The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare (good books to read for beginners .TXT) 📗

The Merchant of Venice

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dramatis Personae The Merchant of Venice Act I Scene I Scene II Scene III Act II Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Scene VI Scene VII Scene VIII Scene IX Act III Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Act IV Scene I Scene II Act V Scene I Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on digital scans available at the HathiTrust Digital Library.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

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