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    The Merchant of Venice
    The Merchant of Venice
    The Merchant of Venice
    Ebook114 pages54 minutes

    The Merchant of Venice

    By William Shakespeare

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    Deception and Pride-- Bassanio, a Venetian nobleman, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy Portia, but he is short on funds. So he turns to his friend Antonio, a wealthy merchant. Antonio agrees to help, but currently he is cash strapped as all of his ships are at sea. He agrees instead to guarantee a loan for Bassanio. Bassanio turns to Antonio's rival and enemy Shylock for the loan. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,- A stage, where every man must play a part; And mine a sad one.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781627556989
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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    Reviews for The Merchant of Venice

    4/5

    1,813 ratings41 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I think Shylock is one of Shakespeare's most powerful characters, even though the plot of this play is unusually cracked-out, even for the Bard.
    • 2/5
      The Merchant of Venice is a short story with a very basic plot, and one of little interest to me. Bassanio comes up with some crazy plan to pay Antonio back the money that he owes. However his plan backfires and Antonio is left to pay for Bassanio's mistakes. I found the story predictable and hard to get into. It isn't hard to follow, but you'll miss what little humor it has if you aren't well read in Shakespearean liturature. I definately would not include this with any of Shakespeare's more renowned plays.
    • 2/5
      [The Merchant of Venice] is a story of love, honor, pride, and loyalty all wrapped up in one. You will experience everthing from a Jew's daughter betraying him by marrying a Christian, Bassanio putting a pound of his friend's flesh on the line to go court a woman, Bassanio finding and marrying the love of his life, Shylock almost getting a pound of flesh from Antonio, Portia and Nerrisa portraying men to save Antonio, and trick their men into giving up their rings. There is action in every page each and every character will grab your attention and hold it. I would recommend this book to anyone who can understand Shakespearean language, or who is willing to try. As for myself, I have a hard time figuring out what is going on. Honestly, I didn't understand this story until I watched the movie, and that film pulled everything together for me. I don't think this is one of Shakespeare's best plays therefore I give it 2 stars.
    • 3/5
      The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare, starts out with Antonio wondering why he is so sad. His best friend Bassanio then tells him that he is in love and needs to borrow money in order to court Portia. With all of his ships away at sea, Antonio has to borrow money from his enemy, Shylock. Shylock agrees to lend money to Antonio and they make a deal. If Antonio hasn't paid Shylock in 3 months the Shylock could cut off a pound of flesh; Antonio agrees. Bassanio eventually marries Potia, but Antonio doesn't repay Shylock within 3 months. If you want to find out what happened to Antonio, you'll have to read the book. I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, because it takes me a while to figure out what he is trying to say. The Merchant of Venice wasn't my favorite of his books, but overall it was pretty good. You never know what happens next in The Merchant of Venice. I would recommend it to any Shakespeare fan or to someone who just wants a good book to read.
    • 4/5
      The Merchant of Venice is about a man named Antonio who is sad at the beginning of the play for no reason, "In sooth, I know not why I am sad; It wearies me; you say it wearies you; But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn; And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself." (Act I Scene I). Antonio goes through the novel trying to fix his sadness. Then he finds out that he is sad because he misses his youth. He misses being young so he makes friends with a young man named Bassanio. Bassanio helps Antonio feel young and so does the rest of his friends. Then Bassanio sees Portia and falls in love. Bassanio goes to Antonio for money but all of Antonio's money is at see so they borrow from Shylock, the Jew.This story is full of dramatic scenes like Shylock wanting his bond, "When it is paid according to thee tenor. It dothbappear you are a worthy judge; You know the law, your exposition Hath been most sound; I charge you by the law, Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar, Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear There is no power in the tongue of man to alter me: I stay here on my bond." (Act IV Scene I), or like Bassanio giving his ring that was given to him by his wife to the doctor who helped the trial, who was actually Portia, his wife.I personally didn't enjoy the book because I couldn't comprehend what Shakespeare was writing. I gave this book three and a half stars out of five stars. I recommend this book for high school honors classes only since Shakespeare has a hard language to understand.
    • 4/5
      I read Merchant exactly 25 years ago and recently had the opportunity to read it again. I mostly enjoyed the play and was all set to give a solid four-star rating, when that foolish final scene left a bad taste in my mouth. After the profound pathos of Shylock's defeat, the silly-at-best conventions of Shakespearean comedy make for a particularly discordant ending.
    • 4/5
      I read this a few years ago for an Intro to Shakespeare class. It was my favorite play we covered with the exception of The Tempest. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I do recall enjoying it and laughing out loud at several parts. Shakespeare's word play is wonderful. I also feel that whether you try to read this from an anti-Semitist point of view or choose to view Shylock as a sympathetic character, you will still find a lot of enjoyment in this. It is also interesting to think about law interpretation and the loop holes in the law and how they still exist today.Side note: I watched the 2004 version of this with Al Pacino and felt that it stayed very true to the heart of the play. 
    • 4/5
      In which a charming and entertaining romantic comedy is intertwined with a very grim portrait of a wronged outcast who has lost the ability to forgive.
    • 4/5
      Holds up quite well upon re-reading. Although I'm now too old to play Portia, I still love her. Shylock gets a bad rap, but that's zeitgeist for you. At least Shakespeare tries to give background for him and he's not just pure evil (for no reason).
    • 3/5
      A very interesting drama, it is well to watch many different performances to see the many nuances which can be ascribed to this play. From base racism and bigotry, to pathos and compassion. Was Shylock a caricature? Was he greedy and grasping, or was he maligned, persecuted and misunderstood? Lots of food for thought here.
    • 2/5
      It was ok.
    • 5/5
      Waffling between four and five stars for this. Four and a half, we'll say. The speeches, the characters, the ideas... so much that was beautiful and thought-provoking. I'm afraid that what I'm having a hard time loving is any of the characters. They are too... real. Their flaws are too visible and ugly, and their modest virtues fail to compensate. The character who inspires the most compassion, Shylock, is also the one who is most ruthlessly cruel, and Portia, the character who is presented as most clear-thinking, pure, and righteous, is also merciless, petty, and vindictive. The juxtaposition of comic and tragic elements, as when Shylock cries in anguish, “Out upon her! Thou torturest me,Tubal. Itwas my turquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor.I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.”along with the mixture of cruelty and kindness in several characters, makes this, in a way, an exceptionally “realistic” comedy. It ends with weddings, but also with the fall of a larger-than-life character who is too sympathetic to be a proper villain. I read the Oxford World's Classics edition of this, which has fine notes, generous margins, readable font, and excellent introductory material. Which I only skimmed because, as always, I started with Marjorie Garber's wonderful chapter on the play in Shakespeare After All. All her analyses are good, but this one seemed to me particularly so. I know I wouldn't have enjoyed the play nearly so much without her insights, anyway. Also, I highly recommend the Arkangel recorded performance of this – it's just fantastic! I'm not a fan of Shakespeare's clowns, as a general rule, but David Tennant's “Lancelot” is irresistible, and the other actors are also marvelous.
    • 4/5
      I first read this play back in 9th grade. At the time I remember being struck w/certain parts of it though I missed a lot of references, and many somewhat bawdy double entendres went over my head. Re-reading it as an adult was a great idea, as I was able to appreciate the story more. And I found too, after awhile, that understanding Shakespeare's English became easier as I continued reading.

      One of my favorite passages was Portia's speech in Act IV Scene I, where she speaks to Shylock,


      The quality of mercy is not strained.
      It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
      Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
      It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
      Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
      The throned monarch better than his crown.
      His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
      The attribute to awe and majesty,
      Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
      But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
      It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
      It is an attribute of God himself;
      And earthly power doth then show like God's
      When mercy seasons justice.

      I had to memorize this for my 9th grade Lit class and was surprised to see how much of it I still remember after all these years.
      I'm having my 9th grader read this play now for her Lit class. I hope I can help her to appreciate this more than I did at her age ☺
    • 4/5
      Beautiful and wealthy Portia is looking for a husband, and Bassanio wants to try for her hand but he is too poor to present himself as a viable suitor. He turns to his best friend Antonio, who has several ships expected with cargo that will bring him more wealth. The two friends go to Shylock the moneylender for a loan, but Shylock uses their need to set up his revenge. Antonio has always taunted and demeaned the Jewish moneylender, so rather than contracting for property if Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock demands a pound of the debtor's flesh.The speeches by Shylock are the most famous of this play and though he is overall portrayed as a cruel man who is openly hated by the others, including his own daughter, he is also given the opportunity to point out that his religion makes him no less human than a Christian. I would think modern audiences would see him as a more empathetic character than Antonio, whose cruelty is addressed with an admission that he has called Shylock a dog and spat on him in the past and is likely to do it in the future. The courtroom scene near the end is tense as Shylock demands payment.
    • 3/5
      Had a tough time rating Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." I actually found it to be one of Shakespeare's stronger stories and his frequently used disguise device works well and cleverly here. Portia is a pretty strong and clever female character, which I enjoyed all the more for its rarity amongst Shakespeare's works.The play was difficult to read, however, because of the anti-Semitic aspects that really permeate the text.
    • 5/5
      Those hypocritical bastards! Once a comedy, now a tragedy for those of us who aren't anti-Semitic. Although given the global financial crisis, perhaps a comedy once more if you replace "the Jew" with "the banker".
    • 5/5
      Wonderful; one of Shakespeare's best. Shylock and the Merchant are fascinatingly complex characters - they each have motives and reasons that makes it hard to dismiss either one as simply a villain. Light, dark, comic, tragic, wonder, ribaldry - this one has it all.
    • 1/5
      If I could have given it less than one star, I would have. Perhaps I'm naive and perhaps I missed the point, but the blatant antisemitism in this piece made me want to fling the book bodily across the room. I understand that the characters within the play may typify certain elements, but as a whole, this was the most antisemitic, racist play I have ever read. Is there redeeming quality in looking at it through the lenses of what Shakespeare intended versus how his audience perceived it? I don't know, but the excerpts of Mein Kampf I read were less enraging than this.
    • 5/5
      To call this play unique would be a misnomer since Shakespeare was hardly original with the subject matter of his plays. I believe that the only play that came entirely from Shakespeare's imagination would have been The Tempest. Most of his other plays he had either borrowed from historical events or earlier works, usually both. There is even some suggestion that a number of plays (particularly Hamlet) were based on older plays, and Shakespeare basically compiled and rewrote them into the form that we have today. The reason that I suggest that The Merchant of Venice is unique is because it does not seem to follow the pattern that most of Shakespeare's other plays follow. But first a synopsis.The play is based around two plots, the first plot being a romance and the second being a claim for a debt to be paid. The main characters of this play are Antonio (a merchant), Shylok (a Jewish money lender), Portia (a beautiful princess), Jessica (Portia's friend and Shylock's daughter), Bassiano (a suitor to Portia and a friend of Antonio), and Lorenzo (the suitor to Jessica and a friend of Bassiano and Antonio). Portia has quite a lot of suitors, so to pick the right one she has three chests, one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead. Inside one of the chests (the lead one) is a image of her, and the suitors must chose the correct chest to win her hand in marriage. Pretty much all of the suitors pick the wrong chest, going for the gold and the silver, however when Bassiano comes (and Portia is in love with Bassiano, but everybody must play the game), he picks the correct chest, and they go off and get married. However, this is halfway through the play (and is odd because in most Shakespearian comedies, the marriage comes at the end).Getting an audience with Portia is not cheap though, so to do that Bassiano approaches his friend Antonio, but all of Antonio's money is tied up in investments, so to help out his friend, he attempts to borrow money from Shylock. The catch is (and there are always lots of catches in Shakespearian comedies) is that Shylock hates Antonio because, to put it simply, Antonio is an anti-semetic pig. So, seeing Antonio's desperation, he agrees to lend him the money with a pound of his flesh (in the region of the heart) as surety. Unfortunately for Antonio, disaster strikes and he pretty much loses all of his investments which leaves him with no money and a Jew banging on his door demanding payment.This is all resolved at court, and while it appears that all is lost, and Shylock refuses to show mercy, since he now has his enemy over a barrel, a doctor's apprentice and his servant enters (who turn out to be Portia and Jessica in disguise), who, through clever legal argument, point out that while the bond is solid and Antonio must give up his pound of flesh, the bond does not give any right to take any blood, and further, no Jew may spill a drop of Christian blood, on pain of death. So, the tables are turned, Antonio escapes his debt, and Shylock is punished.It would seem that the play should end here, however it doesn't: there is at least two more scenes afterward. In payment for their services Portia (in disguise) convinces Bassiano to give up a ring that he had promised Portia never to let go, and Jessica does the same with Lorenzo. When they return, they are then confronted by their respective ladies as to the location of the ring. This is Shakespearian comedy at its best, especially how both Lorenzo and Bassiano sweat over how, in such a short time, they have betrayed the trust of their loved ones.I am hesitant to say this, particularly since with a looking at a 16th Century play, that it appears to be about racism, and I will quote one of Shylock's lines below, but I find it difficult to conclude that it really is racist. Indeed, Shakespeare does make some comment on how despite their beliefs both Jews and Christians are still human, yet Shylock is still considered the antagonist, and it is his refusal to show mercy, even if he were to be paid 10 times what is owed, that causes us to lose all sympathy for him. Granted, the play does appear to be anti-semetic, but we must remember that this was what was happening at the time. I do not believe Shakespeare is deliberately targeting Jews here, and especially since it was illegal for Christians to lend money to Christians and charge interest, the only way people could obtain loans were through the Jews. In fact, the Jews were the bankers of the Middle Ages (though this medieval attitude must have changed early on in the Renaissance where the Medicis, a Christian family, were considered to be the founders of modern banking).What about women's liberation? Lets us consider this aspect of the play: Portia is a very strong willed and dominant character; she keeps her suitors at bay with a test that they may pass; she has demonstrated that she has superb rhetorical ability; she is incredibly knowledgeable; and incredibly mischievous; her trick with the ring pretty much has Bassiano wrapped around her finger - in a flurry of kind words, she binds him to a promise, and within a day, forces him to break that promise; She then forces Bassiano into submission through the use of guilt over how he not only broke a vow that he had made to her, but that a day had not even passed before he broke that vow. While it is true that women of the middle ages were not all beaten into submission, the actions and the ability of Portia is staggering. She is able to interact within the world of men just as well, or even better, than most dignified men could. I find Portia to be an amazing character, and considering the date of this play, to be somewhat ahead of her time, though we should remember that this was also written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a classic example of a woman doing a man's job, and doing it rather well at that. Maybe, just maybe, Portia represents Elizabeth in demonstrating that a woman can do just as well as any man in the world of men.To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, andhindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted mybargains, cooled my friends, heated mineenemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hathnot a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed withthe same food, hurt with the same weapons, subjectto the same diseases, healed by the same means,warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, asa Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poisonus, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we notrevenge? If we are like you in the rest, we willresemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christianwrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be byChristian example? Why, revenge. The villany youteach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but Iwill better the instruction.
    • 5/5
      This seems to essentially be Shakespeare's response to The Jew of Malta, so if you've read that, this will seem very familiar to you. However, the language used is far more memorable, the lead character more sympathetic, and the story shaped to fit a different genre. This means that it ends on a far less tragic note, and also that it secures its place in history as one of Shakespeare's masterpieces. Essentially, it is a story of failed revenge, love, and injustice. As to the edition itself, I found it to be greatly helpful in understanding the action in the play. It has a layout which places each page of the play opposite a page of notes, definitions, explanations, and other things needed to understand that page more thoroughly. While I didn't always need it, I was certainly glad to have it whenever I ran into a turn of language that was unfamiliar, and I definitely appreciated the scene-by-scene summaries. Really, if you want to or need to read Shakespeare, an edition such as this is really the way to go, especially until you get more accustomed to it.
    • 4/5
      The Merchant of Venice was mis-named, because the titular merchant (Antonio) is nowhere near as interesting as Shylock, who's among the most fascinating characters Shakespeare has written. He has been mistreated for being Jewish, and the play centers on how he snaps when too many of the debts owed him cannot be repaid, so instead he demands the famous "pound of flesh" for themThe play is also kind of unique for Shakespeare because we get some wonderful female characters too. Portia is an independently rich woman who goes to court dressed as a man to fight a case; she's very compelling as well.The Merchant of Venice is a pretty short play, but it covers a lot of ground about religion, class, and gender, which would make it a good choice for, say, teaching an English class how to do literary analysis. But mostly it is just good because the characters involved are so interesting and complex, it's neat to see them interact
    • 5/5
      My favorite Shakespearean work. He wrote it as a comedy, and it fits...but is it really entertaining? In this day and age, the subject matter may not be as "happy" as it once was thought. I particularly find it interesting to think about how Shylock might be portrayed: as a stereotypical Jew or as a prominent Venetian merchant.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite plays. I love the Shylock "hate not a Jew eyes" speech. I feel, being Mormon, I can relate to that.
    • 5/5
      Probably my favorite Shakespeare play. I loved it even as an assigned reading mission in high school. I've since read it again and have it seen performed on several stages. Shylock remains one of the most memorable literary characters in the "theater" of my mind.
    • 5/5
      My personal favorite of Shakespeare's plays, MERCHANT features some of the most real characters in all of literature. While the plot is extreme, the dialogue rings true, and you believe the ridiculous circumstances because of the strength of the writing. I never weary of it.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating in terms of its portrayal of Shylock and what we can glean from it about attitudes at the time. I also love Portia, one of Shakespeare's more witty and intelligent heroines.
    • 2/5
      I don't really get this one. If Shylock is supposed to be the sympathetic character his vindictiveness towards Antonio isn't given enough support to be understandable. If Portia is then it's racist garbage. Either way I have to say I'm not feeling it. The ring subplot is cute I guess.
    • 5/5
      CHRIS-TIANS! CHRIS-TIANS! GOTTA GIVE IT UP FOR CHRIS-TIANS! EVERYTHING GOES GREAT FOR CHRIS-TIANS! There are, as we know, many unresolvable interpretative ourobori in this play--the anti-Semitism thing, the relationship of Antonio and Bassanio, the very vexed question of the Venetian oath, that false thing, and what yet makes Bassanio and Portia infinitely cold and clean and Shylock a quintessence of grime--I mean to say, better to rule one's house in the Ghetto than serve in Belmont, right? As Jessica will learn, to her sorrow? The fact that the passionate malice of the Italians is so much more terrifying, here, than the grim legalmindedness of the Jew? These are all interesting things, and this great play is chock-full of more cool thoughts like them--about capitalism, about youth sucking age dry like the New Testament does the Old, about the Prince of Morocco as a secret counterpoint to Shylock--the Semite prince, cartoonishly accipitrine, flourishing a scimitar-world of infinite princehood--versus the Semite moneylender, ever debased below his pecuniary value, from the people who had their princes taken away long ago. And you can get diverted and watch a smartass Hermione Granger type (In the context of Christian and post-Christian hatred, I use the word "progress" with infinite trepidation, but surely the fact that our generation's reincarnation of the bright spark who always has something up her sleeve is a Mudblood fighting Voldemort and his crew of wizard Nazis, and not an abjurer and defender and reinscriber of racial boundaries around the home, possibly that's a small good thing?) break a bitter old man and clear the road for wedding-ring hijinx--and you know that for the happy crew at the middle, somehow the bill for the uneasy edge that their ringplay has in that extraordinary final scene falls at Shylock's door too. You can do all that but when you stop just watching the sweet show and try to resolve something, close any one of the doors that Shakespeare so suggestively leaves open, you find yourself tying yourself in knots, and getting into some really dark places. Why? Because it doesn't matter how we arrange our interpretations; there is no version of this play where Shylock's not fucked from the beginning, because he's the villain and the groundlings want him to get a kick, and there's no version where he's not the villain--there never will be--why? Because he's the Jew. And suddenly it hits you--it hits generic Gentile me--why the representation of people like you as good and kind that the mainstream culture has always taken for granted is the most essential thing in the world. Because otherwise, on some level, from the earliest age, you're afraid that you're bad. And the rest of it proceeds inexorably outward from that fundamental trauma. Why does Antonio loathe Shylock? He's easy to loathe, because he's never had a role open to him that wasn't loathsome. Why does Shylock loathe Antonio? Because he's just as loathsome, only--roles again--nobody will ever see it, because he's inherited the snowy mantle of lion in winter. It's like how racism isn't wrong because those people we hate didn't have a choice about being hateful; that's not why; it's wrong because we didn't give them a choice. We made them hateful with our stories--and to the degree that they're hateful, it's no wonder, but for the dizzying degree that we've just revealed ourselves as hateful, there's no bond, no pound of flesh. We're just bastards.I saw Merchant the other night, and the dude who played Shylock didn't do this scene this way, but it came to me in the middle with an awful shiver and became, for me, this play's fearsome core: the speech? "Hath not a Jew hands?" Imagine Shylock, not defiant, not roaring, not cold as ice, not looking for pity, but gnawing his fingers, hitting himself in the head, throwing himself against the walls, saying "Is not a Jew bad--bad--BAD--just like a Christian? And will he not revenge, as a way of stopping himself from going home in the mirror and driving a toothpick into his face?" His defiance becomes his heroism, the refusal to make that traumatic break with himself. Antonio's not that strong, and I bet he goes to his guest room at Belmont and hears the young cavorting and looks at the lines on his face and does something horrible to himself. Every time Shylock walks out of that courtroom and we leave him for the winners, it's unforgivable, because behind the scenes somewhere there's the mutilated self, the violated body. Our great art shows us that body--but our greatest art makes us complicit in not wanting to see it, but being aware it's there. This is no happy ending, nor even a clean tragedian sleep of death. This is a bunch of damaged and undermined people walking away to sow the crimes of the future.
    • 4/5
      When the merchant Antonio is approached by his friend, Bassanio, for a loan, he doesn't have money in hand to loan. He's expecting a large profit upon the arrival of ships from various centers of trade, so he borrows the money from Jewish lender Shylock. If Antonio can't repay the loan by the due date, instead of interest, Shylock will take a pound of flesh from Antonio. Meanwhile, Bassanio is off to court Portia. Bassanio is lucky in love, but Antonio is very unlucky in business. All of his ships are lost, and Shylock is demanding his pound of flesh. Bassanio is distraught at having put his friend Antonio in this position. Fortunately, Portia has a plan...This is more like two different plays instead of a unified drama. Portia and her suitors begin as a separate story line, finally connected to the main plot through Bassanio's arrival. I think Polonius delivered his famous monologue to the wrong character in the wrong play. Antonio, Bassanio, and Shylock could all have benefited from his advice to “neither a borrower or a lender be”!
    • 3/5
      Shylock is a Jewish money-lender who faces the scorn and contempt of the Christian business community in 16th century Venice on a daily basis. Quite understandably, he seethes with anger over the anti-semitic slurs to which he is routinely subjected, but seizes the chance to get even when his arch-rival, the merchant Antonio, needs to borrow money. Shylock’s terms for the loan are simple: no interest will be charged (as per the Christian tradition against usury), but he will literally carve a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body if the principal repayment is even a day late. Of course, Antonio does miss that deadline and Shylock fully intends to carry out the contract’s sinister terms. However, the resourceful Portia—who has just married Antonio’s best friend Bassanio—steps into the legal dispute at the last moment, sparing Antonio’s life at the cost of everything that Shylock possesses or holds dear, including the religious faith to which he has been devoted his whole life. Antonio leaves the courtroom physically and financially intact—he does not even have to repay the loan—while Shylock exits a wholly broken man.Does the basic plot of The Merchant of Venice sound like the stuff of one of Shakespeare’s more rollicking comedies? If you think not, then we think alike. Indeed, I had a decidedly mixed reaction to this story, which I read rather than saw acted out on stage. On one hand, it is Shakespeare, so the story was briskly paced and the word play was occasionally brilliant (e.g., the time-honored expressions “pound of flesh,” “all that glisters is not gold,” and “the quality of mercy is not strained” appear in this play). However, I found it hard to root either for the alleged good guys—Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, Lorenzo—or against Shylock, who never really deserves anything that happens to him throughout the tale and is even betrayed in a remarkably callous manner by his own daughter, Jessica. The problem may well be that, in Shylock, the Immortal Bard created an intriguing and incredibly complex character when all he probably meant to do was provide some dramatic tension to get in the way of an otherwise silly love story. In fact, in this respect I am tempted to say that Shakespeare was hoisted by his own petard, but that would be a different play altogether.

    Book preview

    The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

    THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

    by William Shakespeare

    Wilder Publicatins, Inc.

    Copyright © 2014

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

    ISBN 978-1-62755-698-9

    Table of Contents

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. Venice. A street

    ACT I. SCENE II. Belmont. PORTIA’S house

    ACT I. SCENE III. Venice. A public place

    ACT II

    ACT II. SCENE I. Belmont. PORTIA’S house

    ACT II. SCENE II. Venice. A street

    ACT II. SCENE III. Venice. SHYLOCK’S house

    ACT II. SCENE IV. Venice. A street

    ACT II. SCENE V. Venice. Before SHYLOCK’S house

    ACT II. SCENE VI. Venice. Before SHYLOCK’S house

    ACT II. SCENE VII. Belmont. PORTIA’s house

    ACT II. SCENE VIII. Venice. A street

    ACT II. SCENE IX. Belmont. PORTIA’S house

    ACT III

    ACT III. SCENE I. Venice. A street

    ACT III. SCENE II. Belmont. PORTIA’S house

    ACT III. SCENE III. Venice. A street

    ACT III. SCENE IV. Belmont. PORTIA’S house

    ACT III. SCENE V. Belmont. The garden

    ACT IV

    ACT IV. SCENE I. Venice. The court of justice

    ACT IV. SCENE II. Venice. A street

    ACT V

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    THE DUKE OF VENICE

    THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO, suitor to Portia

    THE PRINCE OF ARRAGON, suitor to Portia

    ANTONIO, a merchant of Venice

    BASSANIO, his friend, suitor to Portia

    SOLANIO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio

    SALERIO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio

    GRATIANO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio

    LORENZO, in love with Jessica

    SHYLOCK, a rich Jew

    TUBAL, a Jew, his friend

    LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a clown, servant to Shylock

    OLD GOBBO, father to Launcelot

    LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio

    BALTHASAR, servant to Portia

    STEPHANO, servant to Portia

    PORTIA, a rich heiress

    NERISSA, her waiting—maid

    JESSICA, daughter to Shylock

    Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice,

    Gaoler, Servants, and other Attendants

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. Venice. A street

    Enter ANTONIO, SALERIO, and SOLANIO

    ANTONIO: In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.

    It wearies me; you say it wearies you;

    But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,

    What stuff ‘tis made of, whereof it is born,

    I am to learn;

    And such a want—wit sadness makes of me

    That I have much ado to know myself.

    SALERIO: Your mind is tossing on the ocean;

    There where your argosies, with portly sail—

    Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,

    Or as it were the pageants of the sea—

    Do overpeer the petty traffickers,

    That curtsy to them, do them reverence,

    As they fly by them with their woven wings.

    SOLANIO: Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,

    The better part of my affections would

    Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still

    Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,

    Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;

    And every object that might make me fear

    Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,

    Would make me sad.

    SALERIO: My wind, cooling my broth,

    Would blow me to an ague when I thought

    What harm a wind too great might do at sea.

    I should not see the sandy hour—glass run

    But I should think of shallows and of flats,

    And see my wealthy Andrew dock’d in sand,

    Vailing her high top lower than her ribs

    To kiss her burial. Should I go to church

    And see the holy edifice of stone,

    And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,

    Which, touching but my gentle vessel’s side,

    Would scatter all her spices on the stream,

    Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,

    And, in a word, but even now worth this,

    And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought

    To think on this, and shall I lack the thought

    That such a thing bechanc’d would make me sad?

    But tell not me; I know Antonio

    Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

    ANTONIO: Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it,

    My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,

    Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate

    Upon the fortune of this present year;

    Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

    SOLANIO: Why then you are in love.

    ANTONIO: Fie, fie!

    SOLANIO: Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad

    Because you are not merry; and ‘twere as easy

    For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry,

    Because you are not sad. Now, by two—headed Janus,

    Nature hath fram’d strange fellows in her time:

    Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,

    And laugh like parrots at a bag—piper;

    And other of such vinegar aspect

    That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile

    Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

    Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO

    Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,

    Gratiano and Lorenzo. Fare ye well;

    We leave you now with better company.

    SALERIO: I would have stay’d till I had made you merry,

    If worthier friends had not prevented me.

    ANTONIO: Your worth is very dear in my regard.

    I take it your own business calls on you,

    And you embrace th’ occasion to depart.

    SALERIO: Good morrow, my good lords.

    BASSANIO: Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? Say when.

    You grow exceeding strange; must it be so?

    SALERIO: We’ll make our leisures to attend on yours.

    Exeunt SALERIO and SOLANIO

    LORENZO: My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,

    We two will leave you; but at dinner—time,

    I pray you, have in mind where we must meet.

    BASSANIO: I will not fail you.

    GRATIANO: You look not well, Signior Antonio;

    You have too much respect upon the world;

    They lose it that do buy it with much care.

    Believe me, you are marvellously chang’d.

    ANTONIO: I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano—

    A stage, where every man must play a part,

    And mine a sad one.

    GRATIANO: Let me play the fool.

    With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;

    And let my liver rather heat with wine

    Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.

    Why should a man whose blood is warm within

    Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster,

    Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice

    By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio—

    I love thee, and ‘tis my love that speaks—

    There are a sort of men whose visages

    Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,

    And do a wilful stillness entertain,

    With purpose to be dress’d in an opinion

    Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;

    As who should say ‘I am Sir Oracle,

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