| By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world. | Portia (she is tired of all the stress from the constant flow of crappy suitors) |
| God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. | Portia (French suitor, Monsieur le Bon – he’s a suitor, but he isn’t anything special) |
| He is a proper man’s picture, but alas, who can converse with a dumb show? | Portia (English suitor, Falconbridge – he’s good looking, but he only speaks English so she can’t talk to him) |
| When he is best, he is little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast | Portia (German suitor, the Duke of Saxon’s nephew – he’s a drunk who is a terrible person even when he’s sober) |
| I will do anything…ere be married to a sponge | Portia (she’d do anything rather than marry the German guy bc he’s a drunk) |
| Mark you this, Bassanio: the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. | Antonio (referring to Shylock’s use of scripture to defend his practice of interest) |
| I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so. Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil, didst rob it of some taste of tediousness. | Jessica (telling Lancelot how she’s sad to see him go bc she hates their house but he took some of the pain out of living there) |
| But yet I’ll go in hate, to feed upon the prodigal Christian. | Shylock (he doesn’t want to go to the dinner party, but he will just to spite Antonio) |
| What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot… | Prince of Aragon (finds this in the silver box after he picks it) |
| The ancient saying is no heresy: hanging and wiving goes by destiny. | Nerissa (she’s trying to comfort Portia by saying destiny chooses everything anyway) |
| I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. | Shylock (Jessica traded his wife’s ring for a monkey, and this upset him bc of sentimental value) |
| So many the outward shows be lest themselves; the world is still deceived with ornament. | Bassanio (says this as his reasoning for choosing the lead casket – basically you can’t judge a book by its cover) |
| …an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed; happy in this, she is not yet so old, but she may learn… | Portia (she isn’t experienced in anything, but she is young and is willing to learn with Bassanio) |
| When I was with him, I have heard him swear…that he would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum. | Jessica (when she lived with her father she heard him say he’d rather have Antonio dead than get all the money offered) |
| What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong? | Shylock (why should he be judged when he hasn’t done anything wrong? basically trying to defend his reasoning for defending the bond) |
| Then must the Jew be merciful. | Portia (Shylock should show mercy to Antonio bc the bond is unreasonable) |
| O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge! | Bassanio (thanking Portia for pointing out Shylock’s bond was unreasonable) |
| Such harmony is in immortal souls, but whilst this muddy venture of decay doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. | Lorenzo (immortal souls live in harmony that people trapped in bodies on earth can’t observe) |
| Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter my sober house. | Shylock (when asking Jessica to lock up – don’t let the sounds of foolish partiers into the house) |
| I am never merry when I hear sweet music. | Jessica (she’s not in a playful mood when she hears beautiful music) |
| comedy | a light form of drama with a happy ending; aims primarily to amuse |
| universal characteristics of comedy | presence of lovers; defeat of the imposter figure and his assimilation into the resorted social system; child triumphing over parent; violence without painful consequence |
| slapstick | physical humor; people falling, getting hit, etc. |
| parody | work that deliberately mimics the style of another for comical affect through ridicule |
| spoof | a lighter comedy imitation of a work; the work isnt meant to be ridiculed, but just recognized as the work being spoofed; less specific events |
| irony | occurs when something goes against understood expectations |
| sarcasm | verbal irony |
| farce | using exaggeration and extreme characters in a situation that spirals out of control to achieve comedy |
| dark comedy | when a light humor is applied to a very serious topic to juxtapose humor and sadness |
| surrealism | throwing together random concepts and ideas together to create something bizarre; often visual |
| low comedy | appeals to humor; visual and obvious; lacks seriousness and has little/no intellectual appeal |
| high comedy | appeals to wit and intellect; commonly appears in satire where humor and criticism is combined |
| MOV published | sometime between 1596-1598 |
Merchant of Venice
July 15, 2019