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   These lines are spoken  by Portia Bassanio's wife in Act IV Sc.1 when she has come disguised as the lawyer Balthasar  to save Antonio from the evil clutches of the greedy and vengeful Shylock. Portia after reading the bond which Antonio has signed states that justice must be done and Shylock must be given his pound of flesh from Antonio's body.

   Shylock gets ready to execute his judgement. Just then Antonio makes a very moving speech bidding farewell to his dearest friend Bassanio who is now Portia's husband stating that his own life is of hardly any consequence:

   Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!
   Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you.

   He further requests Bassanio to tell Portia his wife of his great sacrifice in saving his life:

   Commend me to your honourable wife:
   Tell her the process of Antonio's end;

   At once Bassanio is moved to remark that he is married to Portia but that he values his life and Portia less than Antonio's life and he asserts that he is ready to lose his wife Portia and his own life in order to save Antonio's life:

   Antonio, I am married to a wife
   Which is as dear to me as life itself;
   But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
   Are not with me esteem'd above thy life:
   I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
   Here to this devil, to deliver you.

   Portia who is disguised as Balthasar on hearing this offer of her husband Bassanio remarks with tongue in cheek irony in the following manner:

   Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
   

   If she were by, to hear you make the offer.

   The comic irony is that it is  Portia, Bassanio's wife who makes this remark!

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   Posted by lit24 on Sunday October 11, 2009 at 5:10 AM