The30MinuteShakespeare

Hey all!

Here is the script for Let's Make a Scene: The Taming of the Shrew!

I will attach it as a Word doc and a text doc,

and also paste it below.

You can read the script printed out or on a tablet while we do the Zoom reading!

(Here is the Zoom link for the Let's Make a Scene: Thursday July 28 7 PM EST)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82970638505?pwd=aUpuMmFkcjJiY1ZXMHEwZC9xK25kZz09

Look at the small download links underneath to download Text or Word copy)

*****

By the way, here is your FREE PDF of the full 30-Minute version (with lots of fun and silly stage directions)

Your 

reward! (To download: look below the PDF for the tiny blue-lettered download link)

Hey all!

Here is the Script for Let's Make a Scene

A Midsummer Night's Dream: The 30-Minute Shakespeare.

Our event is on Zoom Thursday June 30th 2022 at 7 PM.

(Here is the Zoom link):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83988197043?pwd=Y9k8bk1-hReV-sLQShcljQXq8ziPnf.1

And here is the script, which you can print or read on a tablet or whatever!

Here it is as Text format:

***

And here it is pasted:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The 30-Minute Shakespeare

 Let’s Make a Scene!  Thursday June 30^th, 2022 7 PM Easetern

Characters in the Play 

The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting. For the full breakdown of characters, see Sample Program. 

Theseus: Duke of Athens, father to Hermia

Hippolyta: Queen of the Amazons
Egeus: Father to Hermia
Philostrate: Master of the Revels to Theseus 

Lysander:/ Demetrius/Hermia/Helena: Four lovers

Oberon: King of the Fairies
Titania: Queen of the Fairies
Robin Goodfellow (Puck): A hobgoblin in Oberon’s service

 Peasblossom/Cobweb/Mustardseed: Fairies attending upon Titania                     
Nick Bottom The weaver/Pyramus
Peter Quince The carpenter/Prologue 

Tom Snout The Tinker/Wall
Snug The Joiner/Lion
Robin Starveling The Tailor/Moon

SCENE 1 (ACT III, SCENE II).

NARRATOR  

In the woods outside of Athens, Oberon, the king of the fairies, and Puck, a hobgoblin in Oberon’s service are wreaking havoc on the love lives of our characters by anointing their eyes with love juice, sometimes with unexpected consequences!

OBERON
I wonder if Titania be awaked;
Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
Which she must dote on in extremity.-
Here comes my messenger.
            [Enter PUCK] 
How now, mad spirit!
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?

PUCK

My mistress with a monster is in love. 
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort,
An ass’s nole I fixed on his head:
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;
When in that moment,—so it came to pass,—
Titania waked, and straightway loved an ass.

OBERON

This falls out better than I could devise.
But hast thou yet latch’d the Athenian’s eyes
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?

PUCK
I took him sleeping,—that is finish’d too,—
And the Athenian woman by his side;
That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.

OBERON

Stand close: this is the same Athenian. 

.

PUCK

This is the woman, but not this the man.

DEMETRIUS
O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?

HERMIA
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
See me no more, whether he be dead or no.

DEMETRIUS
There is no following her in this fierce vein:
Here therefore for a while I will remain.
            

OBERON
What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite,
And laid the love-juice on some true-love’s sight:
About the wood go swifter than the wind,
And Helena of Athens look thou find:
By some illusion see thou bring her here:
I’ll charm his eyes against she do appear.

PUCK
I go, I go; look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.

OBERON Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid’s archery,

            Sink in apple of his eye!
When his love he doth espy,
Let her shine as gloriously
As the Venus of the sky. 

PUCK 
Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

LYSANDER
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears:
Look, when I vow, I weep.

HELENA 
You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
These vows are Hermia’s: will you give her o’er?

LYSANDER
I had no judgment when to her I swore.
Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.

DEMETRIUS 
O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
O, let me kiss
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss! 
            

HELENA

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena. 
            

LYSANDER
You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
For you love Hermia;- this you know I know:

DEMETRIUS
Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:
If e’er I lov’d her, all that love is gone.

DEMETRIUS (to Lysander)
Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.

Enter HERMIA

HERMIA
Lysander, found; 
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

LYSANDER 
Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?

HERMIA 
What love could press Lysander from my side?

LYSANDER 
Lysander’s love, that would not let him bide,- 
Fair Helena; who more engilds the night
Than all yon fiery O’s and eyes of light.
(to Hermia) Why seek’st thou me? could not this make thee know,
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?

HERMIA 
You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

HELENA, 
Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin’d all three
To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?

HERMIA 

I am amazed at your passionate words.
I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.

HELENA
Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius—
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot—
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare.

LYSANDER
Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!

HELENA
O excellent!

HERMIA 
Sweet, do not scorn her so.

LYSANDER 
Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do. 

DEMETRIUS 
I say I love thee more than he can do.

LYSANDER 
If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.   

.

DEMETRIUS
Quick, come!

HERMIA
Lysander, whereto tends all this? 

LYSANDER (to Hermia)
Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent! 

HERMIA
Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?
I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
Since night you loved me; yet since night you left me:

LYSANDER
Ay, by my life;
And never did desire to see thee more.
Be certain, nothing truer; ‘tis no jest
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

HERMIA [to Helena]
O me!— you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night
And stol’n my love’s heart from him?

HELENA 
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

HERMIA
Puppet! why, so; ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And are you grown so high in his esteem,
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. 

HELENA I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: 
You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

HERMIA
Lower! hark, again.

HELENA
O, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd!
And though she be but little, she is fierce.

HERMIA

Little again! Let me come to her. 
            

LYSANDER

Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hind’ring knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.

LYSANDER [to Demetrius]
Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.

DEMETRIUS
Follow! nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl

HELENA
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray;
My legs are longer though, to run away. 

Exit HELENA

HERMIA
I am amazed, and know not what to say.

OBERON
This is thy negligence. 

PUCK
Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.

OBERON
Thou see’st these lovers seek a place to fight:
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye;
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.

.

PUCK 
Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down:
Here comes one.

LYSANDER
Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

PUCK [imitating Demetrius]
Here, villain; drawn and ready. 
Follow me, then,
To plainer ground.

LYSANDER 
When I come where he calls,
then he is gone.Here will I rest me. 

DEMETRIUS  [not seeing Lysander]
Lysander! speak again:
Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?

PUCK
Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not? 
            

DEMETRIUS
Thou runn’st before me, shifting every place.
Faintness constraineth me
To measure out my length on this cold bed. 
            .

HELENA
O weary night, O long and tedious night,
Sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow’s eye,
Steal me awhile from mine own company. 
            

PUCK
Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds makes up four.
Here she comes, curst and sad:-
Cupid is a knavish lad,
Thus to make poor females mad.

HERMIA
Never so weary, never so in woe;
I can no further crawl, no further go;
Here will I rest me till the break of day.
            

PUCK
On the ground
Sleep sound:
I’ll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy

When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye

SCENE 2 (ACT IV, SCENE I)

NARRATOR 
Through magical fairie mischief, Bottom the Weaver has been transformed into an ass, and Titania, Queen of the fairies has fallen in love with him. We are still in the woods . . .

TITANIA
Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.

BOTTOM
Where’s Peas-blossom?

PEAS-BLOSSOM
Ready.

BOTTOM
Scratch my head, Peas-blossom.
Where’s Monsieur Cobweb?

COBWEB
Ready.

BOTTOM
Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipp’d humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag.

Where’s Monsieur Mustard-Seed?

MUSTARD-SEED
What’s your will?

BOTTOM
Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery Peas-blossom to scratch.

I must to the barber’s, monsieur; for methinks I am
marvelous hairy about the face; and I am such a
tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.

TITANIA
What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?

BOTTOM
I have a reasonable good ear in music: let’s have the tongs and bones. 

 I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

TITANIA
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.-
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! 

OBERON

Welcome, good Robin. See’st thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity: I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes:
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That he, awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair,
And think no more of this night’s accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be as thou wast wont to be

See as thou wast wont to see:
Now, my Titania: wake you, my sweet queen.

TITANIA 
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.

OBERON 
There lies your love.

TITANIA 
How came these things to pass?)
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! 
            

OBERON
Silence awhile.—Robin, take off this head.—
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these five the sense.

TITANIA
Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep. 

PUCK
Now, when thou wakest, with thine own fool’s eyes peep. 
            

TITANIA
Come, my lord; and in our flight,
Tell me how it came this night
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.

THESEUS
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain’s top,
But, soft! what nymphs are these? 
            

EGEUS
My lord, this is my daughter here asleep
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;
This Helena, I wonder of their being here together.

THESEUS 
Wake them.

LYSANDER
Pardon, my lord. 
            

THESEUS
I pray you all, stand up.
I know you two are rival enemies: 
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is so far from jealousy,
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?

LYSANDER
My lord, 
I cannot truly say how I came here;
I came with Hermia hither 

EGEUS
I beg the law, the law, upon his head.

DEMETRIUS
But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,—
But by some power it is,—my love to Hermia,
Melted as the snow,
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object, and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. 
            

THESEUS
Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Egeus, I will overbear your will;
For in the temple, by and by, with us
These couples shall eternally be knit:
Away with us to Athens! three and three,
We’ll hold a feast in great solemnity.
Come, Hippolyta.

DEMETRIUS

Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.- 
Let’s follow him;
And, by the way, let us recount our dreams.

BOTTOM [awaking]
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream,—past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was (and methought I had) but man is but a patch’d fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play before the duke:

SCENE 3 (ACT V, SCENE I)

.

NARRATOR 
To complete our festive comedy, Bottom and the
“rude mechanicals” perform the merry and tragical play of Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus and Hippolyta and our newly married lovers. The fairies bless the three marriages and all is well. But still we wonder, has this all been a dream?

THESEUS
Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
Come now; what masks, what dances shall we have,
What revels are in hand? Call Philostrate.

PHILOSTRATE 
Here, mighty Theseus.

THESEUS
Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
What mask? what music?

PHILOSTRATE
Make choice of which your highness will see first.
            

THESEUS [reading]
“The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.”
We’ll none of that: 
[reading]“The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,”
That is an old device; 
[reading]“A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.”
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?

PHILOSTRATE
A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
There is not one word apt, one player fitted:

THESEUS
What are they that do play it?

PHILOSTRATE
Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here,
Which never labour’d in their minds till now;

THESEUS
And we will hear it.

PHILOSTRATE
No, my noble lord;
It is not for you: I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world;

THESEUS
I will hear that play;
For never any thing can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in:-and take your places, ladies.

PHILOSTRATE
So please your grace, the Prologue is address’d.

THESEUS
Let him approach. 

.

PROLOGUE
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That is the true beginning of our end.
The actors are at hand; and, by their show,
You shall know all that you are like to know.
            

THESEUS
This fellow doth not stand upon points.

LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt;

HIPPOLYTA
Indeed he hath play’d on his prologue like a child 
on a recorder.

THESEUS
Who is next?

PROLOGUE
Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.

WALL 
In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe,
Did whisper often very secretly.

THESEUS
Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!

PYRAMUS
O grim-look’d night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not!
I fear my Thisbe’s promise is forgot!—
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine!
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!.
Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!
But what see I? No Thisbe do I see.
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!
            

THISBE
O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,
My cherry lips have often kiss’d thy stones. 

PYRAMUS
I see a voice: now will I to the chink,
To spy an I can hear my Thisbe’s face.—
Thisbe!

THISBE
My love! thou art my love, I think.

PYRAMUS
O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!

THISBE
I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at all. 

PYRAMUS
Wilt thou at Ninny’s tomb meet me straightway?

QUINCE, Ninus’ Tomb!

THISBE
‘Tide life, ‘tide death, I come without delay.

WALL
Thus have I, wall, my part discharged so;
And, being done, thus wall away doth go.

HIPPOLYTA
This is the silliest stuff that e’er I heard.

THESEUS
Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion.

.

LION
You, ladies may now perchance both quake 
and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I one 
Snug the joiner am,

THESEUS
A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
Let us listen to the moon.

MOONSHINE 
This lantern doth the horned moon present;
Myself the man-i’-th’-moon do seem to be.

HIPPOLYTA 
I am aweary of this moon. Would he would change.

LYSANDER
Proceed, moon.

MOONSHINE
All that I have to say is, to tell you that the lantern 
is the moon; I, the man-i’-th’-moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

DEMETRIUS
Here comes Thisbe.

THISBE
This is old Ninny’s tomb. 

QUINCE, 
Ninus’ tomb, man!

THISBE
This is old Ninnies’ tomb!. Where is my love?

QUINCE [cries out], “Aarrrgh!” [from backstage]

DEMETRIUS
Well roar’d, lion.

THESEUS
Well run, Thisbe.

HIPPOLYTA
Well shone, moon.

THESEUS
Well moused, lion.

DEMETRIUS
And then came Pyramus.

PYRAMUS
Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
But mark, poor knight,
What dreadful dole is here!
Eyes, do you see?
How can it be?
O dainty duck! O dear!
Thy mantle good,
What, stain’d with blood?
Come, tears, confound;
Out, sword, and wound
The pap of Pyramus,—
Ay, that left pap,
Where heart doth hop: [stabs himself]
Thus die I, thus, thus.

Now am I dead,
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky:
Tongue, lose thy light;
Moon, take thy flight:.
Now die, die, die, die, die. (dies)

THESEUS
With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, 
and yet prove an ass.

THISBE

Asleep, my love?
What, dead my dove?
O Pyramus, arise!
Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
Dead, dead? A tomb
Must cover thy sweet eyes.
His eyes were green as leeks.
Come, trusty sword;
Come, blade, my breast imbrue [stabs herself]
And, farewell, friends,—
Thus Thisbe ends,-
Adieu, adieu, adieu. [dies]

BOTTOM 
Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company?

THESEUS
No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse.       

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy-time. 

OBERON
Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be; 

PUCK

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,-
That you have but slumber’d here,
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,

PUCK
And Robin shall restore amends!

ALL REPEAT

And Robin shall restore amends!

[All raise arms holding hands, and bow.]

Hi all!

Here is the script for Let's Make a Scene: Henry IV Part I

for Thursday May 26th, 2022 at 7 PM.

One is in Word, and the other is in Text:

I will paste the script here too:

You can read it on a tablet or print it out, whatever works!

See you then!

Nick

****

Characters in the Play

The following is a list of the characters that appear in this cutting of Henry IV, Part 1.

Falstaff: Sir John Falstaff, a debauched and witty aristocrat 

Prince Henry: Also called Harry or Hal; oldest son to King Henry IV

Poins: Companion to Falstaff; gentleman-in-waiting to Prince

Gadshill: Companion to Falstaff

Bardolph: Companion to Falstaff

Peto: Companion to Falstaff

Traveler one 

Traveler two 

Hostess: Mistress Quickly, hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap Mortimer: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March; brother to Lady Percy, husband to Lady Mortimer 

Glendower: Owen Glendower, a Welsh rebel; father to Lady Mortimer Hotspur: Henry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur; son to Earl of Northumberland Lady Mortimer: Daughter to Glendower, wife to Mortimer 

Lady Percy: Wife to Hotspur, sister to Mortimer 

King Henry IV: Father to Prince Henry; formerly Henry of Bollingbroke Earl of Douglas: Archibald, Earl of Douglas; a Scottish noble 

Lancaster: Prince John of Lancaster, also called the Duke ofLancaster; third son to King Henry IV

From King Henry IV, Part 2 (final scene in this cutting):

Pistol: An irregular humorist; Falstaff’s henchman 

Shallow: Robert Shallow, a country justice of the peace 

King Henry V: Formerly Prince Henry; newly crowned king 

Lord Chief-Justice: Attendant to King Henry V; nemesis of Falstaff

Attendant

Narrator 

Act I Scene II

Eastcheap. The Boar’s-Head Tavern.

Narrator

Young Prince Henry—called “Harry” or “Hal” by his friends—carouses in the tavern in Eastcheap with the fat knight Jack Falstaff and other friends, including Poins, Hal’s gentleman-in-waiting. Hal and Poins devise a plan to rob Falstaff and company of their stolen money, just for fun and mockery.

Falstaff

Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

Prince Henry 

Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day; unless hours were cups of sack and minutes capons?

Falstaff

Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night’s body be called thieves of the day’s beauty: let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon.

Prince Henry 

Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon.

Falstaff 

Thou hast the most unsavory similes and art indeed the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it!

Prince Henry

Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?

Falstaff

’Zounds, where thou wilt, lad. Poins! 

Prince Henry

Good morrow, Ned!

Poins

Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse?

What says Sir John Sack and Sugar?

My lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o’clock, early at Gadshill! There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged. [to Falstaff] Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go.

Falstaff 

Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.

Prince Henry

Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, All-hallown summer!

Poins

Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us tomorrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill shall rob those men that we have already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this  head off from my shoulders. I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back; the virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.

Prince Henry

Well, I’ll go with thee.

Poins

Farewell, my lord.

Prince Henry

Herein will I imitate the sun, Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To smother up his beauty from the world, That, when he please again to be himself, Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at, So, when this loose behavior I throw off 

And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes; And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o’er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I’ll so offend, to make offense a skill; Redeeming time when men think least I will.

Act II, Scene II

The highway, near Gadshill.

Narrator

Falstaff and his band of rogues rob the travelers, but their plan backfires.

Poins

Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff’s horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.

Prince Henry

Stand close.

Falstaff

Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

Prince Henry 

Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! What a brawling dost thou keep! 

Falstaff

Where’s Poins, Hal? The rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another! Give me my horse, you rogues.

Gadshill

Stand.

Falstaff

So I do, against my will.

Bardolph

There’s money of the king’s coming down the hill.

Prince Henry

Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins and I will walk lower: if they ’scape from your encounter, then they light on us.

Peto

How many be there of them?

Gadshill

Some eight or ten

Falstaff

’Zounds, will they not rob us?

Prince Henry

What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?

Falstaff

Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no coward, Hal.

Prince Henry [whispering to Poins]

Ned, where are our disguises?

Poins

Here, hard by: stand close.

Falstaff

Now, every man to his business.

Traveler one

Come, neighbor: the boy shall lead our horses down the hill; we’ll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.

Falstaff

Stand!

Traveler two

Jesus bless us!

Falstaff

Strike; down with them; bacon-fed knaves! Fleece them. 

Traveler two

O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!

Falstaff

Ye fat chuffs: on, bacons, on!

Prince Henry

The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week, laughter for a month and a good jest for ever.

Poins

Stand close; I hear them coming.

Falstaff

Come, my masters, let us share.

Prince Henry

Your money!

Poins

Villains! 

Prince Henry

Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: Falstaff lards the lean earth as he walks along: Were’t not for laughing, I should pity him.

Poins

How the rogue roar’d!

 Act II, Scene IV

Eastcheap. The Boar’s-Head Tavern.

Narrator

Prince Henry

Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door: shall we be merry?

Poins

As merry as crickets, my lad.

Falstaff

A plague of all cowards! There be four of us here have ta’en a thousand pound this day morning.

Prince Henry

Where is it, Jack? Where is it? 

Falstaff

Where is it! Taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us. I have ’scaped by miracle.

I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my sword hacked like a handsaw—ecce signum! A plague of all cowards!

Prince Henry

Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool. We two saw you four set on four and bound them, and were masters of their wealth. Then did we two set on you four; and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away with quick dexterity, and roared for mercy. What device canst thou now find out to hide thee from this shame? 

Poins

Come, let’s hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now?

Falstaff 

Why, hear you, my masters: was it for me to kill the true prince? I am as valiant as Hercules, but beware instinct. I was now a coward on instinct. I am glad you have the money.

Prince Henry [to Falstaff]

You fought fair; so did you, Peto; so did you, Bardolph:

You are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince.

Bardolph

’Faith, I ran when I saw others run. [burps]

Falstaff

Tell me, Hal, art thou not horribly afraid?

Prince Henry

Not a whit, i’ faith; I lack some of thy instinct.

Falstaff

Well, thou wert be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me, practice an answer.

Prince Henry 

Do thou stand for my father, and

examine me upon the particulars of my life. 

Falstaff

Shall I? Content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my scepter, and this cushion my crown. Here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.

Hostess

O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i’ faith! O, the father, how he holds his countenance! He doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see!

Falstaff 

Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-brain.

Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also the company thou keepest:

and yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.

Prince Henry

What manner of man, your majesty?

Falstaff 

A goodly portly man, i’ faith, and of a cheerful look, and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by’r lady, inclining to three score; His name is Falstaff: Harry, I see virtue in his looks. Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish.

prince Henry

Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father.

Falstaff

Depose me?

Prince Henry

Well, here I am set.

Falstaff

And here I stand: judge, my masters.

Prince Henry

Now, Harry, whence come you?

Falstaff (

My noble lord, from Eastcheap.

Prince Henry

The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.

Falstaff

’Sblood, my lord, they are false.

Prince Henry

Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man.

Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, with the pudding in his belly. Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein villanous, but in all things?Wherein worthy, but in nothing?

Falstaff

Whom means your grace?

Prince Henry

That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.

Falstaff 

My lord, the man I know.

Prince Henry

I know thou dost.

Falstaff

If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not Henry him thy Harry’s company, banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

Prince Henry

I do, I will.

Act III, Scene I

The Archdeacon’s house.

Narrator

Hot-headed Harry Percy—known as Hotspurtangles with the Welsh Lord Glendower as they plan to divide up the kingdom they intend to conquer.

Mortimer

These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction full of prosperous hope.

Hotspur

Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, Will you sit down?

A plague upon it! I have forgot the map.

Glendower

No, here it is. Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur, At my birth the frame and huge foundation of the earth Shaked like a coward. 

Hotspur

O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, And not in fear of your nativity.

Mortimer

Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad.

Glendower

Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head Against my power; thrice have I sent him Bootless home and weather-beaten back.

Hotspur

Home without boots, and in foul weather too!

Glendower

Come, here’s the map: shall we divide our right According to our threefold order ta’en?

Mortimer

The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally:

Hotspur 

Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here, In quantity equals not one of yours:

See how this river cuts me from the best of all my land.

It shall not wind with such a deep indent, To rob me of so rich a bottom here. 

Glendower

Not wind? It shall, it must; you see it doth.

Hotspur 

Who shall say me nay?

Glendower

Why, that will I.

Come, you shall have Trent turn’d.

Hotspur.

Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone?

Glendower

The moon shines fair; you may away by night.

Mortimer

Fie, cousin Percy! How you cross my father!

Hotspur

I cannot choose: sometime he angers me. O, he is as tedious as a railing wife.

Mortimer

In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame.

Hotspur

Well, I am school’d: Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.

Hotspur

Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down:

come, quick, quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap.

Lady percy

Go, ye giddy goose.

Hotspur

Now I perceive the devil is a good musician.

Lady Percy

Then should you be nothing but musical for you are altogether governed by humors. Lie still, ye thief, Now God help thee!

Hotspur

To the Welsh lady’s bed.

Lady Percy

What’s that? 

Hotspur

Peace. Come, Kate, I’ll have your song too.

Lady Percy

Not mine, in good sooth.

Glendower

Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.

Act III, Scene II

London. The palace.

Narrator

Prince Hal reconciles with his father, King Henry IV, by swearing to fight the rebels and to defeat Hotspur.

King Henry IV

I know not whether God will have it so, For some displeasing service I have done, But thou dost in thy passages of life Make me believe that thou art only mark’d For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, Could such inordinate and low desires, Such barren pleasures, rude society, As thou art match’d withal and grafted to, Accompany the greatness of thy blood And hold their level with thy princely heart?

Prince Henry

So please your majesty Find pardon on my true submission. [kneels]

King Henry IV

God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry, At thy affections, which do hold a wing Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.

The hope and expectation of thy time Is ruin’d. Harry, thou has lost thy princely privilege With vile participation: not an eye But is a-weary of thy common sight, Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more.

Prince Henry 

I shall hereafter be more myself.

King Henry IV

For all the world Percy now leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on To bloody battles and to bruising arms.

Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes, Discomfited great Douglas, ta’en him once, And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, The Archbishop’s grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, Capitulate against us and are up.

Prince Henry 

I will redeem all this on Percy’s head And in the closing of some glorious day Be bold to tell you that I am your son; For the time will come, That I shall make this northern youth exchange His glorious deeds for my indignities. This, in the name of God, I promise here:

And I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow. 

King Henry IV

A hundred thousand rebels die in this:

Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.

Act V, Scene IV

A field between the camps.

Enter Narrator from stage right, coming downstage center.

Narrator

We are on the battlefield. True colors are revealed, with Hal showing bravery and loyalty, and Falstaff showing that he is, well, still a coward and a liar. (But, somehow, a loveable one!)

Eaerl of Douglas

Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads:

I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colors on them: what art thou, That counterfeit’st the person of a king?

King Henry IV

The king himself; I will assay thee: so, defend thyself.

Earl of Douglas

I fear thou art another counterfeit; And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king: But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be, And thus I win thee. 

Prince Henry

Hold up thy head, vile Scot, it is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee. [Earl of Douglas escapes]

Cheerly, my lord how fares your grace?

King Henry IV

Stay, and breathe awhile:

Thou hast redeem’d thy lost opinion, And show’d thou makest some tender of my life, In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.

Prince Henry

O God! They did me too much injury That ever said I hearken’d for your death.

Hotspur

If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. My name is Harry Percy. 

Prince Henry

I am the Prince of Wales.

Hotspur

The hour is come To end the one of us; I can no longer brook thy vanities.

Falstaff

Well said, Hal! To it Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you. [Falstaff falls down, pretends he is dead]

Hotspur

O, Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth! Percy, thou art dust And food for—

[Hotspur dies]. 

Prince Henry

For worms, brave Percy: fare thee well, great heart!

Prince Henry [sees Falstaff on the ground, pretending to be dead.]

What, old acquaintance! Could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! 

[Exit Prince Henry]

[Falstaff continues to appear dead; after a few moments, he rises up suddenly.]

Falstaff

The better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life. ’Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: how, if he should counterfeit too and rise? Therefore, sirrah,

with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

Lancaster

But, soft! Whom have we here?

Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?

Prince Henry

I did; I saw him dead. Art thou alive?

Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?

Falstaff

No, that’s certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy. If your father will do me any honor, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

Prince Henry

Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead.

Falstaff

Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it, ’zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

Lancaster

This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.

Prince Henry

This is the strangest fellow, brother John.

Falstaff

If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.

Act V, Scene i. additional material from Henry IV, Part 2: Act V, Scene V

Narrator

Time has passed, and Hal is now King Henry V. He rejects Falstaff as part of the former life that he now renounces.

Falstaff

Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him as a’ comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me.

Pistol

God bless thy lungs, good knight.

Falstaff

Come here, Pistol; stand behind me. This doth show my earnestness of affection. 

Shallow

It doth so.

Falstaff

My devotion,—

Shallow

It doth, it doth, it doth.

Falstaff

As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, but to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him; as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him.

Pistol

There roar’d the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.

Falstaff

God save thy grace, King Hal! My royal Hal!

Pistol

The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame! 

Falstaff

God save thee, my sweet boy!

King Henry V

My lord chief-justice, speak to that vain man.

Lord Chief-Justice have you your wits? Know you what ’tis to speak?

Falstaff

My king! My Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!

King Henry V

I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers.

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!

I have long dream’d of such a kind of man, So surfeit-swell’d, so old and so profane; But, being awaked, I do despise my dream. Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:

Presume not that I am the thing I was; For God doth know, so shall the world perceive, That I have turn’d away my former self; So will I those that kept me company.

When thou dost hear I am as I have been, Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast, The tutor and the feeder of my riots:

Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death, 

Not to come near our person by ten mile. Set on.

Falstaff [to Shallow]

Master Shallow, do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world: this that you heard was but a color.

Shallow

A color that I fear you will die in, Sir John.

Falstaff

Fear no colors: go with me to dinner: come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: I shall be sent for soon at night.

Falstaff

I would ’twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.

[Prince Henry’s voice rings out from offstage, an echo from the past].

Why, thou owest God a death.

Falstaff

’Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter; honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg?

All

No.

Falstaff

Or an arm?

All

No.

Falstaff

Or take away the grief of a wound?

All

No.

Falstaff

What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor?

All

Air.

Falstaff

Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it?

All

No.

Falstaff

’Tis insensible, then. Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living?

All

No

Falstaff

Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it.

A

Honor is a mere scutcheon.

Falstaff

And so ends my catechism.

all hold hands and bow! Standing ovation!

Greetings all!

Here is a PDF of the Henry V script for Let's Make a Scene,

(Click the tiny blue link below the text)

and here is a Word doc

Here is a link to the Facebook event:

And here is Zoom Link for Tuesday 2/27/24 at 7:30

Hi all!

Here is the script to "Let's Make a Scene: The Merchant of Venice for Wednesday, March  30, 2022 at  7 PM.

You can cut and paste it into a doc or download the doc or text document attached to the bottom of the page; whatever works for you!

See you then!

Nick

******

The Merchant of Venice: The 30-Minute Shakespeare

Characters in the Play

The following is a list of characters that appear in this cutting of The Merchant of Venice.

Lancelet: Servant to Shylock, and later to Bassanio 

Antonio: A merchant of Venice 

Solarino: Companion of Antonio and Bassanio 

Solanio: Companion of Antonio and Bassanio 

Gratiano: Companion of Antonio and Bassanio 

Bassanio: A Venetian gentleman, suitor to Portia 

Portia: An heiress of Belmont

Nerissa: Portia’s waiting-gentlewoman 

Shylock: A Jewish moneylender in Venice 

Prince of Morocco: Suitor to Portia 

Prince of Aragon: Suitor to Portia

Duke of Venice 

Lorenzo: Companion of Antonio and Bassanio

Jessica: Shylock’s daughter c

Chorus Members

Narrator

**

Act ii, Scene ii  Act i, Scene i)

Venice. A street.

Lancelet

The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts me Saying to me “Good Lancelet, use your legs, Run away.” Well my conscience says, “Good Lancelet, Budge not.” “Budge,” says the fiend.

“Budge not,” says my conscience.

To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay With the Jew, my master, who (God bless the mark) Is a kind of devil, and to run away from the Jew I should be ruled by the fiend, who (saving your reverence) Is the Devil himself.

The fiend gives the more friendly counsel.

I will run, fiend. I will run!

Narrator

Bassanio informs his friend Antonio of his love for the wealthy Portia, and Antonio offers to loan Bassanio some money. (Never a good idea.)

Antonio

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:

It wearies me; you say it wearies you; And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself.

Solarino 

Your mind is tossing on the ocean; There, where your argosies with portly sail, Do overpeer the petty traffickers, As they fly by them with their woven wings. What harm a wind too great at sea might do.

I know, Antonio Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

Antonio

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

Solanio

Then let us say you are sad, Because you are not merry.

Antonio [to Bassanio]

Well, tell me now what lady is the same To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage?

Bassanio

’Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, How much I have disabled mine estate.

My chief care Is to come fairly off from the great debts Wherein my time something too prodigal Hath left me gaged.

Antonio

Good Bassanio, My purse, my person, my extremest means, Lie all unlock’d to your occasions. Therefore, speak.

Bassanio 

In Belmont is a lady richly left;

And she is fair, and, fairer than that word, Of wondrous virtues: sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages:

Her name is Portia.

The four winds blow in from every coast 

Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece;

O my Antonio, had I but the means To hold a rival place with one of them.

Antonio

Thou know’st that all my fortunes are at sea; therefore go forth; Try what my credit can in Venice do:

To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.

Act i, Scene ii

Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.

Narrator

Portia bemoans her late father’s rule that she can only be married if one of her suitor’s chooses the correct chest of gold, silver, or lead. I wouldn’t like that either.

Portia

By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world.

Nerissa

You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are.

Portia

I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. 

Nerissa 

Your father was ever virtuous; therefore the lottery, that he hath devised in the three chests of gold, silver, and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly but one who shall rightly love.

Do you not remember, lady, in your father’s time, a Venetian, a scholar and a soldier?

Portia 

Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; (catches herself and sits down as if nothing has happened) as I think, he was so called.

Nerissa 

True, madam: he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.

Portia

I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise. Come, Nerissa.

Act i, Scene iii

Venice. A public place.

Narrator

Antonio borrows money from Shylock the Jew, with a disturbing condition.

Shylock

Three thousand ducats; well.

Bassanio 

Ay, sir, for three months.

For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. Shall I know your answer?

Shylock

Antonio is sufficient. Yet his means are in supposition: He hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies; and other ventures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships are but boards, there is the peril of winds and rocks. The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient. May I speak with Antonio?

Bassanio

If it please you to dine with us.

Shylock

Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with you, but I will not eat with you. Who is he comes here?

Bassanio

This is Signior Antonio.

Shylock 

[aside] I hate him for he is a Christian, But more for he lends out money gratis and brings down The rate of usance here with us in Venice. He hates our sacred nation, and he rails On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe, If I forgive him!

[to Antonio] Rest you fair, good signior.

Antonio

Shylock, although I neither lend nor borrow 

Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend, I’ll break a custom.

Shall we be beholding to you?

Shylock 

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft In the Rialto you have rated me About my moneys and my usances:

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, Well then, it now appears you need my help: Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; You call’d me dog; and for these courtesies I’ll lend you thus much moneys?

Antonio 

I am as like to call thee so again, To spit on thee again.

Shylock

Why, look you, how you storm!

Go with me to a notary, seal me there Your single bond; and, in a merry sport, If you repay me not on such a day, Let the forfeit Be nominated for an equal pound 

Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken In what part of your body pleaseth me.

Bassanio 

You shall not seal to such a bond for me.

Antonio 

Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it:

[to Shylock] Yes Shylock, I will seal unto this bond.

Shylock

Then meet me forthwith at the notary’s.

Antonio

Hie thee, gentle Jew.

The Hebrew will turn Christian: He grows kind.

Bassanio 

I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.

Antonio

Come on: In this there can be no dismay; My ships come home a month before the day.

Act ii, Scene i | Act ii, Scene Vii)

Belmont. A room in PorTiA’s house.

Narrator

The Prince of Morocco tries his luck at picking the right chest to win Portia’s hand. Good luck!

Morocco

Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun, I would not change this hue, Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen. 

Portia

You must take your chance, And either not attempt to choose at all Or swear before you choose, if you choose wrong Never to speak to lady afterward In way of marriage: Therefore be advised.

Morocco

Good fortune then!

To make me blest or cursed among men.

Portia

Go draw aside the curtains, noble prince. Now make your choice.

Morocco

How shall I know if I do choose the right?

Portia

The one of them contains my picture, prince: If you choose that, then I am yours withal.

Morocco

Some god direct my judgment! Let me see; What says this leaden casket?

 “Who chooseth me must give

and hazard all he hath.” I’ll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead.

[looks at silver casket] 

What says the silver with her virgin hue?

“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.” I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes.

Let’s see once more this saying graved in gold “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.” Why, that’s the lady; all the world desires her; One of these three contains her heavenly picture.

[looks at gold casket] 

Here an angel in a golden bed Lies all within. Deliver me the key:

Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!

Portia 

There, take it, prince; and if my form lie there, Then I am yours.

Morocco

O hell! What have we here?

A carrion Death, within whose empty eye There is a written scroll! I’ll read the writing.

Chorus

“All that glitters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: 

Gilded tombs do worms enfold.

Fare you well; your suit is cold.” 

Morocco

Cold, indeed; and labor lost:

Then, farewell, heat, and welcome, frost! Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart To take a tedious leave: Thus losers part.

Portia

A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go. Let all of his complexion choose me so.

Act ii, Scene iX

Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.

Narrator

Next up is the Prince of Arragon. Will he fare any better? Place your bets.

Nerissa

Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain straight: The Prince of Arragon hath ta’en his oath, And comes to his election presently.

Portia

Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince: If you choose that wherein I am contain’d, Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized: But if you fail, without more speech, my lord, You must be gone from hence immediately. 

Aragon

Fortune now To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.

Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.” You shall look fairer, ere I give or hazard.

What says the golden chest? Ha! Let me see:

 “Who chooseth me shall gain what

many men desire.” That “many” may be meant by the fool multitude. Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house; 

“Who chooseth me shall get as much

as he deserves.” I will assume desert. Give me a key for this, And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

Aragon

What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot, Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head? What is here?

“Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow’s bliss:

I will ever be your head:

So be gone: You are sped.” With one fool’s head I came to woo, But I go away with two.

Sweet, adieu. I’ll keep my oath, Patiently to bear my wroth?

Portia

Thus hath the candle singed the moth. O, these deliberate fools!

Act iii, Scene ii)

Belmont. A room in Portia’s house.

Narrator

Portia’s final suitor is Bassanio. [whispers] I’m rooting for this guy.

Portia

Come, Nerissa; for I long to see Quick Cupid’s post that comes so mannerly.

Nerissa 

Bassanio, lord Love, if thy will it be!

Portia 

I pray you, tarry: Pause a day or two Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong, I lose your company: herefore forbear awhile.) Beshrew your eyes, 

They have o’erlook’d me and divided me; One half of me is yours, the other half yours.

Bassanio 

Let me choose For as I am, I live upon the rack.

But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

Portia 

Away, then! I am lock’d in one of them:

If you do love me, you will find me out.

Let music sound while he doth make his choice.

Chorus

Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourished? Reply, reply.

It is engender’d in the eyes, With gazing fed; and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies.

Let us all ring fancy’s knell I’ll begin it—Ding, dong, bell.

Bassanio

The world is still deceived with ornament. 

[examines gold casket] 

Therefore, thou gaudy gold, Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee; [examines silver casket] 

Nor none of thee, thou pale 

and common drudge ’Tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead [picks up lead casket] 

Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence; And here choose I; joy be the consequence!

What find I here?

Fair Portia’s counterfeit! What demi-god Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? Seem they in motion? Here are sever’d lips, Parted with sugar breath.) Here’s the scroll, The continent and summary of my fortune.

Chorus 

“You that choose not by the view, Chance as fair and choose as true! Turn you where your lady is And claim her with a loving kiss.”

Portia

You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, Such as I am. 

Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours.

Bassanio

Madam, you have bereft me of all words, Only my blood speaks, to you in my veins.

Nerissa

Good joy, my lord and lady!

Gratiano

I may be married too.

I got a promise of this fair one. To have her love, provided that your fortune Achieved her mistress.

Portia 

Is this true, Nerissa?

Nerissa

Madam, it is.

Bassanio

O sweet Portia, When I told you My state was nothing, I should then have told you That I was worse than nothing; for, indeed, 

I have engaged myself to a dear friend.

Portia 

Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?

What sum owes he the Jew?

Bassanio

For me three thousand ducats.

Portia 

What, no more? [Portia hands him a bag of money]

Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond.

Bassanio

Since I have your good leave to go away, I will make haste.

Act iV, Scene i

Venice. A court of justice.

Narrator

In the courtroom, Shylock arrives to claim his pound of flesh from Antonio. [whispers] There is a mystery guest.

Duke

Antonio, I am sorry for thee: Thou art come to answer an inhuman wretch, void and empty From any dram of mercy. 

Antonio

I am arm’d To suffer, with a quietness of spirit, The very tyranny and rage of his.

Duke

Go one, and call the Jew into the court.

Duke 

Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too, That thou but lead’st this fashion of thy malice To the last hour of act; and then ’tis thought Thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange Than is thy strange apparent cruelty; We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.

Shylock 

By our holy Sabbath have I sworn To have the due and forfeit of my bond:

I give no reason, nor I will not, More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing I bear Antonio.

Are you answer’d?

Bassanio 

This is no answer, thou unfeeling man. For thy three thousand ducats here is six.

Shylock

If every ducat in six thousand ducats Were in six parts and every part a ducat, I would not draw them; I would have my bond.

Duke How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?

Shylock 

What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?

You have among you many a purchased slave, Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules, You use in abject and in slavish parts, Because you bought them.

The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it.

Solarino

My lord, here stays without A messenger with letters from the doctor, New come from Padua.

Duke

Bring us the letter; call the messenger.

[Enter Nerissa from stage right, dressed as a lawyer’s clerk.] 

Duke

Came you from Padua, from Bellario?

Nerissa

From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace.

Duke

This letter from Bellario doth commend A young and learned doctor to our court. Where is he?

Nerissa

He attendeth here hard by. 

[Enter Portia, dressed as a doctor of laws.]

Duke

And here, I take it, is the doctor come.

Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario?

Portia

I did, my lord.

I am informed thoroughly of the cause.

Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?

Shylock 

Shylock is my name. the Merchant of Venice 

Portia

[to Antonio] You stand within his danger, do you not?

Antonio 

Ay, so he says.

Portia

Do you confess the bond?

Antonio

I do.

Portia

Then must the Jew be merciful.

Shylock 

On what compulsion must I? Tell me that.

Portia

[to Shylock] The quality of mercy is not strain’d, 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Shylock 

My deeds upon my head! I crave the law, The penalty and forfeit of my bond.

Portia

I pray you, let me look upon the bond.

Why, this bond is forfeit; 

And lawfully by this the Jew may claim A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off Nearest the merchant’s heart.

Be merciful:

Take twice thy money; bid me tear the bond.

Shylock 

There is no power in the tongue of man To alter me: I stay here on my bond.

Portia

Why then, thus it is:

You must prepare your bosom for his knife.

Shylock

We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.

Portia

Tarry a little; there is something else.

This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; The words expressly are “a pound of flesh:”

Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate Unto the state of Venice.

Shylock

Is that the law?

Portia

Thyself shalt see the act:

For, as thou urgest justice, be assured Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.

Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more But just a pound of flesh: If the scale do turn But in the estimation of a hair, Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.

Shylock 

Give me my principal, and let me go.

Portia

Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture, To be so taken at thy peril, Jew. 

Shylock

I’ll stay no longer. 

Portia

Tarry, Jew:

The law hath yet another hold on you. It is enacted in the laws of Venice, If it be proved against an alien

That by direct or indirect attempts He seek the life of any citizen, The party ’gainst the which he doth contrive Shall seize one half his goods; the other half Comes to the privy coffer of the state; And the offender’s life lies in the mercy Of the duke only.

Down therefore and beg mercy of the duke.

Duke

That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits, I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:

For half thy wealth, it is Antonio’s; The other half comes to the general state. 

Shylock

Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: You take my life When you do take the means whereby I live.

Portia

What mercy can you render him, Antonio?

Antonio

So please my lord the Duke and all the court To quit the fine for one half of his goods, I am content; More, that, for this favor, He presently become a Christian.

Portia

Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say?

Shylock 

I am content.

I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well.

Duke

Get thee gone.

Portia [to Bassanio,]

I pray you, know me when we meet again: I wish you well, and so I take my leave.

act V, Scene i

Belmont. Avenue to Portia’s house.

Enter Narrator from stage rear, coming downstage center.

Narrator

All secrets are revealed. Because this is a comedy, everybody ends up happy. Except Shylock. Which is kind of a big “except.” Enjoy!

Lorenzo

The moon shines bright: in such a night as this, When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees. In such a night Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew And with an unthrift love did run from Venice As far as Belmont.

Jessica

In such a night Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well, Stealing her soul with many vows of faith. And ne’er a true one. 

Lorenzo

In such a night Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, Slander her love,

and he forgave her.

[Enter Portia and Nerissa from stage right, still dressed as a lawyer and clerk, ready to surprise their husbands.]

Lorenzo  [to Portia] Your husband is at hand.

Portia

You are welcome home, my lord.

Bassanio

I thank you . . .?

[Portia takes off the robe and hat to reveal herself. Nerissa does the same.]

Portia

You are all amazed: Portia was the doctor, Nerissa there her clerk

Antonio

I am dumb.

Bassanio 

Were you the doctor and I knew you not?

Gratiano 

Were you the clerk?

[Nerissa nods her head and laughs.]

Bassanio

Sweet doctor, you shall be my bed-fellow: When I am absent, then lie with my wife.

Nerissa [to Lorenzo]

There do I give to you and Jessica, From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, After his death, of all he dies possess’d of.

Lorenzo

Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way Of starved people.

Portia

Let us go in; and we will answer all things faithfully.

All 

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

All hold hands and take a bow!

*****