The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare, c. 1597

Shakespeare’s comedy of Antonio, a Venetian merchant who borrows money from the moneylender Shylock for his friend Bassanio, pledging a pound of his own flesh if he cannot repay it.

Start reading20 scenes, about 22,000 words

Famous quotes

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,
A stage, where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.
Act I, Scene I, spoken by AntonioIn context
- Acting
- Life & Death
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them they are not worth the search.
Act I, Scene I, spoken by BassanioIn context
- Clever Jabs
- Talking
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.
Act I, scene ii.In context
- Morality
It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.
Act I, Scene II, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Advice
- Virtue
The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree
Act I, Scene II, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Emotion
- Thinking
God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.
Act I, Scene II, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Clever Jabs
- Men
When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.
Act I, Scene II, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Clever Jabs
I dote on his very absence.
Portia, l. 99In context
- Clever Jabs
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Act I, Scene III, spoken by AntonioIn context
- Good & Evil
- Truth & Lies
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
Act II, scene ii.In context
- Children
- Family
All that glisters is not gold.
In context
- Truth & Lies
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Act III, Scene I, spoken by ShylockIn context
- Justice
- Race
If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
Act III, scene i.In context
Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engend’red in the eyes,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Act III, Scene II, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Love
The world is still deceiv’d with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being season’d with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?
Act III, Scene II, spoken by BassanioIn context
- Laws
- Truth & Lies
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Act IV, Scene I, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Forgiveness
- Justice
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Act V, Scene I, spoken by PortiaIn context
- Good & Evil
- Virtue

Act I

Scene IVenice. A street
Scene IIBelmont. A room in Portia’s house
Scene IIIVenice. A public place

Act II

Scene IBelmont. A room in Portia’s house
Scene IIVenice. A street
Scene IIIThe same. A room in Shylock’s house
Scene IVThe same. A street
Scene VThe same. Before Shylock’s house
Scene VIThe same
Scene VIIBelmont. A room in Portia’s house
Scene VIIIVenice. A street
Scene IXBelmont. A room in Portia’s house

Act III

Scene IVenice. A street
Scene IIBelmont. A room in Portia’s house
Scene IIIVenice. A street
Scene IVBelmont. A room in Portia’s house
Scene VThe same. A garden

Act IV

Scene IVenice. A court of justice
Scene IIThe same. A street

Act V

Scene IBelmont. The avenue to Portia’s house