Line references are to the New Cambridge edition (ed. M.M. Mahood) 1

The Merchant of Venice2.6The new setting is quickly established with the upper stage supplying the “penthouse” (1) – time is again referenced to foreground the uncertainty of the enterprise;

Solarino’s allusion to “Venus’ pigeons” refers to the doves that were said to draw the chariot of Venus, the goddess of love. There is an unsettling cynicism in his assertion that love’s chariot travels swiftly to consummate lovers’ vows but their marriage vows are not so readily maintained – i.e. after the initial novelty and sense of anticipation have worn off. This reference may be recalled later in the play in respect of the rings episode.

Grat. echoes these sentiments with his own catalogue of more or less well-worn pieces of proverbial wisdom summed up in “All things that are/ Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed” (13-14).

However, his image of the “scarfed bark” returning: “How like a prodigal doth she return/ With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails,/ Lean, rent and beggared” ominously anticipates the feared fate of many of Ant.’s commercial ventures. [In 3.1 Shy refers to Ant. as “… a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar…”.]

Lor. enters apologising that his “affairs” have delayed him and speaks light-heartedly of ‘playing the thief’ (24) in order to acquire a wife – while there is also sarcasm in referring to “my father(-in-law) Jew”.

Lor.’s call to Jess. is answered cautiously by her, reiterating her anxieties and reminding us that it is night time. Her following questions (30-32) contrast with his frivolous tone and while confirming her own love for Lor. she nevertheless reveals distrust in doubting “whether I am yours”.

The “casket” of gold and jewels that Jess. drops down to Lor. again (as with the key her father has left in her charge) again

Line references are to the New Cambridge edition (ed. M.M. Mahood) 2

connects Jess. with Portia [– indeed, in Shakespeare’s source, the Gesta Romanorum, it is the lead casket that contains the reward for choosing correctly: ‘… And when this yong Lady had opened it, she found it full of fine gold and precious stones…’].

Jess.’s essential naïveté and innocence are revealed less by her embarrassment at her male disguise than by her resorting to the familiar romantic clichés of blind Cupid (35-40). At the same time the innocence of “pretty follies” (38) is countered by “commit” which can mean ‘to fornicate’ [OED: 10. intransitive. To behave in a reprehensible manner; to offend, sin; esp. to commit adultery or fornication.]

Similarly, her embarrassment at being the torch bearer, the torch’s light illuminating her ‘transformation’ to a “boy” by “hold[ing] a candle to my shames” (42) appears to refer ‘both to the elopement itself, and to the future loss of Jessica’s chastity under circumstances that are not entirely respectable’ [Arden, ed. Drakakis, p.259].

Lor. urges haste – even the “close” (secretive) night, he says, conspires to give assistance to “the runaway” (48).1 – perhaps reassured by Lor. having kept his word Jess. grows more bold and will “gild” (50) herself with more ducats”: N.B. Lor.’s “garnish” (46) and Jess.’s “gild” suggest both the fantastical costumes suitable for a carnival and the notion of deception/disguising the truth/reality.

As Jess. disappears indoors Lor. expresses his love with more sincerity than we have previously heard from him (53-58) – yet his words are again undercut by secondary nuances: his “if I can judge her…if that mine eyes…” reinforces the undercurrent of uncertainty while “true … proved…” and “like herself” are ambiguous in the current situation of deception and disguise – while Lor.’s own “constant soul” will be found to be lacking before the play is finished.

1 runaway n. In addition to the obvious meaning the OED has b. A person who renounces his or her faith; an apostate. Obsolete.

Line references are to the New Cambridge edition (ed. M.M. Mahood) 3

The arrival of Ant. to urge the revellers to hurry – the planned masque is to be abandoned as “the wind is come about” (65) and is clearly currently favourable for Bass.’s journey to Belmost.

The fact that Ant.’s focus is entirely on Bass. suggests that he knows nothing of Jess. & Lor.’s plans to elope.

The scene is concluded swiftly with a brisk couplet from Grat..

2.7The formality/ritualistic quality of the scene is enhanced by Portia and Morocco entering ‘and both their trains’. The caskets, too, are allocated a special space – when the “curtain” is drawn aside they may give the impression of reliquaries presented for veneration…?

Clearly the staging of the caskets themselves is open to wide interpretation – as, indeed, is that of Morocco himself:

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[The extract refers to Bill Alexander’s production of MoV (1987) for the RSC – James C. Bulman, The Merchant of Venice in the ‘Shakespeare in Performance’ Series, p. 136]

We learn the caskets’ inscription for the first time (4-9)2 – and that Portia’s “picture” will be discovered in the “right” casket.3

The suitors’ reactions to the inscriptions reveals a good deal of their characters: Mor.’s reactions suggest a preoccupation with material value – “Hazard for lead!” (17) accompanied by a high degree of a presumption of personal entitlement: “A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross” (20);4 N.B. Mor.’s judgement of the silver casket is also given in terms of his own personal worth expressed in the language of material wealth: “weigh … value … rated …” (25-26);

Again he reveals the extent of his high self-regard: “If thou be rated by thy own estimation/ Thou dost deserve enough” – at the same time recognising the possible limits of his deserving (27-28);

However, this self-doubt is quickly dismissed (27-34): the attributes he claims for himself ‘“birth”, wealth and courtly “breeding” … ironically echo the play’s dominant discourse of racial purity’ (Arden, p. 264).

Mor’s enthusiastic reception of the gold casket’s inscription clearly fails to discriminate between “desire” and ‘deserving’;

2 In the Gesta Romanorum tale the inscription reads: Whoso chooseth me shall find that God disposed’.3 Incidentally, Morocco’s speech (13-61) is the longest in the play.4 Four of the play’s seven instances of the word ‘hazard’ are in this speech.

Line references are to the New Cambridge edition (ed. M.M. Mahood) 5

His catalogue of distant places from which suitors come to ‘hazard’ for “fair Portia” (39-47) lend an exotic cosmopolitanism to Mor. and a strong aura of romance to Portia herself as she is elevated to the level of “this mortal breathing saint” (40) – perhaps we recall Bass.’s allusion to Jason and the Golden Fleece in 1.1.

Again Portia is represented in terms the materialism of precious metals (“tried [purified] gold, 53), coins and gems that sit uneasily with the comparison of “an angel” (58).

The confidently emphatic “Deliver me the key” (59) gives way to a despairing “O hell!” as the contents – a skull – offer ‘an ironic comment on Morocco’s hope to find a portrayal of his “mortal breathing saint”’ [New Cambridge, p. 113].

Moreover, the moral homily of the “written scroll” turns into a rebuke that is all the more stinging for its taunting, child-like, sing-song catalogue of “[g]old” rhymes (65-73): he has been seduced by the material “outside” of the gold casket, exposing his lack of the wisdom that comes with age and experience.

Mor.’s “Then farewell heat, and welcome frost” (75) inverts the customary saying ‘Farewell frost’ which had the meaning ‘good riddence’5 and so prepares us for Por.’s: “A gentle riddance! Draw the curtains, go/ Let all of his complexion choose me so”.

2.8The early lines (1-11) are at pains to confirm – as suggested at the end of 2.6 – that Ant. can in no way be held responsible for assisting with Jess.’s elopement.

However, the fact that the Duke himself was “raised” (4) and accompanied Shy. to “search Bass.’s ship” (5) suggests that Venetian law gives its protection to Jew no less than Christian. Shy. himself appeals for “Justice! The law!” (17) confident that his appeal will be heeded.

5 OED: P2. farewell frost: expressing relief at the departure of an unwelcome person or the end of an unpleasant state of affairs; ‘good riddance’. Earliest usage 1573.

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Something of Shy.’s desperation is conveyed in the report of his “passion so confused,/ So strange, outrageous, and so variable” while the Christians’ enjoyment of his desperation – garnished with insulting epithets (“villain Jew … the dog Jew”) – appears distasteful to a modern audience.

Clearly an individual production may choose to enhance a particular interpretation with the addition of stage business:

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[The extract refers to Bill Alexander’s production of MoV (1987) for the RSC – James C. Bulman, The Merchant of Venice in the ‘Shakespeare in Performance’ Series, p. 122-23]

At the same time, the audience can be contemptuous of Shy.’s apparently giving primacy in his concerns to his “ducats” rather than his “daughter” (16-22).

Moreover, the deliberate use of “jewels … stones” (20-24) by Solanio & Solarino appears to further mock Shy. in terms of the continued purity of his hereditary Jewish line since “jewels” and “stones” allude to testicles while “jewel” refers to a young woman’s virginity. Shy. is therefore metaphorically emasculated and his legitimate family line will terminate just as surely as that of Morocco who swore “Never to speak to lady afterward/ In way of marriage” (2.1.41-42).

Just as Jess.’s elopement had been coloured by her anxiety that Lor. would not follow through with their scheme so Solanio & Solarino’s triumph at Shy.’s discomfiture is tempered by their recalling the terms of the bond and the rumours that in the English Channel “there miscarried/ A vessel of our country richly fraught” (30-31).

Notwithstanding Ant.’s demonstrated hatred of Jews the scene ends with testimonies to Ant.’s kindness and selfless generosity: “A kinder gentleman treads not the earth”.

If – as is clearly suggested in many modern productions – Ant.’s melancholy is caused by a deep but unrequited love for

Line references are to the New Cambridge edition (ed. M.M. Mahood) 8

Bass., his urging Bass. to “Slubber (i.e. rush, hurry) not [your] business for my sake” (39-46 [40]) appears as an exemplar of self-sacrifice;

Ant. never expresses his love for Bass. overtly but Solarino and Solanio’s account of Ant.’s emotion at their parting (47-50) and “I think he only loves the world for him” highlight the emotional bond that (perhaps?) parallels the contractual bond that binds him to Shy.

2.9The Prince of Arragon’s wooing scene is quickly established with the same preliminaries that had accompanied Mor.’s attempt: curtain – oath – magisterial ‘flourish of cornets’ – Arr.’s reiteration of the (now familiar) terms of his choosing (1-15) – it may be that by this time Por. allows her weariness of the whole process to be apparent to the aud. in her response (16-17). At the same time, further conditions of the will are revealed (9-15).

Jonathan Miller’s production (1970) for the National Theatre:

Line references are to the New Cambridge edition (ed. M.M. Mahood) 9

[The extract refers to Jonathan Miller’s production of MoV (1970) for the National Theatre – James C. Bulman, The Merchant of Venice in the ‘Shakespeare in Performance’ Series, pp. 85-86]

Arr.’s reaction to the lead casket’s inscription instantly reveals him as likely to be guided by superficial appearances (21) while his rejection of “many” in the gold casket’s inscription shows him as an inveterate snob (24-32): “fool multitude … common spirits … barbarous multitude”.6

Moreover, he seems quite unaware of the contradiction implicit in his contempt for those who “choose by show” (25) when he, himself, had rejected the lead casket because it did not “look fairer” (21);

His ‘homily’ is ostensibly a lamentation, a plea for a society in which “estates, degrees, and offices/ Were not derived corruptly” (40-41), where “none presume/ To wear an undeserved dignity” but again he is unconscious of the conflicting attitudes implicit in his own position: “I will assume desert! (50). Also, as a royal prince his own position in society will have been achieved by hereditary entitlement rather than “desert”;

His reaction to the “blinking idiot” (55-59) again gives prominence to the same notion “deservings … deserves … deserve … deserts” while Por.’s response (60-61) neatly

6 Arragon’s allusion to the “martlet” (27) refers to the swift or house martin – but ‘martin’ was also a slang word for a dupe.

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evades his question with a legal verity that hints at her later role as Ant.’s defender in 4.1.7

The “schedule” alludes to his lack of “judgement” – the lack of his own ‘desert’ in seeking to marry Por. proves him to be a fool in the insubstantial pleasure of self-deception (“shadow’s bliss”, 65);

Perhaps, ultimately, there is a redeeming quality in Arr. in that he readily acknowledges his own folly (71-75) and his apparent lack of malice in wishing Por. a “Sweet adieu”.8

Por.’s scornful dismissal of Arr. – “O these deliberate (i.e. reasoning) fools! When they do choose/ They have the wisdom by their wit to lose” (79-80) again gives insight into her intuitive understanding of the processes of logical argument: she sees the fallacy at the root of Arr.’s choice – a quality she will use to frustrate Shy.’s confidence in the ‘reasonableness’ of his claim based on the legality of the bond.

‘Only the meritorious deserve honour’ (sound) -- ‘I am meritorious’ (unsound) - ‘Therefore I deserve Portia’ (fallacious conclusion).

The departure of another undeserving suitor leads immediately to the reported approach of “A young Venetian” (86) [i.e. Bassanio] who seems to offer more promise: in addition to his tangible greetings (“sensible regreets”9) in the form of rich gifts, according to his “forespurrer” (94) he appears handsome and has all of the attributes of a model courtly lover.

Por. – slightly flustered with excitement – teasingly suggests that her messenger’s description of this newcomer is so glowing and complimentary (“highday wit” = language inflated – like the excesses of holiday/festival times) that he must be a blood relation;

7 Proverbial: ‘No man ought to be judge in his own cause’. R.W. Dent, Shakespeare’s Proverbial Language, M341.8 “adieu” – glancing at his nationality.9 ‘regreets’ confirms that Bassanio and Portia have met before.

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The scene ends with eager anticipation that this newcomer may be Bassanio.10

10 The punctuation of the last line has given rise to much academic speculation.