(Act III, Sc.

II, Lines 114-124)

Paraphrase :

BASSANIO : What do I find here? Beautiful Portia’s picture! What minor god Has come so near
to making a woman? Do these eyes move? Or do they seem to be moving Because they are
riding on my eyeballs? Here are parted lips, with sugar breath; so sweet a bar Should tear such
sweet friends apart. Here The painter plays the spider in her hair, and has woven A golden
mesh to capture the hearts of men Faster than gnats are caught in cobwebs.

Word Meaning With Annotation

counterfeit : something made exactly the same as another, what demi-god hath come so near
creation : a demi-god is a half-divine person. Bassanio says that the portrait is so near to being
alive that the artist has almost created life.’or whether, riding on the balls of mine, seem they in
motion : or is it the fact that their image is taken up by my own eyeballs, which seem to impart
motion to them? here are sever’d lips, parted with sugar breath : her lips are slightly parted by
the sweet perfumed breath which passes in and out.

Read the above passage and answer the following questions

Question 1.
What does he find in the leaden casket?
Answer:
Bassanio finds the portrait of Portia in the leaden casket.

Question 2.
What is Bassanio’s impression about the creator of the picture of Portia?
Answer:
Bassanio thinks that only a supernatural being and not a human hand could have painted such
a life-like picture.

Question 3.
What are Bassanio’s observations about the eyes of Portia in the picture?
Answer:
He thinks that the eyes of the picture move. Or they appear to be moving because they are
reflected in his eyes.

Question 4.
What is the sweet bar between the lips of Portia?
Answer:
Her sweet breath is the bar between the lips of Portia.
Question 5.
What was the painter’s object in painting the spider in Portia’s hairs?
Answer:
The object was to capture the hearts of men.