Shakespeare Important Quotes And Characters: The Merchant Of Venice

Front 1

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 occasions.


To you, I owe the most in money and in love,

Back 1

1st quote: Antonio to Bassanio
2nd: Bassanio to Antonio

These quotes reveal an uneasy mixture between personal bonds and monetary bonds

Front 2

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. —Antonio, 1.1.1

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place. —Antonio, 1.1.42

Back 2

EX

Front 3

Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. —Salerio, 1.1.50–1

Back 3

EX

Front 4

You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it that do buy it with much care. —Gratiano, 1.1.74–5

Back 4

EX

Front 5

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano—
A stage, where every man must play a part;
And mine a sad one. —Antonio, 1.1.77–9

Back 5

EX

Front 6

I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing. —Gratiano, 1.1.95–7

Back 6

EX

Front 7

Fish not, with this melancholy bait,
for this fool gudgeon, this opinion. —Gratiano, 1.1.101–2

Back 7

EX

Front 8

To find the other forth; and by adventuring both,
I oft found both. —Bassanio, 1.1.140–4

Back 8

EX

Front 9

In Belmont is a lady richly left,
And she is fair and, fairer than that word,
Of wondrous virtues.

Back 9

Bassanio is describing Portia to Antonio. He seems to be putting her wealth and personilty and other values all on the same level of importance

Front 10

How like a fauning publican he looks.
I hate him for he is a Christian,
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

Back 10

Shylock, after Bassanio has caught up with him to ask him for the lone, which would be guaranteed by Antonio.
This passage shows the mutual distrust and hate between Antonio and Shylock

Front 11

I had forgot; three months; you told me so.
Well then, your bond; and let me see. But hear you:
Methoughts you said you neither lend nor borrow
Upon advantage

Back 11

Shylock- considering the bond that is being offered.

Front 12

When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep-
This Jacob from our holy Abram was,
As his wise mother wrought in his behalf,
The thid possessor; ay, he was the third-
.......
No, not take interest- not, as you would say, Directly int'rest......
This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;
And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.

Back 12

Shylock is speaking to Antonio about lending money for interest.
This reveals an illogical and superstitious nature to Shylock, by quoting Scripture. He is comparing breeding sheep to breeding money.
This speech also reveals the cultural difference between Antonio and Shylock: The thriftyness of Shylock and the Christian kindness and generosity of Antonio.

Front 13

Meet me and Graziano
At Graziano's lodging some hour hence.
....
Was not that letter from fair Jessica?

Back 13

First speaker: Lorenzo
Second: Graziano

At this point, Lorenzo is late for the elopment. He has not planned it well, showing unconcern. He does not seem to show that he has idea of how momentous this is for Jessica, who is losing her religion and culture.

Front 14

Descend, for you must be my torchbearer.

Back 14

Lorenzo speaking to Jessica as they are eloping. This line might have undertones of homoeroticism (Jessica is dressed as a boy at this point)

Front 15

Now, by my hood, a gentile and no Jew.

Back 15

Graziano to Lorenzo as they are waiting for Jessica to get more ducats. This might be a joke concerning the circumcision of jewish men vs. uncircumsized Christians.

Front 16

And what is music then? Then music is
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch. ....
I stand for sacrifice; The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages come forth to view
The issue of th'exploit. Go, Hercules.
Live thou, I live.

Back 16

Portia, giving a speech to Bassanio before he chooses his casket. She gives him music in order to suggest that her rhymes are hinting at the lead casket.
I am here to be sacrificed- she as an individual is destroyed to save her father's estate. Here future is a function of the value of the estate. It remains to be seen whether is willing to be sacrificed or not.
She compares Bassanio to Hercules- who will save her. This is a complimetn however she references him as a fortune hunter by mentioning this. By saving Troy, Hercules got not the maiden but the horses of her father.

Front 17

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

Back 17

Someone from Portia's train- these lines end with words that rhyme with lead- perhaps a hint to tell Bassiano the answer is the lead casket.

Portia is conflicted between trying to give hints to Bassiano to choose the right casket, or going against her father's wishes.
Does Bassiano understand the hints? If so it could work in her favor, he would be indebted to her for his success, but he would also know she has compromised herself

Front 18

Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o'er myself; even now, but now,
THis house, these servants, and this same myself
Are yours, my lord's. I give them with this ring

Back 18

Portia to Bassanio, after he has chosen correctly.
-her sense of vulnerability is prepared for us by Jessica, having given Lorenzo her own casket of ducats.
-She does not exhibit uncompromised joy
-Everything is transferred to Bassanio
-reminds him of her worth and his obligation
-the ring converts previously mentioned "gifts" as a sort of ethical loan
-she is trying to hang on to a sense of sef agency, a power over her own life.

Front 19

And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, waremd and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christan is?......
"If you wrong us, will we not revenge?"

Back 19

Shylock to Solanio and Salarino who have been discussing his daughter Jessica's elopment and the loss of Antonio's ships.
-This speech presents a sympathetic view of Shylock
-Trying to show a common humanity
-illogical because Shylock is saying that the physiological and emotional responses of a human are the same, when in fact emotional responses, such as revenge, can be controlled and are the choice of the individual
-He is showing pure feeling in his illogicality

Front 20

They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing. —Nerissa, 1.2.5–6

Back 20

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. —Portia, 1.2.14

Front 21

God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. —Portia, 1.2.56

Back 21

When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast. —Portia, 1.2.89

Front 22

I dote on his very absence. —Portia, 1.2.110

Back 22

My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient. —Shylock, 1.3.17

Front 23

I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. —Shylock, 1.3.37

Back 23

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. —Antonio, 1.3.98

Front 24

Many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances:
Still I have 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,
And all for use of that which is mine own. —Shylock, 1.3.106–13

Back 24

When did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend? —Antonio, 1.3.133–4

Front 25

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. —Shylock, 1.3.148–51

Back 25

Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun. —Prince of Morocco, 2.1.1–2

Front 26

Truth will come to sight; murder cannot be hid long. —Launcelot, 2.2.79

Back 26

In the twinkling of an eye. —Launcelot, 2.2.167

Front 27

All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd. —Gratiano, 2.6.12–3

Back 27

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit. —Jessica, 2.6.36–7

Front 28

All that glisters is not gold. —2.1.7.65

Back 28

Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. —Nerissa, 2.1.9.83

Front 29

If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. —Shylock, 3.1.54

Back 29

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, 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? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. —Shylock, 3.1.58–68

Front 30

The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction. —Shylock, 3.1.73

Back 30

If he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music. —Portia, 3.2.44–5

Front 31

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.
— 2.63–71

Back 31

There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue in his outward parts. —Bassanio, 2.81–2

Front 32

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. —Bassanio, 2.100–1

Back 32

Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
That ever blotted paper! —Bassanio, 2.251–2