ACT 1, SCENE 3


SHYLOCK Three thousand ducats for three months, and Antonio bound.


10


BASSANIO Your answer to that.


SHYLOCK Antonio is a good man.


5. implication or suggestion


BASSANIO Have you heard any imputation5 to the contrary?


6. financially solvent


7. in doubt/at risk 8. large merchant ship


9. the Venetian stock exchange where merchants congregated


10. (lines 18–19) other investments scattered abroad


11. (lines 19–20) Ships are only made of wood and men are fallible. (In other words, there is a lot of danger out there.)


12. (lines 20–23) Shylock is listing all the potential dangers that ships and sailors can encounter, including rats, pirates, stormy weather and rocks.


13. in spite of all this 25


14. sure (given financial guarantees) 15. I will think carefully about it.


BASSANIO Be assured you may.


SHYLOCK I will be assured14 I may, and that I may be assured, I will bethink me.15 May I speak with Antonio?


BASSANIO If it please you to dine with us.


16. pigsty 17. Christ, from Nazareth, who turned devils into a herd of swine. (Shylock, being Jewish, does not eat pork. He will not share a meal with Christians for fear pork would be consumed.)


26 The Merchant of Venice 30


SHYLOCK Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation16 which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into.17 I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you,


20 15


SHYLOCK Ho, no, no, no, no! My meaning in saying he is a good man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.6 Yet his means are in supposition.7 He hath an argosy8 bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies. I understand moreover upon the Rialto,9 he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath squandered abroad.10 But ships are but boards, sailors but men.11 There be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves—I mean pirates—and then there is the peril of waters, winds, and rocks.12 The man is, notwithstanding,13 sufficient. Three thousand ducats. I think I may take his bond.


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