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
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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!
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