At Belmont, Portia would like Bassanio to delay before he chooses one of the caskets. Already she has fallen in love with him, and she fears the outcome. She asks him to "tarry," to "pause a day or two," to "forbear awhile"; anything, she tells him, to keep him from possibly choosing the wrong casket. Bassanio, however, begs to choose one of them. His anxiety is too great. If he waits, it is as though he "lives on the rack." Thus Portia acquiesces and tells her servants that this choice is no ordinary choice; therefore, she would like music to be played "while he doth make his choice."
The song which is sung, beginning "Tell me where is fancy bred," has ominous lyrics. Bassanio surveys the caskets, reads their inscriptions, and is reminded by the background music that "fancy" is sometimes bred in the heart and is sometimes bred in the head. The words seem to warn him not to judge by external appearance. Consequently, Bassanio rejects the golden casket; it is a symbol for all "outward shows"; likewise, he rejects the silver casket, calling it a "common drudge / 'Tween man and man." Instead, he chooses the casket made of "meagre lead," which is the least attractive of the caskets — if they are judged by appearance alone.
When Bassanio's choice is made, Portia prays in an aside for help in containing her emotions. She watches rapturously as Bassanio opens the lead casket and finds in it a picture of Portia, which, though beautifully painted, fails to do her justice, in Bassanio's opinion. Alongside Portia's portrait, there is a scroll which tells him, "Turn you where your lady is / And claim her with a loving kiss." Still giddy from his success, Bassanio does so, and Portia, who only a moment before was mistress of herself and of all her possessions, now commits herself and all she owns to her new lord. She also presents him with a ring, a symbol of their union, which he is never to "part from, lose, or give away." Bassanio promises to wear the ring as long as he lives.
