The Merchant of Venice
Scene Summary
ACT ONE
Scene One
We are introduced to Antonio, whose first line is: “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.”
Antonio is a wealthy merchant and his friend, Bassanio, asks him to lend him some money.
(Bassanio needs to borrow the money as he has none of his own: “I have disabled mine
estate.”)
He needs the money to travel to Belmont to try and win the heart of Portia (“a lady richly
left”).
Antonio cannot give money to Bassanio as all his fortunes are at sea, but he tells him to: “go
forth, try what my credit can in Venice do.”
Scene Two
Portia is frustrated because her father’s will means that she cannot choose her own
husband: “I may neither chose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike...”. Before he died
her father left a challenge: “...the lottery he hath devised in these three chests of gold, silver
and lead...”
All of the suitors she’s had so far disgust her. However, there is one man she is interested in
and he is Bassanio: “I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise.”
Scene Three
Back in Venice, Bassanio asks Shylock for a loan of three thousand ducats for three months,
for which ‘Antonio bound’. Shylock wants to speak to Antonio, but refuses to dine with him:
“I will not eat with you, drink with you or pray with you.”
Shylock goes on to say of Antonio: “I hate him for he is a Christian” and “he lends out money
gratis”.
Shylock then goes on to describe how badly Antonio has treated him in the past: “Many a
time and oft...you call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine.”
Shylock agrees to the loan on the condition that if it is not paid back in full within three
months, he will take a pound of Antonio’s flesh.
Bassanio doesn’t want Antonio to sign up to this, but Antonio is confident he can repay the
loan: “My ships come home a month before the day.”
Shylock agrees to lend Antonio 3,000 ducats for 3 months. If the loan is not repaid on time,
Antonio must give Shylock a pound of his flesh.
ACT TWO
Scene One
The Prince of Morocco arrives to try and win Portia’s hand in marriage. He urges her not to
be put off by his dark skin colour: “Mislike me not for my complexion.”
Shakespeare uses this scene to make an important comment about race. The Prince says
that if Portia has doubts about him, he should be compared to “the fairest creature
northward born...to prove whose blood is reddest...”
Portia reminds the Prince that is not for her to decide who she marries: “...the lott’ry of my
destiny bars me the right of voluntary choosing.”
Scene Two
Lancelet Gobbo (Shylock’s servant) is having a crisis of conscience as he decides whether or
not to run away from his master. He refers to Shylock as “the very devil incarnation”.
He encounters his blind father – Old Gobbo – and decided to play a trick on him. He then
tells his father that he is fed up working for Shylock: “I am famished in his service.”
They meet Bassanio and Old Gobbo asks him to employ his son as his servant. Bassanio
agrees.
Gratiano asks Bassanio if he can go to Belmont with him. Bassanio is reluctant as Gratiano is
“wild” and “rude”. But Gratiano promises to behave - putting on a “sober habit”.
Scene Three
Jessica is sad to learn that Lancelet is leaving: “Our house is hell...”
Jessica gets Lancelet to pass a letter to Lorenzo – she plans to run away with him and
become a Christian so that they can marry.
Scene Four
Lorenzo receives Jessica’s letter and confirms that they are going to run away together that
night. It all has to be arranged secretly.
Scene Five
Shylock goes out for dinner, leaving Jessica alone at home. He warns her to ignore the silly
behaviour of the Christians outside: “Let not the sound of shallow fopp’ry enter my sober
house.” As Lancelet leaves, Shylock hopes that he is going to help Bassanio to “waste his
borrowed purse.”
After Shylock leaves, Jessica says:
“Farewell; and if my fortune not be crost / I have a father, you a daughter, lost”.
Scene Six
Lorenzo and his friends arrive at Shylock’s house to take Jessica away. She steals money
from her father to take with them.
Scene Seven
The Prince of Morocco must choose between three caskets – one gold, one silver and one
lead. Only one contains a picture of Portia and if he chooses this one he can marry her (this
was her father’s instruction before he died). The Prince chooses the gold casket, which is the
wrong one. It contains a note which says, “All that glisters is not gold...”
Scene Eight
Back in Venice, news of Jessica’s escape is public – Solanio and Salarino mock Shylock – “Oh
my ducats! Oh my daughter! Fled with a Christian!”
Those who know Antonio are concerned that Shylock may treat him harshly because he is
upset about Jessica running away. A ship has been lost at sea and people are worried that it
might be Antonio’s.
Scene Nine
The Prince of Arragon visits Portia and chooses the silver casket. This is the wrong one –
“There be fools alive that silver’d o’er; and so was this.” Bassanio arrives to see Portia.
Act Three
Scene One
It is confirmed that Antonio has lost one of his ships at sea. Shylock encounters Salarino and
Salanio and accuses them of knowing about Jessica’s escape: “You knew, none so well...”
Shylock then goes on to list all the wrongs Antonio has done towards him:
 He disgraced him
 He ‘hindered him half a million’
 Laughed at his losses
 Mocked his gains
 Scorned his nation
 Thwarted his bargains
 ‘Cooled’ his friends
 ‘Heated’ his enemies
He then asks: “And what’s his reason?” and goes on to explain: “I am a Jew.” Shylock
continues to ask the men to consider all the ways in which Jews and Christians are the same:
“Hath not a Jew eyes...” He then promises he will have his revenge.
Tubal arrives, with news of Nerissa. Shylock states:
“The curse never fell upon our nation until now; I never felt it till now...I would my daughter
were dead at my feet and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hearsed at my foot, and
the ducats in her coffin!”
Shylock learns of Antonio’s misfortune and is glad: “I thank God, I thank God! Is it true?
Good news, good news – ha, ha! I am glad of it. I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him...”
Tubal then tells Shylock he has heard rumours of Jessica’s extravagant spending: “One of
them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.”
Shylock reveals that this was her mother’s ring: “I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I
would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.”
Scene 2
Bassanio arrives in Belmont and chooses the lead casket, which is the correct one. Bassanio
and Portia are to marry, as are Gratiano and Nerissa. The happy atmosphere is spoilt when a
letter arrives from Venice, explaining that the bond on Shylock’s loan has now been broken.
Salerio warns Bassanio that even if Antonio could pay the bond, “the Jew he would not take
it...he plies the Duke at morning and at night...none can drive him from the envious plea of
forfeiture, or justice, and his bond.”
Scene 3
Shylock is confident that at his trial, Antonio will be forced to meet the terms of his bond
and give him a pound of flesh, repeatedly stating: “I will have my bond!”
Antonio fears he is correct as Venice is renowned for its laws and justice. He also knows that
Shylock “hates” him for “I oft delivered from his forfeitures many that have at times made
moan to me.”
Scene 4
Portia asks Lorenzo to look after her estate when she goes away to a monastery “to live in
prayer and contemplation” whilst Bassanio is away.
She sends a letter via her servant to her cousin in Padua, Dr. Bellario, seeking his help. She
tells the servant to meet her back at the Venice ferry.
She tells Nerissa that she has a plan which will involve them dressing up as men.
Scene 5
Lancelet and Jessica quarrel. He tells her she is “damned” because she is a Jew and he
criticises Lorenzo for converting her to Christianity and raising “the price of pork”.
Lorenzo informs us that Lancelot has made a black woman (‘Moor’) pregnant.
Lancelot mocks Lorenzo’s naivety in running the household.
ACT 4
Scene 1
Antonio’s trial begins. Shylock refuses to accept the extra payment he is offered to forgo the
bond. Nerissa and Portia arrive at the court disguised as men (a legal expert and his
assistant). Shylock will not back down: “I crave the law, the penalty...” Portia agrees with
Shylock: “There is no power in Venice can alter a decree established” – in other words, the
law must be obeyed.
However, Portia then tricks Shylock. If they are to stick exactly to the wording of the bond,
Shylock must not cut any more or less than a pound of Antonio’s flesh. He must not spill a
drop of Antonio’s blood either – if he does he will be punished under Venetian law, for “If it
proved against an alien that by direct or indirect attempts he seek the life of any citizen, the
party ‘gainst which he doth contrive shall seize one half his goods; the other half comes to
the privy coffer of the state.”
Shylock is horrified at this prospect:
“Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that. You take my house, when you do take the prop
that doth sustain my house; you take my life, when you do take the means whereby I live.”
Antonio decides Shylock’s final punishment – he is to give up half of what he owns,
promising the rest to Lorenzo and Jessica on his death. He must also become a Christian.
At the end of the trial, Shylock’s final line in the play is spoken:
“I pray you give me leave to go from hence. I am not well. Send the deed after me and I will
sign it.”
Portia tricks Bassanio into handing over his ring as reward for the ‘doctor of law’. Bassanio is
reluctant: “There’s more depends on this than on the value...this ring was given me by my
wife...she made me vow...”
However, Antonio persuades Bassanio to hand over the ring.
Scene 2
Gratiano shows Nerissa (still disguised as the clerk) to Shylock’s house, to give him his deed.
She plans to try and get her ring from him as well.
Act 5
Scene 1
Back at Belmont, Portia and Nerissa make it home before Antonio, Bassanio and Gratiano.
Portia and Nerissa reprimand their husbands for giving away their rings: “If you had know
the virtue of the ring...” Portia accuses Bassanio of giving her ring to another woman and
threatens to become “as liberal as you...(allowing the doctor) my husband’s bed.” Antonio
defends Bassanio: “I dare be bound again...your lord will never more break faith advisedly.”
When the ladies return their rings, the men suspect they are “cuckolded” until they learn
the truth. They all retire happily to bed!