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Question
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :
Duke: You hear the team’d Bellario, what he writes:
And here, I take it, is the doctor come.
[Enter Portia, dressed like a Doctor of Laws]
Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario”?
Portia: I did, my lord.
Duke: You are welcome : take your place.
Are you acquainted with the difference
That holds this present question in the court?
(i) Where is this scene set? Why was Portia there?
(ii) What reason had Bellario given for his absence? Whom had he sent in this stead?
(iii) Bellario's letter stated that he had taken some measures to prepare the 'young and learned doctor' to deal with the case. What were they?
(iv) What was the 'difference' between Shylock the Jew and Antonio the merchant that the Duke was unable to resolve?
(v) How does Portia succeed in saving Antonio? What does this reveal of her character?
Solution
(i) This scene is set in a court of justice. Portia was there, dressed as a learned doctor of laws, in the guise of Balthazar, to appear on behalf of Antonio and defend him against the lapse of the bond that he had signed with Shylock.
(ii) Bellario stated in his letter to the Duke that he could not be present at the court due to his illness. He sent a learned a doctor of law, Balthazar, in his stead. He was confident of the ability of Balthazar to prove his capability in such a crucial case between Shylock and Antonio.
(iii) Bellario’s letter stated that he had thoroughly discussed the case with the learned doctor of laws, Balthazar, who was fully acquainted with the case in question. Balthazar was a young man with mature judgement and rich experience to handle the case.
(iv) The ‘difference’, that is a dispute between Shylock the Jew and Antonio that the Duke was unable to resolve was the clause in the bond according to which Shylock could have his pound of flesh from Antonio’s heart if the latter failed to fulfill the terms of the bond.
(v) Portia succeeded in saving Antonio by interpreting the bond in the letter, and not the spirit, of the law, as Shylock himself insisted on it. She warned Shylock that the bond did not allow him to shed even a single drop of blood while taking the pound of flesh. Thus defeating Shylock with his own weapon, she could save Antonio from the clutches of Shylock. Portia’s shrewd interpretation of law really saved Antonio.
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