Shakespeare’s
Merchant of Venice
Merchant
of Venice
All original lines by
William Shakespeare
Compressed for Presentation at Spring 2018
New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet
Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
From Merchant
of Venice, Act I, Scene One
A
Street in Venice.
Enter
Antoniono and Bassanio
Bassanio:
‘Tis not
unknown to you, Antonio,
how much I
have disabled mine estate.
My chief
care is to get clear of
all the
debts owe.
Antonio:
Then do but
say to me what I should do.
Bassanio:
In Belmont
is a lady of wondrous virtues.
Sometimes
from her eyes I did receive
fair
speechless messages.
Her name is
Portia.
The four
winds blow in from every coast
renowned
suitors. Had I the means
to hold a
rival place with one of them,
I should
questionless be fortunate.
How much I
have disabled mine estate.
My chief
care is to get clear of
all the
debts owe.
Antonio:
Thou knowest
my fortunes are all at sea.
Try what my
credit can in Venice to
furnish thee
to Belmont, and so will I.
[Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act I, Scene Two
Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.
Enter
Portia and Nerissa
Nerissa:
Your father
was ever virtuous; and holy
men at their
death have good inspiration:
therefore
the lottery that he hath devised
in these
three chests of gold, silver, and
lead--- whereof who chooses his meaning
chooses you--- will no doubt be chosen
by one who
shall rightly love.
Do you not
remember in your father’s
time, a
Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier,
that came
hither?
Portia:
Yes, yes, it
was Bassanio: as I think,
so was he
called.
Nerissa:
He, of all
the men that ever my foolish eyes
looked upon,
was the best deserving of a
fair lady.
Portia:
I remember
him well and worthy of thy praise.
[Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act I, Scene Three
Venice. A public place.
Enter
Bassanio, Antonio, and Shylock.
Shylock:
Three
thousand ducats,--- well.
Bassanio:
Ay, sir, for
three months.
Shylock:
For three
months,--- well.
Bassanio:
For the
which, as I told you,
Antonio
shall be bound.
Shylock:
Signior
Antonio, many a time and oft
In the
Rialto you have rated me about
my moneys,
you call me a misbeliever,
cut-throat,
dog, and spit upon my
Jewish
gabardine. It now appears you
need my
help. Hath a dog money?
Is it
possible a cur can lend three
thousand
ducats?
Antonio:
I am as like
to do so again,
to spit on
thee again. Lend it not unto
a friend,
but lend it to thine enemy;
who if he
break, thou mayst with better
face exact
the penalty.
Shylock:
Let the
forfeit be nominated for an equal
pound of
your fair flesh, to be cut off and
taken in
what part of your body pleaseth me.
Antonio:
Yes,
Shylock, I will seal unto this bond.
[Bassanio looks dismayed.]
Antonio [to Bassanio]:
Come
on: in this there can be no dismay;
My ships
come home a month before the day.
[Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act II, Scene Three
Venice. A room in Shylock’s house.
Enter
Jessica and Launcelot
Jessica:
I am sorry
that you will leave my father so.
But fare
thee well; there is a ducat for thee:
And,
Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see
Lorenzo, who
is thy new master [Bassanio’s], guest.
Give him
this letter; do it secretly;
and so
farewell. I would not have my father
see me in
talk with thee.
[Launcelot exits.]
Oh, Lorenzo,
if thy keep thy promise,
I shall be
thy loving wife.
From Merchant
of Venice, Act II, Scene Four
Venice. A street.
Enter
Launcelot [with a letter] and Lorenzo.
Lorenzo:
Friend
Launcelot, what’s the news?
Launcelot:
An it please
you, this shall signify.
[Launcelot gives Lorenzo the letter; Lorenzo gives Launcelot money.]
Lorenzo:
I must needs
tell thee all:
She hath
directed me how I shall take her
from her
father’s house;
what gold
and jewels she is furnished with;
what page’s
suit she hath in readiness.
Come, go
with me.
From Merchant
of Venice, Act II, Scene Seven
Belmont. In Portia’s house.
Enter
Portia and Prince of Morocco.
Portia:
Now draw
aside the curtains and make your choice.
Prince of Morocco:
The first,
gold:
Who chooseth me shall gain what many men
desire.
The second, silver:
Who
chooseth me shall get what he deserves.
The third, lead:
Who
chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.
Portia:
One of them
contains my picture, Prince:
If you
choose that, I am yours withal.
Prince of Morocco:
Let’s see
once more this saying graved in gold:
Who chooseth me shall gain what many men
desire.
Why, that’s
the lady; all the world desires her:
From the
four corners of the Earth they come.
Here do I
choose, and thrive as I may.
[Reads the note.]
All
that glistens is not gold.
Fare
you well; your suit is cold.
[Prince of Morocco looks aghast at a skull,
then exits, casting a longing look at Portia.]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act II, Scene Nine
Belmont. In Portia’s house.
Enter
Portia and Prince of Aragon.
Portia:
If you
choose that wherein I am contained,
straight
shall our nuptials be solemnized;
but if you
fail, you must from hence immediately.
Prince of Morocco:
[Looking at each in order]
Gold:
Who
chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.
Silver:
Who chooseth me shall get what he deserves.
Base lead:
Who
chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.
[Returning to the silver, reads]
Who
chooseth me shall get what he deserves.
I instantly
unlock my fortunes here.
[Reads the note.]
I will
ever be your head..
So be
gone, sir; you are sped.
[Prince of Aragon looks disgustedly at a
picture of a blinking idiot, then exits, casting a longing look at Portia.]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act III, Scene Two
Belmont. In Portia’s house.
Enter
Portia and Bassanio.
Portia:
I am lock’d
in one of them.
If you do
love me, you will find me out.
Bassanio:
[Looking at the gold-plated treasure chest]
The world is
still deceived with ornament.
[Passing by the silver-plated chest to gaze
at the chest of lead]
Thy
plainness moves me more than eloquence;
And here
choose I; joy be the consequence.
[Opening the chest of lead]
What find I
here?
Fair
Portia’s counterfeit!
[Reads the note.]
You
that choose not by the view,
chance
as fair, and choose as true.
Portia:
You see me,
Lord Bassanio, where I stand.
I give this
ring, which when you part from,
let it
presage the ruin of your love.
Bassanio:
When this
ring parts from my finger,
Then be bold
to say Bassanio’s dead.
Nerissa:
My lord and
lady, it is now our time.
Gratiano:
My eyes, my
lord, can look as swift as yours:
You loved, I
loved.
[Nerissa
gives Gratiano a ring, giving
evidence in
her expression of the same
spirit in
which Portia gave Bassanio her ring.]
[Enter Lorenzo and Jessica]
Bassanio:
Welcome
hither.
Lorenzo:
Meeting with
Solanio along the way,
he did entreat
me to come along.
[Solanio gives Bassanio a note.]
Bassanio:
Oh, sweet
Portia, here are the unpleasantest
words that
ever blotted paper.
I freely
told you, all the wealth I had
Ran in my
veins. When I told you that my
Estate was
nothing, I should have told you
I have
engaged a dear friend to feed my means.
All his
ventures failed: not one hit from
Tripolis,
Mexico,
England, Lisbon, Barbary, [or] India.
Jessica:
I have heard
[my father Shylock] swear that he
would rather
have Antonio’s flesh that twenty
times the
value of the sum that he did owe him.
It will go
hard with poor Antonio.
Portia:
What sum
owes he the Jew?
Bassanio:
For me three
thousand ducats.
Portia:
What, no
more? You shall have gold to
pay the
petty debt twenty times over.
Away to
Venice to your friend.
Bassanio:
Since I have
your leave to go away,
I will make
haste till I come again.
[Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act III, Scene Three
Venice. A street.
Enter
Shylock, Antonio, and Jailer.
Shylock:
This is the
fool that lends out money gratis.
Jailer, look
to him.
Antonio:
Hear me yet,
good Shylock.
Shylock:
I’ll have my
bond. Thou call’st me dog
before thou
hadst a cause. Since I am
a dog,
beware my fangs.
Antonio:
Well,
jailer, on. Pray God, Bassanio come
to see me
pay his debt, and then I care not.
[Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act III, Scene Four
Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.
Enter
Portia, Nerissa, Lorenzo, and Jessica
Portia:
I commit
into your hands the manage of my house.
For mine own
part, I [depart to] live in prayer and
contemplation
only attended by Nerissa here until
her husband
and my lord’s return.
Lorenzo:
Fair
thoughts and happy hours attend on you.
Jessica:
I wish your
ladyship all heart’s content.
[Exeunt]
Portia:
Come,
Nerissa; we’ll see our husbands before
they
Think of us. When we are both accoutered like young
men, I’ll
turn two mincing steps into a mincing stride.
[Nerissa follows, puzzled, but
with a smile of adventurous anticipation.
Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act IV, Scene One
Venice. A court of justice.
Enter
the Duke, Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, Solanio, Shylock
Duke:
Shylock, the
world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou
but lead’st this fashion out of malice.
Bassanio:
For thy
three thousand ducats, here is six.
Shylock;
If every ducat in
six thousand ducats were in six parts,
and every
part a ducat, I would have my bond:
the pound of
flesh
[Enter Nerissa, like a lawyer’s clerk.]
Nerissa [presenting a letter]:
[Learned
judge] Bellario greets your grace.
Duke: [reading the letter]:
I am very
sick, but a young [judge] of Rome,
Balthazar,
is furnished with my opinion.
[Enter Balthazar]
Duke:
Give me your
hand. Did you come from old Bellario?
Portia:
I did, my
lord. I am informed thoroughly of the
cause.
[to Shylock]
Consider
this:
That in the
course of justice none
of us should
see salvation.
Shylock;
I crave the
law, the penalty and forfeit of my bond.
Portia:
Lawfully the
Jew may claim a pound of flesh, to be
by him cut
off nearest the merchant’s heart. Be
merciful;
take thrice
thy money; bid me tear the bond.
Shylock:
I swear
there is no power in the tongue
of man to
alter me: I stay here on my bond.
Portia [to Antonio]:
Why, then
thus it is:
You must
prepare your bosom for his knife.
Shylock:
Oh, noble
judge! Oh, excellent young man!
Portia:
Are there
balance here to weigh the flesh?
Shylock:
I have them
ready.
Bassanio:
Antonio, I
am married to a wife which is dear
to me as
life itself. But life itself, my wife,
and all the
world, are not esteemed above thy life.
Portia:
Your wife
would give you little thanks you for that.
Gratiano:
I have a wife
whom, I protest, I love: I would she
were in Heaven,
so she could entreat some power
to change
this currish Jew.
Nerissa:
‘Tis well
you offer it behind your back; the
wish would
make, else, an unquiet house.
Shylock:
These be
Christian husbands! I have a daughter
Would any of
the stock of Barrabas had been her
husband
rather than a Christian.
[to Portia]
I pray thee,
pursue sentence.
Portia:
A pound of
that same merchant’s flesh is thine.
Shylock:
Most
rightful judge!
Portia:
Tarry a
little: there is something else. Take thou
thy pound of
flesh; but, in the cutting of it, if thou
dost shed
one drop of Christian blood, thy lands
and goods
are by the laws of Venice confiscate
unto the State
of Venice.
Gratiano:
Oh upright
judge!
Shylock:
Is that the
law? I take his offer, then---
pay the bond
thrice, and let the Christian go.
Bassanio:
Here is the
money.
Portia:
Soft! The Jew shall have all justice; he shall have nothing
but the
penalty. Shed thou no blood; But just a pound of
flesh: If thou takest more or less than just a
pound, thou
diest, and
all thy goods are confiscate.
Shylock:
Give me my
principal, and let me go.
Portia:
Thou shalt
have nothing but the forfeiture,
to be so
taken at thy peril, Jew.
Shylock:
Well, then
the Devil give him good of it.
I’ll stay no
longer on the question.
Portia:
Tarry, Jew.
The law hath
yet another hold on you.
It is
enacted in the laws of Venice, if it be
proved
against an alien that if he seek the
life of any
citizen, the party against which
he did
contrive shall seize one half his goods;
the other
comes to the privy coffer of the
State; and the defender’s life lies in the mercy
of the Duke.
Duke:
I pardon
thee of thy life before thou ask it:
For half thy
wealth, it is Antonio’s; the other
half comes
to the general State.
Antonio:
So please
the Duke to quit the fine for one half
of his goods
I am content; Two things more:
That he
presently become a Christian; the other
that he do
record a gift, here in the court, of all
he dies
possess’d unto his son [in-law] Lorenzo
and his
daughter [Jessica].
Portia:
Art thou
contented, Jew?
Shylock:
I am not
well:
send the
deed after me and I will sign it.
Duke:
Get thee
gone. But do it.
Bassanio:
Dear sir,
take some remembrance of us, as tribute.
Portia:
I’ll take
this ring from you.
Bassanio:
Good sir,
this ring was given me by my wife.
Portia:
If your wife
know how well I deserve the ring,
She would
not hold out enemy for giving it
to me.
[Exeunt Portia and Nerissa]
Bassanio:
Go,
Gratiano, give him the ring.
[Exit Gratiano]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act IV, Scene Two
Venice. A street..
Enter
Portia and Nerissa, with Gratiano following
Gratiano:
Fair sir, my
Lord Bassanio
hath
sent you this ring.
Nerissa [whispering to Portia]:
I’ll see if
I can get my husband’s ring,
Which he did
swear to keep forever.
Nerissa [to Gratiano]:
Come, good
sir.
[Exeunt]
From Merchant
of Venice, Act V, Scene One
Belmont. Avenue to Portia’s house.
Enter
Shylock, who moves back to a
far corner of the stage, seen by the audience but not within
the
visual scope of the other actors.
Enter
Lorenzo and Jessica, who greet Portia and Nerissa as they approach from a
distance.
Lorenzo:
Dear lady,
welcome home. Your husband
is at
hand. I hear his trumpet.
Enter
Bassanio, Antonio, and Gratiano
Portia:
You’re
welcome home, my lord.
Bassanio;
I thank you,
madam. Give welcome to my friend, Antonio.
Portia:
Sir, you are
very welcome to our house.
[Nerissa is seen scolding Gratiano.]
Gratiano [to Nerissa]:
You do me wrong. In faith, I gave it to the judge’s clerk.
Nerissa:
You swore to me that you would wear it
to your hour of death.
Portia:
I gave my
love a ring, and made him swear never to part with it.
Gratiano:
My lord
Bassanio gave his ring away unto the judge that begg’d it;
neither man
nor master would take aught but the two rings.
Portia:
What ring,
gave you, my lord?
Bassanio:
Sweet
Portia, if you did know how unwillingly I gave away the ring,
You would
abate the strength of your displeasure.
.
Antonio:
I once did
lend my body for his wealth.
Portia:
Give him
this; and bid him keep it better than the other.
[Portia gives Antonio the ring; Antonio gives the ring to Bassanio]
Bassanio:
By heaven,
this is the same ring I gave the [judge].
Nerissa [giving Gratiano the ring that she
has given him]:
And pardon
me, my gentle Gratiano.
[Gratiano looks at Nerissa and then at
Bassanio with the same look of wonder.]
Portia:
Here is a
letter from Bellario: you will find that
Portia
was the
[judge]; Nerissa her clerk.
Bassanio:
Were you the
[judge], and I knew you not?
[Portia turns next to Antonio.]
Portia:
Antonio,
unseal this letter soon; there you will
find that
three of
your argosies are richly come to harbor suddenly.
Antonio:
Sweet lady,
you have given my life and living.
Nerissa:
And I do
give to you and Jessica, from the
rich Jew, a
special deed of gift, after his death,
of all he
dies possess’d of.
[Exeunt]
Shylock comes forward and sits down in a
chair placed very close to the audience
Shylock:
I am a
Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a
Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, ,
affections,
passions? Fed with the same food, hurt
with the
same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
healed by
the same means, warmed and cooled by the
same Winter
and Summer, as a Christian is? If you
prick us,
do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not
laugh?
[Shylock rises and moves to exit, casting
an eye toward the area through
which the other actors exited, then back to
the audience]
If you
poison us, do we not die? If we are
alike you
in the rest,
we will resemble you in that.
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