Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 6 Modern English Translation Meaning Annotations – ICSE Class 10 & 9 English
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Original Text
Act II Scene VI
Modern English Reading
Act II Scene VI
GRATIANO : This is the house where Lorenzo Wanted us to wait.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Pent house : a house with a projecting roof, forming an overhead shelter.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
SALARINO : He’s almost late.
GRATIANO : And it’s a wonder that he’s late, because lovers always keep ahead of the clock.
SALARINO : Oh! Love’s pigeons fly ten times faster to seal newly made promises of love than they are accustomed to keeping love’s old vows from being broken!
GRATIANO : That’s true: who gets up from a feast with the same hunger that he had when he sat down? Where is the horse that retraces his boring steps again with the same firet hat he walked them in the first place? All things that exist are sought for with more spirit than the spirit to enjoy them. How the sailing ship leaves her native port like a youngster or a spendthrift hugged and embraced by the prostitute wind! how she returns like the spendthrift, with weather-beaten sides and ragged sails, thin, tom, and destitute by the prostitute wind!
Word Meaning With Annotation
Out-dwells : delays longer than his appointed time, venus’ pigeons : Venus, the Goddess of Love, is depicted by the ancients in a carriage drawn by doves. The sense is that Venus is quick to seal the promises of new lovers, but not in such a hurry to intervene to prevent a breach of marriage bonds among married people, untread again his tedious measures : retrace his steps over the ground where he has performed tedious walking, younger : a young man, literally, a “younger”, scarfed bark : the ship which is ornamented with gay scraf or flag. Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind : “strumpet” is an immoral woman; a prostitute. The wind is said to meet the ship with just such caresses as such a woman gives a reckeless young man. prodigal : this is an allusion to the parable from the Bible which tells of the prodigal son, the young man who asked his father to advance his share of the inheritance, then went away into far-off countries and squandered it all. In the long run, he was compelled to come home, sad and poverty-stricken, over-weathered ribs : “greatly beaten by the rough weather.” Lean : rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind : just like the prodigal son returning home, thin, ragged, and reduced to poverty by the wicked women (so has the ship been treated by the wind)
Original Text
Modern English Reading
SALARINO : Here comes Lorenzo; more about this later.
LORENZO : Sweet friends, I’m sorry I’m late; Not I, but my affairs, have made you wait: When you are ready to do anything to get wives, I’ll watch as long for you then. Come on; My father-n-law Jew lives here. Hey! Who’s in there?
[Enter] Jessica above, in boys clothes.
JESSICA : Who are you? Tell me, just to be sure, Even though I’ll swear that I know your voice.
LORENZO : Lorenzo, and your love.
JESSICA : Lorenzo, to be sure and my love indeed, Because who do love I so much? And now, who knows but you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?
LORENZO : Heaven and your thoughts are witnesses that you are.
JESSICA : Here, catch this chest; it is worth the trouble. I am glad it’s night so that you can’t see me, because I am very ashamed of my costume; but love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty mischief that they themselves commit, because, if they could, Cupid himself would blush to see me transformed to a boy like this.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Long abode : my long delay, please : desire; be inclined, watch : wait, and thy love : who is also your lover, casket : the box of gold and jewels which she is taking away, worth the pains : you will find the contents make it worth your trouble, my exchange : my change into boy’s dress. But love is blind, and lovers cannot see, the pretty follies that themselves commit : the classical god of love, Cupid, is always represented as a blind boy, with bow and arrow. So the idea here is that just like Cupid, lovers are always blind to each other’s faults.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
LORENZO : Go down, because you must be carry my torch.
JESSICA : What! Do I have to hold a light on my shame? They in themselves, to tell the truth, are as light as a flute. Why, light is a function of discovering things, love, and I should be hidden.
LORENZO : And you are hidden, sweetheart, Even in the lovely garments of a boy. But come at once, because the night is running away, and we are waited for at Bassanio’s feast.
JESSICA : i’ll secure the doors, and cover myself with some more dollars, and I’ll be with you right away.
[Exit above]
GRATIANO : Now, I swear, she is a Gentile and no Jew.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Descend : on the Elizabethan stage, the upper window would be denoted by Jessica speaking from the upper stage, they in themselves, good-sooth, are too-too light : there is a play on the word “light” here; it has the double sense of “visible” and ‘frivolous.” Why, ’tis an office of discovery, love : why, to carry a torch is a duty which reveals me, my love! Garnish : dress; adorn, for the close night doth play the run-away : to ‘play the runaway’ is simply to act like a person who is running away, i.e.,“concealing night is even now passing away.” I will make fast the doors, and gild myself, with some more ducats, and be with you straight : to “gild” is to cover a thing with gold; this is Jessica’s flippant manner of saying that she will help herself to some more of Shylock’s money before departing. The callous manner in which she robs her father will offened our notions of honesty and filial piety alike, but most critics have overlooked this, seemingly accepting Shakespeare’s view that to rob and afflict Shylock is no sin.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
LORENZO : Curse me, but I love her heartily; because she is wise, if I can judge her, and she is beautiful, if my eyes can really see, and she is true, as she has proved herself; and so, like herself, wise, beautiful, and true, she shall be placed in my faithful soul.
What, are you here? On, gentlemen, let’s go! Our partying friends wait for us already. Exit [with Jessica and SALARINO] Enter Antonio
ANTONIO : Who’s there?
GRATIANO : Mr. Antonio!
ANTONIO : Nonsense, nonsense, Gratiano! where are all the rest? It’s nine o’clock; our friends all wait for you. No party tonight: the wind has changed direction; Bassanio will go aboard soon: I have sent out twenty men to look for you.
GRATIANO : I am glad about it: I don’t want anything more than to get sailing and be gone tonight.
Exeunt.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Beshrew me : a mild oath, by my hood. And true she is, as she hath proved herself : it is ironical that the term “true” should be applied to Jessica as she is in the act of robbing her father. Shall she be placed in my constant soul : shall her memory remain in my faithful heart, come about : “changed so as to blow from the opposite direction”. Again the scene concludes with a rhyming couplet, shpwing that the present action is concluded.
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