Page 30 - Knighted_Issue2.0

With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
I could not do withal; then I'll repent,
And wish for all that, that I had not killed them;
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
That men shall swear I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.” 3.4.56-58, 61-78
Portia is explaining her plan to Nerissa and telling her that their husbands will see them in a way
in which they never expected them to be capable of being, not just because they will be disguised
as men, but because they will be intellectual, smart, and savvy. Portia bets Nerissa that she will
fit perfectly with the other men and that they won’t be able to tell her apart because she will
behave exactly in the ways they do.
In an essay titled "Opportunistic Portia as Fortuna in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice”
the author, Ellen Caldwell, argues that the character of Portia resembles the goddess of fortune:
"Disguised as Balthazar and summoned to deliver an opinion on the legality of Shylock's bond,
Portia distributes rewards and punishments more like the goddess of fortune than of justice. By
placing her behind the disguise of a law clerk, Shakespeare conceals a savvy heiress from
Belmont." By comparing Portia to the goddess of fortune, Caldwell correctly describes Portia