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Merchant of Venice, K2r

Editorial note

This page uses a documentary approach that prioritizes the original text of Merchant of Venice with updates for the contemporary reader. Notes have been added to enhance the reader’s experience and assist in engaging with the full depth of the text. Character names have been lengthened from their original abbreviations but remain in italics in deference to the original, and spaced away from the dialogue to provide an easier reading experience. Stage directions have been translated from Latin into English. Spelling and capitalization have been modernized to enable easier reading, except where artistic spelling choices were made, such as in the first line.

Interpretation of the text is intentionally avoided, and this editorial direction preserves aspects of the text that modern readers find disdainful. Here, at the end of the play, Portia, Lorenzo, Bassanio, Graziano, and Narissa celebrate defeating Shylock. Bassanio has received half of Shylock’s property, and Lorenzo is named Shylock’s heir. Shylock receives no asides after Act 4 Scene 1, and we are left to wonder what he thinks about how events transpired.

 

Lorenzo:

Fair ladies, you drop manna1 in the way

Of starved people

Portia:

It is almost morning2,

And yet I am sure you are not satisfied3

Of these events at full. Let us go in,

And charge us there upon interrogatories4,

And we will answer all things faithfully.

Graziano:

Let it be so, the first interrogatory

That my Nerrissa shall be sworn on, is

Whether till the next night she had rather stay,

Or go to bed now being two hours to day:

But were the day come, I should wish it dark

Till I were couching with the doctors clerk5.

Well, while I lie, I’ll fear no other thing

So for, as keeping safe, Nerrissa’s ring.

All Exit

 

6.

                                                          The End

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Rare Books & Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library, copy G.176.16. The most excellent historie of the merchant of Venice. First Quarto. London: 1600.

Citing this page: Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice, K2r. London: 1600. Cacodemon Digital Shakespeare. Edited by [your names]. Source edition: Rare Books & Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library (copy G.176.16). http://cacodemonshakespeare.com/comedies/merchant/k2r.

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Notes

  1. "Mana", or "Manna,"is the food of Olympian gods in Greek mythology (spelled "Mana"), and the miraculous food God gave the starving Israelites in the book of Exodus (spelled "Manna".) It stands in for money in this metaphor, referencing religion and money, two of the play's main themes, and like the Manna in Exodus, it appears miraculously. In this line, it is spelled in the Biblical way to fit the iambic pentameter, and perhaps references Shylock, whose Manna/money they are receiving.
  2. Portia and Lorenzo complete a shared line. Portia’s line has been indented to reflect the completion of the iambic pentameter. Shared lines indicate the lines are connected in some way. In this case, Portia transitions the conversation away from recounting the play towards going home.
  3. Reference to Shylock’s last line of the play in 4.1, H4v. He is “content”, but this group is not yet, in spite of all they have done today.
  4. Legal questioning under oath.
  5. Graziano refers to Narissa’s performance as Portia/Balthazar’s "law clerk” from Act 4, Scene 1, a raunchy joke about ending up at the doctor.
  6. The book ends with a Printer’s Ornament in the French style. It also appears in Henri Estienne's A world of wonders, published in London in 1607 by a different printer. For more reading, see Shakespeare’s Lady 8 by Douglas Bruster
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