ACT I

Scene I.–A Hall in the Duke'sPalace.

Enter Duke, Ægeon, Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

Ægeon. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,

And, by the doom of death, end woes and all.

Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;

I am not partial to infringe our laws:

The enmity and discord, which of late

Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke

To merchants, our well dealing countrymen,–

Who, wanting gilders to redeem their lives,

Have seal'd his rig'rous statutes with their bloods,–

Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks,

For, since the mortal and intestine jars

'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,

It hath in solemn synods been decreed,

Both by the Syracusans and ourselves,

To admit no traffick to our adverse towns:

Nay, more,

If any born at Ephesus, be seen

At any Syracusan marts and fairs;

Again, If any Syracusan born,

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose;

Unless a thousand marks be levied,

To quit the penalty, and to ransome him.

Thy substance valued at the highest rate,

Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;

Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.

Ægeon. Yet this my comfort; when your words are done,

My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

Duke. Well, Syracusan, say, in brief, the cause

Why thou departedst from thy native home;

And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus.