Question

Why does Bassanio say that he is upon the rack ?

Answer 1

Summary

At Belmont, Portia would like Bassanio to delay before he chooses one of the caskets. Already she has fallen in love with him, and she fears the outcome. She asks him to "tarry," to "pause a day or two," to "forbear awhile"; anything, she tells him, to keep him from possibly choosing the wrong casket. Bassanio, however, begs to choose one of them. His anxiety is too great. If he waits, it is as though he "lives on the rack." Thus Portia acquiesces and tells her servants that this choice is no ordinary choice; therefore, she would like music to be played "while he doth make his choice."

The song which is sung, beginning "Tell me where is fancy bred," has ominous lyrics. Bassanio surveys the caskets, reads their inscriptions, and is reminded by the background music that "fancy" is sometimes bred in the heart and is sometimes bred in the head. The words seem to warn him not to judge by external appearance. Consequently, Bassanio rejects the golden casket; it is a symbol for all "outward shows"; likewise, he rejects the silver casket, calling it a "common drudge / 'Tween man and man." Instead, he chooses the casket made of "meagre lead," which is the least attractive of the caskets — if they are judged by appearance alone.

When Bassanio's choice is made, Portia prays in an aside for help in containing her emotions. She watches rapturously as Bassanio opens the lead casket and finds in it a picture of Portia, which, though beautifully painted, fails to do her justice, in Bassanio's opinion. Alongside Portia's portrait, there is a scroll which tells him, "Turn you where your lady is / And claim her with a loving kiss." Still giddy from his success, Bassanio does so, and Portia, who only a moment before was mistress of herself and of all her possessions, now commits herself and all she owns to her new lord. She also presents him with a ring, a symbol of their union, which he is never to "part from, lose, or give away." Bassanio promises to wear the ring as long as he lives.

Nerissa and Gratiano congratulate the lovers and announce that they also have made a match and ask permission to be married at the wedding ceremony of Portia and Bassanio. Portia agrees to the double wedding, and Gratiano boastfully wagers that he and Nerissa produce a boy before they do.

While the lovers are enjoying their happiness, Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio arrive. Salerio says that he has come with a letter from Antonio to Bassanio, and that he met Lorenzo and Jessica, whom he persuaded to come with him. As Portia welcomes her fiancé's old friends, Bassanio opens Antonio's letter. He reads it, and Portia notices that he has turned pale; the letter contains bad news. She begs him to share the cause of his anguish, and he tells her that he has just read "the unpleasant'st words / That ever blotted paper." He confesses that he is deeply in debt to "a dear friend" who in turn is in debt to a dangerous enemy. Turning to Salerio, Bassanio asks, "But is it true? . . . Hath all his ventures fail'd?" Has not a single one of Antonio's ships returned safely? Not one, Salerio replies, and besides, even if Antonio now had the money to repay Shylock it would do no good, for Shylock is already boasting of how he will demand "justice" and the payment of the penalty for the forfeited bond. Jessica testifies to her father's determination to "have Antonio's flesh" rather than accept "twenty times the value of the sum" that Antonio owes.

Answer 2

Answer:

Explanation:

His friends said that lovers generally rush to meet each other before the appointed time. Salarino commented that the doves that draw the chariot of Goddess of love, fly ten times faster, when they are journeying to find new love than they do when love is once pledged and certain.