The Merchant of Venice
(Water splashing)
(Men shouting)
(Creaking)
(Men shouting)
(Man) Usurer!
Usurer!
(Man murmers)
"If a man is righteous,
and does what is lawful and right,
"if he has not exacted usury
nor taken any increase
"but has withdrawn his hand
from all iniquity
"and executed true judgment
between men and men,
"if he has walked in my statutes
"and kept my judgment faithfully,
then he is just and he shall surely live.
"But if he has exacted usury
and taken increase,
"shall he then live?
"No, he shall not live. If he has
done any of these abominations... "
- (Cheering)
- "... he shall surely die, says the Lord. "
(Preacher) And yet you live
by theft and robbery...
Antonio.
(Preacher continues, crowd shouting)
(Both laughing)
Antonio.
Bassanio.
- (Man) Wind's coming back, sir.
- (Sail flapping)
(Man) Signior Lorenzo.
(Dog barking)
(Chanting)
(Chanting continues)
(Doors opening)
Jessica.
(Antonio) In truth,
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 than know myself.
Your mind is tossing on the ocean.
Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
the better part of my affection
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.
My wind, cooling my broth,
would blow me to a fever if I thought what
harm a wind too great might do at sea.
Believe me, no.
- Why, then you're in love.
- (Laughs)
Fie, fie, fie!
Not in love either?
Then let us say you are sad
because you are not merry.
Here comes my lord Bassanio.
- Good morrow, my good lord.
- Good signiors. When shall we laugh?
We shall make our leisures
to fit in with yours.
- Bassanio.
- Signior.
(Whispers)
My lord Bassanio, since you have found
Antonio, we too will leave you.
You look not well, Signior Antonio.
You have too much respect
upon the world.
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
I hold the world but
as the world, Gratiano -
must play his part, and mine a sad one.
Come, good Lorenzo.
Fare thee well awhile.
I'll end my exhortation after dinner.
Fare thee well.
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing,
more than any man in all of Venice.
Well?
Tell me now...
that which today
you promised to tell me of.
(Bassanio sighs)
'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
how much I have disabled mine estate,
but my chief care is to come
squarely out of the great debts
wherein my youth, something too prodigal,
has left me pledged.
To you, Antonio,
I owe the most in money and in love,
and from your love I have a warranty
to unburden all my plots and purposes
how to get clear of all the debts I owe.
Pray, good Bassanio, let me know it.
And, if it stand, as you yourself still do,
within the eye of honour,
be assured my purse, my person,
my extremest means
lie all unlocked to your occasion.
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, no less a beauty
than Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.
Nor is the wide world
ignorant of her worth,
for the four winds blow in from every coast
renowned suitors.
O my Antonio,
had I but the means
to hold a rival place with one of them
then I should questionless be fortunate.
Thou knowest my fortunes are at sea.
Neither have I money nor commodity
Therefore, go forth.
Try what my credit can in Venice do.
It shall be racked, even to the uttermost,
to furnish you to Belmont,
and fair Portia.
(Birdsong)
I swear to you, Nerissa,
- I am more weary of this great world.
if your miseries were as plentiful
as your good fortunes are.
And yet, from what I see,
they are as sick that have it in excess
as those that starve with nothing.
If doing were as easy
as knowing what were good to do,
chapels had been churches,
and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.
(Sighs) But this reasoning is
not in the way to choose me a husband.
O me, the word "choose"!
I may neither choose who I would
nor refuse who I dislike.
So is the will of a living daughter
ruled by a dead father.
Is it not hard, Nerissa,
that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?
Your father was always virtuous,
and holy men, at their death,
have good inspirations.
Therefore the lottery, that he devised
of gold and silver and lead,
so that who chooses his meaning
chooses you,
will no doubt only be guessed, rightly,
by someone who you shall rightly love.
Right.
(Nerissa) What warmth is there
in your affection
towards any of these princely suitors
that are already come?
(Portia) Pray name them, and
as you name them I will describe them,
and, according
to my description, level at my affection.
How say you of the French lord,
Monsieur Le Bon?
Oh, God.
God made him,
and therefore let him pass for a man.
I know it is a sin to be a mocker, but he...!
What say you to Falconbridge,
(Portia laughs) How oddly he's suited!
And the Duke of Saxony's nephew?
Very vilely in the morning
when he is sober,
and most vilely in the afternoon
when he is drunk.
O Nerissa!
- (Giggling)
- Wait! Wait.
you should refuse to perform your father's
will if you should refuse to accept him.
Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee,
set a deep glass of Rhenish wine
on the contrary casket.
I will do anything, Nerissa,
ere I will be married to a sponge.
(Bell tolling)
(Bleating)
(Shylock) Three thousand ducats.
Well.
Ay, sir, for three months.
For three months?
- Well...
- For which, as I told you,
Antonio shall be bound.
Antonio shall be bound?
Well...
May you help me? Will you pleasure me?
Should I know your answer?
Three thousand ducats for three months,
and Antonio bound.
Your answer to that.
Antonio is a good man.
Have you heard any imputation
to the contrary?
No. No, no, no, no. My meaning
in saying that he is a good man
is to have you understand
that he is of good credit.
Yet his means are in question.
He hath a ship bound for Tripolis,
another to the Indies.
I understand moreover, upon the Rialto,
he hath a third ship at Mexico,
a fourth for England,
and other ventures
he hath squandered abroad.
But ships are but boards,
sailors are but men,
there be land rats and water rats,
water thieves and land thieves.
I mean pirates.
Then there is the peril of waters,
winds and rocks.
The man is, notwithstanding,
of good credit.
Three thousand ducats.
I think I may take his bond.
- Be assured you may.
- May I speak with Antonio?
If it please you, dine with us.
Yes, to smell pork,
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"The Merchant of Venice" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_merchant_of_venice_13647>.
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