The Prince thus concludes that the portrait must reside in the golden casket; and, so, he asks Portia for the key to open it.
The Prince, however, is shocked and upset by what he finds inside. Instead of the portrait, he discovers a skull with a scroll inside one of the eye sockets. On the scroll is the following inscription:
All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told. Many a man his life has sold But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms infold.(65-69)
The first sentence indicates that a person cannot always judge something or someonebythe outside appearance. And that certainly is true with the casket. The Prince made his choice based on what he saw on the surface. He was too superficial. The second sentence indicates that many men have risked and lost their lives because of gold or because of some other superficial reason that really did not merit such a risk. The last sentence (line 69) is a fitting metaphor. A king or prince may be buried in a beautiful and ornate coffin and tomb that is decorated with real gold, but such decoration will not prevent the dead body inside from rotting. The beauty on the outside holds ugliness on the inside. The Prince’s golden casket, then, is a gold coffin in miniature; and so it is fitting that the Prince should find the skullinside.