The Merchant of Venice
Who is the Merchant of Venice?
Not Shylock, but Antonio. How did he get to be the title character? Can we make anything of
the Venice/Venus thing?
How do the two plots intertwine? (Jessica connects them.)
The Rule of Law is important here. Civil law, religious law. Moral law. Laws of Nature.
Oaths, bonds.
It’s not a tragedy. It’s not quite a comedy, but it is obviously a play.
ACT I
Scene i – Antonio is sad. His friends are not much help. Salarino runs through all manner of
disasters that might befall his ships. (It’s fun-ny.)
Bassanio is his “noble kinsman”.
Salarino and Salanio make a hasty retreat when Bassanio arrives. What’s up with that? And it
seems to be a trend.
Gratiano is a joyous fool – and happy to be so. He’s got no use for “serious types” (who are
probably just as big fools as he, only pretending not to be.
Bassanio lapses into prose – but only briefly. As soon as Antonio brings up Portia, he goes back
to verse.
Bassanio admits that he has bene profligate – and that he owes the most (literally and
figuratively) – to Antonio. But he has a plan (a “warranty” to “get clear of all the debts I owe”.
The Parable of the Arrows. Antonio has already said he’s willing to help. Apparently the first
arrows went in chasing women, too. But this one will pay off, he’s sure.
What’s the plan? Here’s the plan. Portia, fair and virtuous. And, I think she likes me. )Nothing
she said, but. . . “speechless messages”.)
Antonio is not liquid at the moment, but is happy to borrow for his friend.
Act I, scene i
Ant.
S&S
Grat & Lor.
Bass.
Scene ii – Portia is also sad (in her “little body”). She and Nerissa are prosin’, too (being
intimate?). What’s to be sad about, says Nerissa.
Her dead father will be choosing her husband, not her. (Rrrrrrrr!) But she means to follow his
will.
Run down of the suitors – all quite silly. But none of them will play the game (under the terms).
Is the Prince of Morocco a blackamoor?
Act II, scene ii
Portia/Nerissa
Scene iii – Shylock and Bassanio making the deal (3,000 ducats for 3 months). Antonio is a
“good man” (financially, that is. He’s good for the cash). But he’s got all his ships out on dangerous
ventures.
Shylock will do business, walk and talk with you, but won’t eat, drink, or pray (especially the
pork) with you. Identifies Jesus as a “Nazarite”.
Shylock hates Antonio “for he is a Christian”, but moreso because he lends money at no
interest (which is Shylock’s business – and which Shakespeare was known to do). And, he claims,
Antonio hates Jews.
Antonio doesn’t usually borrow with interest, but for Bassanio, he will.
The story of Jacob: a shrewd businessman who cheated exploited a loophole (he had arranged)
to get more than his share of sheep.
“The devil can cite scripture for his purpose”.
Hey, Antonio. You have spit on me. Kicked me. All for using my own money. And now you
want to borrow from me. (And I’ll spit on you again, says Antonio.)
The deal: a pound of flesh.
Antonio thinks “the Hebrew will turn Christian; he grows kind.” Wrong!
Act I, scene iii
Shylock
Bassanio
Antonio
ACT II
Scene i – Yes, Morocco is black. He doesn’t like having to rely on chance.
The deal is that he must apparently renounce all women (at least for marriage) if he chooses
wrong.
Act II, scene i
Portia
Morocco
Scene ii – Soliloquy (in prose) by Launcelot Gobbo. He wants to leave Shylock’s service, but
that would entail breaking a contract (I surmise). Wicked funny. Old Gobbo is “sand-blind”, and can’t
recognize his own son. (Ha-ha.)
Bassanio arrives, and agrees to take on Launcelot. (Like Dogberry in Much Ado, they misuse big
words in an attempt to impress.) There’s a bit about palmistry – then the Gobbos go.
Gratiano joins Bassiano, and asks to accompany him to Belmont. Okay, but tone it down, you
clown, Bassiano advises.
Act II, scene ii
Launcelot
Old Gobbo
Bassanio
Gratiano
Scene iii – Jessica prepares to go, and employs Launcelot as a pander. He admires her beauty
(she is apparently the exotic beauty – Rebecca – so her Jewishness is forgiveable. She’s a little regretful
about rejecting her father(s), but, oh well!
Act II, scene iii
Jessica
Launcelot
Scene iv – Launcelot finds Lorenzo, returns with a message. Lorenzo tells Gratiano that Jessica
means to elope with him (and she’s bringing gold and jewels, too!) What a girl!
Act II, scene iv
S&S
Lorenzo
Gratiano
Launcelot
Scene v – Shylock is about to head out to supper with Bassanio and Antonio, but he has some
misgivings. He dreamed about moneybags, and as there is to be a mask this night, he directs Jessica to
stay away from the windows. He is glad to get rid of Launcelot, who was lazy. And “drones hive not
with [him]”. Shylock exits, and Jessica gives him one last goodbye.
Act II, scene v
Shylock
Launcelot
Jessica
Scene vi – Under Shylock’s window, Gratiano and Salarino wait. They are surprised that
Lorenzo is late, since still-to-be-enjoyed anything (especially love) rarely has to wait.
Lorenzo enters, and Jessica drops a casket to him. She is embarrassed to be disguised as a boy.
Before leaving, she grabs a few more ducats, causing Gratiano to swear (by his foreskin? “hood”) that
she is now more Gentile than Jew.
Supper with Shylock done, Antonio arrives, looking for Gratiano. No time to party, they must
head right out to Belmont.
Act II, scene vi
Gratiano
Salarino
Lorenzo
Jessica
Antonio
Scene vii – Shakespeare spends a lot of time on this scene, methinks. The Prince of Morocco
chooses the gold casket (inside which is a “carrion Death” – a skull, with a message tucked in the eye
socket). Portia is relieved that she doesn’t have to marry a black man.
Gold: Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.
Silver: Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.
Lead: Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.
“Me” is the casket, or is it Portia? This also looks ahead to the ring test.
“All that glisters is not gold.” (Dude, try to come up with something original!)
Act II, scene vii
Morocco
Portia
Scene viii – Salarino and Salanio (sounds like they should be played by Chico and Harpo) dish the
latest gossip. Shylock has learned that his daughter has eloped with a Christian, taking a lot of Shylock’s
gold with her. Shylock can’t figure out which is worse – O, my daughter! O, my ducats! Pure comedy
gold.
This episode, however, is only reported to us: so instead of the bereaved father, we get a gentile
giving us a stage Jew. (Why would you want to do it that way, Will?)
Sal and Sal think that Antonio may be the one paying for this. Oh, and one of his ships
miscarried in the English channel.
Act II, scene viii
Salarino
Salanio
Scene ix – Time for the Prince of Arragon to give it a try. He chooses silver. (The conditions
are made clear here: no telling; no wooing for a wife; leave immediately.)
The Prince doesn’t want to be one of a crowd; he claims to believe in merit over privilege.
(Odd for a prince, but…)
The silver casket holds “a portrait of a blinking idiot/Holding a schedule”.
Meanwhile, another suitor arrives, or, rather, his handsome ambassador.
Act II, scene ix
Arragon
Portia
Nerissa
Servant
ACT III
Scene i – The two Sals are up to it again: gossiping in the street. Antonio has lost another ship.
Shylock happens by, and they mock him. Shylock damns his daughter. (Or does he? It’s in the passive
voice – “she is damned for it”.) Again, the Sals draw a wide distinction between father and daughter.
Shylock tells the Sals that Antonio has lost another ship. For the first time (I think) he says “let
him look to his bond” (three times). Antonio has “been smug” to Shylock; called him userer; lent
money out at no interest (“out of Christian courtesy”).
What good would Antonio’s flesh be, wonders Salarino. Fish bait, says Shylock. (Ouch!) For
revenge. But then he lists the many ways that Antonio has “hindered him”. And for what reasons? “I
am a Jew.” Shylock then segues into his “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech (all in prose (?), yet quite moving
(and liberal and magnanimous – thank you , Will)). And he finishes by intimating that he has learned
revenge from the Christians. (Although this may be a Christian act in deed, it certainly is not in fact. So
what are we to make of that?)
Then Tubal arrives, and Shylock is all about his lost ducats (and his daughter). But mostly about
his ducats. (It’s not as funny as when Salanio did it.) He pauses to wish his daughter dead, and his
money returned. (Are we to take this literally, or is it pure hurt and anger? I suspect the former.)
Tubal tells Shylock that another of Antonio’s ships has wrecked, and Shylock is delighted. Then
that Jessica is spending wildly in Genoa, and he’s mortified. Then that Antonio is near bankrupt, and
Shylock is delighted. Then that Jessica traded a ring for a monkey, and he is mortified. (That up, down,
up, down. Funny stuff, or what?)
It turns out that the ring was turquoise given him by his late wife, before they married. That’s
kind of moving and humanizing. But Shakespeare won’t leave it there. The scene finishes with Shylock
plotting Antonio’s arrest. If Antonio is “out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will.” So it seems
a business decision. And he arranges to meet Tubal later (“at our synagogue”). Hmmm.
Act III, scene i
Sal & Sal
Shylock
Tubal
Scene ii – Bassanio ready to do this thing, but Portia wants him to wait – lest he guess wrong.
“Tell me where is fancy bred/ In the heart or in the head?” (Is this pertinent to the themes of the play
as a whole?)
Bassanio disdains the golden casket: the “tainted and corrupt” plea can be “seasoned with a
gracious voice” (law); in religion, “damned errors” can be blessed, their “grossness” “hidden”; cowards
wear the show of bravery; even beauty is “purchased by the weight”. Ornament is “but the guiled
shore/ To a most dangerous sea” – hello, Antonio!
Silver he dismisses with a word or two, and then goes right for the lead. (Those last two were
awful quick.)
The scroll in the casket: “Since this fortune falls to you,/ Be content and seek no new”. Fortune
is money; also fate. And this foreshadows the ring game.
Rich and beautiful as she is, Portia wishes she had more of everything, to be able to “stand high
in [his] account”. She really kneels down to him – and I’ve seen no indication that he really deserves it.
(Nor she, particularly, for that matter.) I admire Antonio more at this point (save for his spitting antiSemitism), and Old Shylock himself. (That Portia and Bassanio really give me a pain in the ass, if you want to
know the truth. HC)
But even as she debases herself in front of Bassanio (“yours to be directed,/ as from her lord,
her governor, her king.” Jeez, Portia) she hands him the ring, and tells him he’d better hang onto it
forever. (Is this her bond, her test?) And Bassanio pledges to hold onto it till death do them part. A
new contract.
Meanwhile, as all this was going on with the caskets, Gratiano and Nerissa have fallen in love and
want to get married. (Of course.) Right on par for a Shakespearean comedy.
You’d think that that would be about enough for one scene, but no! Here come Lorenzo,
Jessica, and Salerio, with a letter for Bassanio from Antonio. All of his ships – I count six – have been
wrecked at sea. He’s ruined. Shylock wants his bond, and he’s going hard after it (“he would rather
have Antonio’s flesh/ Than twenty times the value of the sum/ That he did owe him”). He “plies at the
Duke” morning and night for “justice”.
Portia promises to pay anything – twenty times over if need be. (20 x 150,000 = $3 million).
Good ol’ Antonio absolves Bassanio of both the debt and any guilt he might be feeling. (Ain’t
that white of him?)
Act III, scene ii
Bassanio
Portia
Gratiano
Nerissa
Lorenzo
Jessica
Salerio
325
Scene iii – Antonio is out on the street (well, his jailer is keeping a strict eye on him), making a
plea to Shylock, but the latter is having none of it. He wants his bond. Antonio called him a dog, so he’s
going to be one. Antonio gives up. See, the thing is, he has rescued many of Shylock’s potential victims
(i.e. deadbeat customers), so Shylock hates him. (Nothing about the spitting, naturally.)
So Antonio seems reconciled to his fate – he’s so thin with worry that he’s barely got a pound
to spare, poor thing. As long as Bassanio comes to see him “pay his debt”, he’ll be happy.
(Hey, where’s Salanio?)
Act III, scene iii
Shylock
Salarino
Antonio
Jailer
36
Scene iv – Lorenzo tells Portia what a great guy Antonio is – no doubt, she says, since like likes
like, so if Antonio and Bassanio are pals. . .
She decides – for reasons surpassing credulity – to turn over her estate to Lorenzo and Jessica,
while she and Nerissa “retire to a monstery” two miles away to wait out the ordeal.
She sends Balthasar off to her cousion Dr. Bellario, the hotshot lawyer, for some legal advice
and some lawyerin’ duds. Portia means to disguise herself as a man – not with clothes only, but with
male mannerisms and (bad) habits (of which apparently she knows whereof she speaks).
Act III, scene iv
Portia
Nerissa
Lorenzo
Jessica
Balthasar
85
Scene v – Well, the big dramatic courtroom scene is just ahead, so we’re going to need a little
comic interlude. So haul out the clown, Launcelot Gobbo. He thinks that Jessica is damned, with a Jew
for a father, or maybe a slattern for a mother. Jessica really admires Portia.
Act III, scene v
Launcelot
Jessica
Lorenzo
85
ACT IV
Scene i – The Duke commiserates with Antonio: this Shylock is “an inhuman wretch/ Uncapable
of pity, void and empty/ from any dram of mercy”. But Antonio is ready to suffer patiently at the hands
of this Jew (hmmm, sounds familiar).
Shylock enters and the Duke makes his plea. He’s pretty sure that Shylock will relent at the last
moment, and even give Antonio back half of the money he borrowed and can’t pay back – (Who do
they thin Antonio is, AIG?) – seeing as Antonio has been having such a tough time of it lately, with his
ships and all. Shylock, however, doesn’t think so. He refuses to give the court any other answer that
that he hates Antonio (but not why). Oh, just give it up, says Antonio.
Bassanio offers 6,000 ducats. “How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?” the Duke asks.
“How am I in the wrong?” wonders Shylock. You all have slaves. Do I tell you to set them free? Marry
them to your kids? He just want the rule of law enforced. But here comes Portia, in disguise, on behalf
of Bellario.
Shylock is whetting his knife on the sole of his boot, and Gratiano curses him (“thou damned,
inexecrable dog”). Shylock stands firm. All he’s asking is what’s his by right under the law.
Portia admits that Shylock is well within his rights, and can only ask for mercy. On what
“compulsion”, demands Shylock.
Portia follows the beautiful “Quality of Mercy” soliloquy. Mercy is:
 twice blest (giver and receiver)
 mightiest in the mighty
 an attribute of God himself
 something that we all require (for salvation)
Shylock is unmoved. Bassanio offers him 30,000 ducats, then calls on Portia to bend the law. Can’t be
done, says Portia. The law’s the law. Shylock praises her logic. Portia offers 9,000 ducats. Refused. “I
have an oath in heaven” (another contract). 9,000, says Portia. That’s my final offer. No thanks, says
Shylock.
Okay, then. Get out the scales and the knife. Bare Antonio’s bosom.
Antonio and Bassanio exchange their loves. Bassanio pledges that he would gladly give up his
wife and life to deliver Antonio. Gratiano wishes his beloved wife were in heaven to make a plea on
Antonio’s behalf. (Really? muses Nerissa.) This talk of marriage brings Jessica to the mind of Shylock.
(Her marriage to a Christian is truly galling to him.)
So then Portia plays her trump card (which, no doubt, she had up her sleeve all this while –
courtesy of Bellario, I would assume). Okay, a pound of flesh – exactly! – and no blood!
Shylock sees and things are and hurries to make a deal (the 9,000, which Bassanio is ready to
pay – with Portia’s money). But too late for that. Gratiano takes the occasion to ridicule Shylock and
his earlier praise of the young lawyer (“a second Daniel”).
Now Portia pours it on. The law states that “an alien” has made an attempt on the life of a
Venitian, and that he must give half of his goods to Antonio, and the other half to the state. She
recommends that Shylock apply to the Duke for “mercy”.
The merciful Duke gives Shylock his life – not a very appealing prize at this juncture of the
moneylender. Antonio then proposes that the state forego its half of the prize money, and give it to
Antonio instead. (WTF?) Antonio, when Shylock dies, will give all that money to Lorenzo, “the
gentleman/ that lately stole his daughter”. Oh, and Shylock must turn Christian, and anything else that
he might make before he dies goes to Jessica, too. Shylock accedes to all demands. “Send the deed
after me,/ And I will sign it”, he says, exiting.
Wow! What a dramatic ending! Some play!
Wait, what’s this? The Duke invites the young lawyer to dinner, but s/he begs off. Bassanio
offers the 3,000 ducats to the lawyer as payment for services rendered: s/he refuses. Instead, the lawyer
asks for 1) Antonio’s gloves, and 2) Bassanio’s ring. Can’t do it, says Bassanio. Promised my wife. He
seems to have passed the test. But then Antonio says “Give her the ring.” (“Let his deservings and my
love withal/ Be valued ‘gainst your wife’s commandment.”) Well, you put it that way, I suppose.
Bassanio gives Gratiano the ring and bids him take it to the lawyer.
Act IV, scene i
Duke
Antonio
Bassanio
Gratiano
Shylock
Nerissa
Portia
460
Scene ii – Gratiano delivers the ring to Portia. Wait, says Nerissa. Let me see if my husband
(Gratiano) will give up his ring to me.
ACT IV, scene ii
Portia
Nerissa
Gratiano
20
ACT V
Scene i – Jessica and Lorenzo are out walking in the moonlight. He praises the night. She brings
up the negative side. Just lovers’ games.
A servant announces that the girls are coming. Lorenzo and Jessica start to go into to make
arrangements, but the servants can handle all that. They’ll stay outside an listen to music.
Portia and Nerissa arrive, then Bassanio, Antonio, and Gratiano. A quarrel breaks out, as
Nerissa berates Gratiano for giving away his ring. Then Gratiano throws Bassanio under the bus for
giving away his ring. But, they work it all out. The boys promise never to do it again, Antonio pledges
his soul as surety, and away we go.
Oh, and Antonio ships – three of them, at least, are okay. He’s still rich, and Jessica, we have
some good news for you, too (once your stupid old man finally drops dead!).
ACT V, scene i
Lorenzo
Jessica
Stephano
Musicians
Portia
Nerissa
Bassanio
Antonio
Gratiano
280