The Merchant of Venice
Act 1 Scene 2
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Techniques/ Explain
PORTIA Parallels Antonio?
By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of Both rich and unhappy: social commentary?
this great world. Antithesis: little/great- reflects her sense of
NERISSA vulnerability in the face of a world she cannot
You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in
manage or control
the same abundance as your good fortunes are: and
yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit
with too much as they that starve with nothing. It Metaphor
is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the Nature of happiness: moderation key to
mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but happiness? You need just enough (not too little
competency lives longer. and not too much). What does this say about
PORTIA human nature?
Good sentences and well pronounced.
NERISSA
They would be better, if well followed.
PORTIA
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. It is a good divine that
follows his own instructions: I can easier teach
twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may
devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps
o'er a cold decree: such a hare is madness the
youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the
cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to Portia is unhappy with her lack of choice/
choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose!' I may autonomy/ independence here; her world is
neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I controlled by men, even after her father’s death.
dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed
Parallels between the her “will” and the “will” of
by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard,
Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?
her father (pun) indicates that her wants/ wishes
NERISSA are inferior and disregarded.
Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men at their
death have good inspirations: therefore the lottery,
that he hath devised in these three chests of gold,
silver and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning
chooses you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any
rightly but one who shall rightly love. But what
warmth is there in your affection towards any of
these princely suitors that are already come?
PORTIA
I pray thee, over-name them; and as thou namest
them, I will describe them; and, according to my
description, level at my affection.
NERISSA
First, there is the Neapolitan prince.
PORTIA
Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but
talk of his horse; and he makes it a great
appropriation to his own good parts, that he can What follows is her rejection of six suitors:
shoe him himself. I am much afeard my lady his Portia’s description (often in metaphors) are
mother played false with a smith.
stereotypical and designed to be comedic to the
NERISSA
Then there is the County Palatine.
audience but consider:
PORTIA Is this intended to reflect that people,
He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'If you especially if they have everything, will
will not have me, choose:' he hears merry tales and not be happy with much?
smiles not: I fear he will prove the weeping Or is this an example of Portia’s prejudice
philosopher when he grows old, being so full of of outsiders?
unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be Or is this the lack of choice that makes
married to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth her dislike the suitors?
than to either of these. God defend me from these What does this reveal about human
two! emotions and our motivations?
NERISSA
How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon?
PORTIA
God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.
In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker: but,
he! why, he hath a horse better than the
Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of frowning than
the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man; if a
throstle sing, he falls straight a capering: he will
fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I
should marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me
I would forgive him, for if he love me to madness, I
shall never requite him.
NERISSA
What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron
of England?
PORTIA
You know I say nothing to him, for he understands
not me, nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French,
nor Italian, and you will come into the court and
swear that I have a poor pennyworth in the English.
He is a proper man's picture, but, alas, who can
converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited!
I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round
hose in France, his bonnet in Germany and his
behavior every where.
NERISSA
What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour?
PORTIA
That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he
borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman and
swore he would pay him again when he was able: I
think the Frenchman became his surety and sealed
under for another.
NERISSA
How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's
nephew?
PORTIA
Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and
most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk: when
he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and
when he is worst, he is little better than a beast:
and the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall
make shift to go without him.
NERISSA
If he should offer to choose, and choose the right
casket, you should refuse to perform your father's
will, if you should refuse to accept him.
PORTIA
Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee, set a
deep glass of rhenish wine on the contrary casket,
for if the devil be within and that temptation
without, I know he will choose it. I will do any
thing, Nerissa, ere I'll be married to a sponge.
NERISSA
You need not fear, lady, the having any of these
lords: they have acquainted me with their
determinations; which is, indeed, to return to their
home and to trouble you with no more suit, unless
you may be won by some other sort than your father's
imposition depending on the caskets.
PORTIA
If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as
chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner
of my father's will. I am glad this parcel of wooers
are so reasonable, for there is not one among them
but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant
them a fair departure.
