Trumpets play. enters with the prince of and both their entourages.

(to servant) Go open the curtains and show the different boxes to the prince.

A curtain is drawn revealing showing three caskets: one gold, one silver, and one lead.

(to MOROCCO) Now make your choice.

The first one, the gold one, has an inscription that says, "He who chooses me will get what many men want." The second one, the silver one, says, "He who chooses me will get what he deserves." And this third one is made of dull lead. It has a blunt warning that says, "He who chooses me must give and risk all he has." How will I know if I chose the right one?

One of them contains my picture. If you choose that one, I'm yours, along with the picture.

I wish some god could help me choose! Let me see. I'll look over the inscriptions again. What does the lead box say? "He who chooses me must give and risk all he has." Must give everything-for what? For lead? Risk everything for lead? This box is too threatening. Men who risk everything hope to make profits. A golden mind doesn't bend down to choose something worthless. So I won't give or risk anything for lead. What does the silver one say?

"He who chooses me will get as much as he deserves." As much as he deserves-wait a minute there, Morocco, and consider your own value with a level head. If your reputation is trustworthy, you deserve a lot-though maybe not enough to include this lady. But fearing I don't deserve her is a way of underestimating myself. As much as I deserve-I deserve Portia! By birth I deserve her. In terms of wealth, talents, and upbringing, and especially love, I deserve her. What if I went no further and chose this one? But let's see once more what the gold one says: "He who chooses me will get what many men want." That's Portia! The whole world wants her. They come from the four corners of the earth to kiss this shrine and see this living, breathing saint. Princes travel across deserts and the vast wilderness of Arabia to come see the beautiful Portia. The wide ocean doesn't prevent them from coming to see her-they travel across it as if it were a little stream. One of these three boxes contains her lovely picture. Could the lead one contain it? No, it'd be a sin to think such a low thought. Lead's too crass to hold her. Is she enclosed in silver, which is ten times less valuable than gold? Oh, what a sinful thought! Nobody ever set a gem like her in a worse setting than gold. They have a coin in England stamped with the figure of an angel, but that's just engraved on the surface.

O

Here an angel's lying in a golden bed.-Give me the key. I will choose this one and try my chances.

(she hands him a key) There, take it, prince. And if my picture's in there, then I'm yours.

opens the gold casket.

Damn it! What's this? It's a skull with a scroll in its empty eye socket. I'll read it aloud.

(he reads)

"All that glitters is not gold-

You've often heard that said.

Many men have sold their souls

Just to view my shiny surface.

But gilded tombs contain worms.

If you'd been as wise as you were bold,

With an old man's mature judgment,

You wouldn't have had to read this scroll.

So goodbye-you lost your chance."

Lost my chance indeed! So goodbye hope, and hello despair. Portia, goodbye to you. My heart's too sad for long goodbyes. Losers always leave quickly.

exits with his entourage.

Good riddance!-Close the curtains and leave.-I hope everyone who looks like him will make the same choice.

They exit.