‘The Merchant of Venice’ In Eight Key Scenes
1. ANTONIO OFFERS TO ACT AS BASSANIO’S GUARANTOR (1:1)
To you, Antonio,
I owe the most, in money and in love (Bassanio)
My purse, my person, my extremest means,
Lie all unlock'd to your occasions. (Antonio)
In Belmont is a lady richly left;
And she is fair, and, fairer than that word (Bassanio)
2. PORTIA AND NERISSA DISCUSS THE CASKET TEST (1:2)
If he have the condition of
a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather
he should shrive me than wive me. (Portia)
3. ANTONIO AND BASSANIO NEGOTIATE A BOND WITH SHYLOCK (1:3)
I hate him for he is a Christian (Shylock)
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gabardine (Shylock)
I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too (Antonio)
4. JESSICA ELOPES WITH LORENZO (2:6)
Our house is hell (Jessica)
5. SHYLOCK IS THE VICTIM OF INTOLERANCE (3:1)
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! (Salanio)
If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? (Shylock)
6. BASSANIO CHOOSES HIS CASKET AND DISCOVERS HIS FORTUNE (3:2)
This house, these servants and this same myself
Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring (Portia)
But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence (Bassanio)
7. SHYLOCK DEMANDS JUSTICE (4:1)
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy. (Duke)
I would have my bond (Shylock)
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you (Bassanio)
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven (Portia)
Tarry a little; there is something else. (Portia)
8. FRIENDS AND LOVERS ARE RECONCILED (5:2)
Now, by mine honour, which is yet mine own,
I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow. (Portia)
Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people. (Lorenzo)