Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 8 Modern English Translation Meaning Annotations – ICSE Class 10 & 9 English
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Original Text
Act II Scene VIII
Modern English Reading
Act II Scene VIII
SALARINO : Why, man, I saw Bassanio sailing away; Gratiano has gone along with him; And I am sure Lorenzo is not on their ship.
SALANIO : The villain Jew woke up the Duke with outcries.The Duke went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.
SALARINO : He came too late, the ship was sailing away; but there, the Duke was given to understand that Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica were seen together in a gondola. Besides, Antonio assured the Duke that they were not with Bassanio in his ship.
SALANIO : I never heard such confused anger, So strange, outrageous, and so changeable, the Jew barked like the dog in the streets.” My daughter! Oh, my dollars! Oh, my daughter ! Fled with a Christian! Oh, my Christian dollars! Justice! The law! My dollars and my daughter! A sealed bag, two sealed bags of dollars, of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter! And jewels! Two stones, two rich and precious stones, Stolen by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl! She has the stones on her and the ducats.”
Word Meaning With Annotation
Raised the duke : stirred him up to action. The Duke : the old city of Venice was an independent republic, and the chief ruler was the Duke, gondola : the city of Venice is built upon a number of islands and channels of water take the place of streets, instead of carriages, long narrow boats called gondolas ply back and forth, double ducats : it seems that there were two kinds of ducats in circulation, one being double the value of the other.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
SALARINO : Why, all the boys in Venice followed him, crying, his stones, his daughter, and his dollars.
SALANIO : Let good Antonio be careful about making his payment on time, or he shall pay for this.
SALARINO : Damn it, thanks for reminding me. I was talking yesterday with a Frenchman, who told me that, in the narrow seas that part the French and English, a vessel of our country, sank, loaded full with rich cargo. I thought about Antonio when he told me, and wished in silence that the ship wasn’t his.
SALANIO : You’d better tell Antonio what you heard; still, don’t tell him without warning because it may be too painful.
SALARINO : A kinder gentleman does not walk on the earth. I saw Bassanio and Antonio say goodbye: Bassanio told him he would hurry back. He answered ‘Don’t hurry back; don’t be careless with business for my sake, Bassanio, but wait until your plans are realized; and for the Jew’s promise to pay which he has from me, don’t let it enter your mind, thinking about love: Be happy, and use your main thoughts for courtship, and such beautiful shows of love that may agree with you there.” And even there, his eyes being big with tears, turning his face away, he put his hands behind him, and with affection that was amazingly easy to feel, He shook and shook Bassanio’s hand, and they parted like that.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Keep his day : discharge his debt punctually on the agreed day. Marry, well remembered : this is a contraction for “By St. Mary, it is as well that you have reminded me, etc.” miscarried : wrecked; met with disaster, fraught : laden; stored with cargo, slubber : to perform any business in a hasty and slovenly manner, but stay the very riping of the time : as the farmer does not gather his crops too soon, but waits until they are quite ripe. let it not enter in your mind of love : Let it not enter into your mind, which should be full of thoughts of love-making, ostents : evidence or displays of affection, big with tears : full of big tears.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
SALANIO : I think Antonio only loves the world for him. Please, let’s go and find out where he is, and help bum up his tangled depression with some delight or other.
Exeunt.
SALARINO : Let’s do it.
Exeunt.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Embraced heaviness : the heaviness or melancholy which Antonio has voluntarily embraced, or taken to himself. They think that he is rather making too much of his assumed sadness.
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