Act V is an epilogue. The Nurse reports the death of Portia, and engages in responsive lyrics with the chorus of soldiers.
Not really five acts, then, but three frame a piece without dramatic action. Though it is focused on a brief period, it does not thereby realize dramatic sequence. Consisting of oratory and lyric, it is conceived as a poem, not as a play.
The style, careful in the balances of the dialogue, has effective oratorical iteration: “C’est trop, c’est trop duré, c’est trop acquis.”
Jupiter, qui voit tout, voit bien qu’il ne te reste
Pour avoir tout ce rond que la rondeur céleste.
Il ha peur pour soymesme, il hi peur que tes bras.... (I. 21).
The more pervasive suggestion of internal rhyme is combined with this again in the fifth act.
Or’ il est temps d’ouvrir la porte;
Il est temps de mourir, langoureuse vieillesse,