Hello everybody and welcome to today’s video, where I’ll be translating ‘The Merchant
of Venice’ into modern English.
On screen you’ll see the original text, and I’ll give you the modern version written
by me.
In this video we are looking at Act 3 Scene 1.
Venice.
A street.
Enter SALANIO and SALARINO
SOLANIO So then, what’s the news on the Rialto?
SALERIO Well, rumour is rife that Antonio has a ship,
full of valuable cargo, shipwrecked on the narrow seas; I think it’s called the Goodwin
sands, a very dangerous sandbar, where it’s said, the wrecks of many sailing ships lay
buried, if the rumour turns out to be true.
SOLANIO I really hope that this rumour is a lie, like
a rumour spread by a widow, convincing her neighbours that she cried over the death of
her third husband.
But it is true, without any exaggerating, when I say the good Antonio, the honest Antonio.
Oh if I could have a reputation as good as Antonio has!-
SALERIO Come on, what are you saying?
SOLANIO What are you saying?
Well, the point is, he has lost a ship.
SALERIO I really hope that’s all he loses.
SOLANIO Let me say ‘amen’ early, incase the devil
blocks my prayer, because here comes the devil disguised as a Jew.
Enter SHYLOCK
How’s it going, Shylock?
What’s the news from the merchants?
SHYLOCK You knew, no one knew as well, no one as well
as you did, about my daughter running away.
SALERIO That’s true; I admit that I knew the tailor
who made the disguise she wore when she ran away.
SOLANIO And Shylock must admit that he knew that his
daughter was ready to fledge the nest; and that it is natural for all children to leave
their parents.
SHYLOCK She’ll go to hell for this.
SALERIO That’s for certain , if the devil is judging
her.
SHYLOCK My own flesh and blood has rebelled!
SOLANIO What, old man!
Rebelling at this age?
SHYLOCK I mean that my daughter is my flesh and blood.
SALERIO There is more difference between your flesh
and hers than between coal and ivory; your blood and her blood are more different then
red and white wines.
But tell us have you heard whether Antonio has had any losses at sea or not?
SHYLOCK There’s another mismatch: a bankrupt, a
spendthrift, who can hardly dare to show his face on the Rialto; a beggar who used to be
so smug when in the business market.
Let him think about our contract.
He liked to call me a loan shark; let him look at his legal contract.
He liked to lend money as a Christian kindness; let him think about his legal commitment.
SALERIO But surely, if he can’t pay, you won’t
take his flesh?
What good is that to anyone?
SHYLOCK I will use it for fish bait.
If it feeds nothing else, it will feed my revenge.
He has insulted me and lost me half a million ducats; laughed at my losses, mocked my earnings,
humiliated my race, sabotaged my deals, turned my friends against me, inflamed my enemies.
And what’s his reason?
I am a Jew.
Doesn’t a Jew have eyes?
Doesn’t a Jew have hands, organs, human dimensions, senses, feelings, passions, get
fed with the same food, hurt by the same weapons, fall ill with the same diseases, get healed
by the same medicines, get warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian?
If you prick us, don’t we bleed?
If you tickle us, don’t we laugh?
If you poison us, don’t we die?
And if you treat us badly, won’t we take revenge?
If we’re like you in every other way, we’ll be like you in that way too.
If a Jew wrongs a Christian, what is his humble response?
Revenge.
If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what should his response be if he follows Christian example?
Revenge of course.
The bad ways you’ve taught me I will put into practice; it will be harsh but I will
outdo my instructors.
Enter a Servant
Servant Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house
and would like to speak with both of you.
SALERIO We’ve been looking everywhere for him.
Enter TUBAL
SOLANIO Here comes another one from that tribe of
Jews; you couldn’t find a third one unless the devil himself became a Jew.
Exeunt SALANIO, SALARINO, and Servant
SHYLOCK How’s it going, Tubal?
What’s the news from Genoa?
Have you found my daughter?
TUBAL I went to many places where I heard news of
her whereabouts, but I can’t find her.
SHYLOCK Oh, Oh Oh!
A diamond has gone, which cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort!
It’s as if only now the curse has fallen upon the Jews; I never experienced it until
now.
Two thousand ducats in that diamond alone and other precious, precious jewels.
I wish that my daughter was dead at my feet, with the jewels in her ears; wish that she
was in her coffin at my feet and the ducats in her coffin!
No news of them?
How’s that then – and I don’t know how much I’m spending searching for her.
Loss upon loss!
The thief went with so much, and I’m spending so much to find the thief; and no success,
no revenge; and no bad luck for anyone except for me; no sighing but my own; the only tears
shed are my own tears!
TUBAL Yes, other men do have bad luck too: Antonio,
according to what I heard in Genoa –
SHYLOCK What, what, what?
Bad luck, bad luck?
TUBAL A ship coming from Tripolis has been shipwrecked.
SHYLOCK I thank God, I thank God.
Is it true, is it true?
TUBAL I spoke with some of the sailors who escaped
from the shipwreck.
SHYLOCK Thank you, good Tubal.
Good news, good news – ha ha!
– Where in Genoa?
TUBAL I heard that your daughter spent eighty ducats
in one night in Genoa.
SHYLOCK You’re sticking the knife in – I’ll
never see my gold again.
Eighty ducats in one night!
Eighty ducats!
TUBAL Various of Antonio’s creditors travelled
with me to Venice and they swear that he’ll have no choice but to go bankrupt.
SHYLOCK I am very glad about that; I’ll plague him,
I’ll torture him; I am very glad about that.
TUBAL One of them showed me a ring that your daughter
gave him in exchange for a monkey.
SHYLOCK Damn her!
You’re torturing me, Tubal.
It was my turquoise one; Leah gave it to me when I was single; I would not have given
it away for a jungle of monkeys.
TUBAL But Antonio is definitely ruined.
SHYLOCK That’s true; that’s very true.
Go, Tubal and get a police officer; prepare him two weeks in advance.
I will have Antonio’s heart, if he doesn’t pay his debt; because if he was out of Venice,
I could do business however I want to.
Go, Tubal and meet me at our synagogue; go, good Tubal; see you at the synagogue, Tubal.