The Merchant of Venice

By William Shakespeare.

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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 likewise to Portia

  • Salanio, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

  • Salarino, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

  • Gratiano, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

  • Salerio, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

  • Lorenzo, in love with Jessica

  • Shylock, a rich Jew

  • Tubal, a Jew, his friend

  • Launcelot Gobbo, the clown, servant to Shylock

  • Old Gobbo, father to Launcelot

  • Leonardo, servant to Bassiano

  • 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 to Portia, and other attendants

Scene: Partly at Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia, on the Continent.

The Merchant of Venice

Act I

Scene I

Venice. A street.

Enter Antonio, Salarino, and Salanio.
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.
Salarino

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.
Salanio

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.
Salarino

My wind cooling my broth
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought
What harm a wind too great at sea might do.
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 bechanced 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.
Salarino Why, then you are in love.
Antonio Fie, fie!
Salarino

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 framed 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.
Salanio

Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,
Gratiano and Lorenzo. Fare ye well:
We leave you now with better company.
Salarino

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 the occasion to depart.
Salarino Good morrow, my good lords.
Bassanio

Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when?
You grow exceeding strange: must it be so?
Salarino We’ll make our leisures to attend on yours. Exeunt Salarino and Salanio.
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 changed.
Antonio

I hold the world but as