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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / The Merchant of Venice / Act II Scene VIII
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The Merchant of Venice: Act 2 Scene 8
Scene VIII Venice. A street.
- [Enter SALARINO and SALANIO]
- SALARINO
- Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail:
- With him is Gratiano gone along;
- And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
- SALANIO
- The villain Jew with outcries raised the duke,
- Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship.
- SALARINO
- He came too late, the ship was under sail:
- But there the duke was given to understand
- That in a gondola were seen together
- Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica:
- Besides, Antonio certified the duke
- They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
- SALANIO
- I never heard a passion so confused,
- So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
- As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
- 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
- Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
- Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
- A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
- 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 hath the stones upon her, and the ducats.'
- SALARINO
- Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
- Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.
- SALANIO
- Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
- Or he shall pay for this.
- SALARINO
- Marry, well remember'd.
- I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday,
- Who told me, in the narrow seas that part
- The French and English, there miscarried
- A vessel of our country richly fraught:
- I thought upon Antonio when he told me;
- And wish'd in silence that it were not his.
- SALANIO
- You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
- Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.
- SALARINO
- A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.
- I saw Bassanio and Antonio part:
- Bassanio told him he would make some speed
- Of his return: he answer'd, 'Do not so;
- Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio
- But stay the very riping of the time;
- And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me,
- Let it not enter in your mind of love:
- Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
- To courtship and such fair ostents of love
- As shall conveniently become you there:'
- And even there, his eye being big with tears,
- Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
- And with affection wondrous sensible
- He wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted.
- SALANIO
- I think he only loves the world for him.
- I pray thee, let us go and find him out
- And quicken his embraced heaviness
- With some delight or other.
- SALARINO
- Do we so.
- [Exeunt]
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