ACT 2, SCENE 8 18. main
19. displays 20. (lines 43–45) Be happy and let your main focus be on love and displays of affection which are appropriate there.
21. Bassanio 22. incredibly heartfelt emotion 23. shook
45
Be merry, and employ your chiefest18 thoughts To courtship and such fair ostents19 of love As shall conveniently become you there.’20 And even there, his eye being big with tears, Turning his face, he put his hand behind him21 And, with affection wondrous sensible,22 He wrung23 Bassanio’s hand; and so they parted.
SOLANIO
24. I think Antonio’s friendship with Bassanio is the only thing in the world that makes him happy.
25. lighten his sad mood 50
I think he only loves the world for him.24 I pray thee let us go and find him out, And quicken his embracèd heaviness25 With some delight or other.
SOLERIO Do we so. Exeunt. OVERVIEW OF ACT 2, SCENE 8 l
In this short scene, we find out quite a lot of news from Salerio and Solanio. The action is so well recounted (told) that these recent events are brought vividly to life for the audience.
l
First, we get an account of Shylock’s reaction to his daughter’s escape. Shylock, in a fit of rage and panic, ‘raised the Duke’ (line 4) and went straight to Bassanio’s ship to search for his daughter. However, by the time they got there, Bassanio’s ship had already set sail. Antonio reassured Shylock and the Duke that Shylock’s daughter was not on board the ship. We hear that Jessica and Lorenzo were recently seen in a gondola (a particular boat used in the canals in Venice).
l
Next, a note of foreboding (worry or fear) sounds as Salerio recounts (tells about) a conversation he had with a Frenchman who told him that a Venetian merchant ship had been shipwrecked in the English Channel:
there miscarrièd A vessel of our country richly fraught. (lines 29–30)
Salerio fears that this ship belongs to Antonio, but does not wish to ‘grieve’ him with this news just yet, especially considering how upset he is about Bassanio’s departure.
l
Salerio depicts a very moving farewell where Antonio told Bassanio to put the bond out of his mind and focus all his thoughts on winning the fair Portia. Salerio describes how Antonio was overwrought with emotion – ‘his eye being big with tears’ (line 46) – and shook Bassanio’s hand before he left for Belmont.
l
Solanio says that Antonio ‘only loves the world for [Bassanio]’ (line 50), which shows how much Antonio values their friendship. Both Solanio and Salerio decided to cheer him up ‘With some delight or other’ (line 53). However, it is interesting that neither Solanio nor Salerio have any compassion for Shylock who has lost his daughter and his valuables in this scene.
92 The Merchant of Venice
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