansion, master of my servants Queen o’er myself; and even now, but now … Bassanio: Madam, you have bereft me of all words. (i) Where are Portia and Bassanio? Two other people are present. Name them.(ii) What has brought Portia and Bassanio together in this scene? Two other men also come to Portia with the same purpose. Name them. What penalty do they pay for their actions? (iii) What does ‘but now’ in the opening line mean? Why does Portia use these words? When, in line 3, she says ‘but now’, what does she mean ? How is this meaning brought out in what she goes on to say?(iv) Express Bassanio’s words in simple language. How does he explain what he means? Why does he feel this way? (v) What promise does Bassanio make to Portia when she gives him a ring? What is the outcome of this promise later in the play? (vi) Portia gives proof of her love for Bassanio, later, in two ways. What are these two ways?
Answer» (i) Portia and Bassanio are in a hall in Portia’s house in Belmont. Gratiano and Nerissa are also present there. (ii) Bassanio selects the lead casket which contains Portia’s beautiful picture and succeeds in winning the hand of Portia. Thus they are brought together. There are two other suitors namely the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Arragon but they fail in winning Portia as their wife. For their failures, they have to pay the penalty. They take oath that if they make the wrong choice, they will have to remain bachelor throughout their lives. (iii) In the opening line Portia tells Bassanio that till now she was the master of this beautiful house, these servants and her ownself, but now all these things including herself are his. (iv) Bassanio tells Portia that she has deprived him of all words. Only his blood speaks to her in his veins. He adds that there is the same confusion in his faculties as after the speech of a well-beloved prince, in the midst of the murmuring of a pleased audience, the serious feelings, all blended into one, produce nothing except extreme happiness which he is unable to express. (v) When Portia gives Bassanio a ring saying that if he parts with this ring, loses it through negligence or gives it to somebody else knowingly it will mean the loss of love between us. Bassanio assumes her that this ring will part from him only when he dies, not before that under any circumstances and then she can safely say that Bassanio is dead. But when the case is won in the favour of Antonio, Portia disguised as a male lawyer demands Bassanio’s ring as a reward and she is not ready to accept anything except the ring. Bassanio shows his unwillingness to part with the ring. Antonio insists him and he gives it to the lawyer. (vi) When Portia comes to know that Bassanio’s dearest friend is in great trouble and due to losing all his ships, he is unable to pay Shylock’s debt, she tells Bassanio to take as much gold as he wants to pay the debt, twenty times over, if required, so that his friend’s life can be saved. Secondly, she saves Antonio’s life in the court.

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: Portia: … but now I was the Lord Of this fair mansion, master of my servants Queen o’er myself; and even now, but now … Bassanio: Madam, you have bereft me of all words. (i) Where are Portia and Bassanio? Two other people are present. Name them.(ii) What has brought Portia and Bassanio together in this scene? Two other men also come to Portia with the same purpose. Name them. What penalty do they pay for their actions? (iii) What does ‘but now’ in the opening line mean? Why does Portia use these words? When, in line 3, she says ‘but now’, what does she mean ? How is this meaning brought out in what she goes on to say?(iv) Express Bassanio’s words in simple language. How does he explain what he means? Why does he feel this way? (v) What promise does Bassanio make to Portia when she gives him a ring? What is the outcome of this promise later in the play? (vi) Portia gives proof of her love for Bassanio, later, in two ways. What are these two ways?

Answer»

(i) Portia and Bassanio are in a hall in Portia’s house in Belmont. Gratiano and Nerissa are also present there.

(ii) Bassanio selects the lead casket which contains Portia’s beautiful picture and succeeds in winning the hand of Portia. Thus they are brought together. There are two other suitors namely the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Arragon but they fail in winning Portia as their wife. For their failures, they have to pay the penalty. They take oath that if they make the wrong choice, they will have to remain bachelor throughout their lives.

(iii) In the opening line Portia tells Bassanio that till now she was the master of this beautiful house, these servants and her ownself, but now all these things including herself are his.

(iv) Bassanio tells Portia that she has deprived him of all words. Only his blood speaks to her in his veins. He adds that there is the same confusion in his faculties as after the speech of a well-beloved prince, in the midst of the murmuring of a pleased audience, the serious feelings, all blended into one, produce nothing except extreme happiness which he is unable to express.

(v) When Portia gives Bassanio a ring saying that if he parts with this ring, loses it through negligence or gives it to somebody else knowingly it will mean the loss of love between us. Bassanio assumes her that this ring will part from him only when he dies, not before that under any circumstances and then she can safely say that Bassanio is dead. But when the case is won in the favour of Antonio, Portia disguised as a male lawyer demands Bassanio’s ring as a reward and she is not ready to accept anything except the ring. Bassanio shows his unwillingness to part with the ring. Antonio insists him and he gives it to the lawyer.

(vi) When Portia comes to know that Bassanio’s dearest friend is in great trouble and due to losing all his ships, he is unable to pay Shylock’s debt, she tells Bassanio to take as much gold as he wants to pay the debt, twenty times over, if required, so that his friend’s life can be saved. Secondly, she saves Antonio’s life in the court.

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